Page 45 of Chase

“What can I get ya?” Her voice is raspy.

“Two tequila shots please.”

I down the shots, then have to do a double take when I see some familiar faces. The three girls from the beach are here. They glance my way, but mustn’t remember me. I guess they had their eyes on Chase the whole time. I now know why Chase was nervous. Not only is Aubrey here, but exactly how many of these girls has he slept with? His brothers too. I have a feeling that they share girls and don’t really care, which is why at the start, Chase didn’t trust them around me. Because normally I would have been fair game. Sleeping with his employees? Not very professional Mr. Jackson. And I know siblings are meant to share, but come on!

An older gentleman sits next to me, not even bothering to hiding his interest.

“Can I buy you a drink?”

I blink. “No, thank you.”

“A beautiful girl in a strip club, all alone. I think tonight is my lucky night.”

Umm, gross. “Sorry, but I’m not interested.”

I see Chase walk out and glance around frantically, he finally sees me and even from here, I can see he’s not happy. His movements are tense but quick as he walks up towards me, and glares at the man sitting next to me.

He leans closer to the man and says, “You must have a fucking death wish, sitting there, trying to hit on my woman.” Before the man can respond, and before I can protest that I’m not his girl, Chase signals one of his bouncers to come over. He grabs the man by his arm and drags him out.

Chase slides into the now vacated spot. “I’m pretty sure I told you to stay in the office.”

I shrug. “I hate this.” I whisper.

His face pales. “Baby, you wanted to come here, I thought..”

“I hate that you own this place. That you come here. That you probably hand-picked these girls,” I gesture to the girls working the pole, “and most of all I hate that I have shared you, with hell knows how many other women in this building right now. I hate that these girls, essentially these girls are yours.”

Chase’s voice is solemn when he responds. “It is what it is, Layla. These girls are well looked after, well cared for. No one can touch them, they are kept safe. I don’t hand pick the girls, Layla, I hire people for all those tasks. Yes, I have been unprofessional in the past, but that was a while ago. I was young, stupid and had a lot of money on my hands that I had no idea what to do with, and with all that, came lots of women. But I’m not like that now, Layla. I only want you, I wish you could see that. There is nothing wrong with these girls doing what they have to do to get on in life, you shouldn’t judge so harshly.”

“I’m not judgmental!” I scoff.

“You’re judging me for being with these girls, because of their occupation.”

“Okay fine I’m not thrilled about it, who would be?”

“These girls choose to do this, who are we to judge them about it?”

He’s making it seem like I’m over reacting about everything. I need five minutes alone, so I stand up.

“I’m going to the bathroom.”

I walk down the hall towards the bathroom; on the way there I can see the door to a dressing room is wide open. Curious, I glance inside. Several women are in different states of undress, feeling like a pervert I turn to go.

A stunning brunette with dark eyes quickly grabs me by the arm and asks, “You the new girl? Winter?”

“Huh?”

“Don’t be scared. It won’t be so bad, Winter, here’s your outfit.” She hands me a pile of clothes that look like lingerie and then turns and starts talking to some of the other girls. An idea forms in my head.

Chapter Nineteen

I only have a few minutes before he starts looking for me, so I change quickly. I’m wearing a white masquerade mask with feathers on it, a white see through baby doll dress and a white thong. Essentially it’s all lingerie. I kept my bra on. I slip into silver stilettos, which are a tiny bit too big, but I can manage.

“Winter, you’re up!” someone yells.

I’m going to hell for this, I know. But I need to teach this man a lesson. It’s okay for women to strip, it’s their choice. And it is. I just don’t want my man to be in this business. The other women can do as they please, I’m sure some of them are here by necessity. It’s horrible to think about really. But he calls me judgmental. Well I’m choosing to dance tonight, according to him its fine for them. We will see if he thinks its fine for me.

I’m shit scared right now. I’m not scared of the dance moves; I have been dancing my whole life. Maybe not on a pole, but I can compensate with some grinding moves, those I have down pact. I walk onto stage, as Sean Paul’s ‘She doesn’t mind’ hits the speakers. Suddenly the spot light is on me and I start to move. I glance around and see that Chase is not there, he must have gone to look for me. I push him out of my mind and pretend I can’t see several men’s greedy eyes on me.

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