Chapter 2
“Hey Zoe, I’m in for Sabrina. Do you need help?” Madison entered behind the bar to punch in.
“Hey.” Zoe stopped her swipe across the bar top that she had wiped down to give her a quick side hug. “It’s been a long time.”
“I know. We need to get together for another ninety-day fiancé watch party.” Madison set her bag down on a barstool. “Yes, as soon as—”
“Your internship is through.” Zoe gestured with her cloth. “Girl, I know. How’s it going? It’s almost over right?” Zoe turned back around to grab clean glasses from the crates.
Madison leaned against the bar. “Yeah. I found out today that I made it to the top four, and my design will get shown at fashion week.”
“What?” Zoe set the glasses down and gave her a full-on hug.
“That is awesome. Congratulations. You deserve it.” Zoe went back to the crate.
“Thanks.” Madison looked down.
“Anytime. I could use the help to get the bar set up.” Zoe leaned forward. “Brenda is the other bartender on the schedule.”
They both rolled their eyes.
“So, I don’t mind, but you know she will have an attitude and say that you’ve gotten her tips.”
“I’m fine with it if you are.”
“Of course, I am. I’m happy for the help. I wish everything wasn’t a competition here.”
“True, but that’s how they set it up. They like it when the girls try to outdo each other.”
“I know. I can’t believe they fall for it.”
“Me either, but at the end it all relates to money and what gets you the most.”
“True.” In that way she and Zoe were pretty similar. If they could, they helped each other out.
It was nice to have another person to talk to besides Sabrina.
“So, if you have time to help behind the bar, I’ll take it.”
“Sure.” Madison stood and grabbed her bag.
Madison dropped her things in the back and slid her tracks to the DJ for her sets, then walked back to the front. She had on her usual jeans and tank that she always wore when she stripped. She walked past a table and then there were hands on her ass before someone grabbed her arm.
“Well, well, well. What do we have here but the high and mighty Madison. I see you’re back to slumming it. On your knees.”
Madison looked into Eric’s face. She didn’t care for him and yanked her arm out of his grip. She turned to stride away and then his hand was on her again.
“Did you hear me? I said on your knees.”
“Did you see me? I’m walking away.” This club was disgusting.
It allowed patrons to tell the women to get on their knees whenever they wanted for whatever they wanted if they were caught on the floor out of their string bikini “uniforms.” The management knew if they wanted her to come in and get a cut of the money that she made they didn’t make her follow that rule.
She might strip, but she wasn’t a whore. She walked to the bar. Eric was on her heels. From the corner of her eye, she could see one of the bouncers stop Eric as he reached out to grab her again.
“I’m surprised Eric tried that on you. It’s not like he’s new. He should remember he’s not allowed to touch,” Zoe said.
“Yeah, but he does whatever he wants.” Madison finished. Eric was attractive in a pretty boy way with the asshole attitude to match. He didn’t understand why she didn’t fall over him like the other girls did.
They only did it because he was rich. Though he didn’t tip well after the first time. Madison wasn’t interested in any of the carrots he dangled in front of the other girls or the shitty way he treated them.
They didn’t have a lot of time to talk as she helped mix drinks and served the customers.
Things had calmed down when her body started to tingle.
It was like the wind rushed through her, which was strange.
She had never had this feeling when being watched before.
There was someone who approached her. He was attractive in a dangerous kind of way.
There was an aura that surrounded him. It screamed bad boy. Tall, dark brown hair.
A muscular body, but not too much. Like he liked to keep fit and lift weights, but he didn’t try to hit any weight records. A body she wanted to feel against hers which shocked her. She couldn’t quite see the color of his eyes, but his look seemed deadly, and like his eyes were trained on her.
Maybe it was the air with which he carried himself. Like he owned the place. He was confident and cocky. Arrogant. That was it. And there was an immediate attraction to him and there was a pull in her sensitive places. A feeling she wanted to act on.
“What can I do you for?”
“You and me and a private room.”
“For?”
“Blow job.”
“Shot or drink?
“Neither. I’d like one from you.”
She met the new guy’s eyes, a smoky gray in color.
