by Tonya Brooks
Cathy had continued to bitch about Cyn's popularity until a handsome customer began flirting with her. After that she couldn't have cared less what the other waitress did. Thank God for that. The chick was really beginning to get on his nerves. Maybe if she got laid it would improve her mood.
Chapter Seven
Wednesday, May 28
"I don't like it, dammit," Matt growled jealously as he followed his wife out to the car.
"Matthew, you promised," Harley reminded him patiently.
"That was before I knew you were gonna be naked," he growled again as he opened the car door for her.
"I'm wearing a tank top and yoga pants," his wife protested as she slid into the front seat.
"Might as well be naked," he grumbled and closed the door to stalk around to the driver side.
Once he was in the car, she scooted across the seat and took his handsome face in her hands. "You haven't forgotten our deal, have you?"
Matt had agreed to let Harley teach the pole dancing class and when it was over, she was going to dance naked for him in their room. "I don't like other men watching you move that gorgeous body," he complained.
"They see it on the dance floor every weekend," she pointed out yet again.
Harley was an incredible dancer. She was completely uninhibited and it was as hot as hell. She'd also been an exotic dancer after their divorce and the knowledge still irritated the hell out of Matt. "Yeah, but then you're wrapped around me," he countered.
"And you're the man I'll be wrapped around tonight," she promised. "After the class is over."
Just the thought of it had him rock hard and ready. "You'd better make it a fast class," he warned and cranked the car.
~~~~~
It was Ladies Night and all of Cyn's tables were full by seven o'clock. A few of the men who didn't get seated in her section actually complained. That the woman was good at what she did was obvious, and she charmed every man in the place with her soft voice and flirtatious eyes.
A couple of the locals began to get a little more friendly than he liked, so John gave them a firm reminder to look, but not touch and they behaved themselves well enough after that. He'd been known to have quite a temper when crossed and they weren't willing to get kicked out and not be able to flirt with the sexy new waitress.
Cathy was so happy flirting with her new man, and too busy waiting on customers to complain that Cyn had the majority of the men in her section. John didn't know who the dude was, and he didn't care. He sent him a drink on the house as thanks for his waitresses change of attitude. He just hoped like hell it lasted. He also hoped the dude knew what he was getting in to. Cathy was a first class bitch after all.
Matt took a seat at the bar and it was obvious that he was in a piss poor mood. What man wouldn't be when his wife was going to be giving pole dancing lessons? They'd had a hell of a fight over it weeks ago, and he still didn't know how Harley had managed to convince him to let her do it. Now he was gonna have to sit here and watch a bunch of men eyeball fuck his wife while she wrapped that gorgeous body around a freakin' stripper pole.
Sonuvabitch!
"Hey, bro, ya wanna hang out in my office and watch TV?" John asked hopefully as he placed a beer in front of his brother.
"No."
"If you wanna head home, take my truck," he offered and fervently hoped the jealous ass would do it.
John wouldn't even let him change the oil in the damn truck and now he was offering to let him drive it? Matt narrowed his eyes and demanded, "You trying to get rid of me, little brother?"
"Hell, yeah," John admitted without a qualm. "Dude, you were just sitting here growling like a fuckin' bear. You're gonna scare my customers off."
"The customers who get to see my wife pole dance?" He growled, black as night eyes flashing dangerously. "They'd better be scared."
John sighed in resignation. He hoped like hell he hadn't rented all those damn portable poles for nothing. If he knew his brother, and he did, Matt would wind up hauling Harley out before the class was finished. Shit. Maybe he should have gone with line dancing instead.
~~~~~
Harley and the other women were dressed in exercise clothes to allow freedom of movement and when they assembled on the dance floor, an appreciative round of applause sounded from the audience. Some of the women giggled nervously and a few of them waved to the crowd of men watching them. Her husband sat at the bar with Brett and Luke and all three of them looked fit to kill.
