if I could find you. Struck gold after an hour, and you looked as miserable as this one,” Braun told her with a jerk of his head toward Liam. “My hope was you’d come back here so we could discuss the offer Liam made you a couple weeks ago regards dancing for the club, hence the card and the entry bracelet. If you decided not to return, I would’ve been out a grand, but that’s the way things go.”
“So it was a bribe.”
He grinned, giving her a wink. “Sure it was. Worked, too.”
She almost smiled despite herself, then ducked her head shyly as though she couldn’t possibly bear the intimacy of sharing her amusement with him. But she was temptation and Braun couldn’t stop himself from nudging her chin up with a fingertip.
That mouth of hers was utterly kissable, especially with the corners so sweetly curved. He could spend a great deal of time memorizing every inch of her stunning features with his lips, working his way down the slender column of her throat to her shoulders, and down...down the long length of her body to discover all the secrets she possessed and kept hidden.
If he couldn’t persuade her to explore her submissive side, he wondered if she would be amenable to spending a few nights in his bed...no kink attached.
He released her shoulders and cupped her face instead, stroking his thumbs over the arch of her cheekbones with little more than a featherlight touch. The way her eyes fluttered closed for a few seconds, and she leaned into his left palm informed him she was desperate for the comfort of human contact. Such a shame she was too stubborn—or too afraid—to ask for it.
“Take the money in the spirit with which it was given,” he murmured as she almost purred. Her head was heavy in his hands as she stopped fighting for a few moments and put her trust in him. “The job offer still stands if you want to change your mind, little one, but neither Liam nor I will stand by and watch you starve with no roof over your head.”
Bodie made a soft noise of protest, then jerked away from him. Two hasty steps back put her out of his reach, and the tenuous bond between them stretched. “I can’t dance in front of a crowd of people whipping each other and having sex. I just can’t.”
Braun hummed softly. “Well, the whipping section is over in the second barn, darlin’, so that wouldn’t cause you any distress. You’d be dancing in here. Granted, there’s usually some bondage and a lot of sex happening, but this section of the club is what you might call the social area. You wouldn’t be required to take part unless you made the choice to explore your own sexuality. Even then, it would be at your pace. Nothing happens in my club without consent.”
She flinched when he said the word sexuality. Had she had a bad experience her first time? Or had she indulged her needs with someone Liam didn’t know about? Perhaps the altercation with her mother and the chain fence was the cause of her distress. Whatever the reason, she’d need handling with care so he didn’t scare her off if curiosity got the better of her.
“I’m not going to lecture you on the benefits of BDSM, Boadicea, not now. There’s nothing wrong with vanilla if kink doesn’t do anything for you, but I want you to know you’re safe here at all times. Between the monitors who enforce my rules in every section and the people who abide by them, there’s little room for bad apples to take root.”
A shaky hand lifted to her hair, and she pulled her long black ponytail over her shoulder to worry the sleek locks. Her eyes darted to the money, back to Braun. Indecision was an open book on her features.
Braun leaned forward and snagged the roll off the bar, holding it out to her. “Take it, pay your rent, do whatever you need to with it. That’s what I’ll pay you every weekend you work; if you want to earn what’s here,” he said casually, “that’s fine by me. Do an hour tonight on stage, see if it suits you. If you’re too uncomfortable to make it a regular thing, I’ll honor your decision. Sound fair?”
Those big blue eyes were so conflicted, it took all his self-control not to yank her onto his lap and cuddle the anxiety out of her.