Dirty Sexy Alphas (Twenty Book Box Set) - Hannah Ford Page 0,136

always did when they found out I’d been in foster care. But Colt just held his hands up and took a few steps away from me, like maybe my crazy was contagious.

“Hey,” he said. “What you do on your own time…”

“You know what?” I said. “You can go fuck yourself.” I turned around and headed for the door. I didn’t need this. He needed help from me, too. He should have been kissing my ass, but instead, he was mocking me. And if I wanted to be ridiculed, I could get that any day of the week, just by interacting with society.

“Okay, okay,” Colt said, reaching out and grabbing my arm. “Wait. I’ll help you find Deacon.”

“Declan.”

“Whatever.”

“Fine.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “And what do I have to do for you?”

“Whatever I want,” he said, his voice a mix of husky and cocky. He took a step toward me. “Are you okay with that?”

“Bring it,” I said, forcing myself to meet his gaze.

“Good.” He looked at me. “The first thing we have to do is get you an outfit.”

“An outfit?”

“Yeah. You’re going to be working here.”

“Oh.” I twisted my hands nervously, hoping he couldn’t tell how anxious I was. “I’m going to be stripping?”

This seemed to amuse him. “Are you serious?” he asked. “You really think I would hire you as a stripper after that audition?”

“What was wrong with my audition?” I countered, even though of course I knew what was wrong with my audition.

“You ran out in the middle of it.”

“Just because I didn’t want to get naked for you, doesn’t mean –”

“Doesn’t mean you don’t want to get naked in front of the guys out there?” He shook his head. “Trust me. If you can’t get naked for me, you can’t get naked for them. And besides, you did want to get naked for me.”

“Oh, yeah?” I asked. “Then why didn’t I?”

“Because you were afraid.”

“Afraid?” I repeated “Afraid of what?”

“I don’t know.” He shrugged. “You tell me.”

“I wasn’t afraid.” I swallowed and crossed my arms over my chest. “I’m in love with someone else, is all.”

“Mmm. Deacon.”

“Declan!”

“Right. The guy you need me to help you to find, because you have no idea where he is.”

“Yes,” I said. “But that’s not my fault.”

“What isn’t?”

“That I don’t know where he is. Once we aged out of foster care, it was impossible to keep track of him.”

He raised his eyebrows at me. “In this day and age of facebook and skype and cell phones, it was impossible to keep track of him?”

“I don’t have a cell phone,” I said. “Or a computer.”

“You don’t have a cell phone or a computer?”

I shook my head. “Sorry if that offends your privileged white boy sensibilities.”

“Nothing offends me,” Colt said. He reached over and pushed a button on the phone that was sitting on the desk in the corner. After a second, a girls’ voice answered. “Jessa,” he said. “Can you bring me a waitress uniform?”

“Sure,” she said. “What size?”

Colt’s eyes racked up my body, taking in my legs, my hips, my breasts. “What’s your dress size?” he asked.

“Six.”

“And your bra size?”

I swallowed. “36C.”

He grinned, and relayed the information to the girl on the phone.

“So I’m going to be a waitress?” I asked. I could definitely handle that. Being a waitress sounded like it wouldn’t be that hard. I imagined myself bustling through the tables, serving food and drinks, making conversation with the customers.

“Cocktail waitress,” Colt said. “Have you ever waitressed before?”

I shook my head. “But one of my foster families had ten kids, and I was the oldest, so I served a lot of meals. It was kind of like being a waitress.”

“Trust me,” Colt said. “Our customers are not kids. They’re men looking for a certain kind of service. Do you know what that means?”

“It means they want me to have sex with them?”

“No.” He shook his head. “Well, yes, maybe. But most of all they want you to make them feel special.”

There was a knock on the door, and the bartender, the one who had answered the phone when I’d called about the audition, came walking into the room holding a plastic dry cleaner bag.

“Jessa,” Colt said. “Have you met Olivia?”

“Yes,” I said at the same time Jessa said, “No.”

“We met earlier,” I reminded her. “Remember?”

She shrugged. “Colt,” she said. “Are you going to have time later to go over the vendor orders with me?”

“Yeah,” he said. “I’ll catch you on the way out.”

She gave him a smile, and I