but I had a roof over my head, even if it was one with poles, a stage, neon lights, and music blaring every night. At least there was all the food I could eat anytime I wanted thanks to the club’s buffet.
The guys I went to school with all wanted to be my best friend to try and get into the club for a peek at a topless woman, while I had seen more naked women up close and personal by the time I started kindergarten than most men do in their entire lifetime. As a little kid, I remember I used to pretend that I was lucky and had ten mommies when I knew I really didn’t even have one.
Eventually, I grew up, left town right after high school, and then prospected for the Savage Kings and started managing my own club, taking home a different girl most nights.
I became my worst nightmare – my father.
That thought never bothered me before the night I met Tessa.
Now I don’t want to be anything like the man who raised me.
What if it’s too late and I’m screwed thanks to genetics and the fucked-up environment I was raised in? It’s been six months and I haven’t screwed anyone else, but what if I snap at the one-year mark and suddenly can’t be celibate anymore? Any day now I could fuck up and go back to being the man I hate.
No, hate is a strong word. I love my father, but I hate that his lifestyle is so…disturbingly nasty.
“Please go home,” I tell him. I brace my hands on my hips while he helps himself to my fridge, and the other blonde hops up on the kitchen counter, her bare ass sitting right where I make food. “And take them with you!”
“Are you sure? They’re willing to stay all week with you, buddy, as long as it takes to fuck her out of your system. They love fucking each other too,” he says, closing the fridge door with a can of beer in his hand that he pops open. “I’m just trying to help. What could be better than a threesome with these two beauties?”
Sighing, I mutter, “I know you’re trying to help, but this is not what I need. I don’t want to ‘fuck her out of my system.’”
“Fine! Your loss,” he says with a grin. He quickly downs his beer and sets the empty can on the counter rather than throwing it in the recycling bin. “You heard him! Let’s go, girls. My son is too much of a pussy to handle you both at the same time, but I’m not.”
They both giggle, and if my teeth clench any harder, I’m going to break one.
But thankfully, after a little whining and pouting, the blondes get up and get moving out the door, following my father like little puppy dogs.
Once I wipe down the counter with a Clorox wipe, I strip the sheets from my bed, get undressed, and finally, thankfully, pass out, dreaming of my beautiful, sad redhead.
The ringing sound that wakes me up is so unfamiliar that it takes me several long seconds to figure out where it’s coming from before it hits me. That’s when I start scrambling out of bed, searching for where I last laid down my phone. It ended up on the floor next to the sofa, falling out of my jean pocket when I crashed. I pick it up and answer it without even paying attention to the name on the screen. I’m just that damn happy someone is calling me.
“Hello?” I say, now wide-awake even though I think I only slept a few hours.
“Your window is finally opening,” the deep voice on the other side of the line says so cryptically that I do finally pull the device away from my ear to see who it is.
Cannon.
“My what?” I ask as I sit down on the armrest of the sofa bed to focus on what the hell he’s saying.
“Your window,” he repeats as if I know what the hell that means. “The window to get back into Roman’s good graces is finally opening. “
“It is?” I say in relief. “Seriously? What’s going on? Have you seen Tessa? How is she? Did you all vote again? I’m back in?” All the questions I’ve had for months come pouring out.
“Ah, it’s not exactly official or anything,” Cannon says. “But next Friday, Roman’s finally tying the knot. It’s just a small thing for him and Charlotte down