I burned with an insane need to have him deeper. His hands played with my hair, lips brushing my temple as he whispered to me. “Feel me stretching you out?” he asked, filling me to the brim. “You’re milking the hell out of me, Harper. Your pussy is fucking astounding.”
And there it was; he’d gone so deep he was having sex with my brain.
Closing my eyes, I moaned as a hot spike of tension rocked down and made me squeeze his cock harder. I was right there, on the edge as my body vibrated between his seeking fingers and thrusting shaft.
His breathing went raspy. “Your moans are almost as good as your singing.”
My singing? How could he… Blanking out as I came, I saw purple and glitter and the whole damn milky way. “I’m coming,” I sobbed. “Fuck, I’m…”
“Me too,” he hissed, embracing me as if I could escape him during my convulsions. Through the condom he twitched, expanding bigger; his orgasm was a second behind mine.
This stranger cradled me against him as we languished in a pleasure that I knew, for me, had been absent for years. But what about him? Did he go to clubs and screw strippers often? The idea was enough to cool me; I found my eyesight, my clarity beneath my bitter suspicion.
Carefully I pulled my body off of his. He chuckled, the noise rich and satisfying. “That was amazing.”
My lips pressed up into an uncontrollable smile. “I’m glad.” I wanted to say That was beyond stellar! Best of the year, of the decade! But I said no such things and instead straightened out my bikini bottoms.
Jack eyeballed me, not moving from his seat. Then he peeled the condom off, knotting the top. “We should hide this.”
“It’s fine, there’s a garbage can behind the chair. Toss it there.”
His eyebrows furrowed drastically. “Guess your boss really doesn’t care what you girls do.”
I stood up taller, trying to gauge his new tone. “If he gets his cut, he’s happy.”
Violently, he threw the condom into the can and turned to face me. His eyes reminded me of the center of a volcano. I waited for him to burn me into ash. “How could you work for a man like him?”
“Maybe I like working for him,” I said quickly, not wanting to go down this road.
“Please. You’re better than this.”
I was wrong; he wasn’t a strip club regular, he was a wannabe white knight. That was almost worse. “How would you even know that?”
He didn’t flinch as he said, “Because I’ve heard your beautiful voice.” If there was any hesitation in his eyes, it vanished as he looked me over with renewed determination. “I’ve heard you sing before.”
“When?” Feeling exposed, I circled my arms over my chest. “The last time I sang was over seven years ago.”
He stood up from the chair, his jeans still undone—why had I gone so far? “It was long ago, yes, but I’ll never forget that night. You’ve got music in your veins, Harper. You could shake the world, bring it to its knees.” His warm hands clasped my shoulders, then cupped my jaw like we were old friends—older lovers. “A voice like yours belongs on a stage.”
“I’ve got a stage,” I whispered. Shrugging him off of me, I backed up until the curtains hiding us from the rest of the club tickled my spine. “I belong up there on the pole with the other forgotten girls.” I don’t want to sing. Never again.
Jack stayed where he was. He was vibrating with a barely controlled energy; a single drop of sweat, a reminder of our bodies’ heat, rolled down his chest. He breathed in thickly; I had to resist reaching out to touch his massive muscles. “I can tell when someone is hiding. I’m familiar with that world.”
“Fine,” I said, scooping my top up, rushing to tie it on. “Use your familiarity to recognize it’s not your business if I’m hiding or not. Stay out of my life. You don’t know me, Jack. And you shouldn’t want to.”
His voice was somber. “It’s not the knowing that’s the problem. It’s the forgetting.”
We faced off, both hiding secrets and, perhaps, wondering if revealing them would make the static energy in the air worse. A knock came on the wood outside the booth. “Harper?” a girl asked sweetly. “It’s Sensual, you almost done in there? Maurice said you only had fifteen minutes and it’s been twenty, so…”
Jack moved around me. He didn’t look back, not once, as he opened the curtain. He stared straight ahead as he handed me a stack of money from his wallet. “We’re done in here,” he said to Sensual and the man beside her. “All yours.”
