“You know?” he asked.
“Yeah. I know. That isn’t true. It’s never true. Anything wrong can be made right.”
“You don’t know dick,” he bit out.
“Darius—”
“Outta my truck.”
“Darius!”
He leaned back in and rumbled (definitely scarily, even to me), “Get the f**k outta my truck.”
I sucked in breath but I didn’t get out of the truck.
I leaned in deep so we were nose to nose, shades to shades, and I declared, “I won’t give up on you. I’ll never give up on you. What I’ll do right now is get outta your truck. But I’ll do it with you knowing me doing it does not mean I’m giving up on you.” My voice dropped to a whisper. “Brace, brother. Because I’m gonna knock myself out to heal what’s broken in you. And I won’t quit until I’ve done it.”
On that, I didn’t give him a chance to reply.
I got out of his truck and sashayed into Lucy.
But I did it not thinking about the kickass running gear I was going to buy that would make my man lose control and give me orgasms in his kitchen (or elsewhere).
I did it worried.
* * * * *
I drove into the underground parking lot of Lee’s offices, my mind on a number of things.
One was trying to figure out what dress I was going to wear out to dinner that night with Ren. I hadn’t had a chance to try any of the four on that Roxie, Tod and Stevie bought me, but I knew just looking at them they were all on par in hotness so there wasn’t an obvious frontrunner.
This meant I needed time to try them all on and make a decision.
Another was the fact that my sit down with Lottie got me nothing. Whatever this guy was doing, he was not doing to her.
She did tell me she felt the vibe and had talked with some of the girls even before Smithie approached her to talk to the girls. They were closed up tight.
Even as the headliner, she didn’t have her own dressing room, although Smithie offered it. But she was social; she felt they were sisters and didn’t want to foster that kind of thing with the girls so she was in with them. Though she was, she hadn’t seen this dude do anything or heard him say anything.
Nothing there.
But she was also worried.
She came with me to Daisy’s house to help with my stripper classes. Once at The Castle, I discovered that Daisy had one of her many rooms set up with a stage that had a couple of poles.
“Gotta keep up my skills, sugar,” she said after she led us there and I stopped and stared at the set up. “Anyway, how do you think I keep this killer body?”
I had actually never asked how she kept her killer body, though I knew she power-walked regularly.
Thus commenced my stripper instruction, and even with two women I cared about the only ones in attendance, I felt awkward and danced stiffly.
After both of them showed me some moves, however, Daisy put on some music.
That did it.
Then again, music always did it for me.
Thus, three hours later when I finally hopped off the stage, Lottie gave me a huge-ass grin and declared, “You’re a natural. You’re even gonna give me a run for my money.”