“What are you doing?”

At Xavier’s words, I lifted my head from my phone and looked him over. He was wearing pinstriped navy blue pants with a periwinkle dress shirt tucked in. His hair was damp from his recent shower, curling around his collar. His attention was focused on his fingers closing the buttons at his cuffs.

I could look at this view every day for the rest of my life and never tire of it. He was quite simply magnificent.

Forcing myself to stop checking him out, I answered, “Changing your name in my phone.”

“Why?”

“So no one will know who I’m talking to.” I bent my head and my fingers flew over the keys on the screen.

We had decided not to give the girls any ammunition against me by putting our non-relationship out there for judgment and prying eyes. Xavier had also hinted that it was important for him to have no ties out on the streets. I wasn’t a hundred percent sure what that meant, but I had a vague idea.

“You think we’re going to talk a lot?” Amusement threaded his voice, and when I glanced up at him, his lips were tipped up ever so slightly.

“A bunch,” I announced with flourish. “All the time. I’m going to drive you crazy.”

At that, he threw his head back and roared with laughter. I sat on the bed, my mouth gaping in amazement, and watched the sight. I had heard him chuckle before, but never an uninhibited out-and-out laugh like that. When he sobered, he leaned on the bed with his fists on either side of my hips and placed a kiss on the tip of my nose. “You already do.”

I smiled at that. What could I say?

“So what did you name me?” He went on, his head dipping to my phone.

“Leo?”

His brows furrowed in confusion. “Why?”

“For Leo, you know, the Lion? It’s your astrological sign. And you let out a mighty roar like a lion when you come.” I giggled at the incredulous expression on his face.

“What am I going to do with you?” he muttered more to himself than to me.

His hands took mine and pulled me up from the bed. “I can think of a few things.”

Pulling me into his body, his hands ran down my back and gripped my ass, pressing me to him where I could very much feel the evidence that he knew exactly the things I had in mind.

“Nuh-uh.” I tsked and pulled his hands off my body. “I’ve got to go.”

Xavier’s growl followed me as I strutted out the door in my sexy dress and heels with a triumphant smile on my face.

A group of men had just come into The Den as I made my rounds around the room, offering different gentlemen a drink and flirting my ass off to increase my tips.

While Xavier and I hadn’t really gotten into the specifics of our non-relationship, I was going to honor his request and not take on any clients. Considering I had a plan, this change-up made me uneasy and I knew we were going to have to work out the details of our arrangement soon.

No way was I going to let a man derail my attempts at having a better life with my daughter. Even if that man was a walking, talking sex God who made my heart beat wildly and my pussy quiver with just a look.

Opting against my typical lingerie that night, I wore a pair of boy shorts that barely covered my ass cheeks along with a halter-style half shirt that stopped a few inches above my belly button and gave a glimpse of deep cleavage whenever I bent over. While it covered more skin than usual, it was a big hit with the men who enjoyed a woman keeping a little something to the imagination.

Xavier appreciated my change in wardrobe as well if the scorching looks he kept sending my way from where he sat at the bar were anything to go off of. I could feel his eyes on me the entire two hours he had been sitting there.

If anyone questioned why the boss was hanging out for so long, no one asked. Although Cherry did look rather engrossed with eye fucking him. I didn’t even bother to get annoyed with it. She was a stupid bitch if she thought he’d ever be into her.

I had to stop myself from going over to him. What I would do once I got there was a tossup—touching, tasting, talking or fucking, they all held their merits.

“A,” Daisy called out just as my foot hit the bottom step leading up to the platform where I was about to go dance for Xavier.

“What’s up?” I asked her when she joined me.

“The group of guys over there?” She pointed to the men who had just come in and I nodded. “The one with the blue shirt and the baby face is sixteen and get this... a virgin! His brother is paying for a bunch of us girls to initiate him into manhood. You want in?”

At the thought of sleeping with a minor, my lips curled in disgust. Even if I hadn’t promised Xavier, there was no way in hell I would ever stoop so low.

“His brother is like loaded. Any girl who participates gets a five-hundred-dollar bonus,” she went on as if I wasn’t ready to throw up on her six-inch stilettos. “He’s going to watch of course.”

Even better.

“Thanks, but no.” I couldn’t hide the disgust in my voice and she immediately looked taken aback by it.

“What crawled up your ass?”

“Sorry, but I find nothing appealing about taking that young boy’s innocence.” Okay, maybe I poured that on a bit thick, but it was still true.

“He’s practically an adult,” she scoffed. “He’ll be seventeen next week, which in case you were wondering is the legal age of consent. You go enjoy your pole—” she gestured to the stage “—and I’ll go enjoy mine. At least I’ll be making a few extra bucks doing it.”

She stormed away and I felt a little bad considering Daisy and I had formed a tentative friendship. One that I figured was now broken thanks to my disapproving judgment.

I tried dancing after that, but my heart just wasn’t in it. After informing Ghost I was taking a break, I made my way to the lounge area and plopped down on the couch, grateful none of the other girls were in there.

The reminder that most of them were servicing the virgin made my stomach turn.

I wasn’t sure why I was so opposed to it. Maybe it had something to do with all the young kids I saw in foster care who were in too much of a rush to grow up. Or maybe it was the fact that kids deserved to find themselves by fumbling around in a backseat with some girl or boy who’s more their age. Not twenty- and thirty-something women who had more experience than all the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders combined.

The door opened and I cracked my eye open to see who it was, my heart instantly lighter thanks to the sight of the dark-haired man who now knew every inch of my body.

“Hey,” I breathed.

“Hey. Your feet hurt?” He sat on the couch next to me and pulled my feet into his lap.

“No, why?” I moaned when he removed a shoe and began rubbing my foot.

“You stopped dancing abruptly and then disappeared. I was worried.”

God, he was sweet. I was afraid to point that out, though, in case he stopped the delicious pressure he was putting on the arch of my foot.

“I got into an argument with Daisy, so I’m sulking,” I explained.

His hands stilled their motion, so I wriggled my toes to get him to continue. “What kind of argument?”

“She asked me if I wanted to partake in the devirginizing ceremony.”

“And you said…”

“I said no of course. For one, you wouldn’t want me to, which we need to talk about, by the way, and for two, it’s gross. I’m twenty-four years old. I have no right being with a sixteen-year-old.”

His fingers resumed their work and his body relaxed. “Good.”

“Did you miss the part where I said we need to discuss my not taking on clients?”

“No.”

“Then why didn’t you say anything?”

“Because regardless of what we talk about the result is still going to be the same. You aren’t doing it. End of discussion.”