She took the women through the basic steps of how to hold the pole and position yourself next to it and had each of them give it a try. Then they moved on to something simple, like how to step around the pole, which they did with ease. After that she demonstrated how to do a spin walk and their attempts were pretty good.
Feeling confident that the ladies were getting the hang of it, she moved on to showing them different types of spins. Forward, backward, knees up, knees down, and curling the body in on itself. The women were having a blast and the men were giving them a ton of encouragement with their clapping and cheering.
"Alright, let's try a few of your new moves with music," Harley suggested and looked over at the DJ booth. "You got us something with a beat, Alex?"
"Yeah, girl. I gotcha," he said and flashed that cocky as hell grin. This shit was badass. Pole dancing class was the best idea ever.
"Okay, I'm gonna show you how to put five moves together to start a dance," she explained. "Y'all ready?"
Everyone in the club was ready except for Matt. His entire body tightened into battle readiness. When the music started he decided that Alex was the first one that he was going to kill. Harley took up a position against the pole and began to spin and twirl to Shake That Ass For Me. The men were on their feet shouting and crowding around the dance floor.
"Dammit, Matt, don't!" John yelled and bounded over the bar, but it was too late. His brother hauled ass across the room with Brett and Luke hot on his heels.
Matt shoved through the crowd, plucked his wife off the pole in mid-spin and tossed her over his shoulder. His lethal expression opened up a path through the wide eyed women and the cheering men as he headed for the door. Harley smacked his firm ass with both hands as she laughingly protested, "Matthew, put me down!"
Luke and Brett followed suit with their own women and the whole place resounded with laughter. John dropped his face into his hands and groaned. So much for pole dancing lessons. Much to his surprise, the men started cheering again and he looked up to see what was going on. His eyes damn near popped out of his head. Cyn had mounted the pole and was working it like a pro.
Holy shit! It was the hottest goddamn thing he'd ever seen. Apparently the men agreed with him because they were going wild. Alex was standing up in the DJ booth whooping and hollering right along with them. He gnashed his teeth and felt a growl rising up in his throat. Maybe Matt wasn't such an ass after all, 'cause right now, John felt pretty damn lethal himself.
Next week they were switching to line dancing and that was all there was to it.
Chapter Eight
Thursday, May 29
The next day, the women all gathered at Speakeasy for lunch and Harley filled her sister-in-law in on what had happened the night before. "Oh, my God," Desi said when she was able to stop laughing. "I wish I'd seen that."
"I thought it was hilarious until Luke did the same damn thing," Easy admitted in exasperation.
"Brett threatened to handcuff me to the bed next week so I can't go back," Dizzy complained with a naughty smile. "I might let him."
"So what happened after we left?" Harley asked her niece after they all stopped laughing.
"I took over the class," Cyn said with a sheepish expression.
"You know how to pole dance?"
"Okay, don't freak out on me," she warned her aunts. "I waited tables at a strip club."
"Are you serious?"
"Oh my God!"
"Seriously?"
"You go girl!" The last
came from Easy who received the evil eye from her soon to be sisters-in-law. "What? She knows how to pole dance. This is great."
Which made absolutely no sense to Cyn as she hastened to assure her aunts, "All I did was wait tables, but some of the girls taught me how to use the warm up pole in the back. It was fun."
"Josie would have a fit if she knew," Desi pointed out.
"She'll never hear it from me," Harley vowed and shuddered at the thought of Cyn's mother ever finding out.
"Mum's the word," Dizzy agreed.
"Cyn, we're about to let you in on a little secret," Easy said and the gleam in her eye was positively wicked.
"It has to stay a secret," Harley insisted.
"Or our men would flip out," Desi confirmed.
"Sounds like my kind of secret," she readily agreed.
"We've got a little something cooked up to surprise Luke at the reception," Easy began and explained what they had in mind.
"Girl, I am in," she laughingly assured the bride-to-be.