Hers narrowed. She wasn’t sure if it was a joke or not.
Everyone had stopped talking. There was what appeared to be a bodyguard standing behind the newcomer.
The man’s suit was expensive and the way Eric’s now-terrified eyes were bouncing back and forth between her, the man, and his bodyguard, she wasn’t sure what would happen if she pissed him off.
“Cute, but I only serve alcohol,” Madison said.
“Then I guess I’ll take a red-headed slut.”
Madison looked at him. Her hair had streaks of red, that gave it an auburn look under the overhead lights, but Zoe’s was all red.
She figured he didn’t want the shot or the drink but another innuendo that he wanted her.
She had never had this pull before in any of her failed to become real relationships.
And she didn’t like the word slut, but the way he said it made her hot.
“One moment.” She walked down and whispered in Zoe’s ear.
“I think that guy down there thinks I don’t only serve drinks. I need to do my set. I’ll try to get back out after I’m done.” Madison walked away with the bouncer who came to collect her. The eyes of the man were hot on her back, but she refused to turn around.
****
Dante watched the little minx walk away. She said she didn’t serve, but what why did she go with the bouncer?
He would find out soon enough. Zoe walked over.
She had worked for him for a while. He still hadn’t figured out her deal.
She was happy to bartend and pick up extra shifts or do special events, but she wasn’t interested in some of the other activities they offered.
But he liked her and knew she would give it to him straight and tell him what he wanted to know.
“You asked for me?”
“No, I wanted her.”
“Madison doesn’t serve; she was helping.”
Dante was tired of people telling him what Madison did. He would decide what Madison did.
“When she comes out, I’d like to see her in my office. Where did she go?”
“She went to do her set. I don’t know if she planned on staying—”
He knew the face he made had cut her off.
He didn’t care what Madison wanted or expected.
The girls who worked at the club all knew the deal.
True, it wasn’t typical to ask a bartender for something explicit, but Madison was different and that made him make an exception.
Before he could let Zoe know, the music changed, and he turned his head to the stage.
He was enthralled as he watched Madison walk out in some of the highest heels he had ever seen. Her outfit didn’t reveal much. She had on hot pants with no hint of butt cheek and a racer back tank that covered her stomach. What she didn’t show didn’t matter as she worked the pole.
He watched, entranced as her body moved. She walked around the pole and did a flair. Then she took it to a flatline scorpion into a star, followed by a superman and ended in a superman pose.
She moved from the butterfly move into more inversions than he had seen before. Different variations on splits and handstands and sits that inch by inch brought her down to the floor in a wheelbarrow and she began her floor portion.
That’s when the money flew onto the stage. He couldn’t pull his gaze away from her. She knew what she was doing. She didn’t need to take her clothes off. What she did was more than sexual enough. It was hotter because she wasn’t naked.
Some of the girls just took off their clothes and twirled around on the pole, but it seemed Madison took a whole new approach. She made good use of the floor, pole, and her body. She also knew how to use her face. There were no dead eyes there.
As the music faded, he was able to tear his gaze away from the stage. He watched as she walked off, and they cleared the stage of all the money that had been thrown out for her. The music changed and she came out again, but she wasn’t alone.
She was in the background. He didn’t know who had put her there. She was better than the other girls she was with. He would have preferred not to have the other girls there.
The grumbles of the other patrons mirrored his own thoughts.
One by one, each of the other girls left the stage until Madison was there on her own.
She performed some amazing tricks. He was spellbound until she was finished.
Dante headed for his office and made sure to tell one of the bouncers to send her up.
****
Dante was sat at his desk and looked over the books when there was a knock at the door.
He looked up to see his dad come in and close the door behind him.
Dante loved his father, but he didn’t like the way he liked to interfere in what he was doing.
He wasn’t a boy anymore who needed his pops to look over his shoulder to check on him and advise him of the moves he should make.
“Son, I wanted to talk to you.” His dad sat down without prompting and leaned back in the seat. Crossed one leg over the other and connected the opposite ankle and knee.
Dante didn’t bother to ask what. He was pretty sure he knew what it was. His dad didn’t need Dante to speak to start a monologue on anything mafia related.