Page 28 of Her Defiant Heart (Damaged Hearts 1)

“I’m kidding.” She pats me on the shoulder. “Though the occasional coke hit will give you the biggest feeling of euphoria. Mmm.” Savannah shakes her head, a dreamy expression on her face. “Fucking on coke is like an out-of-body experience.”

“I think I had enough out-of-body experiences last night, and I wasn’t even on coke,” I tell her, making her laugh harder.

“Wow. This guy must be something then. Did you meet him here? Did he take one look at your fabulous ta-tas and throw himself at your feet?”

“Hell no.” I wrinkle my nose. “You know we can’t fraternize with guests.”

“Like anyone sticks to that rule.” Savannah tilts her head to the side, her long ponytail sliding over her shoulder. “Does he know you work here?”

Dread consumes me, making me clutch the edge of the bar so tightly my fingers ache. “No. He can never know I work here.”

“You want to keep him in your life?” she asks, but I don’t answer. “If you do, then you better be honest. He finds out you work here, walking around with no top on all night while men leer at your chest, and he’s gonna shit a ton of bricks.”

“Trust me, I know,” I say with a slight shake of my head. I don’t want to talk about this right now, with Savannah, in the middle of the club with the music blaring so loud I can hardly hear myself think. Rhett isn’t a part of my life here at City Lights. I compartmentalize everything. When I’m with Rhett, I focus on him and nothing else. When I’m at work, I usually don’t think of Rhett at all.

But tonight, my mind is consumed with thoughts of him. Every guy in this place with hair the same color as his has me looking twice, my heart leaping to my throat. What happened between us last night is running on a continuous loop in my brain. How he looked at me, the way he kissed me, the way he made me feel. It was…mind-blowing, when that’s the last thing I need.

He’s taking up way too much of my brain space. I don’t know what I’d do if he showed up here.

“When do you see him again?” Savannah asks just as Chuck adds fresh drinks to her tray.

“I don’t know,” I answer with a little shrug. He left my house in the middle of the night, around three in the morning. I woke up to him pressing a kiss to my cheek and telling me he’d text me later.

I haven’t heard from him since.

“Maybe it’s just a one-time thing?” She grabs the tray, her gaze meeting mine. “Sometimes those are the best, you know? One delicious night with a hot man who makes your toes curl, only to never see him again. Your expectations can never be let down, you know?”

I watch Savannah walk away, her skirt swishing, her head held high as she commands the attention of every man she passes. I admire her confidence, wish even the tiniest bit could rub off on me.

“Here you go.” Chuck’s gruff voice makes me turn around, and I take the tray from him and head out into the crowd. I try to adopt some of Savannah’s swagger as I deliver drinks to my customers, ignoring how they stare at me, adopting that I don’t give a shit mask I’ve become decent at wearing.

The entire night is like this. I finally find a rhythm and there’s no more screwing up drink orders or nearly falling on my face. Don isn’t yelling at me anymore, and at one point I do a little twirl for my guests at one of the corner tables that has the best view of the stage. Four men in their late forties to early fifties, all dressed well, their eyes lit with interest as I spin around when one of them asks, my skirt flaring out so far, I almost flash them my ass.

I don’t know what possesses me to do it, but I do, and when I go backstage to take my break about an hour later, Don approaches me with an appreciative gleam in his eye. “You turned it around tonight, doll.”

I try not to roll my eyes. I really don’t like it when he calls me that. “Thanks. I started off bad, but I think I’m okay now.”

“You’re more than okay.” He glances over his shoulder, like he’s making sure no one’s paying attention to us, before he returns his gaze to mine. “I have a proposition for you.”

My stomach bottoms out. Don has only mentioned a proposition to me twice before. Once, a guest requested to, and I quote, titty-fuck me. Another time, a couple wanted me to watch them have sex in the storage room. Both requests would’ve earned me extra money, but I was uncomfortable, so I turned them down.

“What is it?” I ask, my voice, my head, my entire body weary. My money situation isn’t the best. Tuition is due soon, and I can’t apply for financial aid since my grades were so bad that first semester I was at the community college in my hometown. The semester when my dad died. I didn’t bother going back to my classes and I failed all of them.

I’m on my own. I can’t even qualify for a student loan because of that one semester. Yet another regret in the long list of them that makes up my life.

“There’s a gentleman you’ve been serving all evening. He’s very interested in you.” Don blatantly stares at my boobs. “He wants to get to know you better. Says you’re giving off a very friendly, sexy vibe.”

Ick. “I don’t kn—”

Don holds up his hand, silencing me. “Hear me out. This guy, he’s fucking loaded, Jen. He flashed me a fat stack of hundreds and said he had ten thousand cash for us if you’d spend a little alone time with him.”

I blink at my boss, trying to comprehend what he just said. “What do you mean, ten thousand cash for us?”

“He just wants to spend time with you. Said it would take no longer than an hour.” Don hesitates, his gaze skittering away from mine. “I’ll split the money with you fifty-fifty.”

What an insult.

“No way.” I start to walk out, but Don gr

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