I move around the stage, one foot in front of the other, shaking my ass, teasing the men nearest the stage and I shimmy the G-string lower and lower. I pull it off, my pussy bare, and when everyone is wild with excitement, throwing crisp bills onto the stage, I unhook my bra and let my breasts fall out. It's my grand finale, my piece de resistance. My breasts are huge, real, and the kind every man here dreams of coming all over.
I may be a virgin, but I have watched enough porn to know what men really want. What they like. And so, up on stage, I touch myself teasingly, running a hand between my legs, rolling my breasts in my hand. Squeezing my nipples.
That's when I hear the shouting.
The yelling.
The man running up on stage. Grabbing me by my wrists and pulling me off.
"Levi!" I shout his name when I see who it is.
Levi is here.
He just watched my routine.
Oh, my heart.
"What in God’s name are you doing?" he growls at me as Carlos runs up behind us.
"Lucy," Carlos shouts. "It's okay, security is coming," he says, grabbing Levi by his collar.
"No, Carlos, it's okay. I know him. He's a friend--I swear."
Levi steps back, raising his hands in the air.
"I know him, it's not what it looks like," I promise Carlos. My manager stays long enough to make sure I'm being honest, and Levi's eyes are filled with rage. When Carlos steps way, I know I have to explain.
"It's not what it looks like?" Levi growls. "Then what exactly does it look like? From where I was sitting, all I saw was you, shaking your ass on stage. Taking off your clothes. I thought you were an old-fashioned girl, Lucy, but from the looks of it you're nothing but a stripper."
Tears well up in my eyes and run down my face, my cheeks streaked with mascara. My heart pounding.
"You don't know what you're saying," I shout at him. "How dare you," I cry. "I'm doing this for ––"
"Let me guess, your granny? Is anything you told me at all true?"
"Everything was true."
"You won't sleep with me, but you'll strip down to nothing for any man in Las Vegas? What was I supposed to think when I saw you there like that?"
"I don't care what you saw, Levi, or what you thought. I do what I have to do. And I never lied to you. I do want to wait to have sex until I'm married. And I'm only doing this for the money. For Granny."
I cover my face with my hands as sobs wrack my body. I hate that he is judging me like this, not seeing my good intentions.
"You expect me to believe this wasn't all an act?" he asks, hurt in his eyes. "That when you were with me, kissing me, being innocent and naïve… that it was all real?"
"I'm not telling you what to believe, Levi. I'm just telling you what the truth is. Besides, I think you liked it. Seeing me naked. Isn't that what you're after with me anyway? Just seeing how far you can get with me? Hoping that in the end you'll get laid?"
He grabs my wrists, pinning them over my head and looking right in the eye. "Don't you dare say that, Lucy. This is not about sex for me."
I'm standing here naked, wearing thigh high boots and feeling utterly exposed.
When he looks at me I feel vulnerable in a way that is terrifying.
"If it's not all about sex, then what is it about, Levi?"
I know what I want it to be about. What I'm hoping for. But I'm scared to say it out loud.
"It's about love," he says.
I'm scared to look him in the eyes, but once again he uses the hook of his finger to lift my chin. Our eyes lock. He sees me.
"It's about loving you," he repeats. "But I can't have you up on that stage, Lucy. And it's not because I don't want to see you naked, it's because I want to be the only man to look at you that way."
"What are you saying? That you've fallen in love with me in twenty-four hours? It's not possible, it's ––"
"Believe in the impossible, Lucy. Because it's the goddamn truth. Don't make me beg for it. Just answer: do you love me?"
"I do. As crazy as it sounds, as unexpected as it is, I do love you, Levi."
"Good." But his jaw is clenched, and his brows are creased.
"You sure? You don't look so good."
"No, it's very good. But it is very serious, too. You love me, and I love you and it means it's time to make you my bride."
"Bride?" My eyes go wide. "But––"
"You heard me. You want to do this the old-fashioned way? That's fine by me. But right now, we're going to a chapel, and I'm going to make you my wife."