“You know that’s going to be pretty damn hard when I have to work with her every day.”

“You know what the fuck I’m talking about,” I gritted out.

The smart ass had the audacity to smile at me.

“Well, Jett Colby, are you falling in love?” There was a bit of a sneer to Kace’s voice, letting me know he was in one of his moods.

“Just leave her the fuck alone. I don’t trust you.”

“You don’t trust me in what way? To make sure you don’t act like an ass and help you see that perfection is standing right in front of you? To make sure Lo doesn’t walk out on your ass because you’re a moron? Or to make sure she is protected when you’re not watching?”

“I know you like her,” I said like a child. “I don’t share and never will.”

“Yeah, that’s old news. I get that.”

“Then just stay away.”

“I am dickhead. She is the one who keeps approaching me.”

From that announcement, my teeth grinded together.

“Don’t worry though, she has eyes only for you,” Kace said while picking at something on his pants.

“As she should.”

Kace looked up at me and stared into my eyes. “She’s too good for you. You’re a controlling prick with a black heart who can’t give her what she needs. You might be able to keep her happy now but she will need more. She always will need more from you, Jett.”

Pain ripped through my gut as I thought about how right Kace really was. Goldie was special, a bright light in my dark day that I believed my mom brought to me and to know that I wasn’t good enough for her was damaging.

“I know,” I said while getting out of my chair. “But I’m going to do whatever it takes to keep her so get that through your thick skull. Stop waiting around for her and move the fuck along.”

Kace stood up too and walked toward my door. “I hope you’re right.”

I didn’t respond, I just let Kace walk back down to the Toulouse Room.

I turned to my monitors and watched the girls practice some more. Goldie was such a natural and she got along so well with the girls, she was the perfect fit for the club. She brought a new, revitalized energy that we needed, that I fucking needed.

I sat on my desk and looked at a picture of my mom that I had framed. It was from when she was ill but she still was a beautiful woman. Her face was the same shape as mine and her smile was bright even though you could see in the photo that she was in pain.

“Did you bring her to me, Mom?” I asked as I stared at the picture. “Is this your way of helping me move on? Did you choose Goldie for me?”

I would give anything for my mom to be alive, giving me advice on how to handle my feelings. She would know exactly what to say. Instead, I had an irritable ex-boxer with the hormones of a pre-pubescent teenage girl and a flamboyant assistant trying to guide me.

Jesus, I was so fucked.

Chapter Seventeen

“You Make Me Feel…”

Lo

“I need some more body glide,” I called out as my inner thighs got stuck on the pole. “Oh fucking hell, my pussy is about to rip off.”

“Drop off the pole,” Pepper said as she came up to me with some more body glide.

“It’s too late, there’s no use in saving them,” I replied as I released the pole and tumbled to the ground. I gripped my thighs and started rocking back and forth.

“You’re such a drama queen,” Pepper said as she spread my thighs and started rubbing body glide on them.

Placing my hand over my eyes, I said, “I can’t look. How bad are they?”

“They’re barely red,” Pepper replied as she capped off the body glide.

“No way!” I looked down and was surprised to see that she was right. “What the hell? I could’ve sworn I left some skin on the pole.”

Pepper pinched my chin and said, “You have to toughen up, girl.” She then looked around and saw that the other girls were doing their own thing so she leaned in and said, “By the way, sorry about earlier. It was a drunken mistake that will never happen again. You can’t tell Jett.”

Here’s the thing, Jett and I said we would be open and honest with each other and I wanted to be open and honest with him but who was I really hurting if I kept this to myself? It wasn’t like she was cheating on Jett, because Jett was with me, therefore, it didn’t really matter, right?

With the look on Pepper’s face, the pleading look, I decided that it would be okay if I kept this to myself. It wasn’t that big of a deal. It wasn’t like Jett was still fucking Pepper, at least he better not be or else the man was going to be plucking his dick out of his ear once I got done shoving it in there.

“Don’t sweat it, Pepper. Just tell me one thing, was it good?”

A smirk spread across Pepper’s face. “I think Jett and Kace went to the same school when it comes to dominating in the bedroom because holy shit was he hot.”

“I bet.”

“Shouldn’t you two be practicing?” Kace said, interrupting us and making us stand up straight, guilty as hell.

“Sorry,” Pepper said as she walked off to her pole and talked to the other girls.

Before she started the music again, I called out to Kace. “Kace, can I talk to you for a second?”

“Nope.” He took off to the back of the room, leaving without another word.

“Well, that was fucking rude,” I said under my breath as I got up and followed him.

I was just pulling back the curtain when his hand caught mine and said, “You don’t fucking listen, do you?”

“You don’t have to be rude, I just want to talk to you.”

He let the curtain fall and he pulled on the brim of his hat as he looked at me. He was hot, like so hot that I wanted to just see him in the shower one more time, just for old times’ sake.

“I told you I don’t want to talk, can’t you just leave it at that?”

“Not when you go and make confessions about—” I looked around and leaned forward, “—about loving me.”

“Get over it, Lo. I didn’t mean it.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“Then that’s your problem. Now get back on the pole and start practicing.”

“You’re infuriating!”

“And you’re a nescient so do us both a favor and leave.”

“Ughhhh!” I threw my arms up in the air and stomped away. There was no winning with him.

***

My body was sore, my thighs felt raw and my head was pounding from the constant beat of music that flowed through the Toulouse Room. Practice was rough and we didn’t end until well after dinner time. Kace showed a spark of humanity when he brought us all dinner in the middle of practice and made us take a break. Other than that, we were glued to the poles, working on our synchronization and making sure our timing was on spot with every beat of the music.

By the end of the night, we nailed the dance three times in a row and we were happy with the way everything turned out so we said goodnight and headed up to our respective rooms.

I opened my door and was hit by the dim flicker of light coming from my bathroom. Curious, I walked toward the flickering and found Jett, sitting on my counter, wearing a pair of blue jeans and a tight shirt surrounded by tea lights that were lit everywhere.

When he saw me, he hopped off the counter and walked toward me. He didn’t have anything on his feet which made him that much sexier. He grabbed the lapel of my shirt and started undoing the buttons.

“You’ve had a long, hard day, little one. I had plans for you and me tonight which consisted of you dancing for me and then me fucking you up against the pole in the Bourbon Room but after the hard work you put in today, I decided to save those plans for another night and take care of you.”

“What?” I asked breathlessly as he removed the shirt from my shoulders and let it drop to the ground. His eyes engulfed me, made heat crawl through my body.

His hands ran up my sides and went up to my face where he gripped my cheeks. “I want to take care of you, little one. Let me.”