by Vi Lily
There’s a lot of hooting and hollering as I make my way out to the middle of the big stage. The club is set up with one big center stage, then two smaller stages on each side with poles. I rarely use the poles; that’s a talent I haven’t yet mastered. It doesn’t matter; I get plenty of attention regardless of whether I have a pole between my legs or not.
I snort at that innuendo, made even funnier by the fact that I’m still a virgin. Probably the only virgin stripper in the world. I’m not hanging onto my cherry for any particular reason; there was just one guy I wanted to give it to, but that guy didn’t want it. Or me.
Shaking those thoughts away, I start my dance. I have two songs for my twelve-minute number and of course, I chose two Cher songs. Her voice is perfect for stripping, it’s so sultry. My body moves of its own accord.
Most of the other dancers have specific dances they do for each song on their list. Not me. I just go with the flow. Kind of like I did for Ms. Bennet. Except this time, everyone loves what I’m doing.
When my second song ends, I strut over to my tip bottle, which is a empty Jack Daniels bottle, and I’m shocked to see it’s full… of twenties and tens. And a few hundreds. Score! There must be a thousand bucks in there.
Just to be saucy, I do a stage bow to the crowd as I hold up the tips. That makes them roar even louder and I regret picking up the bottle so soon.
While I wait for my next set, in which I’ll be wearing a balloon costume that I’ll slowly pop à la Sally Rand, I put on a waitress uniform — my page boy blond wig, short black leather skirt, fishnet stockings and a really cute sleeveless white button-up — and head out to the floor.
The crowd is insane. I’m mildly groped a few times, but not enough to call a bouncer. One man does try to run his hand up my skirt and I sidestep away from him and block him with my tray. What I really want to do is whack him in the face with my tray, but that would mean instant firing, so I refrain.
Before I can give a bouncer the heads up to boot his gropey butt, some dude steps between us, hauls the guy up but the front of his shirt, then drags him over to where the bouncers are standing.
I shrug; some customers are douches, other are helpful.
After schlepping drinks for a few hours, I head to the back to get ready for my next number. This costume is tricky to get on and I’ll need a lot of help. The other dancers already offered their services.
“Where did you get this?” Delores, aka “Cheeky” thanks to her bodacious booty, asks as she attaches balloons to my chest. It’s kinda awkward to have a woman touching me like that, but frankly, I’d rather be touched by a female right now than those male customers out front.
“Ebay,” I tell her, totally lying. I actually made it myself, which isn’t saying much. It’s just a bodysuit that’s skin colored and three packages of balloons that I spent all afternoon blowing up with a hand pump. My arms are pretty tired.
“Ebony” laughs and pinches my butt. “Smart ass,” she mutters with a grin. All the dancers are older than me and have sort of taken me under their wing to teach me the ins and outs of the club. And Rutger watches over me like that big brother.
Once all my balloons are attached, I’m forced to stand at the back of the stage, waiting for my number. I can see the crowd from back there, even though they can’t see me, thanks to the stage lights. There’s a mob.
“A shower o’ savages,” Siobhan, aka “Lassie,” mumbles over my shoulder. She’s a gorgeous redhead with not a freckle to be seen, but she’s the whitest person I’ve ever seen. You would never find her in a snowstorm with her eyes closed.
I laugh at her Irish slang. She has a lot of funny phrases that make me laugh. She’s one of my favorite dancers, and the one closest to my age. She came over from “County Cork” as she says, “to attend Uni, but I had too much schoolin’ left at the end of the money.” Like me, she’s saving up to go back to school.
She’s also Rutger’s girlfriend. They’re an adorable couple.
“It’s a bit crowded, isn’t it?” I mutter as I survey the mob. I know that the club is very strict on the number of people they let in, but we have to be near capacity tonight. The auction must have drawn them, plus the Halloween party.
I can see that the men and women are “into their cups,” as Siobhan would say. The liquor is definitely lighting them up. I’m seeing dollar signs and hearing “cha-chings” as I think about my tips. One step closer to Plan B.
