by Lena Fox
Then it was my turn for the ‘up close and personal’ show. I was giggling like a schoolgirl but managed to drag out a bill and slip it in the string around the man’s hips. I didn’t even see how much I gave him.
He spoke softly, just for the two of us to hear. “First time, darling?”
I bit my lip and giggled a little more.
“We’ll make it extra special for you, just wait.”
He winked and was off to the next woman, wads of cash creating a frilly fringe around his waist. He made it back onto the stage, did a couple more one-handed push-ups, cracked his whip again, and ran off.
From somewhere out of sight, the MC spoke up again. “We’ve got someone new for you all tonight. Introducing, for the first time, Jungle Jim! Ladies, wouldn’t you like to climb all over this Jungle Jim?”
The next guy swung in, Tarzan style, on a long rope painted green like a vine. Shouts almost tore the roof off the place.
I wasn’t sure if I was ready for another show already. The first had been fun, if a bit confronting. I slunk lower in my seat to obscure the bright red shade I knew had colored my face, hiding behind my beer glass. Have I completed the list item requirement yet? Can I go now? Kaley and Priya seemed to still be having fun, so I hunkered down.
Kaley poked me in the shoulder over and over. “Omigod, omigod, omigod!”
The women went totally nuts, and I peered up over the rim of my drink to see what was going on.
The new stripper’s body was familiar. He moved in a way that was—
It couldn’t be.
It was!
Blake. The new stripper was Blake. He wore nothing but a loincloth and a jaguar skin that was thrown over his shoulders where his caramel hair just reached, looking wild and tousled.
No. Way.
My mouth literally dropped open. I saw my expression mirrored in Kaley and Priya’s faces as they recognized him too.
“I am so jealous right now,” Priya yelled over the noise.
All the women around me were screaming and throwing money at Blake as he twirled down to the ground on the rope.
The last guy’s moves were mostly just hip grinding and workout moves, but Blake put his dancing skills to perfect use.
When he ripped the jaguar skin off his shoulders and flexed his back muscles, I stood up from my chair and hollered with the rest of them.
Blake caught sight of me and did a double take. He mouthed, “Wow,” and fanned his face. I scrunched my nose and played with the ends of my now very short hair.
With a wink, Blake tossed the fake animal fur in my direction. Some other women tried to intercept it, but it landed safe in my hands, still warm and smelling of Blake. I looked up at him and realized just how nervous he seemed. I couldn’t stop grinning and started egging him on with my calls like the other women.
He was as oiled up as the first man, and while he wasn’t as sculpted, Blake was way hotter in my eyes. He’d stepped up his dance moves since the cafeteria performance, and the money was flying. I could feel the flush of lust burning under my skin, shortening my breath.
Blake came off the stage and danced briefly for a half a dozen women. I tried to control my jealousy. He wasn’t mine. I had no right to be jealous. Finally, he came over to me, and I sat back in my chair, suddenly nervous too.
He paused for a moment as he looked me up and down. Then he grabbed the back of my seat and dragged it and me away from the table and out into an open area. A spotlight followed us across the floor.
My eyes popped wide with panic. I was about to become part of the show.
Blake knelt in front of my chair, spinning and dancing on his knees as he worshipped me from below. Then the music changed, becoming more aggressive, and he grabbed my knees, forced them apart, and jumped up onto the space of chair between them. I gasped as he stood up, swaying his hips close to my face so all I could see was him and that spotty loincloth. My lips quivered in fear, and a longing built deep in my belly.
Blake jumped off the chair, and with a strong shove at the backrest I was falling backwards, then caught by strong arms before I reached the floor. Blake had me around the waist and off the chair, lifting my whole body with ease up onto him, wrapping my legs around his waist as he pumped against me, still dancing. The whooping of the crowd around me overwhelmed the music, and the drumming of my racing heart.
I was dropped down onto my knees, and Blake grabbed a fistful of my cut hair, rolling his hips toward my face. I groaned and gasped, each change in position and action happening too fast for me to keep up as Blake play-acted having his way with me in front of a screaming crowd.