"Thank God," Dizzy said in obvious relief. "You can take my place because I cook better than I dance." Since her cooking was inedible, that was saying a lot.
~~~~~
"I should kick your ass," Matt growled when his brother stopped by the garage to gas up his truck.
"I feel ya," John admitted. "No more pole dancing classes."
"Whose dumbass idea was it anyway?" He wanted to know.
"Alex thought it would drum up business," he confessed and at the time John had thought it was a great idea. Watching a room full of men eyeball fuck his woman had changed his mind real damn quick. Wait, what? His woman? Holy shit. When the hell had he started thinking of Cyn as his?
"Oh, his ass is mine," the older brother warned in an ominous tone. "Did you hear the shit he played for my wife to dance to?"
"It's played a lot in strip clubs," he admitted absently, his mind still trying to figure out why he was thinking of Cyn as his. The sound of his brother growling dragged him back into the conversation. "I'll deal with Alex, bro. Won't happen again."
"Damn right it won't," Matt agreed. That shit was done whether his wife liked it or not.
~~~~~
He had a packed house by eight o'clock and John knew it wasn't because of Karaoke Night. After that show she had put on last night, the place was filled with men who came to see Cyn. They could not keep their eyes off of her as she moved seductively through the tables. When one of the men pulled her into his lap, John bounded over the bar, ready to tear the guy apart.
By the time he reached the table, she had already handled the problem. A smiling Cyn chided the customer in such a teasing manner that he was embarrassed at his own behavior rather than angry at being rebuked and he promised not to do it again. She flashed John a smile, patted the customer on the shoulder and went off to the bar to collect his drink.
John was amazed at the way she could wrap a man around her fingers so easily, and he knew that he was no exception. Cyn was a walking wet dream with enough fire and sass to keep a man fascinated in and out of bed. The heat between them was already scorching and it just kept getting hotter. He was nowhere near done with his woman yet.
His woman.
The more he thought it, the better it sounded. Damn right he felt possessive of her. For the first time in his life, John had found a woman that he wasn't willing to share. One that he didn't want to walk away from. He wasn't sure what the hell that meant, but he for damn sure was gonna enjoy it while it lasted.
Chapter Nine
Friday, May 30
"Girl, you are a natural," Harley praised when the song ended and her niece finished the routine.
Cyn grabbed hold of the pole and pulled herself to her feet. She had noticed the stripper pole in her aunts bedroom when she had given her a tour of the house, but hadn't realized just how proficient Harley was at dancing until now. "Aunt Harley, have you ever danced professionally?"
"That's how I put myself through design school," she admitted with a mischievous grin. "Just don't tell your mom."
"You would have made a fortune at Apogee," she admitted.
Harley had heard of the club and her eyebrows rose in surprise. "Is that where you worked?"
"Yep," Cyn confirmed.
"Wow. The one I worked in was owned by an OMC and things got pretty wild at times," she admitted. "Nolie didn't put up with any shit though. She was one tough lady."
"Nolie?" Cyn asked in surprise. "You can't mean Nolie Porter."
"Yeah, you know her?"
"Holy effin' shit, Aunt Harley," Cyn exclaimed. "She owns Apogee. All of them."
"Holy effin' shit, is right," Harley agreed in amazement. "How the hell did she go from managing a dump like Bottom's Up to owning a string of exclusive clubs?"
"I heard rumors that she had a shady past, but never any details," she admitted.
"Well, she was married to one of the Heathens who owned the place," Harley explained.
"Isn't that the club that Luke belongs to?"
"Yeah, it is," Harley confessed. "The less Matthew knows about my days as a dancer, the happier he is. He would totally freak if he knew about the connection to the club."
"My lips are sealed," she promised and then thought to ask. "Hey, you don't think any of the Heathens in Luke's chapter might recognize you from back then, do you?"
"God I hope not," came the emphatic response. Matthew would go ballistic.
~~~~~
John finished a lap and looked up to see a pair of shiny black loafers on the pool deck. He grabbed hold of the edge and levered himself up and out of the water. "What's up, bro?"
