Page 56 of Bound By Threads
“You need to leave,” he says, one hand on my chest. I stare at it, forcing my eyes from Lottie. I could break it… easily.
“Move. Now,” I grit out through my teeth.
Oscar comes to my side.“It’s okay Reed,”Oscar signs while sighing heavily like he’s sick of my shit already.“I’ve got this.”
I don’t say anything else, just move past them both.
Then I’m there. Standing at the end of the stage.
Lottie spins around the pole. Her eyes flick toward me, and everything in her body freezes. She stumbles but manages to correct herself.
“Off!” I bark, loud enough that I know she can hear me over the music that’s thumping through the building.
A few men whistle and laugh, think it’s part of the show, but then I climb up.
“Sir!” the DJ yells.
I ignore him. I ignore all of them, my sights locked onto her. Striding across the stage, I wrap an arm around her waist and lift her like she weighs nothing. I toss her over my shoulder like a sack of trouble, her protests drowned out by the music.
“Put me down!” Lottie hisses, kicking. “You can’t?—”
I jerk my shoulder, cutting her off with an oomph. Her fists beat at my back.
“The hell I can’t,” I growl.
She wriggles, but I hold her tighter. Trying to ignore how good she feels half naked in my arms, but then we’re out the back door, the chilled air slapping me in the face.
I stop just long enough to drop her to her feet, not letting her go until she’s stable.
Lottie wraps her arms around herself, trying to ward off the chill. I rip my hoodie off with a growl, pulling it over her head.
Her chest is heaving. Eyes glassy with unshed tears. “You don’t get to manhandle me.”
“Like I hell I don’t!” I hiss, my voice low and vibrating with something I haven’t felt in years. “I should put you over my knee right now.”
The bass still thuds faintly behind us, muffled by the door.
“You had no right to drag me out of there!” she shouts.
“No right?” My voice rises, disbelief clawing at my throat. “Lottie, you were stripping… on a stage for strangers.”
“And?” she snaps, chin raised like a dare. “I’m not yours to control.”
“That’s not what this is!” I throw my hands up, hating the way she flinches. “You disappeared. Your phone was off. I was scared out of my god damn mind, and then I find you doing this? You’re hurting. Running from your problems and pretending like this is power.”
“It is power,” She fires back. “Up there, I’m Siren. I’m not the girl who broke. I’m not a victim or voiceless. I’m not a sob story in my therapist’s notebook. I’m the one in control.”
“You’re testing my control. That’s not control.” I snarl. “Putting yourself on that stage, letting them look at you like…”
“Like I’m a whore?” she cocks her head. “Up there, I’m untouchable. That’s the point of all of this, Archer. They can’t have me. No one can but they see me, and for once, I get to choose how people see me. I’m powerful on that stage. I’m Siren. The one who loses herself in the music that lures the men to the stage.”
My hands are shaking. I want to reach for her—God, I want to—but she’s burning with fury right now. Eyes lit with a fury I’ve never seen before, and I don’t hate it. Hell, I think I’ve never wanted her more.
Lottie’s always been soft. Agreeable. She’s bent herself to what she thought we all wanted, when all we’ve ever wanted was for her to fight for herself, for what she wanted.
And now… Now she’s standing in front of me, fists clenched, spine straight, rage in her voice like she’s finally stopped apologizing for putting herself first.
And she’s breathtaking.
