by Abby Niles
“All the damn time. There’s this blonde hottie that gives one hell of a lap—”
It was like the entire world slowed. Mica’s words sounded distorted. Nothing made sense. His mind couldn’t catch up.
“What’s her name?” Jaxon asked through clenched teeth.
“Lorelei. Although her name doesn’t matter as much as that body.” Mica made an appreciative noise. He stepped closer, and lowered his voice. “Buddy, do yourself a favor and watch that woman’s pole show. Hot as hell. I’d pay good money to get at that pussy.”
Red rage filled every crevice of his being and before he knew what he was doing he threw a punch, landing it hard on his friend’s jaw. Mica’s head snapped back and he went sprawling across the polished marble floor. The music screeched to a halt. Everyone stopped and stared.
As he tried to calm himself, his chest heaved with the ragged breath he drew into his lungs. But he still wanted to rip his friend to shreds. All he could see was Madison in her black, leather dominatrix outfit, grinding on his friend’s lap. God, how many other people in his circle had she possibly given a lap dance to?
“What the fuck, Jaxon?” Mica yelled as he rubbed his jaw and sat up.
Eyes wide, Victoria stepped forward, gaze darting between Jaxon, Madison and Mica. She stared. Then her mouth popped open. A sputtered laugh shot out as she pressed her hand to her lips. “Oh my God.” She bent over, laughing harder. “Oh. This is too good.”
Mica pushed to his feet. “Enlighten me please.”
“That’s her, isn’t it?” She pointed to Madison, who seemed frozen to the spot. All the color had leached out of her skin, her entire body shaking. “That’s your hottie stripper.”
Mica turned his head toward Madison, and Jaxon stepped between them. Mica did a double take. “Holy shit. It is.”
The peals of laughter that came from Victoria were all kinds of nasty. “Jaxon. A stripper. Really? I didn’t think you had to pay for a woman’s company. You could’ve had mine for free.”
That shook Madison out of whatever stupor she’d been in. She stalked right past him, straight up to Victoria and slapped her across the face. The woman gasped and cradled her cheek in her palm.
“I am not a whore.” Then she stepped back and spread her arms out wide. “That’s right. Take a good look. I’m a stripper. I take my clothes off and dance for a buck. And anyone in this room who wants to judge me can fuck off.”
She spun on her heel and strode out of the room with her shoulders back, head held high.
And Jaxon had never been prouder of anyone in his life.
***
The tabloids were out the next day. Tacky headlines like, “Stripper Outed as Billionaire’s Mistress” and “Billionaire Shocked to Learn Girlfriend is Stripper” and her personal favorite, “Stripper Outed Before Securing Billionaire Husband”.
It was all over the Internet too.
Madison tossed her phone onto the couch and tried not to let the waterworks start up again. She’d done enough of that last night. She’d been able to keep it together until the elevator doors closed behind her after she’d left the ballroom. Then the sobs had wracked her body the entire ride down to the lobby.
She had never been so humiliated in her life.
Not once had she ever been ashamed of stripping…but having Jaxon hear his friend speak about her like that, having him realize that his friend was talking about her and what a great lap dance she gave and she had never even given him a lap dance…it had been so mortifying.
Then that bitch and the glee she had gotten from it all. The fact she had wanted everyone to know, had made sure everyone heard.
Madison tried to shake the memory out of her head, but it was branded there. The stares. The snickers. Jaxon and his rage. She feared those images would forever be imprinted in her mind.
So would Jaxon’s expression when he finally caught up with her outside and she told him she couldn’t do this anymore. There had been a sad acceptance to his features as he listened to her reasoning—she couldn’t be known as Jaxon’s stripper girlfriend. Couldn’t have people always whispering about her, about them. She’d never feel comfortable and he deserved to be with someone who could. He didn’t argue or get angry, he simply nodded, as if she was saying exactly what he’d been thinking all along.
Maybe he had been.
That had to have been humiliating for him too.
As soon as she had finished with her tirade, he’d fired her and offered her a month’s severance with full benefits.
Jaxon firing her hadn’t surprised her. There was no way she could continue working for him…and he’d known that. Instead of allowing her to quit, he’d beaten her to the punch and made sure she’d have income and insurance until she could find another job.
It made their parting all the much harder. After he took her home, she cried herself to sleep.
Thankfully, Racheal had the kids through the entire weekend. She didn’t want them to see her right now because she was a mess.
Her phone rang. She glanced down, then sat up straighter when she saw Adam’s name on the front.
She hadn’t heard from anyone at the club since he’d fired her. What could he possibly want?
“Hello?”
“So, I just got off the phone with that twat, Sutherland,” he said without preamble. “Said he fired you and you needed your old job back.”
She placed her hand over her heart and rubbed, trying to ease the pain hearing his name caused. “You talked to Jaxon?”