With an impressive handstand and flip, Blake was then behind me where I kneeled, and he bent me over, grinding against me from behind. My face flushed, but not in shame. I could only feel the drunkenness of my lust for him.
When I couldn’t take anymore, with a gentle lift and twirl, I was back in my seat.
My breath rattled hoarsely as I gazed up at Blake.
“What the fuck?” I mouthed, lust and laughter on my lips.
He bent toward me and I strained forward too, thinking he was going to kiss me, my whole body desperate for his. “Dressing room two,” he said.
I looked over every part of him. I had come here tonight determined to remain cold and distant to him, to keep the message about our relationship, or lack of one, clear. The desire swimming in his eyes was almost more than I could take. Every fiber of my being was telling me to give in, to leap on top of Blake and take his remaining clothes off with my teeth. I wanted to feel the hard ripple of his stomach under my fingers and the swell of his manhood between my legs. I wanted him more than any logic or sense could fight.
I noticed the fur that had been dropped on the ground when I became a prop in Blake’s show. I scooped it back up and held it close.
The song ended, and Blake jogged off stage to earsplitting applause.
I was halfway out of my seat already, then glanced back at Priya and Kaley. “Do you mind … if I …?” I was too breathless to talk.
They shared a look. Priya said, “Sure, but can we crash at yours tonight? It’s just closer than our place.”
I nodded without even thinking and mumbled where they could find the spare keys.
Kaley smacked my ass. “Go get that sexy man-flesh, girl. We’re good.”
A man in a cop uniform came on stage next, and as the rest of the women focused on him, I stood up, panting. My vision blurred with need, and I found my way backstage.
Was Blake a stripper? Had he always been one? Had he been lying about the roofing job to cover it up? Or had he done all this just for me? I was confused, but dressing room two would hopefully hold my answers.
I knocked on the door, my heart in my throat. I wasn’t sure if I’d ever been so nervous to see Blake, and I didn’t know why.
“Georgie?” Blake answered the door, still wearing just the flap of leather loincloth from his performance. I choked out a breath and stood staring at his body for all of a minute before my voice came back. That body. Yeah, that was probably why I was nervous. It made my knees turn to jelly and filled my chest with burning sparks of passion.
I still clung to the fake jaguar fur, so I handed it back to him. “What just happened out there? Was being part of a strip show on my list?”
A gorgeous expression of bashfulness came across Blake’s face. “Your list had a line that said you wanted to date Magic Mark.”
I stared at his lips as he spoke, the soft pink of them, the slight pout to his bottom lip, the light stubble beneath it. I barely registered his words. I was imagining those lips, all over my body.
“You’re not Magic Mark,” I mumbled.
“This was as close as I could get.” He shrugged. The curve between his shoulder and bicep glimmered with sweat and oil, and I remembered how it felt to sink my teeth into his skin there.
“We’re not dating,” I breathed the words out. Flames licked underneath my skin. We stood cl
oser together. Had I stepped closer? Had he?
His face moved near mine. His voice was a low rumble. “I really did try my hardes—”
Our bodies pressed together. I wrapped my arms around him, feeling the heat radiating off his bare skin, the slick of oil and sweat as I dug my fingers into his back. Blake let out a ragged groan and mashed his lips down onto mine. He reached behind me and slammed the dressing room door closed, then slammed me against it. Our hands were frantic, clutching fistfuls of each other, wrenching at clothing. Blake’s loincloth and G-string beneath tore away with ease, leaving him bare and hard between us. With a feral growl, he bent low, mashed his face into my cleavage, and popped the top buttons of my dress open with his teeth, letting my breasts fall free from their confinement. He kept his face there, wrapping his lips around mouthfuls of my soft flesh as though devouring me whole. My eyes rolled back, desire thrumming through me.
