Chapter 6
STYXX
This woman is going to be the death of me. There’s no way around it.
I don’t get what it is about her that has her under my skin. She just is and there’s no other way to put it. Without even trying, Hope marked her way there, where she’s stayed from the first time I saw her.
The very first time when she was up on the same stage she’s on now.
I have to grit my teeth and adjust my dick while watching her dance.
This time in ballet slippers. She doesn’t touch the pole, or even the drapes, as she did on opening night.
No, she draws the crowd with her moves, slowly moving around the stage to a song talking about her being a good girl.
“She’s good up there,” Harvester notes, taking a seat next to me.
It’s just me tonight. I knew I wouldn’t be able to hide from my brothers, but I wanted to watch her dance again.
The past two weeks, it’s driven me crazy with how easily she’s gotten to me.
I’ve learned over the years of watching each man in my club who has a ol’ lady fall to those women like dominoes.
Before Eabha, I thought about it, though, I didn’t want one. I still didn’t, or so I hadn’t. Now, I can’t get Hope out of my head.
Doesn’t help that I’ve opened the door for her sister.
Promise was a damn good kid. Hope’s done a great job with her.
The kid has wormed her way into my life and those around her with such ease there’s no telling the girl ‘No’ when all she wants is people around her.
Besides, she seems to adore Eabha, and my daughter could never not have enough people in her life who are willing to love her.
I take a sip of my beer, not acknowledging Harvester’s comment. I do that, means I’m admitting she’s the reason I came here tonight.
The club is even more crowded tonight than it has been before.
It’s like a damn beehive in this place, all of them swarming to see Hope dance.
I know it’s her who draws them all in and not the other dancers.
They’re good, but not as good as she is.
I don’t like any of this. I don’t like how the men look at her like she’s something to devour.
Like she’s theirs they can have. She’s not.
My hand tightens around my beer bottle as I watch a group of suits near the front slip bills onto the stage.
The only good thing about that is I knew Hope wouldn’t be getting close for them to touch or slip bills into the cheeky panties she’s wearing now.
Harvester made that clear for his headline dancers, they were not to touch the tips on the stage.
They were strictly to dance, and that’s it.
“You gonna keep pretending you’re not here for her?” Harvester asks, his voice loud enough for me to hear over the music, but not so loud others could hear.
“Fuck off,” I mutter, but there’s no heat in it as I slug back more of my beer and wave over the waitress to get me another one.
He chuckles. “Just saying, brother. You’ve only been in here once since we opened the new club, and both times, your attention has been solely on her when she’s on stage. The rest of the times, you talk.”
I don’t respond. What can I say? He’s right.
When she’s on that stage, she’s got my undivided attention.
Even now, as she finishes her dance, I’m watching like some lovesick teenager, sitting in the shadows, watching her move across the stage like she was born to be up there.
It’s pathetic, but I can’t seem to stop myself.
“You got one hell of a hardon for her, brother.” Harvester grins and shakes his head. “You know if you want her, the club won’t say anything, though I’d hate to lose her as a dancer.”
I shoot my brother a glare, not about to feed into the comment. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.
“Sure you don’t.” He chuckles. “You know, each time she takes the stage, she’s got all of them wrapped around her finger,” Harvester says, gesturing to the crowd. “The other strippers, not the headliners, but the ones who go between them, they’re jealous as hell of her.”
I grunt in response, my eyes still fixed on Hope. A slight flush tinges her cheeks as she disappears, though not before her eyes scan the crowd, and our eyes meet.
Fuck.
I hadn’t told her I was coming here when I carried Promise back to their house.
I wasn’t sure this was where I was going.
That’s a lie, and I damn well know it. I knew I was coming here.
I had to see her more than just the few-minute conversations we’ve had the times I carried her sister home or through the short texts we’ve shared.
“Whatever,” I finally mutter, tearing my eyes away from the stage. The music changes to some other pulsing beat as one of the regular dancers steps into the spotlight, but I couldn’t care less who it is. She’s not who I came to see. Not the focus of my desire.