The crowd goes insane for my bubble dance and I decide that it’s something I’m going to have to do every Saturday. The tip bottle is overflowing by the time I collect it.
I don’t have to go back out on the floor this time, because there is only one more dance set before the auction starts, so I peel off my bubble body suit and change into my “auction outfit” — a sexy schoolgirl outfit that looks an awful lot like the one I wore at Athole Academy.
Because it is.
Most of my brother’s blood has been washed out of it, although there’s a small brown circle on the white blouse that’s hidden under the jacket. Rutger had wanted me to wear a slutty school girl costume, but I told him I had my own. It’s really slutty enough.
With thigh-high white stockings, coupled with the short skirt that would show butt cheeks if it weren’t for the under panty that went with it, I’m pretty sure that the Athole girl’s uniform was designed by some middle-aged perv.
Case in point: Rutger said it was even sexier than the schoolgirl outfit he’d purchased through a Hookers R Us website.
I feel strange wearing the thing again. Especially since the last time I did, it had been damp after I’d tried to wash my brother’s blood out of it in a gas station bathroom. The day Alex the Crusher Johansen had ripped that useless organ out of my heart and stomped it into about a billion and one pieces.
Tonight, I’m gonna rock the outfit for the auction, earn a bunch of money for the shelter and hold my head really high while doing so… and not think about the fact that I’m gonna have to date some weirdo at some point in the future.
I’m right in the middle of the girls being auctioned, which means I have to stand there while Rutger plays emcee and goes through four other girls. I’m shocked by the number of bids by the time it gets to me. Each girl has gotten at least five hundred bucks.
And that makes me seriously worry. I mean, how embarrassing if I only get a few dollars thrown my way.
Rutger opens the bidding on me with a hundred dollars. I think he’s shooting a little high, honestly and I’m shocked when someone immediately bids that. Then pandemonium breaks out and before I know it, the bids are up to nine hundred dollars. And I about faint.
But I stress about that more, because it means that the girls before me didn’t get as much and that now puts a very uncomfortable spotlight on me. This is a very bad idea and I’m gonna punch Rutger’s nuts when this is done.
The bidding goes on until we’re nearing fifteen hundred. I have no clue why I’m getting so much money, but I keep trying to focus on the fact that we’re supporting the shelter. That’s what’s important.
I’ll deal with the backlash later.
The bidding goes on for a while, resulting in bids close to two thousand and three fist fights which had to be broken up by the bouncers. I’m dumbfounded by the chaos that’s broken out in the club, but then a voice rings out, stilling the pandemonium.
“Fifty thousand.”
Chapter 11
Alex
A FTER ALL these months, he’d finally found her, and only thanks to a fight between him and Vato. One that he’d surprisingly won.
Alex was pretty sure Vato let him win. Why, had been the big question.
Until he found out that Vato had known where Ari was all along, but she’d sworn him to secrecy. That had made Alex want to beat the crap out of him all over again.
Vato explained how he’d found Ari walking toward Clemens, how she’d told him the story about what she’d done to her brother, and what she’d heard
Alex tell his mother.
Alex had been bewildered by that until Vato had told him what Ari had said exactly and Alex had been able to piece it together, and to figure out how she’d misunderstood what she’d heard.
Vato wouldn’t tell him where she was until Alex had given him proof that he’d been looking for her for months, and that he loved her. After that, the guy had tripped over himself trying to help.
They’d been in McLeod for two weeks searching and asking questions. So far, they hadn’t had any luck. Until the night that Vato asked the right question of the right person and that had led them to Bugsy’s Stripeasy.
The last place they would have looked.
Never in a million lifetimes would Alex have thought that Ari would be working as a stripper. He thought it was a lie that the man who claimed to be the dishwasher at Bugsy’s was spreading, about the incredible new stripper who had eyes the color of the foamy sea.
