Chapter 1
STEVIE
Late January
“Christ on a crawdad, what the fuck is that?” I was trying super hard not to slur, but it was a near thing.
“Is… is… mega birthday drink.” My best friend, Sassy, giggled before sloshing the giant pink drink in front of me. The fruit sword and paper umbrella tumbled out onto the rough wooden tabletop with a plop. “For the birthday boys… boysss… boy.”
I narrowed my eyes at her, trying to combine the multiple Sassy’s into one proper Sassy. I’d already had many, many mega birthday drinks. “You tryna get me drunk?”
“Tryna get you laid,” she corrected with a hiccup. “’Bout time you had your cherry popped.”
“Shhh,” I hissed at her, glancing around to make sure no one overheard her. “Shut the fuck up. It’s a secret, you skank. I have a reputation to uphold.”
“Best-kept secret in Hobie, Texas,” she hollered to anyone who would listen. Thankfully, we weren’t in Hobie at the moment. We were in Dallas at a gay dance club with hot-as-fuck go-go boys. Because my best friend loved me.
“I’m going to dance. If I drink any more of that shit, I’m going into diabetic shock.
” I made my way to the dance floor and lost myself in a sea of glorious male bodies.
The alcohol had stripped away what little inhibition I had, and my body began to move to the music the way it did when I was alone behind closed doors.
I danced my fucking heart out, losing time to the sweaty pleasure of moving to the rhythm of a bass beat.
I’d waited so long to be able to come to one of these clubs, and now I was finally old enough. Thank Goddess my younger bestie had a sister who’d let her borrow her ID for the night. My older brother would have never let me borrow his, especially if he’d known why I’d wanted it.
I looked around at all the sexy men. Nope, Kade would have rather thrown himself on a land mine than help his sissy brother dance with a bunch of pansies. A sigh escaped my lips.
They were such beautiful pansies. The most pretty pansies ever. And I was one of them, happily moving my body along with theirs in the flashing lights.
At one point, Sassy joined me with a flushed face and eyes full of mischief.
“What?” I yelled over the music.
“They love you,” she cried. “No one can keep their eyes off you.”
“Pfft.” I ignored her and spun around, shaking my ass in her face and raising my arms up above my head. I didn’t think anything of her comment, just a birthday nicety by my boo, until I took a break and made my way back toward the bathroom.
A man in a suit approached me with a big smile. “You have great moves.”
“Thanks,” I said, checking him out. He was a little too slick and polished for my taste, but I appreciated his attempt. “All those hours of watching YouTube are finally paying off.” I went to move past him, but he called out for me to wait.
“Have you ever thought about making money with those moves? We’re hiring more dancers right now if you’re interested.
” He pulled a card from his back pocket and handed it to me.
“My name is Darius. I’m the assistant manager here, and I’d love to see you at one of our auditions.
I can’t promise anything until I see more, but I’ve got to tell you, the guys couldn’t stop staring at you on the dance floor. ”
I probably stood there for a beat too long with my jaw hanging open. I’d assumed he was coming on to me, not approaching me with a job lead.
“You’re kidding. Did Sassy put you up to this?” I asked, craning my neck to see if she was hiding somewhere with her phone recording the prank.
He flashed an easy smile and pressed a business card into my hand.
The graphic on the front matched the branding of the newish club called Feathers.
“No, I don’t know who that is. But I promise this is for real.
The audition schedule and details are posted under the jobs tab on our website.
Check it out and see what you think. Call me with any questions. ”
As he moved back into the club, I stared after him.
Fuck, I must have been way drunker than I thought. For a minute there, I thought someone had just propositioned me to become a stripper.
Even if it was something I’d never have the guts to even consider, just being asked made this the best birthday ever. And I had to admit, that kind of money sure would make my hourly wage at the bakery look like chump change.
I shook my head with a laugh before proceeding to the men’s room and promptly forgetting all about it when I returned to Sassy and my millionth mega birthday drink.
Two days later, I realized I must have inadvertently spilled the beans about the audition offer to Sassy while I was still drunk that night.
“You should do it,” she said from her spot at the end of the counter in the bakery where I worked. “You’d be so good at it, and the tips would be incredible. Plus, you’d be able to sign Willow up for dance lessons that much quicker.”
“Keep your voice down. And, did you forget that those guys are pretty much naked while they’re dancing?” I hissed, even though she was right. The idea of being able to get my little sister into the dance lessons she’d been begging for was almost worth considering becoming a stripper for.
“What guys?” Nico asked from behind me, scaring the shit out of me and causing me to scream bloody murder.
“Jesus, take the wheel, my heart!” I cried, clutching at my chest. “Stop fucking doing that, you asshole.”
