or if this was a one-time thing. She sure would love to give him a show.
No, no. Bad girl. A strip tease for your boyfriend was not good business. She needed to get back on the floor and find her first lap dance to get her mind back on working. Not that he was her boyfriend. Fake boyfriend, nothing more.
Except for those hot as Hades kisses.
Ack. Stop thinking about that.
Helena scanned the room and found a group of guys in rumpled suits. Definitely out of town on business. Probably lonely and the perfect group to pay for lots of lap dances and drinks. She sashayed her way over to them, full well knowing all eyes in the room were watching her shake her booty.
Including Aleksei.
He'd better be drooling.
“Hey fellas. What can I get you gentlemen tonight? It's a two-fer Black Friday special on drinks and lap dances.” She gave them her patented eyebrow waggle that was guaranteed to get her the sale and a good tip.
“Hell, yes. Shake that fat ass right on over here.”
Sigh. It wasn't like she hadn't heard that about zillion times, yet somehow it still stung. She pretended it wasn't an insult, because she was going to take this schmoe for all his money and then demand a tip as fat as her ass. A wad of cash did a lot to soothe hurt feelings.
The bump and grind music was already going and Helena turned to give the schmoe a nice long look at the merchandise. “That's fifty dollars, honey.”
“How about twenty bucks a song, sweet cheeks?”
Oh my god, was he actually negotiating with her? She put her hands on her knees and gave a couple of twerks. Some places had that as a going rate, but she was a high-end dancer and the Naughty Wolf was no two-bit joint. “Twenty bucks will get you a nice long look as I walk away. You don't want to miss out on all of this do you?”
“Maybe we should take this to the Champagne room if you want me forking over the big bucks.”
Ha. With his cheap suit, with the corny owl emblazoned on the jacket, he couldn't afford her private dance rates. She was wasting her time. These guys wanted a quarter whore, not a good time worth paying for. “I don't think so, honey. How about I send over your drinks and you can catch the show on stage?”
The schmoe’s friends groaned. This clearly wasn't the first time he'd nickled and dimed for entertainment. “Shut up, Earl. If you don't want to pay her, I will. Come on over to my lap, baby.”
Earl socked his friend in the arm. “Fuck off. I've got the money. Here. Take it and get your ass where it belongs.”
He stuffed two twenties into her g-string and slapped her butt. Why was it the assholes were always the ones who broke the hands-off rule? One smack on the ass was nothing in the grand scheme of things. She glanced over at the bouncers who were already on their way over, but she waved them off.
They trusted that she knew what she was doing and stopped where they were. Except for Aleksei. He kept moving across the room and damn, were his eyes glowing? Must just be the lights in here.
“You got it, honey.” Helena started in on her very basic lap dance routine, giving the schmoe a shimmy and a slide between his legs. She wasn't two seconds into the song when he laid both his hands on either side of her hips and yanked her down onto his lap.
“I paid good money for this.”
Aleksei was right there before she could even blink. “Hands. Off. Asshole.”
For a hot second all of Helena's nerves went on high alert. Half of them bristled because she could take care of herself, thank you very much. But the other half went all swoony and weak in the knees because her big, hot, sexy muscleman was here being all protective.
Dumb girly nerves.
“Watch it, tough guy. I pay your salary.” Earl waved the dollar bills he'd been ready to hand over to Helena for tips during the lap dance in Aleksei's face. That was not going to go over well.
A growl was already rumbling in his chest. “You're a couple hundred short and you're going to be even shorter when I take you off at the knees for touching my...the girls. Rules say hands off.”
She had to think quick if she was both going to make some