Page 29 of Fang (Lotus MC: San Antonio #2)

I ’m tucked back in a corner of the library studying with my headphones on but with nothing playing. When I first sat down earlier, there were people nearby who didn’t know how to be quiet. When they left, I never bothered to remove my headphones.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned about studying in public, headphones are a sure way to keep people away.

My phone vibrates, catching me off guard. I grab it off the table and see that it’s an email.

Students,

Class is canceled due to myself and my TA having the flu.

We will resume next week.

Professor Langford

Perfect.

Sighing, I lean back in my chair and toss my phone onto the desk.

I know it’s stupid, but I’m kind of sad that class has been canceled. It would have been another distraction from the fact that Fang is gone.

I’m so ready for him to come home.

Almost as if he knows I’m thinking about him, my phone goes off once again. My phone’s digital assistant tells me that he’s texted me and asks if I would like for him to read the message out loud.

I grab my phone and open the text.

Jensen: I made it in safe. I’m at the club, but I’ll meet you at the clubhouse after class.

Me: Or how about I come join you at the club?

Jensen: Don’t skip class, Cami.

I can’t help but smile. I feel like most boyfriends would encourage me to skip class after not seeing me for days, but not Fang. He knows how much school means to me.

Me: Class was canceled. I’m on my way.

Jensen: See you soon, little dancer. Drive safe.

I gather up my things and leave. The drive to the club goes by quickly. Parking, I jump out of my car and rush inside.

“Hey, Cami,” Erin says as she cleans a glass.

“Hi.”

Instead of lingering like usual, I head straight for his office. Like normal, I enter without knocking and shut the door behind me.

Fang is on me before I can even take a step toward him. He picks me up, and my legs wrap around his waist as he presses me against the door. His mouth claims mine in a brutal kiss.

“I fucking missed you,” he mutters against my neck.

“I missed you too,” I say breathlessly as I rock my hips against his.

His fingers move to the button of jeans. Before he can even open them, someone knocks at the door.

Fang groans as he rests his forehead against my shoulder.

“Yeah?” he says.

“Sorry, boss, you asked me to remind you twenty minutes out that the new girl is on her way,” Erin says.

“Thanks,” he says.

“New girl?” I ask quietly.

Fang groans. “Yeah.”

“You’ve been busy,” I say as he carries me across the room.

He sits down in his chair and sets me in his lap. “I told you I was going to.”

“Tell me about her,” I demand.

“She seems nice enough. Has a history of dancing.”

“Yeah? What kind?”

“Ballet,” he says, catching me off guard.

“Uh, she realizes that this isn’t that kind of place, right?” I ask, making him smirk.

“I asked her the same thing. Apparently she wants to break out of her good girl mold.”

I frown. “So she’s going to dance here to piss off her parents?”

“No clue. Her reasons are hers alone and none of our business, but from what I saw, she’s going to be a hit.”

“Should I be jealous?” I tease, with a thread of insecurity weaving its way in.

Fang squeezes me tight. “No, never. You know you’re the only one for me.”

I lean down and kiss him. When I pull away, I smile against his lips.

“I know, and if you fucked up, I’m sure I could convince Happy to help me dispose of you.”

Fang tosses his head back and laughs. “You aren’t wrong.”

When he stops laughing, he brushes a piece of hair away from my face. “Will you do me a favor, though?”

“Of course,” I tell him without any hesitation.

“Will you take her under your wing, please? Show her the ropes. I don’t want her getting caught up in the catty bullshit.”

“I can do that. As long as she’s nice.”

He smirks at me. “Trust me, little dancer, I think you and Sabrina will get along just fine.”

A knock at the door breaks our moment.

“That should be her. Come in!”

When I try to get off his lap, he holds me in place.

“Let her know who belongs to you,” he says quietly as the door opens.

A tiny woman with sharp cheekbones steps inside.

“Hello, I’m sorry to interrupt. I can come back,” she says.

Her dark hair is pulled back into a slick bun.

While she’s beautiful, I can’t help but wonder why Fang hired her.

She’s wearing a one-piece workout set that shows off that she has no boobs or curves to speak of.

I feel horrible judging her on her body type, but she doesn’t have what most would expect from a stripper.

“No, come in. This is Cami, she will be the one showing you around,” Fang tells her.

I stand and lean forward on the desk, holding out my hand. “It’s nice to meet you, Sabrina.”

She shakes my hand. “Nice to meet you too. Fang.” She cringes over his name but quickly recovers. “Had nothing but nice things to say about you.”

“Well, I would hope so,” I quip.

“Cami here is my old lady,” Fang tells her.

Her shoulders relax. “Oh, thank God.”

Fang and I share a look before turning back toward her.

Sabrina shakes her head. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know. I walked in and saw you sitting on his lap, and I started questioning everything. When he hired me, he told me all I had to do was dance, and the rest was optional.”

“And you thought he was sampling the goods.” I laugh.

Her cheeks turn red. “Maybe, I’m sorry, it’s not my place to judge.”

“Trust me when I tell you that you’re going to end up judging a lot while working here. Now come on, let me show you around and introduce you to some people.”

As I move to go past him, Fang catches my hand, pulling my attention back to him. “Meet me back here when you’re done, and we will head home.”

“Sounds good.”

