I gave her a wink, then picked up my beer and took a slug. I’d just placed it back down on the counter when I spotted Aubrey out of the corner of my eye. She was over by the front door, talking to some dude I’d never seen before, and he was eyeing her like she was his next big conquest. The longer I watched them banter back and forth, the angrier I became. I knew my reaction wasn’t justified, but that didn’t stop me from getting up and marching in their direction. Aubrey’s eyes widened as soon as she noticed me coming. My tone was harsher than I intended when I asked, “Everything okay over here?”
“Yep,” Aubrey answered. “Everything’s fine.”
“Yeah, buddy.” The guy snickered. “We’re just fine.”
“I’m not your fucking buddy, and I think it’s time for you to go.”
“What?”
“You heard me.” I motioned my head towards the door. “Time to call it a night.”
“But I just got here, and—”
“Apparently, you didn’t hear me.” I took a step closer to him as I growled, “I said it’s time for you to call it a night.”
“Fine.” He threw up his hands. “I’ll go. Damn.”
As soon as he walked through the door, Aubrey crossed her arms and asked, “What was that about?”
“That dickhead needs to learn you don’t come in here fucking around with one of my girls.”
“He wasn’t fucking around with me,” she argued. “He was asking about doing a bachelor party for one of his friends.”
“Well, he should’ve been talking to me about that shit, not you.”
“Ooh-kay,” she sassed. “You’re the boss.”
“Best you remember that.”
“Oh, I will. You can count on it.”
With that, she stormed off and went back to work. I’d fucked up. She knew it, and I knew. I just had no fucking clue what I was going to do about it. I went back over to the bar to finish off my beer and hadn’t been sitting there long when Aubrey came over to put in her order. She didn’t say a word, nor did she look in my direction. I couldn’t blame her, considering I’d been acting like a fucking ass. I’d hoped, in time, she’d get over it, but as the night went on, the silence continued. Every time she’d come up to the counter to put in an order, she’d do her best to pretend I wasn’t sitting two feet away from her, and I had no idea why. I could’ve simply ignored the fact that she was avoiding me like the plague, but my curiosity got the best of me.
When I spotted her going outside for her break, I decided to follow and found her leaning up against the back wall of the building, and she wasn’t looking too happy. Her expression was even less happy when she noticed me heading in her direction. She crossed her arms and asked, “Is there something I can help you with?”
“You could tell me what’s got you so riled up?”
“Oh, like you don’t know.”
“Why don’t you fill me in, and then we’ll both be on the same page.”
“Okay, if I must.” She pursed her lips and chewed on her bottom lip for a moment, then inhaled a quick breath before saying, “I’m not one of your girls.”
“Excuse me?”
“Last night.” She motioned her hand towards the club. “With those guys who were acting like assholes. You said ‘no one puts their hands on one of my girls,’ and earlier tonight, you said it again.”
“Yeah, and?”
“I’m sure you have many, many girls you screw around with, but I’m not one of them. In fact, I’m nobody’s girl.”
The terrified woman from the night before was gone, and the woman with fire in her eyes had returned. It was this woman who’d come into my office and asked for a job. It was this woman who’d had the strength and determination to pretend she was someone she wasn’t—this woman who was currently making my cock rise to fucking attention. I held her glare as I took a step over to her and growled, “Maybe you missed it, but you work in a fucking strip club... a strip club I run with my brothers. It’s my job and theirs to make sure the women who work here are safe from assholes who don’t know how to keep their fucking hands to themselves—like the assholes who were fucking with you last night and the guy who was fucking with you earlier tonight.”
“Okay. Understood.”
“I certainly hope so.” Those baby blues were focused solely on me as I took a step closer and said, “But just to be sure...You should know there’s a big difference between being one of the girls who work in my club and one of the girls in my bed. Maybe one day, you’ll get the chance to know the difference.”