Page 17 of Strip for Me

“I need to get ready, but will you come and watch one dance?” Andre asks, and I look him over slowly. I can do this, I need to do this because I’m having his baby, and this is his job. I don’t want to upset him by saying no, and I can always look away.

“Okay,” I say, and his face lights up as he smiles. Holy ducks, he looks hot when he smiles, and my cheeks light up with the memories we have between us.

I let Kaiden lead me towards the door left of the stage and he holds it open for me as he lets go of my hand. The room is small, with a wooden bar on the one side with stools lined up in front of it. There are two sofas and a chair in the room but not much else. The floors are wooden and it has freshly-painted white walls.

Kaiden walks in the room and moves towards one of the two doors in the room at the back.

“This is the office, and that one is for the changing rooms. Unfortunately, the only staff toilet is through the changing rooms. I don’t think you’ll want to use the public ones we have out there,” he tells me, and I nod. I walk into the office, and Kaiden switches the light on for me. The room is a good size with a large desk and a big comfy-looking chair. There are two filing cabinets and three piles of papers on the desk.

“So, basically, I’ve been doing the accounts, and I’m shit at it, so there may be a few messed up parts,” Kaiden tells, me, and I chuckle.

“It can’t be that bad,” I say, as he goes around the desk and switches the computer on. It’s a modern computer with a big screen and a fancy-looking wireless keyboard. The mouse is wireless as well and lights up in a few colours.

“Come here, then,” Kaiden waves me over, and I take my coat off, leaving it on the hook by the door.

“There’s nowhere to sit,” I say as I move next to his chair. I squeal like a little girl when he wraps an arm around my waist and gently pulls me onto his lap, my hands falling to his shoulders. I know I must be blushing like crazy as he looks down at me with a cheeky grin.

“There’s plenty of room on my lap, you’re tiny,” he says and then looks over my head at the screen. I squirm a little to get comfy, and I hear him softly swear.

“Is something wrong?” I ask him, and he chuckles.

“No, I just didn’t think this through,” he says, but it’s quiet and not meant for me to hear.

“Think what through?” I ask.

“That having a sexy woman wriggling on my lap while I’m trying to teach her about the work accounts, would be a distraction,” he chuckles out.

“Oh,” I say, and he laughs.

“‘Oh’, is right,” he replies, and I force myself to look at the screen as he moves to start loading the accounts. About an hour later, I finally have a good understanding of where they are, but there is a lot of work to be done and none of the expenses have been put in for the last two months. There isn’t one Excel sheet in the site, and there’s an email account full of receipts.

“Looks like I’ll be spending the next few weeks catching up,” I say with a sigh. This is a lot of work, and it will take ages before Ican even touch the normal things. I lean back when I feel Kaiden playing with my hair, and I look up at him.

“Just take it easy, you’re pregnant, and I don’t want you exhausting yourself,” he tells me, his tone is kind and gentle.

“Okay, Kaiden,” I say, and he smiles. Kaiden is really something to look at, with his deep-green eyes and long, dark lashes. I can see how women love him and like to see him lose his clothes.

“How did you get into dancing?” I ask him as he continues to twirl my hair around his finger. He gives a slight smile, and I know it’s because I choose to call it dancing rather than stripping.

“I don’t talk about it with anyone,” Kaiden says, and I nod. I try to get up, but his arm tightens around my waist.

“I didn’t say I wouldn’t tell you, it’s just not something I like to talk about,” he says, and I glance up at him.

“I had a great upbringing, the perfect parents, and a perfect life. We had a big house and more money than we needed,” he tells me before he stops and clears his throat.

“Except it was never perfect, my mother just kept me hidden from it all. I didn’t know how bad my father would beat her up, or that he had been doing far worse to her, for years,” he tells me and pauses when I take his hand in mine.

“One day I found out. I was thirteen and big for my age. I beat the crap out of my father, put him in a coma because I walked in on him,” he stops, and I squeeze his hand. I just don’t know what to say. He clears his throat before talking again, but he doesn’t look at me.

“Anyway, when the police asked my mother what happened, she said I had gone crazy and wouldn’t admit that he was hurting her. I was sent to a youth detention centre when my father died from the injuries I gave him. My mother never visited me in the three years I stayed there, and when I was released–” he stops.

“Well, I was sixteen and had no one to turn to. I was homeless for around two months until Eric found me. I met Andre, Todd, and Dom when Eric moved me into his apartment,” he says, finally looking down at me. I cannot imagine Kaiden hurting anyone enough to kill them, but I don’t judge him for it. Anyone in his position would have done the same thing, and I wish his mother had defended him like she should have done. I guess she was scared, and years of abuse can cloud anyone’s mind.

“I’m sorry, but thankful that someone gave you a home,” I tell him.

“Eric was a father to me, everything a real one should have been,” he tells me.

“This Eric was?” I ask.

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