Aurelius

by Jessika Klide

  "Yes. You would have been. Beaten and banned."

  He smiles. "Let me finish getting ready. We need to get going."

  I let him go and admire the view as he walks to his bedroom. As soon as he disappears through the threshold, I miss him. I ask as I follow him in. "Did you catch a Surreal performance?"

  "I don’t know. I saw J-Lo dancing in the crowd on New Year’s Eve." He says as he puts his arms in the shirt sleeves and flexes his chest to slide the cotton fabric up them. I watch silently admiring the way he fluffs the fabric to move it over his skin to meet in the middle.

  "Did you? Are you sure?"

  He pulls on his socks, then his boots."If that was Surreal, she is wicked good."

  I laugh. "Duh!"

  He laughs too. "Is she a friend of yours? Surreal, not J-Lo. Duh, again."

  I laugh. "Both are actually friends."

  "That’s dope."

  "Yeah. We're all in business together."

  "That’s cool as fuck!" He says as he buttons his shirt.

  "Why didn't you stay to see if the performance was Surreal or J-Lo?"

  He tucks his shirt in. "I wasn’t interested. I was stalking the club looking for Seary."

  I wait until he tucks the tip of his belt in. "Well, you couldn't find me because …." I pause and wait until he is looking at me. "I’m Surreal."

  He freezes, stunned. "No shit?"

  "No shit!"

  "I thought her hair was black?"

  "Hair paint."

  "Well, I'll be damned!" He stares at me, digesting it, then he sits down on the bed and reaches for my hand. "That explains a lot! No wonder I couldn't find you or get any information on you. It makes perfect sense now. That’s why you’re guarded so carefully and so heavily."

  I put my hand in his and step between his legs. "Yes and that’s a super top-secret secret. If you blab to anyone, bad things will happen." I shake my head and smirk.

  He grins back. "Don’t worry. You can trust me with all your secrets. The military trusts me with top-secret security clearance, I assure you, yours are safe with me." He squeezes my ass. "So… you’re not just a headliner, you’re a major league star." It’s a statement, not a question, but I answer him.

  "Yep."

  "And you’re hidden away?"

  I run my fingers through his hair. "Yes."

  "How long?"

  "Since the beginning."

  "Isolated too?"

  "Yes."

  "Hmm." He pushes air out his nose and I see he is not content with that answer. He lays back on the bed, pulling me down on top of him. I put my head on his chest and listen to his heart beat.

  "It’s not too bad. It's not the life of a showgirl, for sure, and def not the life of a simple dancer, but it’s a pretty normal life for a Vegas star."

  He cradles me and softly rubs my back. I feel so safe here in his arms. I close my eyes content.

  Chapter Seventeen

  As soon as I hear "Same Love", he stiffens under me.

  It's Ann. I pick my head up and look at him.

  He winks. "Time to go."

  Pushing off him, I stand up then reach out. He takes my hand and I squat, tugging, pulling him up.

  "Does she know I'm coming?"

  "No! I can't wait to see the look on her face."

  His phone rings again and he smirks. "She’ll keep calling till she knows I'm on my way." He answers it and points to the bathroom. I nod and go in. Before I push the door closed, I listen to him talking to her.

  "I'm running a little behind. I'll be there in an hour. Ok. Yeah. No. Chill, would ya? He's not going anywhere. Hey, I'm bringing you a surprise. I'm not telling. It's a surprise!"

  When I come out, he hands me his phone and goes in, but doesn't close the door, so I lean on the door frame and watch him pick up his toothbrush. "What's happening at the farm that we need boots?"

  He squeezes toothpaste on it and runs it under the water. "Ann got a new horse. I told her I would come ride with her." He starts to brush. His phone goes off again.

  I laugh. "She's persistent!"

  He nods towards it and spits. "Text her, driving." Then he leans his head under the running water and sucks a mouthful in.

  "Just one word?"

  He nods as he swishes, then spits. I type as he stands and takes a towel, then wipes his mouth and winks. "Yep. Any more and she'll know it wasn't from me."

  I hold it out for him and he drops it in his shirt pocket. "Let’s go."