Luke handed him a towel and jumped back before John shook his head and sprayed water all over his suit pants. Little brothers could be such a pain in the ass. "Is the band ready for Sunday?" He asked expectantly.
"Uh huh," was admitted as he stood and began to run the towel over his arms and chest.
"You have everything you need?"
"The equipment is in the music room," John assured him. "Just gotta set it up and play."
"Good. That's good," Luke agreed and scrubbed a hand over the back of his neck. "Has, uh, Easy said anything to you?"
"'Bout what?" John asked as he slung the towel around his neck.
"The reception," he said in exasperation.
"Yeah. She gave me the list of songs she wants us to play," he confirmed.
"Listen, kid, she's planning something and not knowing what is making me nervous as hell," Luke admitted. His fiancée was up to something and he knew it. She was acting awfully sneaky and it was making him nuts. He'd hoped his brother might have a clue.
"Dude, you're getting married. That's why you're freaking out," John joked.
The older brother studied him carefully before asking, "You're sure you don't know what she's planning?"
"Like I said, bro, I got the song list," he confessed. And a request that he'd been sworn to secrecy about, so he couldn't tell his brother. The women would have his balls if he ruined their fun. The less he knew about it, the better.
~~~~~
John decided that he was the luckiest sonuvabitch who ever lived. Cyn had literally rocked his world in the last seven days. The woman was everything he'd ever wanted in bed and more. She drove him to heights of ecstasy that he'd never known existed and left him more sated than he'd imagined possible. He was also exhausted, but damn it was worth it.
He walked over to the stand that held his electric and acoustic guitars and grabbed a banjo. Stepping up to the mic, he welcomed the crowd and started playing, She's Fine as he watched Cyn's every move. Oh, yeah. She was fine. So fine he couldn't get her out of his mind. So fine he had no intention of letting her out of his bed anytime soon.
When he realized that he had sung about hot women during the whole set, John shook his head in amazement. The woman had fried his brain and made him crazy. Without conscious thought, he went right into 50 Shades of Crazy because it just seemed right. If this was c
razy then they could lock his ass away... as long as they locked her up with him.
"This is for my woman, Cyn," he informed the crowd and saw her shocked expression.
~~~~~
“Your woman?” Cyn asked with an arched eyebrow as the band took seats around their table after the set was over.
Sprawled comfortably in his chair, John flashed her that lethal bad boy grin and nodded, “Damn straight. My woman.”
She laughed and shook her head. “Just sex, remember?”
Yeah, he remembered alright. But dammit, rules were made to be broken and the bad boy didn't like the rules any more. Cyn was his and he damn well wanted every man in the place to know it. “Look at it this way.” he said as he snagged her hips and pulled her astride his lap. “If they think you're mine, they won't hit on you.”
“So you're just trying to protect me.” Cyn surmised and draped her arms over his shoulders, pressing her breasts against his rock hard chest. She knew the excuse was bullshit and wasn't about to let him get away with it. Even if she did have to crush the warmth in her chest that the feeling gave her.
“Absolutely.” he readily agreed.
“Good,” she smiled wickedly and leaned closer to whisper against his lips, “Because I don't like possessive men.”
Ah, hell. That could be a problem. For the first time in his life, John was feeling possessive as hell. “I'm not possessive,” he denied because normally he wasn't. “But I am selfish. Not gonna share you, Cyn.”
“Not gonna share you either, tough guy,” she assured him and then howled in delight when Alex began to play one of her favorite songs from the DJ booth. It was time to teach this bad boy a lesson.
No one was more shocked than John when Cyn hit her feet and began to give him a lap dance to the beat of Bad Girlfriend. Holy shit! The way she moved that gorgeous body assured him that she'd learned a hell of a lot working in that strip club. He'd never experienced anything as erotic in his life, and after having some seriously wild sex with her, that was saying a lot.