The other customer peered at me, probably smelling the tang of sweat in the booth. I felt bad that I’d set Sensual up for trouble; this guy definitely assumed he was about to get some stripper-vag action.
The dancer was squinting at me with a half-smile. “Girl,” she whispered, “You okay?”
“Yeah. Yeah, all good.” Running my hands through my hair, I stared around the club. Jack was gone, lost in the crowd, maybe even out the front door by now. All I had was the stack of bills he’d given me for the dance.
It was the first time I wished I hadn’t been paid.
The stairs rocked under me—I could have been on a ship at sea. Jack knew me when I used to sing. He remembered me. That part of my past was a wound so raw and open, any mention of it was pure salt and vinegar in my cells. Jack had taken me high only to drop me so hard I was shattered through my middle.
In my hand, the money was heavy.
Forget him. Who cares if he knew you. He’s just a guy who got a dance… way more than a dance. If he wants to storm off, acting like a child, fine. Everything was fine.
It had to be.
“Harper?”
Mister Big was standing along the edge of the hallway, blocking me from the stairwell that led to the girls’ dressing room. He looked at me closely. When he focused on the cash in my hand, I slid my arm behind my back on reflex. His smile was sickening. “Nice haul, all that for one dance?”
I was confused until I lifted the money back into view. Jack was supposed to pay me a hundred bucks, but this was more; way more. Five hundred damn dollars? Blinking, I offered my boss a quick shrug. “He… really liked me.”
“Well,” Callum chuckled, leaning in close. We weren’t alone, but I felt like I might as well have been. No one would interrupt this man… no one was that stupid. “You’re a beautiful girl. Any man would fall for you, if you gave them a chance. Your mother had that same natural gift.” He stroked my cheek; I pulled away, not hiding the disgust on my face.
This was why I avoided him. I couldn’t fake niceness when he pressed me.
The next time he spoke, he was seething. “Hate me all you like, but I should remind you that the only reason you and your sister are together is because of me.”
I didn’t need him to remind me of anything. “Did you want something, or can I go?”
He adjusted his black jacket, looking over my head, then back to me. “Give me my cut of your dance money, then you can go back to work.”
Not arguing, I peeled off his share of the cost; twenty bucks.
His fingers curled in his open palm. “No, dear. Twenty percent would be one hundred dollars.”
I recoiled, gripping the cash tight. “But I did one private dance!”
“And you were paid five hundred for that. I still get twenty percent, Harper. Understand?”
Furious at his attempt to bully me, I debated my options. It was a waste of time; as long as I insisted on staying in Cena’s life, I had to obey Callum’s rules. Curling my lips over my teeth, I slapped the money into his hand. “Fine. Here, now can I go?”
Shoving the bills into his jacket’s inner pocket, he nodded. “Yes. Get back out there,” he mumbled, strolling around me. “And don’t do anything stupid.”
He didn’t know it was too late.
I mean, I’d already screwed Jack.
How much stupider could I get?
Chapter Four
Jack
After years of plotting my revenge, I’d made
my first mistake.
My grim face looked back at me in my car’s mirror. Red veins slithered through the edges of my eyeballs—reminding me how little I’d slept. After leaving the Golden Goose, I’d driven around for hours, trying to shake Harper from my brain.
It was a pointless effort.
I shouldn’t have spoken to her. That much was obvious, but I’d never been great at ignoring people in trouble. I’d thought she was just another dancer. Then I’d heard her humming… and that sound had burrowed into my memory. Suddenly I was back on that alley ground. Suddenly, the angel who’d shown me mercy was hovering over my broken body.
I couldn’t have predicted that I’d find her again.
Least of all, I wouldn’t have guessed she’d be in that filthy club.
She belonged on a stage meant for goddesses. Instead, she spent her nights twirling around a greasy metal pole for the lowest scum around. You’re no better, I reprimanded myself. You bought her body the same as the rest.
