CHAPTER TEN
Nadine
Carmen didn’t end up being mad at me over the scandalous looking picture. She just thought it was good press for the club. She’d been calling to tell me she wanted me to try out to strip tonight.
She was removing me from hostess rotation. She might have said it was because she thought I’d be better stripping, but I was pretty sure she was scared I’d keep spilling drinks on people.
And now here I was. About to audition in front of a packed house at Sugar.
“We have a… certain reputation to uphold here, Nadine. Our dancers aren’t just gorgeous with excellent figures,” Carmen said, looking at me skeptically. “They’re also classy. I’m not sure this,” she waved a hand to encompass my outfit, hair, makeup—everything, “is what we’re looking for.”
I was nervous. I’d never been wrong before about this kind of thing, but what if I was tonight?
I knew I’d gotten thrown out of the Miss Puckins Peanut Pageant for being too ‘lewd’ with my dance moves.
I’d had to look up what it meant, though I was pretty sure I’d gotten the gist of it from the look on Miss Patty Elkins’ scandalized face.
“Carmen,” Nico called from the side of the stage.
I was supposed to go on next. I was following Madeline, who had the biggest tits out of all of us even though she was thin everywhere else.
She really looked like a Barbie. And her moves were downright scandalous.
I wasn’t so sure she qualified as being ‘elegant,’ but I wasn’t going to point that out to Carmen right now.
Carmen looked over at him, irritated. “What?”
“Let her dance.” That’s all he said, but the way his bright blue eyes traveled over my body gave me little shivers.
“Fine.” She threw her hands up. “I wanted you to be different. It’s just we’ve never had anything remotely close to… this.” Her eyes were on me again, and I could tell she was nervous. That wasn’t something I’d ever thought I’d see on her face. Carmen was so sure of herself all the time.
“Exactly,” he said in his low, deep voice. “I’m going out to watch. You should see how excited Leo, Joaquin, and Javy are. Even fucking Enzo is out there.”
“He is?” Carmen looked very surprised.
“Yeah. And you know he never comes around here anymore.”
Carmen turned to me. “Have you met our oldest brother before?”
“Briefly.” I winced remembering when I dumped a tray of drinks on him.
Nico rubbed a hand over his mouth, but I thought I saw a hint of a grin there. “Yeah. Let’s just say she made an impression.”
Carmen grinned and cocked an eyebrow. Then understanding dawned on her face. She looked back at me. “Oh, that’s right. I remember now. It was when she dumped drinks in his lap. Well, okay then, Nadine. I’ll let you go out there looking…”
“Hot as fuck.” Nico’s eyes burned over my body, and I shivered again.
“Hands off, asshole,” Carmen warned.
Nico just gave me another long look before he turned and walked away to join his brothers.
It did not do my nerves any favors to know that they were out there waiting for me.
At least at practice the lights were so bright I couldn’t see anyone out in the audience.
I hoped it would be like that again tonight.
“You got this,” Carmen said and gave me one of her rare smiles. “I’m pulling for you, Nadine.”
I tried to smile back, but I felt like I was going to hurl. I nodded instead.
I took one last look at myself in the mirror.
I had channeled one of my favorite celebrities in the world.
Dolly Parton. I might have brown hair and brown eyes, but I’d curled and teased my hair as big as I could get it.
I had on heavy makeup with long fake eyelashes that looked crazy up close but would look good while I was on stage.
I wore a pink cowboy hat, high-heeled pink cowboy boots, a tiny denim skirt, and a Daisy Duke style sparkly flannel shirt that would have been more like a push-up bra top except it had cut-off sleeves and a collar.
I was a bigger person than Dolly, but who the hell wasn’t? But I had big boobs, a small waist, and a nice ass. My legs were long and toned from all the squats and lunges I did every day.
I only got one song for my tryout, so I’d worked hard on a routine I’d had to tone down when I won Coastal Georgia’s Cutest Peach pageant. I just toned it right back up and then added a whole bunch of sexy moves.
I hoped it would be enough.
