It's Getting Hot in Here

by J. D. Light

  "I have two."

  Two? Did that mean he had an alpha out there somewhere as well? Nobody had ever come into the club to see him as far as I knew, but if they had young kids, the alpha might be at home with the kids during the night while he stayed with them during the day.

  He probably had this perfect little family with a cute house that he decorated, and like two dogs and two cats, and he and his alpha probably shared sweet kisses and nose nuzzles and hot sex.

  I didn't have the right to feel jealous, but I couldn't help but wish… It didn't matter what I wished.

  I cleared my throat, standing up straight. "I didn't know that. How old are they?"

  He seemed confused for a moment, his gaze slightly hazy before he shook his head, blinking. "They're both fourteen months," he choked out huskily before swallowing and pulling back slightly, making me realize I'd still been running my finger over his stretchmark like a weirdo.

  He's most likely taken, Wagoner. Probably shouldn't be feeling him up. Not to mention the fact that this could probably be considered sexual harassment, and I didn't date or fuck employees.

  Didn't stop me from noticing the goosebumps spread out across his skin, or the way his breathing was slightly stuttered when he dragged in a large breath.

  "You have twins?" I asked, clenching my hand and trying not to notice how it seemed to be tingling.

  He rolled his lips between his teeth, looking hesitant, and I thought he might not answer, since in all honesty, I was probably being a tad nosey, but eventually he shrugged. "Not exactly. They were born just two days apart, but I didn't give birth to them both." He hesitated for a moment, and I watched sadness transform his face. "My best friend and I got pregnant at the same time. He passed away."

  "Oh," I said in surprise, nearly rolling my eyes at that brilliant exclamation. "I'm so sorry, Jennings."

  He blinked at me in surprise, the expression chasing away the storm clouds. "Thank you," he said after a moment of him clearly doing his best to swallow his sadness. "I'll wear the shirt." He ran a finger over his stretchmark, pursing his lips. "Should I put concealer over this too?"

  There was a small smirk on his face that told me he was just messing with me, and I smiled, shaking my head.

  "Why would you bother?" I reached out, pressing a fingertip to the delicate skin beneath his eyes. "It obviously didn’t hide those bags."

  I heard him growl and took off running, knocking my hip against the corner of the counter and bouncing into the other, nearly knocking myself over, but it beat getting hit in the head with whatever just grazed my ear. I wasn't stupid enough to stop though. He'd find something else to throw if I wasn't quick.

  ***

  JULY

  "I'm not letting that asshole touch me again," Cal growled, pointing his finger in the direction of the petulant alpha, standing with his back pressed against the wall just inside the door. "Did you see that omega that was hanging all over him?"

  I had. In fact, the entire club had seen it. There had been nothing subtle about the two out there in the middle of everything the night before making out. All while his omega boyfriend, Cal, had been up on stage doing his routine. Cal had stopped right there in the middle of his routine and stomped off to the back.

  He'd been embarrassed and pissed, and I'd been thankful it hadn't been a room night, because there was no way those two could have been in one of the rooms together without things getting ugly, and as over the top as Cal could be sometimes, I couldn't say that I blamed him for being pissed.

  I'd kinda known they wouldn't end up making up by the time it was time for the two of them to get into a room together, but when neither of them called me to cancel, the hoper in me had thought maybe they'd made up after all.

  Not the case.

  Cal was one of my best performers. He was just a lot of fun on the stage, and he was definitely attractive. When he and Jack had first met and started flirting during one of Cal's floor shifts, there had been enough chemistry there, that people stopped watching the performers up on stage to turn and watch the two of them.

  It had been enough of a wow moment that it had given me the idea for the rooms, and I'd asked Jack if he'd like to join Cal in one of the rooms to make a little money.

  For a while, things had gone so smooth, and honestly, better than I'd expected. I'd found a few more couples… or in one case a couple guys who just had really great chemistry and had a lot of fun performing, and the rest was Slick history.