“Love you, little dancer.”

“I love you too.”

“So tell me about this place,” she says as we step out of the office.

So I do, and I make sure not to leave a single thing out.

The club is closed for the night and quiet. The only sounds to be heard are those of the people cleaning up.

“Hey,” Happy says as I approach.

“Hey, how did tonight go?”

“Fine.”

“Anyone give them shit?”

I don’t have to clarify that I’m asking about Sabrina and Cami.

“Not too much. New girl seems nice. Think she will stick?”

“I hope so.”

He nods. “You waiting for Cami?”

“Yeah, you can take off.”

“Are you sure? I can wait around to see if anyone else needs help.”

“Nah, we got it.”

“Cool, see you tomorrow.” He claps me on the shoulder as he passes by.

Sighing, I lean against the wall right outside of the locker room for her. I’m tired as hell and all I want to do is get my girl, go home, and faceplant in bed next to her.

When Sabrina steps out of the locker room, she nods. “Waiting for Cami?”

“Yeah.”

“She will be right out.”

“Thanks. Tonight go okay?”

She tilts her head from side to side. “I think so.”

“Good. One of the guys will walk you to your car.”

“Thank you. Good night,” she says as she passes.

A few minutes later, Cami walks out.

“Hey, sorry it took me so long,” she says softly.

I lean down and kiss her softly. Only when she hums against my lips do I pull away.

“You’re good, little dancer. Follow me back to the clubhouse?”

“Okay.”

I take her hand in mine, and I walk her to her car. I get on my bike and follow her until we park in front of the clubhouse.

“Hey, guys,” Viv says from her place at the bar.

“Hi!” Cami chirps.

“Let’s get together for another girls’ night soon. Sounds good?”

“I’d love to!” she shouts back to Viv.

I don’t let her linger and pull her down to my room.

I love that she and Viv have gotten close, but I’m not willing to share Cami. Not tonight.

“What if I wanted to talk to Viv?” Cami asks with humor in her voice.

“Sorry, little dancer, I want you all to myself for the night.”

“Aww, how sweet,” she teases as she grabs the T-shirt that’s on my dresser that she likes to sleep in.

Both of us strip and go through our nightly routine before crawling into bed. I pull her into me and move my hand under her shirt, placing it on her lower back. Her hips rock into mine.

“Baby, I’d love to do nothing more than sink inside of you, but I’m fucking exhausted. If you want to get on top of me, though, I’m sure I could find the energy.”

Cami giggles. “I think we can go one night without sex. In the morning, though…”

I can’t help but smile. Who would have known that my innocent girl would be so dirty?

“Sabrina did really well tonight,” she says, changing the subject.

“Did she?”

I feel more than see Cami roll her eyes. “You watched her dance, so you know she did.”

“That doesn’t mean shit, though,” I point out.

“True.” She sighs. “Anyway, you were right. She and I clicked. I like her.”

“Good.”

“I won’t lie, though, I had my doubts.”

“Why?”

“She’s so…skinny. All arms and legs. She doesn’t have boobs or hips like most dancers. I didn’t think the clients would be into that, but by the amount of tips she got, I was wrong.”

I want to clarify that’s one of the reasons I hired Sabrina. Some guys go fucking insane for those who look younger, who don’t look like women but more like a girl.

“Well, good. I’m glad I made the call then. You think you can be friends, though?” I ask.

“I do. She was really sweet.”

“How did the other girls take to her?”

“About as well as you could expect.” She snorts.

“Good.”

Cami knows why I hired Sabrina, but she doesn’t know the complete truth. While I could keep my mouth shut and she would be none the wiser, I can’t. I refuse to have our relationship built on lies.

“I need to tell you something.”

“What’s up?”

She shifts next to me, her breasts brushing against my chest. For a split second I contemplate saying fuck it and rolling her over. Showing her that I love her, but I don’t.

“I might have had an ulterior motive when I hired her.”

“You want her to replace me,” she says, catching me off guard.

“How did you…”

Cami tips her head back and rolls her eyes. “Fang, I love you, but sometimes you can be completely transparent. We’ve talked enough about me leaving eventually. It was only a matter of time before you hired someone you trusted enough to replace me.”

“I don’t want you dancing forever. Not when you hate it.”

“I don’t hate it.”

I shoot her a look, and she rolls her eyes.

“Okay, I don’t hate it completely. It’s just not something I want to do forever.”

“Exactly. I’m not telling you that you can’t dance, but ultimately, I don’t want you to. You can do whatever you want as long as it’s our bed you go to sleep in every night and I’m the only one who gets to touch you.”

She raises her hand and rubs her thumb over the corner of my eye, over my tattoo. “You have nothing to worry about.”

“I know I don’t, I trust you.”

“That means more to me than you’ll ever know.” She takes a deep breath. “I’ll think about leaving, but before you get too excited, when I do, it will be on my own terms.”

“That’s fine. You just tell me when.”

She nods and buries her face into my chest.

“Anything else you want to talk about before we pass out?” I ask as sleep starts to settle in.

“Go to sleep. We can talk in the morning after you fuck me and before school.”

Smiling, I lean down and kiss the top of her head.

This woman…I used to think all that shit about soulmates was a load of horse shit, but now I can’t help but wonder if there’s actually something to it.