“That’s what I said.” He heaved a long sigh. “Boy, I read that fucking wrong. I’d never have fired you, Maddy, if I’d known it’d end like this.”
“What do you mean?”
“Men only freak out over three kinds of women getting naked like that. Their momma, their sisters or a woman they care about. Since you ain’t either of the first two, then I thought I was doing you a favor by firing you. I never thought you were working with him to destroy the club. I owe you an apology it seems.”
“Oh, you big-hearted old man,” she whispered. All Adam wanted for any of the girls was to find someone to share a life with. She never knew he would go so far as to try and play matchmaker though. “I miss your grumpy ass.”
“Yeah. Same here, girl.” He cleared his throat. “Listen, we have a special event going on tonight. I’m short a dancer. You wanna work?”
How she’d come full circle. There was a bittersweet feeling to it. As much as she loved working at the club, loved Adam and the girls, accepting this job meant she accepted that she and Jaxon were over. For good.
Closing her eyes, she went against her heart and said what her head knew was the truth. “Yes, I’ll work tonight.”
***
Madison strode into the dressing room and was immediately welcomed by a squealing Star. “Maddy! You’re back!”
The redheaded young woman dressed in camo booty shorts and matching bra enveloped her in a tight hug. Diamond and a few of the other girls crowded around her too, bombarding her with questions, about the kids, her job, and the mysterious billionaire. It seemed they had all read the tabloid stories.
Madison felt the stirrings of the first real smile since last night. God, she’d missed this place, missed these people.
After the commotion died down, she pointed to the back door. “Why did Adam have me come in the back?”
“Oh, that.” Star waved a dismissive hand. “He had all of us come in that way tonight. We’re not supposed to be seen by the people outside until the event starts. This place has been rented out by some guy for a big bachelor party or something.”
That was a first. Adam typically didn’t do things like that because he hated turning away the regulars.
“When is it supposed to start?”
“Any minute now, I think.”
As if on cue, the opening to Ginuwine’s ‘Pony’ filled the dressing room. Madison looked toward the ceiling and frowned at the music. That wasn’t the kind of
song they danced to. Then she noticed all the grins the girls were sending her. What the hell?
Not sure what they were grinning at, she looked behind her. Seeing nothing, she said, “What?”
They giggled. Giggled. They were acting so weird. Then she heard the screams—of lots of women. Like the kinds of screams you hear when a favorite musician starts singing your favorite song.
Even weirder. “What’s going on?”
Even more giggles.
“Come on.” Star looped her arm through hers and tugged her to the exit that led to the club.
“But I need to get ready.” She looked back toward her bag. All she had on was a pair of jean shorts and a black halter top. She wasn’t ready to do any work. Not that a bunch of women would care what she looked like anyway.
“You look fine.”
As she entered the club, the lights were low and a man was dancing on stage dressed in the same outfit Channing Tatum was dressed in when he did this performance in ‘Magic Mike’—oversized gray jogging pants, white wife-beater, red baseball cap and white tennis shoes.
“What the…why is there a man dancing?” Madison asked.
She was so fucking confused. Nothing about tonight was making sense. Adam didn’t run a male strip club. Or at least he hadn’t. The idea was completely laughable. To make it even more inconceivable the guy wasn’t even good. His movements were stiff. His pelvic thrusts were awkward at best.
Star tugged her to a few empty chairs right in front of the stage. As Madison sat in a seat directly in the middle, she felt really bad for the dancer. He was putting his all into the dance. From what she could tell, he needed more practice. A lot more.
As he tugged the shirt off, it got caught on the hat. He struggled for a moment, then finally freed it and whipped it over his head like a lasso. Oh this was just sad.
But the women around the stage didn’t seem to mind. They were screaming their heads off, tossing money on the stage. Not that he seemed to be trying to engage with the customers. He all but ignored them. Flashes were coming from the back of the room. She turned around and noticed a bunch of people with cameras.
Cameras were never allowed.
She jerked a thumb behind her. “What’s that about?”
“Newspapers,” Star whispered.
“What the hell? What’s Adam thinking?”
“The dancer requested it.” Then she impatiently motioned back toward the stage. “Would you pay attention? You’re being rude.”
Wow. Okay. Madison refaced the stage. The man had moved further down the stage and out of the shadows. Her heart stuttered a bit.
The fine blonde hairs on the man’s chest looked familiar.
As he stuffed the shirt down the front of the pants like Tatum had done and came closer to the front of the stage, her lungs ceased to function. He then dug the shirt out of his pants and tossed it right at her. She snatched it out of the air before it hit her in the face.
This couldn’t be happening. She had to be seeing things. There was no way that was Jaxon Sutherland on a stage.
Stripping.
As he stopped at the lip of the stage right in front of her, he squatted and rotated his hips in such an erotic way her mouth hung open.
Holy shit. Jaxon!
He stood, then turned so his back was to her.