  Unfortunately, I'd noticed a tension between these two lately, and it all seemed to stem from Jack, and his inability to keep his hands to himself while sitting around the club waiting for Cal to get done.

  He got a lot of attention because of the room and the fact that he too was a very attractive man. He seemed to attract the type of omega that wanted to see if they could be the one to pull Jack's attention away from Cal, and lately, it had been working.

  "Who the hell does he think he is?" Cal demanded, throwing a disgusted look in Jack's direction. "I'm a hell of a catch, and if he doesn't see that, then he can move right along with the rest of them, but he's never getting his hands on this again."

  I nodded, sighing. "Okay, Cal. I understand. I wouldn't expect you to."

  The Lord knew I wouldn't be able to be in the same room with someone who treated me the way Jack treated him, much less have to let the person touch me. I wouldn't ask that of anyone.

  "What?" Jack demanded, flinging himself off of the wall, suddenly far less bored with the conversation. "Are you kidding? I just kissed the guy. It wasn't that big of a deal."

  Of the five people crammed in my office in that moment, four sets of eyes turned on the one who'd just said that, and not one held a bit of sympathy for the man.

  "How so?" I asked on a dry growl, and I could tell by the way his face slowly slid from outraged to slightly leery, that I'd managed to let my anger at the man show when I was usually the super calm one in the room. "Did you and Cal have some kind of agreement that while you were dating you guys could just randomly make out with whoever you wanted? Because I was under the assumption that you guys were exclusive."

  "It was just a kiss," he repeated, sounding a lot less convicted about that statement than he had a moment before.

  Cal let out a bitter laugh, his eyes going cold as he looked the man over. "Only because people were watching. You had about three handfuls of his ass." He waved a dismissive hand in the alpha's direction. "And it doesn't matter. We definitely were supposed to be exclusive. You can play dumb all you want… or maybe you really are, but you know I consider kissing to be part of that, and I definitely consider the way you were touching him like you were about to fuck him right there on the floor in front of everyone a pretty obvious indication of intent to cheat. Either way, I can't trust you, and I'm actually disgusted by you."

  Jack huffed, rolling his eyes. "That's fucking stupid. Kissing is not cheating."

  I watched Cal take a deep breath, and I hoped Jack couldn't see how hard he was fighting to keep it together, since I knew it was important to his pride to keep his shit together even though it had to hurt to know the man he'd been with for nearly a year not only didn't respect his opinion on cheating enough to keep his tongue in check, but it was also probably not the first time the man had made out with another omega.

  I sighed, tilting my head to the side quickly to try and remove some of the tension there. "Jack, I know I can't tell you how to live your life, and it doesn’t sound like you'd listen anyway, but it would do you well in the future to know that respect goes a long way. If you can't respect the person who is supposed to be closest to you in the world, then how can you expect anyone to trust you to respect them? I know I can't trust you after watching the way you treated him."

  "You're taking his side?" Jack asked on a shocked whisper, his arms falling to his side as he looked at me.

  "What the hell did you expect? I hired you for one thing. To perform inside one of the rooms with your boyfri
end. The chemistry you two had was special, and I think you are going to get down the road and never find that again. Someday you are going to wake up and realize you pissed away something special with him, and as bad as it sounds, I have no use for you now. I can't put you in a room with him. Nobody's here to see you get eviscerated by your ex… Though, if we advertised it, there are probably a few more of your exes out there that would pay great money for that, but right now, you have no purpose here. Cal can still do the same routine he's been doing and work the floor, but what do you expect me to do with you? Toss you in a room by yourself and let people watch you make-out with yourself?"

  Jack crossed his arms, raising an eyebrow and giving me a self-satisfied smile that made me want to punch him in the throat. "What about the room, then? You said it was booked tonight."

  "It is. I'll have to find a different couple, or cancel, but that doesn’t really concern you since you don't work here anymore."

  "This is fucking stupid," he grumbled, spinning and stomping to the door. "Don't even bother asking me to come back here without a huge apology." He turned his glare on his now ex. "I'll talk to you later, Cal."

