Page 32 of Ruined

“Nothing important,” I said. I had to shift the focus to her. “What are your plans for the evening? Silks, hoop, private entertainment?”

She lifted an eyebrow, then turned her head. “I think Dahlia wants me to do silks tonight. It’s a rotation of aerial hoop, silks, sling, rope, and trapeze.”

“No pole?”

She shook her head. “I was never interested.”

That was a small lie. It wasn’t that she wasn’t interested; it was that she averted from it. “Trapeze,” I said. “I have yet to see that.”

“It’s static.” I nodded, though the particulars of the different styles of aerial dance were lost on me. “You really won’t be there tonight?”

She held her breath, biting her lip in a gentle way, as if kneading it mindlessly. It drew my attention and kept it there. That supple mouth. I wanted to use her mouth. To spread my cock on her pliant tongue. To see those green eyes water as I stuck myself deep inside of her throat.

“You’re going to miss me,” I said.

She laughed, and the sound was real. Not like the forced chuckles I had heard her make in the lounge. A throaty sort of laugh.

She shrugged and beamed. “Sure,” she said. “Tell me you won’t miss me.”

Her lips parted, and I thought about that tongue on my shoes. Curiosity made me want to know. What made her stop with Aldrich, but willing with me? What made her tick? Aldrich had likely offered her more money for her virginity than she could have dreamed of. If she needed money to the point of raising her fees at the Dahlia District, why not take him up on it?

She had played with herself in front of me the other night, until she fell forward in orgasm, her warm body crashing into mine. My hard cock had twitched against her, and she hadn’t moved away. My instincts warned me that she had other intentions, but my stupid libido and my damn heart wanted to think I was overreacting. That it wasn’t fair to judge her like that. Haley was honest. Even if she did keep secrets.

I kept my eyes on hers, a subtle smirk forming on my lips. “I won’t miss you,” I said.

“You’re lying.”