Madeline came off the stage, her boobs out for the world to see. She gave me a quick peck on the cheek. “You’re going to do great, sweetie. You look amazing!”
Madeline had given me a crash course in pole dancing over the past couple of days. There were a couple of stripper poles in a mirrored room in the finished basement of Cinnamon House. She’d taught me a lot and said I was a natural.
I smiled at her and walked out on the dark stage. I went and stood near the front of the stage with one hip cocked and my hand resting on it. I wanted to give attitude from the start. I started rocking my hips as the first strains of my song came on.
It was “Fancy” by Reba McEntire. Madeline danced to rap only.
Most of the other girls danced to some kind of sophisticated techno jazz crap I didn’t think I could strip to, so this was going to be wildly different for the audience.
I did a kind of sexy line dance, making sure to swing my hips and step down hard enough that my boobs bounced as I moved.
At first, it was dead quiet. Then, at the chorus, I twirled around the stripper pole, my head thrown back, tits out as I undid the breakaway top.
There were actual cheers, thank goodness. I took a deep sigh of relief, and didn’t look back. I threw myself into the routine I planned, making sure to be extra raunchy. I wanted it to look like I was a real slutty cowgirl.
When the music got slow, I undulated against the pole like it was a man I was fucking. It seemed to go over well.
I ended it all upside down on the stripper pole, gripping it with my legs as I swung myself up, around, grabbed it with my hands, and did a kind of twirl as I dismounted. Then I gave a couple of curtsies, blew the crowd a kiss, and waved as I ran offstage.
They were cheering. I’d never heard that in Sugar before, so I thought I did something right.
I was surprised when Carmen came running to the back.
“Wait,” she said, breathlessly. “Do you have another routine, another song?”
I nodded. “Yeah, I’ve got a few.”
“Do two more songs. Tell me what they are, and I’ll get the sound guy to get them ready. Go on out there and introduce yourself while I’m making that happen.”
“What?” I asked, eyes wide. “What do you mean introduce myself?”
“Like you’re a contestant in a pageant or something. I don’t know just make stuff up and look sexy.”
“Okay.” I stood there, feeling frozen like an armadillo in headlights. Then Carmen gave me a push.
“Go. Now!”
I scurried back on the stage, trying to pull my top back on and get it fastened before the lights hit me. I assumed she wanted me to have it on while I introduced myself? I sure as hell wouldn’t be in a pageant topless…
“Hey, y’all!” I said and waved as the lights hit me.
There were some light chuckles, and a couple of deep voices answered ‘hey’ back at me.
“I’m Nadine.”
“Hey, Nadine,” some guy yelled out. I blushed and waved since I couldn’t see who it was.
“Hey. I’m doing this tryout for y’all ‘cause I might dance for a while. Would y’all like that?”
There were cheers, and I was encouraged.
“So, what would y’all like to know about me while they get my next song ready?”
I shouldn’t have asked. They might say this was a club for gentlemen, but they were still men beneath their exterior polish. The fancy suits, watches, and shoes didn’t make them any less horny.
“Do you give good head, baby?”
I sucked in a breath. I knew this was not the time to be subtle. “All the damn time,” I said with a wink and a couple of finger guns.
They went wild.
“What else do you do?” Someone else hollered.
“The better question is what don’t I do.” I did a couple of dance turns as they clapped for me.
“I’m in love with you, Nadine!” a voice yelled out.
“Oh, baby, I love you, too!” I blew a couple kisses in the direction of the man’s voice.
Then, finally, the strains of “Devil Went Down to Georgia” kicked up, and I did a high energy sexy routine that was like a cross between clogging and pole dancing. I hoped they liked it. It wasn’t like anything they had ever seen around here, that was for sure.
“Midnight Train to Georgia,” came on next, a much slower song that I did slow gyrations and hip motions to. I really got into it, lost in the music, and imagined that the pole was the man of my dreams, which looked a lot like the mayor in my mind.
Then it was over, and they were cheering.
This was usually a very controlled, sedate crowd.
They were always refined and polite, sitting at the tables and drinking their expensive whiskey while they chatted with their friends and stared at the girls mainly as eye candy in the background of their conversations.