  As we step into the hall, he holds his hand out for mine, then binds our fingers together. When we enter the elevator and the doors close, we look at each other and grin. He starts to pull me into his arms, but I push him back and tell him, "My turn." He backs up against the wall, spreads his legs and slides down, so his face is even with mine, then he reaches for me and I step in. Leaning against his groin, I tilt my face, eager for his lips. At first he lets me kiss him, but then he hugs my shoulder and "dips" me. Cradling me, he gently sucks my tongue and slips his hand inside my bra. He cups my tit and pinches my nipple. My fingers flex on his shoulder like a kitten.

  When the elevator reaches the lobby, it dings our arrival, and the floor bounces to a cushioned stop. When I withdraw my tongue, Aurei slowly inserts his, then pulls it out just as slow still fondling my breast, completely unaware we have arrived. I push against his shoulder and try to lift my head as the doors slide open. He holds me firmly in place and I hear the doors start to close again, then we hear embarrassed coughing. We both freeze and stare into each others eyes. His crinkle as his tongue withdraws and his hand slides out. He gently sets me on my feet. I keep my back to the door and look down to see a flash of nipple, propped up on the cup of my bra. I look back into his laughing eyes as he waits for me to adjust my tit before he pushes off the wall and stands. I grab his hand, turn to lead him out, and come face to face with three gawking tweenagers. Young lust fills their eyes and I can't resist the urge to tease them.

  I take the back of my hand and drag it against my bottom lip, lifting my chin as I do, pinching it open until it flops closed. Then I tell them as we walk by, "Ah, he tastes so good!"

  Aurei simply says a casual, "Good morning, boys."

  As the elevators door shut, we hear them say at the same time. "Damn! Fuck! Crucial!"

  Aurei opens the door for me. "Bad Thang!"

  I giggle. "Teasing is what I do."

  Right outside the door sits his cooler. He leans down and picks it up. "My faith in humanity is restored." I tell him.

  He laughs. "It was empty."

  I giggle with that truth and swing our hands as I bounce in my boots on the way to the truck. He drops it in the back, then opens the door for me and I climb right up.

  When we are heading down the drive, I ask. "Where is the farm?"

  "On the south side, close to the Florida line." He stops at the bottom at the intersection and looks around me to check the traffic.

  "No, one’s coming." I tell him, checking too.

  He doesn’t move and I look at him. He has an eyebrow cocked and I stop, knowing I did something that wasn’t right, but not sure what it was.

  "Either I look, or you look, but not both."

  I grin. "Ok."

  "Do you want to be my co-pilot?"

  I grin bigger. "Of course, I do."

  "Then 'No. One’s coming,' isn’t allowed. It can be misconstrued to 'no one’s coming.'"

  My mouth falls open.

  "Just say, clear right, or not clear."

  I giggle. That’s fucking concise communication right there. I turn again to see the oncoming traffic. "Clear right."

  "And lose the hat. I like your hair down." He pulls out and we head in the opposite direction from last night.

  "Bossy, aren't you?" I giggle as I do it.

  "Not Bossy. Strai…"

  "Straight line. Not curved. Got it!" I fluff it out for him.

  "It's a beautiful mane!"

  "Thanks."

  When w
e have been on the road a few minutes, he says. "Tell me how you came to Vegas and how you became Surreal."

  "When I graduated from FSU, Piper, my roomie from London, and I flew to Vegas to blow off steam. We ended up staying the summer. We had a blast! We found a cheap but clean place to live, got jobs at Coyote Ugly and made enough money to play. But when Labor Day rolled around, she had a job waiting for her at home, and she left. I wasn't ready to return. The day Piper left, I waited on Bart’s table. He’s the owner of Been Jammin'. I had been crying in the bathroom before I asked him for his order and he noticed."

  "Your eyes were glowing."

  "Yeah. He invited me to his club that night and I went. I had a blast. That's the first time, I met Cat and Brutus."

  "Brutus sounds like a bodyguard."

  "Yes, he is. A big ole, sweet, badass."

  "When I found your gun last night, I hoped he wasn't an old flame I was going to have to take care of."

  I laugh. "No worries there. There hasn’t been anyone."

  He grins at me. "I like knowing that a lot."