Harper had smelled like a sweet dream and tasted like glory. She’d reminded me of who I’d been before years on the street had hardened me.
That girl… my past… none of it belonged to me any longer. I had a mission. My second chance was all about revenge. I reminded myself of that as I scanned the sidewalk outside of my car, watching the condo for signs of my target.
If I did this right, I wouldn’t need to go back to the Golden Goose. I wouldn’t see Harper again. I’d make Mister Big pay. Then my conscience would be clear.
Thinking of the look on that man’s face when I ruined his world had my heart racing. Squeezing the steering wheel, I squinted at the condo doors. They were glass but the morning sun was reflecting in such a way you couldn’t see inside.
Movement; the doorman in his coat stepped aside to let a small girl out into the sunlight. Cena was tall for eight years old, her hair in a short bowl-cut that enhanced her round face. Cute. Sweet.
Would she cry when I kidnapped her?
“Slow down,” Harper laughed, chasing Cena out onto the sidewalk. The sight of the woman I’d screwed under black lights just last night filled my lungs with cement. She was wearing plain jeans and a loose pink sweater, her hair that had tickled my bare shoulders thrown up in a loose bun.
She was more beautiful than ever.
Why the fuck was she here with Cena Blunderbore?
Leaning back in the car, paranoid she’d see me, I ran through all the options in my head. I’d witnessed Harper entering the condo a few times since I’d been scouting the building. My guess was that she was screwing her boss, a fact that turned my insides into sour-mash once I’d realized who she was.
Mister Big had everything; even things he didn’t know belonged to me.
Sitting there, I watched Harper as she scooped up Cena’s hand and guided her down the street. The young girl attended an elementary school nearby. Normally, she walked alone. What had changed about today? Whatever it was, it was messing my plan up.
They were at the corner across from me when I made a snap decision.
Pushing my car door open, I stepped out, shielding my eyes from the early sun. Act natural. No one knows what you were going to do. “Hey!” I called, waving, dodging through the light traffic and over the double yellow lines.
Harper’s eyes went so wide I expected them to fall to the ground.
Good. We both got to enjoy some shock today.
As I grew closer, I noticed Harper had her hands clasped on Cena’s shoulders. They were closer than I suspected, which meant her and Mister Big were close, too. She had hinted last night that he’d never fire her.
He’s her sugar daddy. The realization made it hard for me to fake a smile. “Hi,” I said. “Funny running into you.”
“Funny?” she asked, arching one eyebrow. “That’s not the word I’d pick. What are you doing here?”
Before I could answer, Cena broke away from Harper, standing on her tip-toes to look closely at me. “I’ve never seen you before! Are you Hap’s secret boyfriend or something?”
Harper’s cheeks burned red. I fought down my urge to reach out and test how hot they felt. Crouching down so I was face to face with Cena, I whispered loud enough for Harper to hear. “You mean she didn’t tell you? That’s not very nice of her.”
“No!” she agreed, glaring playfully up at the older woman. “It’s not! Hap, why’d you keep him a secret? It’s not like he’s an ugly troll or something.”
Laughing heartily, I reconsidered Cena. “That’s nice of you to say.”
“I have good taste,” she chirped. “Are you walking your kids to school?”
That question threw me off, and I caught Harper grinning behind her hand. She liked seeing me on off footing… but that made two of us. “No kids for me yet, maybe one day.”
“Well, Hap doesn’t have any babies either, so maybe—”
“Cena!” Harper grimaced, lightly nudging the girl along the sidewalk. “Let’s get going.”
Grabbing my belly, I followed close by. “I’ll walk with you.”
“No,” she said softly, “You won’t. We’re safe.”
“But Hap! He can help keep us safe! Want to be our knight, Sir…?”
“Jack,” I chuckled. “I’ll be Sir Jack. It’s an honor to guard you.”
Cena beamed, but Harper looked unimpressed. The small girl was almost skipping around us both as we walked. “Sir Jack,” she asked, giggling, “Did you bring anything for Hap? Good guys always bring things to pretty girls, like flowers, or fancy cars.”