This was different, and I couldn’t help but love it.
I grinned as I went backstage. I could still hear them hollering and clapping. I was the last girl of the night. Now, the men would do one of three things. They would go home, go to the VIP rooms for ‘services’ from some strippers and hostesses, or head downstairs to Cayenne, the sex club.
I got dressed in the hostess uniform I’d been wearing before my try-out because I didn’t know what Carmen would want me to do next.
I didn’t have to wait long.
She was waiting on me when I came out of the backstage dressing area.
“Well, Nadine.” She smiled. “You never quit surprising me. I think you could tell they loved it. Come on out here, and I’ll let you know the rest of my thoughts.”
“Okay.” I followed her out to the main room. Most of the tables were already empty. There was one table that was full, though, and that’s where she was taking me.
“Good lord,” I breathed out.
“My brothers wanted to be in on this meeting,” Carmen said, eyes twinkling as she saw my nerves over sitting with her five handsome siblings.
They were all staring at me.
One of them stood up and pulled out a chair for me. “Here you go, baby.” He had a big grin on his handsome face, and he stood real close to me as he held the chair and then pushed it in for me once I was seated. Then he sat right next to me.
“I’m Leo,” he said, his blue eyes locked on me. “If you don’t remember.”
“Back off, little brother,” Carmen said.
“Why?” he asked, not looking away from me. His hand migrated to my upper thigh. My eyes darted around the table nervously. All of her brothers were staring at me kind of like they wanted to gobble me up.
“Maybe this wasn’t a good idea,” Carmen said. She stood up. “Come on, Nadine. We’ll talk in my office.”
“No, no, no,” Leo protested. He held his hands up. “I’ll be good. I swear.”
“Fine.” Carmen shot him a look as she sat back down. “Nadine, that show was something else.”
“It was fucking fantastic.”
“Will you marry me?”
“Are you sure we can’t bid in the auction, Nico?”
I couldn’t keep track of who was saying what. But Nico sat there with an impassive look on his face as he studied me. It was making me uncomfortable.
“Nadine,” he said, “we’d love to have you dance here for a while, but I agree with Carmen.”
I turned to Carmen. What was he talking about?
“He also thinks you should be in the next auction, Nadine. As you know, it’s in a couple of weeks.” She and Nico gave each other a look.
“Why?” Leo, the brother sitting next to me, asked.
“She’s going to bring top dollar. Maybe the most we’ve made yet. I think we should get her in the auction after she’s danced for us a week or so. The men were going crazy for her, and I say we capitalize on that. The novelty of it.” Nico eyed me like I was a piece of meat instead of a person.
“I agree,” Carmen nodded. “We’re still trying to get more men interested in the auction. This will be a good way to do it. I can advertise now that she’s going to be up for bid.”
I felt like a prize heifer at the county fair. But it’s what I signed up for. Mama was right… I didn’t have a lot of options. None really. This was for the best.
“But it’ll be somebody… nice. Right?”
Carmen looked at me with empathy in her eyes. “Yes. I’m not going to go back on my promise, Nadine.”
“I’d be real damn nice,” Leo said, leaning close with his eyes trailing over me. “Let me bid, Nico.”
“No.” He didn’t even look at his brother. His eyes were on me. “Our members would think we were manipulating the auction to win the best women.”
“I don’t care as long as she dances for a few more nights,” one of the other brothers said with a big grin.
I smiled back.
“Alright then,” Carmen put both hands on the table and pushed off as she stood up. “That’s settled. Let’s go, Nadine. I’ll drive you home. I think your ride already left.”
“Who, Madeline?” Nico asked. “She’s not working VIP tonight?”
Carmen shook her head. “She had a date.”
He made a face. “That will make some men unhappy.”
Carmen shrugged. “There are plenty of other beautiful women for them to enjoy.” With that, she walked off. “Come on, Nadine.”
I hurried after her.
“Bye, Nadine,” Leo hollered after me.
I looked over my shoulder at him and smiled.
I thought I had made a good impression tonight.