  I grin back and continue. "At the height of the night, it must have been around 3, Beyoncé's 'Dance For You' started to play. By this time, I had had more than a few drinks and was feeling bullet proof. I couldn't help myself. The dancer in me came out. I became Beyoncé on that bar stool and the dance floor. By the end of the song, the rumor had spread like wildfire throughout the club that Beyoncé was actually there. It was crazy wild! Everyone thought I was Beyoncé. We tried to 'sneak out' the back. Ha! It was so easy to fool everyone, even the paparazzi. People see what they want to see; and they believe what they want to believe. That night, in the back of that limousine riding around Vegas, both Seary and Surreal were born. I knew I didn’t want to do the extracurricular side of the erotic entertainment business, so I stipulated that my job was to dance." I laugh. "Bart was pretty shocked when I told him that I have one rule I live by."

  "Just one?" Aurei laughs with me.

  "One's enough, if it's the right one." I wink at him. "Rule #1, no touching."

  He laughs out loud. "That's one hell of a rule for a Vegas girl. I can imagine his shock."

  "He thought I wasn’t serious, just scared, but I explained to him it was a hard rule. Non-negotiable and that any erotic entertainment I provided would be through suggestive dance, and I reserved the right to decide if I perform nude too." I stare out the window. "I can't imagine now not dancing. Bart told me, 'Fame is addicting.' And it is. Anyway, he is my agent. Cat is my manager and my best friend. I moved in a condo below her, and live the high life. They trained me on the stripper pole and to do lap dances, but that’s all. Seary works exclusively for him, modeling his promotions and events, but my main job and money maker is dancing as Surreal."

  "Who are the celebrities you dance?"

  "I've done Beyoncé, of course, Madonna, Rihanna, Katy, Christina, Britney, J. Lo, even Miley. If the video is hot and popular, I learn it and perform it. It is an easy deception because video's have costumes. I don a wig and we have great make-up artists. We do either a flash mob style performance where we are all in the crowd when we start, or we do a full stage production. It's always late in the evening so everyone is stoned, high or drunk. It only works because the celebrities bought into the idea. They'll stop by, do a quick appearance and boom, we are the talk of the town again. Miley has made an appearance since I've been gone, and Taylor Swift has agreed to do it too. Anyway, we never advertise the performances. It is always a hit or miss for the customers, which keeps them coming back. It's a win win for everyone. We pay the real stars a hefty royalty fee and Bart pays me a hefty performance fee." I look at him.

  "I’m sorry now I didn't hang out to see if the J-Lo show was you or her. What do you do to reveal the performer? "

  I laugh. "I come out in my Black & Blue Baby and do a killer performance on the pole. When you see it, you never forget it and you want to see it again."

  "Why?" He smiles and cuts his eyes at me.

  "Because I do a spectacular diving drop that makes the crowd gasp, and then an arching stretch that pushes my tits out the open heart which always gets a standing ovation."

  "Fuck! I'm really sorry now I missed it. I love your tits."

  I laugh. "We branded the Blue Heart logo as Surreal’s and we sell Blue Heart merchandise throughout Vegas. That’s the long story that goes with my little blue heart."

  "I'll be damned. I never would have guessed that. That's fucking brilliant business, right there."

  "It turned out to be. We sell a ton of merchandise. People want a piece of memorabilia and it’s so innocent they can take it anywhere."

  "What kind of items do you sell?"

  "We have pics and posters of me in various positions on the pole which Surreal autographed. We also sell t-shirts, glasses, cups, beer mugs, magnets, just about anything you can put a simple Blue Heart on."

  He laughs. "Like my coffee cup this morning."

  "Yep."

  "I'm impressed!" He looks in the side mirror, puts on the left blinker, and enters the turn lane of a red light. We sit there in silence as he maneuvers in the traffic. "So, I guess this means you are rich?"

  "Yes."

  "How rich?"

  "Almost filthy rich." I watch his reaction, but his face doesn't change. Most men would either become VERY romantic now, or they would become intimidated. No reaction. That's interesting.

  "That’s cool. Can I have an autographed poster and a t-shirt?"

  "Yes." I laugh. "You can have both and your very own coffee mug."

  "Can I have a private lap dance and private pole dance?"

  "Affirmative." I wink at him. "You can have everything, any time you want."