I could feel Blake’s hardness rubbing against my leg and I tried to reach for him, wanting to have him in my mouth again, sick with passion and knowing his body was my medicine. As I tried to move down, Blake caught me under the shoulders and lifted me off my feet, pressing my back against the door. In one swift move, he dropped to his knees himself, threw my thighs around his shoulders and pressed his face between them. My panties were still on but the friction they caused between my skin and his mouth only drove me crazier. Somewhere in the distance, a tiny voice called out, telling me to stop, that I shouldn’t be doing this. But it could have been calling from another planet for as much as I heard it over my frenzy of lust.
Blake’s lips and tongue took me to the edge of insanity, working me fast then slow, hard then soft. He brought his hands up, pulling away the fabric of my underwear and pressing his fingers into me, opening me, plunging in and massaging me from inside. Each thrust pushed me farther up the door and Blake followed until soon he was standing, holding me up high, pinned there in pleasure. I bit my tongue, trying not to scream in ecstasy.
The orgasm hit me so hard my vision blanked out completely. I just hung there, pressed against the door, held up on Blake’s shoulders, my mouth open wide, unable to make a move or sound as pleasure pulsed through me over and over.
As it ebbed and I started to slump, Blake lowered me down from his shoulders onto his lap, his cock sliding straight up into me as he did. I couldn’t hold back a sharp, high-pitched moan, the fullness of him inside me making my whole body shudder. We made love there, pressed against the door. I rocked against Blake’s lap for what felt like hours, and when he finally came I was right alongside him.
We collapsed onto the floor beside each other, and when we finally looked into each other’s eyes again, there were too many questions, and too much desire. So we said nothing, and made love on the floor again.
Chapter Ten
GEORGINA
I made it home in the early hours of the morning. Blake and I were only driven from each other’s arms by him running out of condoms, and the club management kicking us out. I had dressed quickly and fled as Blake collected his takings.
Last night had complicated things to no end. I couldn’t even be around Blake without giving in to desire. I wanted him too badly. I wanted to do the rest of my childhood list, to find out what else was on it. But I didn’t want to hurt Blake by continuing to mess with both our feelings. I wasn’t sure what to do next.
Blake was.
I had just tiptoed through the living room where Priya and Kaley were top-to-tailing on the couch. His message pinged into my phone before I stumbled into bed.
Blake: I love your new do. I’m taking you to the beach in the morning. Bright and early. Be ready.
My first thought was Sex on the Beach, one of the unfinished items on my sexy bucket list. But we weren’t doing that anymore. I’d put it behind me.
For now. A small ball of anxiety ticked deep inside me, a countdown urging me on to completion.
This beach trip had to be something else. I didn’t know what, since I’d been out to the lake a million times, and had even gone there with Blake.
I fell asleep while making excuses not to go—about how the beach at the lake was too rocky, the weather was declining, and summer was nearly over. The warmth had left the air and transferred into the leaves on the trees, changing their greens to sunset oranges and reds. They weren’t falling yet but they would be soon. And I’d already fallen too hard.
It was way too soon to be awake again, but someone kept banging at the front door.
The banging merged with the sound of rain hammering the roof and walls. I put my slippers on then stumbled out of my room, throwing a fluffy robe over the old T-shirt and cat-covered boxers I’d slept in. Priya shuffled out of the bathroom at the same time, looking like she’d been up all night too, but from uncomfortable sleeping arrangements rather than fucking a hot part-time stripper on a dressing room floor.
I got to the door and opened it.
I squinted out at the gray rain lashing down across my front porch and Blake.
He was dressed for the beach, in boardshorts, flip-flops, and a singlet top, and he even had a line of bright-yellow zinc across his nose. All of this, and he was already soaking wet. I eyed the motorbike on the lawn.
He rode over in this weather?
“You’re not ready?” he asked as a greeting. “Or is your bikini hidden under those adorable PJs?”
“I just woke up. I didn’t think we were still going. It’s freezing. And raining. A lot.” I frowned at the weather. I’d wanted to go to the beach with Blake more than I’d realized, despite my excuses.