It killed him to think that she’d suffered so much, to be brought so low that she’d had to take such a horrible job. He’d wanted to find her, rescue her, run her back to Bearing and hide her away.
But then he’d seen her dance.
There had been a few times she’d mentioned how much she loved to dance. Alex had listened but dismissed it also as a child’s dream. But Ari hadn’t been joking, hadn’t been exaggerating, when she’d told him everyone thought she was a great dancer.
She was amazing.
Even though she was working as a stripper, anyone with half a brain cell could see that she had talent, that she was destined for greater things. But that wasn’t what drew the men — and some women — to her when she danced.
It was her innocence.
You could practically smell it on her, it was such a palpable thing. Alex wondered how she’d managed to hang onto that innocence after all she’d been through, most of which he couldn’t even imagine.
While he doubted she was still a virgin, he knew she wasn’t as jaded as the other strippers seemed to be. She was fresh, clean. The girl next door.
Except she was more stunning than any actress or runway model.
All Alex knew was that he had to talk to her. Needed to explain. To prove that everything she thought, all she’d heard, was a misunderstanding. He didn’t care what had happened since that day, the choices that she’d made. All he cared about was fixing it.
He needed her back in his life.
It wasn’t a want. It was a need. Without Ari, his life was even duller than before. He’d never realized how dim and dreary it was until Ari was no longer in it. When she left, everything had gone dark.
Surprisingly, his mom was onboard for whatever it took to get Ari back. She seemed to sense something in him that the little cinnamon haired girl had brought out, something that his mother liked seeing.
His brother’s death seemed to have caused some maternal instinct to click within his mother, making her want to finally show some love, some care, for her only remaining son. Alex wasn’t sure he liked her new attention, but he was tolerating it. Barely. Especially when his mom called or texted several times a day.
Alex and Vato had walked into that club, showing the fake i.d.s Vato had gotten them back in Clemens, and had found a table in the back. Thankfully, they’d gotten there early enough to even find a table, since the place had gotten packed quickly.
It was a snake pit. Full of snapping vipers.
A couple of dancers had come and gone from the stage, but Alex had barely spared them a glance. Vato had paid a lot of attention, though, which made Alex nearly smile. Nearly.
It wasn’t until the third dance, though, that he’d sat up and paid attention. Vato hadn’t even batted an eye at “Cher” on the stage, other than to mention how hot she was. Alex had wanted to put his fist through the guy’s face.
“It’s her,” he told him. “That’s Ari.”
“What?” Vato had exclaimed as he turned to pay more attention to the dancer on the stage. “She looks nothing like Ari!”
Alex had rolled his eyes at him. “That’s her,” he said with no argument possible in his voice. “I know that body like the back of my hand.”
That had shut Vato up, thankfully.
They’d watched Ari dance in silence until the second song for her set started.
“She’s amazing,” Vato breathed. That seemed to be the consensus of the entire club, judging by the silence during her performance that definitely wasn’t there during the other girls’ dances.
Alex just nodded in agreement. He couldn’t take his eyes off the girl on stage, the one he wasn’t lying about when he said he knew her body like the back of his hand. The body he knew how to light on fire, to make shiver and shake and shatter. And as his companion said, she was amazing.
Mesmerizing.
He’d given their waitress a twenty to put a couple hundreds in Ari’s tip jar. When her set was done, Alex let out the breath he felt like he’d been holding for the duration of her dance. And then he’d had to spend the next few hours watching her move among the tables, dancing away from grabbing hands that he’d wanted to break, smiling when he could tell she wanted to scream, and subtly giving a nod to the bouncers for those who got too far out of hand.
One guy got way too grabby for his liking and Alex had chanced Ari recognizing him when he’d grabbed the guy and dragged him over to the bouncers to deal with.
Thankfully, she wasn’t their waitress. Alex didn’t want to reveal himself just yet. He’d heard about the auction, of course. It was all anyone was talking about in the club, who was bidding how much on who. Everyone had their favorites, but nearly everyone wanted Ari. His Ari.