  "I like that deal." He pulls into the turn lane of a mini storage facility. "We have to make a stop here before we head out."

  We drive down to a 4 stall building in the back. He gets out and walks in front of the truck. He opens my door. "I know you want to see what's inside. Come on and look."

  I follow him, teasing. "I do. What treasures of Aurelius Moore, my Fucking Golden God, lie hidden in the depths of the mini storage unit?"

  When he rolls the big door up, I gasp. Wow! Look at all the goodies. All the big boy toys! Inside is wall to wall, neat, clean, and organized … everything. From a Skeeter FX bass boat with a Yamaha 250 motor and all the latest electronics, to water skis and knee boards, to every tool you can think of with saw horses, ladders, and huge tool boxes lining the walls, plus hanging from the ceiling is a unicycle, a couple of bicycles, fishing rods and a saddle. I'm flabbergasted. "WOW! This is incredible! I feel like I walked into a page of an 'eye spy' book."

  He grins at me as he takes the saddle down. "I've got a few fun secrets." On his way back out, he picks up a cowboy hat hanging by the door and dons it.

  "I'll say!" I follow him back to the truck.

  My beautiful Golden God looks as good as a Cowboy as he does a Flyboy, and the thunderous Son of Thor. There aren't a lot of men who can pull those looks off and be believable doing it. He's a fucking fine feast!

  He throws the saddle over the tailgate and comes around to open the door for me.

  Chapter Eighteen

  We stop at the exit waiting to pull on the road. I stare straight ahead as my mind catalogs everything I saw in the unit and what that says about who he is and what he likes to do. He turns to look at me and I automatically respond, turning to face him. His expression is expectant which makes me smile and I reach to take his arm in my hand. He smiles when I squeeze his bicep. It is so nice! I look up at him again and he has the same expression. Then it dawns on me. Oh! Co-pilot duties! I turn to look at the traffic. "Clear right."

  He pulls on the highway and heads south out of town. "Ok, let's hear about the cock and tail sex party."

  I squeeze his arm. "What about it?"

  "I want to know what happened."

  "I took control and everyone left happy."

  He frowns. "
I want to know how you took control and made everyone happy."

  "Why?"

  "Because I’m curious to know the ins and outs of what my girl does in a more intimate setting than the club at Been Jammin’."

  "Oh." I grin, my girl, then frown with a smirk. "Exactly how much of the ins and outs do you want to know? How much detail?"

  "I know what erotic entertainment is. I know it is graphic."

  "So you want graphic?"

  "I want the simple truth. Don’t sugarcoat it, but don't hold back either. I want it straight line, not curved."

  I raise my eyebrows. "You’ll be shocked."

  He laughs. "Shocked? I doubt it. I get what you do."

  "I'll bet money on it." I tell him confidently. "Shock and awe is my specialty."

  He raises his eyebrows. "I'll take that bet, but I would rather wager something more fun."

  "I do like the way you think! What?"

  "How about if I win, you go on a date of my choosing, and if you win, I go on a date of your choosing."

  "Deal! What is your date choice?"

  "Bass fishing, and you have to take your own fish off the hook."

  "Eew!" I squeal, teasing him.

  He chuckles. "What's your choice?"

  "If I win, you will go with me to a Karaoke bar and you have to sing a song."

  "Ah shit! Not karaoke! Anything but that!"

  I giggle. "Oh yeah, that!"

  "Deal, but only because I'm confident I'm going to win. It takes a lot to shock me."

  I peck his shoulder. "Sealed with a kiss."

  He chuckles, leans over and puckers up. "Lips, Wild Thang!"

  I lean between him and the steering wheel, pucker up and give him a quick peck on his soft, moist, deliciousness. The warmth goes straight from his lips to my heart.

  His arm pulls me into his lap and he says. "Let me set the cruise control and you can stay right here."

  "Umm. You smell good." I inhale deeply.

  He positions me so he can hold me with one hand and steer with the other. "OK. What happened last night?"

  "Before I get into the ins and outs, you must understand one thing about me. Rule #1, no touching, is a hard limit. I’m always in control or I don't perform. Last night was no different. I could have left the cocktail party, but I chose to stay."