My boss just grinned at me. “I love sneaking up on you and hearing you screech like Pippa. Warms my cockles.”
I gritted my teeth. “Yeah, well, next time it’s gonna do something else to your cockles.”
“Seriously though,” Sassy continued as if I hadn’t just experienced myocardial infarction while rearranging cookies on a tray. “You should at least audition.”
Before I had a chance to tell her to shut the hell up again, Nico piped up. “Audition to be a naked dancer? Do tell. I’m intrigued.”
“Perv,” I muttered.
“Hey, that’s my husband you’re calling a perv,” West said from the doorway to the kitchen. Oh great, more witnesses. Perf. “Not that he’s not a perv, because he totally is. What are we talking about?”
“Nothing,” I said at the same time Sassy said, “Stripping.”
I whipped my head around. “It’s not stripping!”
It was stripping.
“What’s not stripping?” a deep voice asked, accompanied by the familiar tinkle of the bell over the bakery door.
Chief Paige. As in, hottest silver fox in all of Texas, Chief Paige. Firefighter, muscle man, Hobie’s hero, and all-around dreamboat. Otherwise known (although only to me) as My One and Only. The solo coin in my spank bank.
I bit back a dreamy sigh and forced myself to speak first to shut this shit down before anyone else clued him in to the topic at hand.
“Stripping paint off an old dresser,” I squeaked in a wholly unmanly octave. “I was thinking about a craft project. You know, glitter, gems, decals… that sort of thing. But first I have to get the old layers of paint off. Any suggestions?”
West, Nico, and Sassy all stared at me, and I glared back at them with an I dare you warning on my face. At least, I hoped that’s what the message said.
Sassy, goddess love her, got the message. Praise the baby Jesus for besties.
“Yes, Stevie found this god-awful thing at the thrift store in Valley Cross and doesn’t know the first thing about refinishing it,” she said.
I owed the woman a foot massage.
“Oh, well, I’ve refinished several things at the lake house. I’m happy to teach you a thing or two, if you’d like,” Chief Paige said, moving closer to the counter where I stood. His gorgeous gray eyes were so damned kind. I wanted to dive into them and swim around until all of the orgasms happened.
“He’d love that,” Nico blurted loudly, right next to my ear.
I jumped and spun around to kick him in the shins. “Stop that, you dick! I swear to good gravy, the next time you startle me, I’m going to—”
“Yes,” Sassy said quickly, meeting my eye. “Lord knows someone needs to teach him about stripping. Contrary to popular belief, the boy has no experience with that sort of thing.”
I felt all the blood rush from my face. Did she… did she just say what I thought she said?
Chief Paige chuckled in his deliciously panty-dropping deep voice. “I can get off this weekend if that works for you, Stevie?”
“I… I…” I stammered at the beautiful creature before me. “I would love for you to get off this weekend. And I would love for me to get off this weekend. We could both get off together… that would be even better… us getting off, I mean. Together.”
Nico looked at me with confusion. “You already got off this weekend. It’s on the calendar.”
West and Sassy burst out laughing. “I don’t think that’s what he meant,” West whispered to his husband.
Thank fuck the chief was too busy looking at the pastries and cookies in the display to notice what was going on.
“S-sounds good, Chief,” I said. “I’ll… I’ll just come to your place Saturday morning, then?”
He looked up and graced me with one of his full grins, the kind that deepened the chin dimple and crinkled his eyes. “Perfect. Be sure to wear clothes that can be destroyed.”
“Uh-huh,” I breathed.
“Oh, and Stevie?”
“Uh-huh?”
“Call me Evan.”
Merciful heavens. I wondered if the precum leaking out of me could be seen through the layers of thong, skinny jeans, untucked sequined T-shirt, and ugly-ass bakery apron. If Goddess gave a shit about me, the answer would be no.
It was all something out of a dream come true until he said the fatal words before walking out of the bakery with his coffee and cookie.
“If you have any friends who want to tag along, feel free to bring them. It’s been a while since I’ve had a youth group at my place. Maybe I’ll pick up some sodas and snacks. Oh, and bring swimsuits. You can all go for a dip off the dock after.”
That cocky-ass motherfucker thought I was a kid.
I stared after him as he sauntered his gorgeous butt out of Sugar Britches. The minute the door closed behind him, I turned to Sassy with smoke pouring from my nose and ears.
“Gas up the car. We’re going to Dallas for that audition.”
If that old man wanted to think of me as some at-risk youth from his volunteering gigs, he was going to get the shock of his life when he learned I was waving around my very adult-sized cock for cash.
I’d spent three years trying to get that man’s attention by flirting with everyone in town. The fact he still thought of me as the little kid he’d once saved from a bully, and later, the apartment fire, made me mad as hell.
And hell hath no fury like a Stevie scorned.