  Cal's huff of laughter was bitter, and he shook his head in disbelief, curling his lip as the door to the office slammed behind the man.

  "Do you live with him?" I asked quietly, watching as Cal closed his eyes and took several deep breaths.

  "Yeah," he said, sounding a little choked. "I'll just wait to get my stuff out tomorrow."

  "If you need me to go with you, I can," I offered with a small smile. "My brother is a cop. He'll help if you need it."

  He gave me a small smile before also smiling at Jennings and Lizzy who had actually been in my office to discuss a new drink Lizzy had literally dreamed up the night before and wanted to make available exclusively at Slick, but had managed to get sucked in as support as soon as Cal burst through my office door to let me know that he didn't think he could do it tonight, and Jack had stormed in after him, telling him that he was being stupid.

  "Thanks," he said, his chin wobbling slightly before he took another deep breath. "I doubt he'll do anything. He's a selfish dick, but he's never hurt me before."

  Maybe not, but people could do some crazy ass shit because of break ups. "Okay. I'd still feel better if you took someone with you."

  "I'll take my brother. A small, almost smile tipped up one side of his mouth. "I still might need your cop brother there. Bent has always hated Jack."

  I smiled, reaching in my desk and pulling out Dawes business card. "I'm sure he'd be happy to help."

  Why did Dawes have a business card? Because I had it made for him, so I could hand it out to all the weirdos. Dawes still hadn't figured it out yet, but it sure made my day when he told us stories about his most recent caller and the strange way he'd had to help them with their problem. At least this time the problem would be legitimate.

  "Now what?" Lizzy said as Cal left my office, shutting the door behind him and leaving the three of us.

  I sighed my gaze finding Jennings like it always tended to do without my permission, and I let my eyes move over him, too preoccupied with my thoughts to even think about looking away like I normally would.

  "Who do we have on staff that has at least halfway decent chemistry?" I was running through my list of alphas in my head, trying to remember if any of them might be dating someone that worked here, but I was pretty sure every one of our alphas was single. "Surely, we do. We have an entire club full of performers."

  We had more omegas at the club than alphas. Would it cause problems if I went around asking them if they had an alpha? Probably. Maybe I should have Lizzy or Jennings do it.

  Lizzy cleared her throat, pulling my attention away from the bend of Jennings elbow where I'd found a fascinating freckle that was entirely too endearing.

  "I know of some," she said when I finally looked at her, even though she wasn't really meeting my eyes.

  Something wasn't quite right. "Who?" I asked carefully.

  She gave me a bullshit smile, trying to bat her lashes innocently, but that just confirmed there was something going on that I probably wasn't going to like. "Just leave it up to me, okay?"

  "This should be entertaining. Good luck," Jennings said, as he strolled to the door, giving me one of those smirks that told me good luck was more of a bless your heart type sentiment than him actually wishing me luck.

  Chapter Three

  JULY

  "L izzy, honey," Wagoner was saying as I walked up, more than a little confused about why it looked like we might be having a meeting just outside one of the rooms… and why Stan and Paul, two of our bouncers, were standing there like two secret service agents ready to escort someone somewhere. "We already have a male alpha/alpha couple, remember? We need an alpha/omega couple."

  Paul snorted, elbowing Stan who rolled his eyes, but also looked like he was on the verge of laughing.

  I sighed, stepping directly in front of Lizzy. "What?" I demanded, glancing toward the guest door… where I was supposed to be going right then to get drink orders.

  Lizzy looked me over, biting her bottom lip before reaching up and mussing my hair, probably making it stand up in every fucking direction, and I squeaked, ducking out from under her hands and smacking at them.

  "What the hell are you doing? Stop that." I reached up trying to pat down my hair as much as possible, but I knew it was probably a lost cause since it sure felt like the frizz had already broken free of the product I'd put in earlier in an attempt to tame it. "Are you trying to make me look like Albert Einstein or something?" Growling, I gave a couple more pats before sighing and giving her a dry look, pursing my lips tightly, so she could fully grasp how fucking irritated I was with her right then. "What did you want? I should be in there right now taking drink orders."

