Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 129460 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 647(@200wpm)___ 518(@250wpm)___ 432(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 129460 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 647(@200wpm)___ 518(@250wpm)___ 432(@300wpm)
I take a moment to relish her jealousy before explaining, “I’m not worried about them charging for me a second after we enter.”
Her confused expression is super cute. “Then what’s the problem?”
“I… need… a… minute.” I punctuate each word to give my reply extra punch.
It was a woeful waste of time. Jess is completely lost. “For?”
Her pupils widen to the size of saucers when I rock my hips upward, then a scent I’ll never forget fills the cab of the car. “Oh my…” Just like she did every time we fooled around, she cuts off the word that gives me hives. “Will that go down on its own?” she asks two seconds later before doubling the thickness of my cock. “Or will it need a hand… or two?”
“Not helping it deflate, Jessie.”
Her breathy laugh hits my lips when she murmurs, “Who said I was trying?”
Considering we’re sitting in the back seat of an SUV on a bustling sidewalk, the tension shouldn’t be so white-hot, but it is. It is blistering, and it takes everything I have not to double the ruddiness of Jess’s lips by sinking my teeth over them.
“Caleb…”
Ignoring the driver’s gawk in the rearview mirror, I reply, “Yeah?”
I’m anticipating a moan, a grind, a something, but all I get is a snarl. “He’s here.”
My cock softens the instant I crank my neck in the direction Jess is peering. Warren has stepped out of the back of a black town car. He’s wearing a pompous suit that makes him appear more worthy than he is, and his hair is slicked back and combed into place. He doesn’t look like the lowlife criminal he has been the past three years.
“You need to be careful with him, Caleb. He didn’t bring you out of retirement for no reason.” There’s no jealousy in Jess’s eyes when she watches Warren farewell his gushing bride-to-be with a prolonged kiss, only panic. “Just like he didn’t choose her for no reason either.”
Although the tension has shifted from lusty to annoyed, some of the spark is revived when I mutter, “You can’t hide who you are forever, especially when you’re only ever real around the people who matter most.”
With Warren’s tricks in the background of her mind, she locks her eyes with mine and murmurs, “Forty minutes, then you owe me sloppy tacos and virgin margaritas.”
“I thought you needed tequila?” My last word comes out with a groan when she slips off my lap.
My cock softened during Warren’s arrival, but it goes back to full mast when Jess replies, “Who needs alcohol when the buzz you’re seeking is free?”
With that, she smiles a flirty grin that makes every man in a one-mile radius envious of me before she moseys into a club that doesn’t officially open for another eight hours.
Stripping is like riding a bike. You never forget. The moves are the same, the screams are the same, and the inspiration is the same—thank fuck!
The issues I faced the last time I stripped are nowhere to be seen. Not even Warren’s scheme to get me arrested has dampened my performance.
Despite his belief that a poor man can be bought, the only things being exchanged today are sweat, and since his bride-to-be seems oblivious to her husband’s shitty undertakings, I don’t pass my dislike of him onto her while rolling my sweat-dotted torso down her frozen frame.
Kelsey doesn’t seem like the type who’d need to pay for ‘special treatment,’ but even if she did, there’s only ever been one woman I want to work my excessive adrenaline off on. Her name starts with a ‘J,’ and although she spent the first ten minutes of my performance shooting daggers at the maid-of-honor who tried to negotiate a five-figure deal for me to give the bride a final twirl around the single-ladies’ carousel, the remaining twenty has been gobbled up with cheers, shouts for more, and hollers that will ring in my ears for days to come.
Although I’ve always used Jess for inspiration while performing, tonight’s creativity is sourced a little differently. I don’t picture the numerous memories I wish I could use to reduce the tension in my nuts. I remember her smile when I back up her claims that I’m an asshole and how she changes up her hairstyle every six weeks to follow the trends. That she smells like flowers even while surrounded by sweaty men and how no matter how loud the confessions in my eyes scream, she acts as if she is deaf.
She has questions, many of them, but not once has she asked them.
She accepts me as me.
And now it is time for me to do the same for her.
CHAPTER 35
JESS
“Okay, I’ll admit it. You killed it today.”
I stab my key into the door of my apartment, then twist my torso to face Caleb. Something seems different about him tonight. He’s more confident, which is shocking when you know how naturally cocky he is.