Total pages in book: 128
Estimated words: 125020 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 625(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125020 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 625(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
“Sure.” I shrug.
“I wish I’d been the one to make it happen. That’s my one regret. If I had it to do over, I would have killed him. I would have taken his soul for the one broken,” she says.
“Anyway, enough talk of the past. My point is you deserve a man who cares about you and will cherish the amazing woman you are, but first, you have to own who you are. When you do, it will all fall into place.”
“I hear you.”
“Good,” she says and gets up to go grab the bags she stashed in the corner earlier. “Now take this. Go shower off and come back here. We’ll do it again.”
I look up at her like she’s crazy. I’ve been dancing for hours now. I think I got the point. Instead of saying so, I take the bags she hands me and clench them to my chest.
“Okay.”
I mean, she’s been taking this time out of her busy life to help me. The least I can do is dress up and do this one more time. I peek into one bag and groan at the stiletto heels inside.
Zoe looks down at her watch. “Come on, let’s go. Timing is everything.” She claps her hands together.
I inhale deeply and push up off the floor to go change. Once showered and in the changing room, I hold up the skimpy black outfit and lift a brow. Okay, Zoe is totally badass.
I was shocked as hell to find a strip pole and a room of mirrors in her basement. The tricks I’ve watched the older woman do on that pole and those she’s taught me to do have blown my mind.
At first, I had no idea how any of this would help me with Josh, but one day, something just clicked. It was that day I understood what she was truly teaching me. Now I love the woman staring back at me.
“Let’s go, Shawnnie,” I say to myself and figure out how to get into these strings.
Kelex
“Joshua, you’re right on time,” Zoe sings with a bright smile as she opens her front door.
I smile and step inside, then turn to pull her into a hug. I was surprised when she called and asked me to make time to stop by. I’m a bit thrown when her scent throws me back in time.
“You smell like my mom,” I murmur, caught completely off guard. “No, not her, but a memory of her.”
She looks at me with wide eyes. “Yes, well, she gave me this fragrance. I can’t believe you recognize it.”
“It’s one of the few things I remember about her. It was always around her.”
“I can give you the name of it, if you like.”
“What did you need me to stop by for?” I ask, changing the subject.
“Oh, yes, follow me. I have something I want you to see.”
“All right.”
I follow her to a door with a set of stairs behind it. She starts to descend them. I keep in step. When we get to the bottom, we don’t enter the door straight ahead.
Instead, she leads me to another door and holds it open. I stop and look her over. She waves me inside.
“Step inside. This is my gift to you. Enjoy.” I give her a pointed look. “It’s fine, Joshua. I’d never bring harm to you. Go on in.”
Stepping through the door, I realize I’m behind the glass, looking into another room. Suddenly, Shawna appears in a silk robe. I stand frozen, still close to the entrance I just walked through.
“Okay, love. Again. From the top and give it all you’ve got. Forget I’m here. It’s you and the goddess within. Perform like you’re showing Joshua all you’ve learned and want him to see.”
Shawna only nods silently. I turn and find a throne chair in the room I’m in. I go and sit in it. For a brief moment, I wonder what Blake and Zoe are into.
I chuckle to myself and shake the thought off. That’s when the music comes blaring through the speakers and I snap my head up. “Sweet Dreams” by Eurythmics pumps through the system and knocks through my chest, but what gets my blood flowing is the sight of Shawna.
She’s facing the mirror in a pair of stripper heels and one of those tiny-ass swimsuits that crisscross and only cover her nipples and mound. I’m instantly hard as a rock and on my feet.
I move closer to the glass and take in the look in her eyes. There’s a fire there I’ve never seen before. She begins to snap and rock her sexy-ass hips. Then it’s like a switch is flipped and she starts to dance her way down the length of the room across the glass.
I follow like I’m being drawn on a string. My fingertips on the glass as if I can touch her as I go. She pauses at the end and whips her head before turning her back to the glass and pressing up against it.