Page 15 of Fang (Lotus MC: San Antonio #2)

I sigh. “Vegas was home like I said. After growing up there with nothing, I joined the Lotus. I should have been there permanently, but after a while, I felt restless. I felt this need to run, but the only way to do that would be to go nomad, which is a lonely life. I didn’t want that life, so when Colt came down here, I followed. Then I stayed.”

“Why, though? What makes here different from Vegas?” she asks.

I shake my head. “One question. My turn.”I toss the axe, hitting it dead center. “Okay, little dancer. Why did you pick stripping?”

I turn and look at her. She looks ashamed as she stares at the ground.

“I’m sorry. You don’t have to…”

She cuts me off. “Nope. It’s fine. I knew I wanted to get a degree, but I couldn’t live at home.

I got a job at a local fast-food place, but they only offered fifteen hours a week, and the pay was so little, I wouldn’t have been able to afford lodging and tuition.

I tried everything, but at the end of the day, stripping pays.

I wasn’t sure I was going to make it, but then you agreed to my demands. ”

“I’m glad I did,” I tell her.

She looks up at me. I know what my next question will be, but it’s her turn.

She misses this time, but I tell her, “Ask anyway.”

She looks at me. “That’s not the rules.”

“I made the rules up so I can break them. Ask me.”

“What makes here different?”

I sit on the stool facing her. I don’t want to be vulnerable, but I need to be. For her.

“I can’t say what makes it different other than it feels different.

In Vegas, I felt like I was always running from something.

My past, loneliness, the stigma of being a biker.

It’s different there. Then I come here, and everyone is accepting.

Bikers are the norm. No one here knows about my past. Then there is the fact that my loneliness seems to have faded the moment I met this feisty little dancer who has captivated me so thoroughly that I’m spending all my spare time at a damn strip club even when I don’t have to. ”

“You run the strip club,” she says.

“I do, but it’s to the point that I don’t need to be there all the time. Other brothers can be brought in to handle the day-to-day shit while I get back to my MC duties, but I don’t want to.”

“Because of me.”

I nod my head. “Because of you.”

She takes a deep breath. “Ask your question.”

“I didn’t even throw.”

“Ask.”

“Why are you ashamed of being a stripper?”

She swallows hard. “I told you a little about my childhood. I didn’t tell you all of it, though.

My mother was, or I guess is, a prostitute.

I haven’t seen her since I turned eighteen, so I would guess she is still at it.

She is a drug addict and drunk. She would beat me over and over for existing.

She is the reason I can’t handle violence.

She is also the reason I even thought about stripping.

That’s where she started. So you see, I’m ashamed because I’ve taken the first step to becoming her, and it scares me to death.

It’s something I promised I would never do, and yet here I am. ”

I move to her, pulling her in my arms. “You are not your mother. You have your morals. You aren’t selling every little thing about yourself for money. You aren’t her. You hear me?”

She pulls back, looking up at me with tears in her eyes.

“I don’t want to strip forever, but I’m afraid it’s all I can ever do. What if I fail? What if I don’t have a future?”

I cup her cheek. “You do have a future. We will make sure of it, and if you don’t get the job you want, then you will help me run the club. I won’t let you strip forever. I promise.”

“Promises get broken, Jensen.”

My body jolts at the use of my real name. She asked me about it earlier in the evening, but I never anticipated she would use it. I like it. Maybe a little too much.

“Maybe from lesser men, but I’m not them.”

She nods as someone comes on the loudspeaker. “We will be closing in ten minutes.”

“Let’s get you home.”

She takes my hand as I lead her out of the place. Once at my bike, we go through the motions of getting our helmets on, her with my help. Then we take off.

The ride to her place is longer than it should be because I take all of the side roads I can. I’m not ready for it to end.

Eventually I do bring her back to her dorm, though, walking her all the way up to her door.

“I’d invite you in, but you saw the place,” she whispers.

I cup her face, leaning in to kiss her. It’s not a gentle kiss. It’s rough and demanding. I’m taking from her what I know she wants to give to me. What she is too afraid to admit she wants.

She melts into my kiss, her arms winding around my neck. When her fingers pull at my hair lightly, I growl, pushing her against her door.

Her leg comes up to cradle my hip as I press into her. I know we need to stop, but I can’t get enough of her.

A ding in my pocket breaks the moment, making me pull back. She’s breathing as heavy as I am.

Pressing one last kiss to her lips, I step back.

“I have to go on a run, so I’ll be gone for a few days. Be a good girl while I’m gone, little dancer.”

She smirks at me. “If I’m not, will you come back sooner?”

She’s a fucking minx.

“No, but I will have to show you what happens when you misbehave.” I nip at her lip.

Her breath hitches. “Okay. Good girl it is then.”

“Aww, you ruin all my fun,” I joke. “Text or call if you need anything.”

“I won’t, but you already knew that.”

I did.

She opens her door, waving goodbye before she shuts it behind her.

Yeah, that’s the woman I’m going to make my old lady.