“Would you like those things?” I asked, talking to Cena, though I was watching Harper with a wry smile.
Shaking her blonde bob of hair, she said quite matter-of-factly, “Nope! I want a ride to the moon!”
At my blank expression, Harper shrugged one shoulder. “She loves space. Wants to be an astronaut someday.”
“I can’t take you to space,” I said to Cena, sighing. “Does that make me a bad man?”
She stopped on a dime, peering up at me with her nose all scrunched. “You only look a little like a bad man. Kind of like James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause.”
Harper didn’t bite back her laugh that time. The longer we walked, the more she seemed to relax. “Cena adores old movies.”
“Okay, we’re here!” Cena squealed, hugging Harper tight. She waved at me frantically. “Bring me to space next time! Bye, bye! See you later!”
“So,” I said, watching Cena jog into the school building, “Your boss pay you extra to play babysitter, or is that just written in the fine details of your contract?”
Instead of answering me, she snatched my forearm, digging her nails in. “What the hell are you up to?” she hissed.
I laughed uneasily. “Good grip you have there.”
“I’m not joking around.” Her grip didn’t loosen; she rose up, speaking an inch away from my mouth. “Why were you waiting for me in your car?” A flash of something passed across her wild expression. “If you’re being paid to make sure I don’t run off with Cena, you can tell Callum I know better than that.”
Firmly, I grabbed her hand and pried her fingers off of me one by one. She didn’t fight back. “Now why would he think you’d do something like that?”
“Answer me: do you work for him?”
The suggestion curdled my guts. “He didn’t hire me to do shit.”
Harper searched my eyes for a long minute. Whatever she saw satisfied her, because she breathed in deep, hands hanging at her hips loosely. “Then why are you here? We had one dance, Jack. You shouldn’t be so hooked on me.”
Her suggestion hit too close to home. Grinning so wide my cheeks hurt, I rustled my hair. “Yeah, well, it was a really good dance.”
Harper laughed, the sound so clean I wanted to bottle it up and save it for my darker days. “I see what’s happening here. But just because you saved me from one stalker doesn’t give you a free pass to become one yourself.”
“Do you really think
I’m a creep?”
“It’s possible. The part of me that’s supposed to give off warning bells if someone is dangerous has never worked.”
“I believe it,” I said, following her as she started to walk back towards the condo. “I’m definitely a terrible person and you’ve clearly got the hots for me.” She covered her mouth to muffle her giggle. My ears ate up every sound she made, the vibrations swimming in my heart until it thrummed like a live wire. “I know I keep saying it, but your voice is beautiful.”
There was a hiccup in her pace. Harper shot me a furtive look, then stared straight ahead. “You said last night that you heard me perform. Where?”
Here it was—a direct question that would reveal our connection. Would she remember that night, and if she did, would that help or hurt my plans? “There was a place back in Sommersville, the Copper Tub. You performed that night… first and only time I heard you sing.”
She pulled up short. We were alone on the street, so it struck me as odd how she darted her eyes around before settling on me again. Why did any talk about her singing make her so edgy? “I hated that place. What were you doing there? That club was known for dirty deeds.”
I looked down my nose at her. “You’re right,” I whispered. “You can make an educated guess why I was there. Dirty business.”
We faced off; her, staring up at me with what I kept expecting to be disgust. Instead, her features softened, the edge of her ruby lips creating a curious smile. “Huh.”
“What’s up?”
“It’s just funny,” she said, half turning away from me. “You’re set on trying to make yourself sound awful. I don’t believe any of it.”
Unsure what to do with her observation, I followed at her side as she walked. “You said it yourself, you can’t read people.”
“Maybe,” she mused. We approached the condo, the doors reflecting our images back at us. In the glass, we were all stretched out and wobbly, our hands warping, almost touching in their imperfection. I loved it. “This is my stop,” she said, jerking her thumb at the building.
“Wait, you live here?”
Glamour Page 33
