Page 14 of His Personal Stripper

All he had to do now was make sure no one tried to destroy it for him.

By the time they were both covered and decent, they had arrived at his home.

****

The dress she wore didn’t leave anything to the imagination. Entering their home once again, Rachel thanked Wallace for driving them home and followed Jack to his office.

When she entered the room, she heard the soft music and knew what he wanted. He liked watching her undress, and he tended to put music on to let her know he wanted it slow, seductive, teasing.

What shocked Rachel even more was the fact she enjoyed it. There was a kind of power in her dancing. The way he stared at her, the need always there. His gaze never failed to follow her, even tonight when leaving the bathroom after those women had told her exactly what she meant to them.

“You’re a bug. We don’t like bugs in our crowd. We squash them and send them on their merry way. You’re just another plaything for him. You think you’re special, but you don’t even have the first clue how many women he’s had before you. How he mocks them when he tosses them out on the street. It’s only a matter of time before you’re begging men to take you just so you can earn your supper.”

Rachel had simply stared at the woman and asked if she could use the sink. Girls like Felicity didn’t bother her. Being in foster care, she’d learned to have a thick skin, but in that moment, she wondered why Jack picked her.

Was it all just sex, or did he want something else?

Being the invisible one in the group tonight she’d heard a lot of whispers, a lot of rumors.

They all were wondering whom Jack would marry, saying that one day he’d need an heir to his fortune, and he didn’t even look to be picking someone in their group.

She was surprised by how greedy they were.

Each and every person she encountered wanted Jack in some way, and it was always about his money, never about him.

Slowly, she began to dance, using the beat and moves that enhanced her curves. Jack sat in his chair, and this time, she went straight toward him. Straddling his lap, she felt the evidence of his need for her pressing against the front of his pants.

Lowering the straps of her dress, she watched him as he took in her naked form.

“You picked me because I’m nothing like them,” she said, speaking for the first time.

He didn’t say anything at first. Instead, he reached out, curling her hair behind her ear, and stroking down her cheek. “Yes.”

“Why? Don’t you need someone like them to help—”

“Make me more money? I don’t need more money, Rachel. I don’t need more power, or anything else. I’ve no interest in being the world’s richest man. I have more money than I can spend. You heard them tonight. They talk a good game. Gambling with people’s lives like it’s fun.”

“The company I worked for before. Was it owned by anyone we saw tonight?” she asked.

Jack nodded.

She smiled. “Wow, in a weird way you were probably in a conversation like that. Listening to someone set the path that would bring me to you.”

“I have no interest in putting people’s lives at risk.”

She’d stopped dancing just to talk. Even with her tits exposed she didn’t care. Jack always put her at ease, even tonight surrounded by his friends. He’d put his hand at her back, and she’d felt comforted. “What made you change?”

“What makes you think I was any different?”

“Your age. I don’t know. It’s like you’ve learned from something, some action maybe?” She shrugged. “You don’t owe me any explanation or anything. I’d just like to get to know you.”

He smiled. “You saw how different you were. Even with me offering you so much money, you’ve never once asked to see it, or seemed completely besotted with me for the clothes and the house.”

“At a young age I learned that clothes don’t mean anything, nor does living in a good house. People have secrets, and they do everything they can to try and hide them. Money has its place in the world and in life. It changes people, and that makes it dangerous.”

“I’ve always been wealthy. I had the intelligence, and I was cocky. Partying, I’d burn money because I knew I was going to have more to replace it.” He ran a hand down his face. “I gambled on companies. They were just names. An extension of my wealth. They didn’t bring much in. They broke even half the time. One day I was sitting in my office, a bottle of champagne at my side when a police officer came in. He had a file in his hand, and told me he was investigating multiple suicides. One of the companies that got shut down because I gambled the wrong way. Ten men took their own lives. They were men who’d put their entire lives into the company. Invested everything, and because I decided to party, had one too many to drink, those men lost everything. Their families had nothing. I stared at the pictures of the gunshot wounds to their heads. I didn’t pull that trigger, but I might as well have.”

Rachel stared at him, surprised.

“That was over twenty years ago.” He shook his head. “I took a trip, and I learned about that business. How it employed a hundred people, and I then visited the people, the families they had. The lives that depended on them. It was a wakeup call. The company that earned me billions also held the lives of my workers. They’re the ones that earn me money, and I didn’t respect them. I changed. I learned a lot overnight, and I made sure that I never, ever took for granted what I wanted. The people you saw tonight, they keep expecting that reckless bastard to appear. He won’t. He’s long dead. I’m not a hero, Rachel. I’m just like them.”

---