figured he’d be here.
“Hi,” I said to him, just loud enough to be heard over the music. I didn’t want him to think I was excited to see him. “This is my friend, Godiva.”
He glanced in her direction briefly, muttering, “Hey,” and turned right back to me.
What a dick.
“Great party, huh?” he said, rocking to the music.
Godiva stepped up to his ear. “Where’s the beer?” she asked.
He pointed across the room.
“Be right back,” she said, and began to weave her way through the crowd, leaving me alone with him.
She probably thought she was doing me a favor. I’d be sure to ‘thank’ her later.
“So when are we going out, Senna?” Ty asked, his head cocked.
I so wanted to be a bitch to this jerk.
“Um, Ty, I thought I told you we weren’t.”
Shit. Where was Godiva? Did she get lost?
He stepped closer to me. “C’mon. I know you don’t mean it. After all, a girl who works at a strip club ought to say yes when a nice guy asks her out. Most guys wouldn’t have anything to do with her.”
What. The. Fuck.
Please let me have misheard him, I begged nobody in particular. I didn’t want to knee anyone in the balls so early in the evening.
“Um, what did you say?”
He brushed his fingers across the back of my neck and smirked. “You heard me. A girl like you doesn’t have a lot of options, even if you are hot as shit.”
There were a multitude of ways to handle something like this, but I chose the nicest I could think of.
I got right in his face.
“I wouldn’t go out with you if you paid me.”
I must have screamed the last words pretty loudly because everyone in the vicinity turned to face us.
I’d had guys fuck with me before for being a dancer, but I’d always told them to take a hike. I wasn’t embarrassed of what I did, although I sure as hell had hoped to keep it quiet at Wellshire.
Undeterred, he put his lips against my ear while pulling my head closer to him. “Do you want everyone here to know you’re a stripper?”
“Here’s your beer, Senna,” Godiva said, returning.
Perfect timing.
“Godiva, Ty here just threatened to tell everyone I work at Club V, after he told me no guy would date a woman who danced there, anyway.”
Her pretty eyes turned dark. She was one woman you didn’t want to mess with.
She stepped up and got right in his face as I moved out of the way. “You didn’t really say that, did you? Please tell me my friend is kidding. Because I have a knee aimed at your balls right this second.”
He took a step back, his eyes widening in horror. “Go fuck yourselves. Both of you. But don’t forget about what I said, Senna. Your secret could very easily get out. How’d you feel if Professor Adler knew about your chosen profession?”
“Fuck off, Ty,” I said, taking Godiva’s arm and leading her through the crowd to find Patti.
He could tell Adler anything he wanted. Wait till he found out our dear English professor already knew.
Chapter 15
SENNA
I pulled on a long, pink wig and glued on my most radical false eyelashes. I felt the need to go out and dance as a different version of myself.
Well, that, and I wanted to protect my privacy against any other fuckers who might try and use my dancing against me.
I liked the adult entertainment I provided. I might not have stripped like all the other girls did, but I knew I was still sexy, and I had fun doing it. The vast majority of our customers were wonderful, respectful men, and I’d gotten to know some of the regulars so well that they now remembered my birthday.
It was too bad people had to think less of me because of how I’d chosen to put myself through college.
They could suck it.
So, I disguised myself not out of shame, but because I had a plan and I wasn’t letting anyone get in my way. I’d had enough of people planting thoughts that I was somehow less than.
Like my mother.
I’d called her just that morning. Not because I wanted to speak with her—she wasn’t much of a conversationalist, at least not since we’d lost my dad so many years ago.
“How’re you doing, Mom?”
She grunted. I pictured her pushing herself up on the sofa, where she’d probably been lying for hours. “Senna?”
Who else would call her ‘mom’?
“Yes, Mom. It’s me.”
She sighed. “How are you?” she asked in