Sitting up straighter, she knew what was coming next, but she couldn’t believe he’d go that far. Not with this many witnesses. No way.
But he did. He did a backflip right off the stage—somehow landing upright—then strode right over to her chair, put her legs over his shoulders and picked the chair off the floor. Shocked, she grabbed his head and squealed. He dropped the chair then grabbed her around the waist and hiked her higher until her crotch was right at his mouth.
She gasped as lust flooded through her body. It was so damn sexy to be manhandled by the man she loved.
Like the movie, he carried her to the stage, laid her on her back, then kept his face planted firmly in between her legs as he gyrated the lower part of his body.
He stood up then, tugged off the tennis shoes then reached for the hem of the pants.
She couldn’t let him go that far. Not with the newspapers here. He was trying to make a statement and he’d made one. He didn’t have to go any further.
She held up her hand. “Jaxon, stop. You’ve done enough.”
Without taking his eyes off hers, he tugged his pants to his ankles. Air whooshed out of her lungs and her body sizzled. Standing in nothing but the red cap and matching red G-string, he was magnificent.
He turned, and flexed his tanned ass muscles. That was enough.
He was all hers.
She was claiming him.
She would not deny him, or their love, ever again. To hell with anyone who tried to belittle her past or where she’d come from. Jaxon had just proven he didn’t give a fuck about any of it.
He moved to the top of her head then dropped to the floor right above her, his cock inches above her face and moved his body in a slow sensual wave. Then he moved down her body until his lips were positioned above hers, then he kissed her, slow, deep. Not caring there was a room full of people, because in the moment, it was just them.
“I love you, Madison,” he said.
She cupped his cheek in her palm, not afraid to say the words any longer. “I love you, too, Jaxon.”
“Now I’ll be the talk of the town, not you.”
With that, he stood and helped her to her feet. To the cheers of the crowds, they trotted off the stage and into the back room. She waited to see if anyone would follow.
“No one is going to bother us,” Jaxon said.
“How do you know?”
“Billionaire, remember?”
She laughed at that. “How did you get Adam to close the club on a Saturday?”
He scrubbed the back of his head. “I paid him a shitload and promised to leave him the fuck alone about trying to buy him out. The ‘fuck alone’ were his words.”
“Sounds like him.” She smiled. “Where’d the women come from?”
“The girls took care of that.”
She bet they did. Madison chuckled. “And the dance?”
“I’ve been here all day practicing. The routine was their idea, they thought it would be the easiest for me to learn since I could watch it.” He sent her a horrified look. “I watched that damn scene over and over again.”
She went over to him and kissed him on the lips. “I can’t believe you did all this for me.”
He wrapped his arms around her waist. “I needed to show you that your past doesn’t matter to me. When this all started, I made the stripping a big deal. So when last night happened, and I saw how embarrassed and hurt you were, I wasn’t going to try and convince you with words. I needed to show you. Now I’m a stripper, too.” Fear entered his eyes. “Tell me it was enough. Tell me I’m not going to lose you.”
“I believed you deserved someone who belonged in your circle. Last night was a reminder of how different we really are.”
“Fuck different. You’re good for me. You’ve shown me a simpler way of life.” He pressed his forehead to hers. “I love money. I love spending it. I love making it. I won’t lie about that. But, you’ve taught me that the best things in life don’t have a big price tag on them. They come from the love of a good woman and her two kids.”
Tears filled her eyes. Had anyone told her when she went to work for the insufferable Jaxon Sutherland that she would find the love of her life, a true partner in every sense of the word, she would have laughed. But she had. “I’m yours, Jaxon. I’m not going anywhere.”
“Thank God,” he whispered before claiming her lips in a soul-searing kiss. Only an hour ago she’d thought she’d never feel them against hers again. Now she had the man she loved back in her arms and she was never letting him go again.
As they broke apart, she played with the hair at the nape of his neck, becoming thoughtful about the future they w
ere going to have. “You’re going to teach me to relax and splurge some, aren’t you?”
“Hell yeah, I am. I can’t wait to spoil you a little.”
She smiled. What he didn’t realize was he already had. Anything else was just a bonus.
THE END
About The Author
Abby Niles is the author of the contemporary MMA series, Love to the Extreme, and the paranormal series, The Awakening. She is also the author to the geeky romantic comedy, Defying Convention, where Live Action Role Players (LARPers) set out to teach their favorite author a lesson, but end up playing matchmaker instead.
Abby lives in North Carolina with the love of her life and their combined gaggle of kids. When she’s not writing, she’s trying to catch up on an endless pile of laundry and find time to get some much needed reading in.
Also by Abby Niles
Amazon Links
EXTREME LOVE
FIGHTING LOVE
WINNING LOVE
HEALING LOVE
THE AWAKENING: AIDAN
THE AWAKENING: LIAM
THE AWAKENING: BRITTON
DEFYING CONVENTION