The waitress brings my fresh beer, and I tip her generously before taking a long pull. The cold liquid does nothing to cool the heat that’s been building inside me for the past two weeks.
Throughout the rest of the night, she takes the stage twice more. Both times cause my cock to jerk with need for her. In the past months I haven’t used anything other than my hand to get off, so focused on taking care of Eabha. If I don’t do something soon about that issue, I’m gonna blow my lid.
I could easily go to the clubhouse and get one of the girls there to appease me, but the thought does nothing for me.
There are plenty of women here I could even drag off and fuck, but even they don’t suit my desire.
The one who does, though, is Hope, the one I shouldn’t want, but can’t stop myself from thinking of.
As she finishes up her last dance of the night, I get up from my table and head for backstage and the dressing rooms. I nod to Serpent as I pass him. “I’ll see to Temptation getting to her car tonight.”
“I figured as much,” Serpent grunts, grinning. “She just stepped into the dressing room.”
I nod, making my way in that direction to wait for her outside the room. I could easily walk right in there, but to respect the other women I knew were also in there, I wasn’t going to do that.
Fifteen minutes pass by, and I’m nearly about to do that when she steps out, fully dressed in what I’m learning is her daily outfit for going home. Shorts that barely cover her ass and a fitted tank that shows plenty of cleavage. Sometimes she’s got a tee on, but this is what I usually see her in.
“What are you doing here?” she blurts out. Something she has in common with her little sister is saying things on the fly. Though for Hope, I can tell she doesn’t always mean to say what she’s thinking.
“Making sure you get to your car and then following you home,” I answer, kicking away from the wall I propped myself up against. “Ready?”
“Um, yeah, sure.”
I watch as Hope hitches up her bag, her keys fisted in her hand.
Good girl.
The club protects the girls who work here and the other establishments, but it’s good to see she also takes a hand in protecting herself.
Neither of us says anything as we walk out the back door into the well-lit parking lot.
“Shit,” she mutters, eyes on her car.
“You know him?” I ask, surprised none of my brothers clocked him yet and said something. Someone had to be watching the camera feeds.
“That’s my uncle,” Hope states tersely, straightens further, and marches over there. “What do you want, Uncle Ron?”
Ron glances between the two of us before glaring down at his niece. “Can’t an uncle check in on his nieces?”
“No.” The single word sends off alarming bells in my head. Granted, they were already starting to go off.
“That’s not any way to speak to your elder, Hope girl,” Ron chides.
“Whatever, Uncle Ron. I don’t have time for this. Tell me what you want so you can leave, and I can get home.”
“A home where you did not mention you moved to. One where you leave my underage niece alone for hours on end.”
“Promise is fifteen and capable of being alone while I’m at work.”
“You’re not suited to be her guardian, Hope, and it’s time the courts see that.”
“You best move on,” I bite out, not liking where this conversation was going with him mentioning courts. Promise had talked about her sister fighting for her all the time, but she never mentioned her uncle’s name.
“I’m speaking to my niece,” Ron sneers in my direction and looks to Hope once again.
“You best think real hard, Hope girl, you’re going to lose custody of Promise this time around.
I’ll see to it, and when I do, you ain’t ever seeing your sister again.
” Finished, Ron stalks off, leaving us standing next to her car.
Hope’s shoulders slump, and the bag slides down.
I grab the bag and take Hope’s hand in mine, not trusting her to get in her car. My gut tells me not to let her drive away without looking it over. I guide her over to my bike and motion for her to get on. She doesn’t say a word or fight me in any way, which tells me just how upset she is.
I swing on in front of her and reach back, pulling her arms around me, keeping her bag on my shoulder.
I wasn’t wasting time getting her out of here.
Once I have her at home, we’ll talk. I need to know what the hell this was all about.
Not just what I know from her sister. I have a feeling Hope has secrets she’s keeping from Promise, and I’m going to find out exactly what they are.
Then I’m gonna have one of my brothers look her car over, and at the same time, find out why the hell no one seemed to care he was out there in the first place.