“For one thing, I grew up in London. This isn’t cold. Secondly, we’re going no matter what. The water will still be warm enough to swim in, and the forecast looks promising. It will clear by the time we get there, trust me.”
“By the time we get where? Not the lake?” This rain was set in; it wouldn’t clear for hours at least. I’d been assuming we were going to the lake, but that was only a fifteen-minute drive away.
“I’m taking you to the ocean,” Blake said. “I’m doing this for you. No excuses.”
The ocean.
I’d never been. It was only a three-hour drive, but with the lake so close, and everything else complicating my life, I’d just never gone, despite always wanting to. I’d always wanted to swim in the sea. To watch real waves crash on the shore.
Screw the weather. I was going to the ocean.
“I’ll go get ready. But we’re taking Jiminy, not your bike. I’d prefer to drown at the beach, not on the way there.”
I invited Blake inside, and he spotted the twins and the blanket fort of a lounge room. “Had a sleepover last night?”
Priya chuckled. “We could have if you didn’t keep Georgie out so late.”
My face flushed, remembering the banging of the dressing room door as we slammed against it.
I bit my lip and handed Blake a towel to dry off. His soaked and clinging singlet wasn’t helping things at all. “Can we change up our plans a bit?”
I chatted with Blake about what we were doing, and we agreed to make it a group thing. I wasn’t sure I could trust myself alone with Blake anymore. And with more people it would feel less like a date. Blake sent a message to some friends, and I asked Kaley and Priya if they wanted to come.
I got working in the kitchen, making hot coffee for everyone and trying to dig up some lunch and snacks for us. A container of leftovers from Dad’s restaurant in the freezer had a mix of croquettes, meatballs, and truffle mini-quiches, which would defrost by lunchtime and be good cold. I scored when behind that I found a small batch of peanut butter balls I’d obviously forgotten about or they wouldn’t still be there. I filled a couple of bottles with water and grabbed some napkins and cutlery. I didn’t have a hamper so I put it all in an antique cooler I found under the sink that I’m pretty sure belonged to the old lady landlord.
Kaley floated into the kitchen like a cartoon character following her nose to the coffee pot
. We let the caffeine wake us up, then got dressed and headed out into the pouring rain.
Blake and I loaded everything into my car, and waved off Kaley and Priya, who were going in their car. I took the wheel. Mom, could you give us some help on the weather today?
I was still a bit shaky on the road. Cars just didn’t feel safe anymore, especially in the rain. But soon I barely noticed the drops splattering against the windscreen.
Blake seemed full of mischief today and sang along to the radio. Only he was singing different lyrics to each song, making them up as he went along, making them about me, or him, or lizards in top hats.
By the time he had finished perverting twenty minutes’ worth of the latest pop hits I was weak with laughter. “You should do that for a living.”
A ray of light had broken through the thick clouds, and hit the window beside Blake, making the edges of his golden hair glow. But his expression was dark.
His head dropped and his voice became low. “I did once. Not the silly stuff. But the songwriting.”
I swallowed hard. Acted casual. “Yeah?”
“Me and my first girl, we used to write songs together.” He looked out into the distance, then back to me. “You know Seyvia?”
I nodded. “I kind of already knew. That you had been with her. I wouldn’t have picked it myself, but Dad’s date at that dinner we had? She recognized you right away.”
Blake chuckled ruefully. “Here I was trying to keep all that from you. Don’t we suck at keeping secrets?”
I gulped again and focused on driving. “I know there are times when we’re just not ready to share the truth. I didn’t want to say anything until you were ready to tell me about it—about her.” I reached across the gap between us and put my hand on his leg. “I’m sorry you lost her.”
Blake grabbed my hand and squeezed it hard. “I didn’t just lose her. It was my fault.”
I tried to say no, it couldn’t have been, but he shook his head, words spilling out. “That night, I could see things getting out of control. I threatened Seyvia that if she didn’t stop and come home with me then, that I would leave her.” His voice cracked. “She didn’t even care.”
