Page 13 of Dirty Rock

“You sure this is a good idea?” Big bouncer boy asked, looking down on me as the two of us stood outside the gents’ toilets in the strip club.

“It’s the worst idea I’ve ever had…” Scowling, I tilted my head. “What the fuck are you called?”

“Finn.”

“Like on a fish?”

“If that helps ya.”

“All right, Finn, so, yeah… I’ll be out back, getting shit seen to.” I pointed to my semi, which was pressed down by my too-tight jeans. “If you need me, try to get a grip and sort shit out for yourself. Here’s two hundred dollars.” I tucked some cash into the pocket of his shirt. “Treat yourself to something sweet.”

“Rhett, if they find out I brought you here…”

I smacked his chest twice. The hard nut didn’t even flinch. “Let loose. Have fun. Despite what the founders of Big Ass Brutes Associates probably told you, it won’t kill you.”

Without further fuss, I spun around to go find Candy. In New Orleans, ‘out back’, as she called it, happened to be some seedy side-street that they’d somehow made to look like it belonged on a film set. This shit was weirdly quaint, and if I hadn’t been high off the white stuff I’d just snorted, I’d have loved to have experienced it through sober eyes.

I inhaled the air around me, losing the weight of the suffocating heat the strip club had wrapped me up in. When I heard a subtle cough to my right, I spun around to see Candy standing there with a cream, fluffy coat wrapped around her shoulders, and a cigarette perched between her delicate fingers.

I made my way to her. The black denim jacket I was wearing suddenly felt too restrictive. So did my black jeans. All clothing did. I was so fucking horny, I wanted to shed anything that wasn’t skin, strip Candy down, and then fuck her against the nearest brick wall.

She pressed her cigarette to her mouth and inhaled as she watched me draw closer. I immediately caged her in, pressing my hands to the wall behind her.

Neither of us spoke.

Candy parted her mouth and slowly blew out, and I caught that smoke in my own, sucking it in only to blow it back out through my nostrils.

“You’re too young to look at me like you’re going to break me,” she said smoothly, forcing my eyes to her freshly glossed lips. I shifted a hand to rub a thumb around that gloss, wiping it off carefully.

“Take that shit off,” I whispered. “I hate it.”

“You think I carewhat you like and don’t like?”

My eyes rose to meet hers. “I know you do.”

“Kind of a big shot, aren’t you?”

“Just living my best life, sweetheart.”

“Guys like you should repulse me.”

“But we don’t, do we?” I leaned closer. “You love men like me—men who make you feel sexy. Men who look at you like there’s no one else in the worldbutyou. Men who make it clear that they’ll be miserable without having just one taste of what you’ve got to offer.”

She raised a brow. “Maybe.”

“So, shall we keep playing games with each other or just get to it?”

“How much do you think I’m worth?”

I was about to open my mouth to give her some quick-witted response when I heard the cock of a gun at the back of my head before the cold metal of it pressed against me. I stilled, my eyes widening as I took in the way Candy’s smirk grew at my discomfort.

“Gun got your tongue, rock star?” she asked as she pulled in another drag from her cigarette. “I’ll ask you again. How much do you think I’m worth?”

“Be very careful with your next answer,” a rough, deep voice warned behind me.

My body froze, my hands splayed against the wall as I stared at Candy blowing smoke in my face.

“My lady asked you a question, Playboy,” the man said.

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