I’m needed. Hank had mentioned needing some muscle around, but now that I’m here, I’m pretty sure he created a job for me.
Tonight’s crowd seems pretty average.
A girl named Fuchsia, apparently her God-given name, is on stage and the customers seem to be eating it up. With her bright pink tail feathers, she looks like a cross between a flamingo and a peacock. I’ve seen her routine a few times and am prepared for when the feathers come off, exposing her ass cheeks.
I guess for some guys, working in a strip club might be a problem, but not me. Sure, I know an attractive woman when I see one, but I’m not interested in anything these women have to offer.
“Hey, baby,” one of the waitresses croons as she walks by and grips my bicep.
I smile and give her a wink, but she’s harmless.
“Do me a favor and clear table eleven?” she asks, setting her tray on the bar top beside me and calling out some orders to the bartender.
“Sure,” I tell her, pushing off the bar and walking over to the table. There’re just a few glasses and used napkins that I quickly gather up. When I turn around and head to the back, I see that in my absence, someone has slipped into the barstool where I usually stand.
After I set the dirty dishes in the bin behind the bar, I catch my first real glimpse of her.
Shoulder-length, fiery red hair and a petite frame. She’s not exactly what I’ve come to expect from the patrons of the Pink Pony. Her low-cut sweater and skin-tight jeans draw a little attention from men around her, but most of them get one look and turn their eyes back to the entertainment on stage.
“Can I get you something?” I overhear the bartender, Floyd, ask.
“Tequila,” the woman says, sliding her credit card across the bar. “Start me a tab.”
Checking around for a date or a friend who might be with her, I come up empty-handed and my curiosity is peaked. What is a girl like her doing in a place like this … alone?
“How’s it going, Tempest?” a man to her right asks as he takes his beer and puts down some cash.
Tempest.
Curiouser and curiouser.
“Good, Joe. How are you?” she asks and her voice is husky for such a small person and my dick takes notice.
What the fuck?
“Not too shabby. Heard about you puttin’ that truck in Miller’s pond,” he adds with a chuckle before taking a drink of his beer.
“Yeah,” she says with a sigh and a grateful smile as the bartender places the requested tequila down in front of her. “Good times.” There’s a heavy dose of sarcasm coating her words and I notice the way her shoulders tense a little.
Without a lick of salt or a second thought, she picks up the shot glass and throws it back.
No lime.
No chaser.
“I’ll have another,” she tells Floyd, who quickly obliges.
That’s when I realize this could get ugly.
So, I decide to stick close, just in case my services are needed, but far enough away that I’m not tempted, because for some unknown reason, I’m definitely fucking tempted.
Maybe it’s the red hair.
Maybe it’s the raspy voice.
Maybe it’s the way she’s throwing back the tequila like a fucking badass.
Maybe it’s her name … Tempest. It’s different. She seems different and I haven’t even officially met her.
I decide, standing there at the end of the bar, watching her from afar while I keep my eyes focused on the rest of the club, I’m not sure if I want to. The last time I was this instantly attracted to a woman, I fell hard, and she broke my heart.
The big, bad cage fighter, crushed by a blonde heartbreaker.
I wasn’t driven, according to her.
She needed to marry someone like a lawyer or a doctor. I’d confided in her about my real dreams—dreams beyond getting a degree from a prestigious university like Harvard—winning belts, being on the UFC circuit.
She couldn’t be with someone like me, someone who beat the shit out of people for living. Her words, not mine. Her parents’ perception and opinions meant more to her than my love. I should’ve known better. I should’ve seen it coming.
But I was in college, with my entire life ahead of me, and I felt like I had the world at my fingertips.
When she broke up with me, she broke me. It came out of the blue, on a night I was planning on giving her a promise ring. I