  "Oh, don't worry," she said brightly, shrugging one shoulder. "I have someone covering for you."

  Jerking back, I frowned shaking my head slightly. "What? Why?"

  I didn't want anyone to cover for me. Working rooms could be tough sometimes, but it got me off the floor, which was something I really needed sometimes.

  Paul's thick paw wrapped around my bicep, and I absently turned to look down at it and then up at his face, completely confused and still not sure what the hell was going on with the room.

  Stan opened the door to the performance room, and Paul started dragging me toward it, only adding to my confusion.

  "Hey," Wagoner snapped, reaching for my other arm and missing as Paul gave a small jerk to get me moving and I tripped over my own stupid feet for a moment and fully into the room. "What the hell are you doing?"

  Wagoner marched in after us, shaking his head hard. "No, no, no. Did you agree to this?" He asked me, finally reaching out and grabbing my other arm.

  "Agree to what?" I asked, looking around the mostly darkened room in confusion. "What the hell is going on?"

  Paul let go of my arm, and I stumbled sideways into Wagoner, bouncing off of his broad chest and nearly careening sideways into the far wall. Thankfully, Wagoner caught me, just barely saving the side of my head from connecting and I gripped at his shirt, feeling a little like I'd just woken from an unexpected nap with no idea what the fuck was going on and very little coordination.

  Wagoner righted me, letting his hands slide from around my waist to cup my hips and we both blinked at each other in confusion for a moment before the door slammed shut, making us both jump.

  "What the hell?" I asked, still standing practically plastered to my boss and probably enjoying it a bit much given the confusing situation… and the fact that the man drove me fucking crazy.

  Wagoner blinked at the door for a long moment before turning to blink back down at me. There was a moment where I thought he might be just as confused about this whole thing as I was, and then his head snapped back around to the door, and he growled, releasing me to march over and grab the doorknob, giving it a solid yank. "Lizzy?"

  The doo
r didn't give, and things were starting to slowly make a bit more sense as I realized that I was now locked in a room with Wagoner Foster. A room where people performed stripping routines that mimicked foreplay.

  "She wouldn't," I growled, walking over to join him at the door, not really sure what I was going to do considering Wagoner seemed to be fighting pretty hard with the door with no luck and he was a lot stronger than I was. "What the hell am I saying? Of course, she would." I pounded on the door hard before glaring over at him. "Hurry up, open the fucking thing."

  He grunted, glaring back. "Don't you think I'm trying?" He tried again to turn the knob, but it only gave slightly, telling me that someone with massive paws like Paul's was on the other side, holding the knob. "That must be why Stan and Paul were here in the first place." He let go of the knob and pounded on the door too. "Hilarious, Lizzy."

  He crossed his arms over his chest, glaring at the metal, lips tight. He wasn't even trying anymore. If he'd been trying at all.

  I gasped, my jaw falling open. "You did this, didn't you?" I demanded, reaching for the handle and trying to give it a little twist. "To fuck with me, like you always do." The knob didn’t budge, and I grunted with irritation.

  "Are you kidding me right now?" Wagoner growled at the back of my head. "I thought she was trying to send you in here with Stan and Paul for some kind of threesome. I tried to get you out, remember?"

  "Then get us the fuck out of here," I snapped, feeling the control slipping from my fingers with each moment that passed. "Aren't you the boss of these people?"

  It could be said that I had a few control issues. I knew I tended to be incredibly bossy and a little anxious when things weren't going quite the way I planned, and the Lord knew I didn't react well in those situations.

  "I'm the boss of you too, and look what difference that makes when you decide to act like an asshole or punch me in the stomach and steal my key," Wagoner growled, glaring.

  The dim, mood lights flipped on just as I turned on Wagoner, pointing a finger in the middle of his chest and stepping forward until I was nearly pressed against him. I barely noticed the new golden glow around the room aside from the fact that it gave me a better view of his handsome, Latin features and those fucking dimples.