And Alex would be damned if he’d let them have her.
He’d had to suffer through her second dance that he’d found so erotic, he was afraid he was going to tip their table over thanks to his excitement. Another couple rolls of hundreds went into the jar after that.
By the time the auction rolled around, he’d sat on the edge of his chair, waiting for his chance to bid on the girl rocking the Athole Academy uniform, making it look far sexier than anyone ever had. Alex had almost laughed when the others started their bidding, offering ridiculously low sums for such an amazing beauty. They were morons.
Ari was worth so much more. As far as he was concerned, she was worth everything.
When he could stand it no more, couldn’t listen to the idiots trying to outbid each other any longer, he’d put up his bid, making sure to keep his voice low and southern accent-free. He didn’t want her recognizing him. Not yet.
“Fifty thousand,” a number no one challenged.
It was nothing. He would have given everything he had to win just an hour of Ari’s time, to at least explain himself.
And now he had a lot to give. Tom’d had enough of his father’s abuse and apparently had pulled a forty-five on him, shooting him in the head before turning the gun on himself. Alex had been sorry for Tom, that he’d been driven to such an extreme.
But the death had left Alex a very rich man. His father had left everything to Tom in his will, but Tom had no relatives and no will. That meant that the estate went to Edward Johansen’s relatives, which mean Alex and Alex only.
Overnight, Alex had become a multimillionaire.
It didn’t matter, though. All he cared about was getting Ari back. His hands were sweating, just knowing she was so close, close enough to grab and pull in for a tight hug. And his heart was pounding so hard, he thought he might just need to go to the hospital for coronary tests.
And then there was the area to the south, which was so hard that he was afraid he’d pass out from blood loss.
He needed to keep it together long enough to get through the rest of the night. Alex knew Ari would run again once she knew it was him who’d “won” her. It was for that reason that he intended to have his date with her tonight.
Alex filled out the forms with the manager who came to the table. He was a little surprised by the guy’s attitude
, like he wasn’t too happy that he’d paid so much money for Ari. And he’d made sure to tell him several times that “no sex is involved in the date, no matter how much was paid.”
It had made Alex want to punch the guy for insinuating that Ari could in any way be confused for a prostitute.
When he told the guy, who introduced himself as Rutger, that he wanted his “date” right away, he’d balked. Alex then explained who he was and surprisingly, Rutger told Alex that he’d heard all about him. Alex told his side of the story and then the guy for some reason was happy. Then Rutger told him that he’d known Ari since she was a little girl.
Then Alex asked him to send Ari out to the front of the club in twenty minutes. He had insisted that she stay in the Athole uniform, which had caused Rutger to raise an eyebrow. But he agreed to send her out.
Alex then called a ride service and told them to be in front of the club at the scheduled time, and described the clothes Ari would be wearing, and where to deliver her.
Vato had laughed at his plans, but had clapped him on the back and then left to find his own distraction for the evening.
Now he just had a short time to plan.
Epilogue
T HERE’S A CAR waiting for me when I leave the club, fuming. No, that’s not the right word. I’m pissed. Furious. Ticked off. Really angry.
I suppose I have no reason to be so mad. I mean, at least I’m going to get this stupid date over right away and won’t have to spend the next week or whatever dreading it. I just didn’t appreciate the way Rutger basically shoved me out the door with minimum instructions.
“The guy checked out, don’t worry. Just go out front.”
Great. Awesome. Wonderful information, thankyouverymuch.
The driver doesn’t have any information either, other than he’s supposed to take me to the Four Seasons, which is the nicest hotel in town. I hope this guy got the memo that there’s no sex on this date.
It’s too late for dinner; even the night owl places close after midnight, and it’s close to one now. I’m really hating this, not knowing who, what, where… and especially why. All I can hope is that this is just some really nice nerdy guy who just wanted to support the shelter and happened to pick me to dump the money on.
