“So…I’m gonna go. I’ll leave you here to continue doing…whatever it is you’re doing.” Dani smiled as she tightened the long black peacoat she now sported over her lingerie. Somehow, I missed her putting it on, lost in my own head again.
Sheswungaroundthepole like a goddess. Like her body was meant for music and motion. Her dances weren’t sensual at all–they were a fucking artform. They were angry and sad, a strange balance she perfected quickly once she started performing on stage last summer.
And the crowd loved it.
Even though her end goal was to convince certain men to take things a step further, she didn’t use the stage for attention or money. You wouldn’t know there was another person in the room based on how she danced. She danced for herself.
The only man she made eye contact with was her target–Marco Sanchez. He was in the front row, right by the stage, and her eyes flickered to him every once in a while. Her set was almost done, finishing it off to her signature song–Breaking Downby I Prevail.
When I said sad and angry, that’s what I meant.
I perched on the edge of a booth, which was also occupied by my friends Theo and Noah, ready to do my part as soon as she got Marco in the back.
It wasn’t a matter ofifhe would go–he certainly would. Marco devoured her with his beady eyes. He was dark-skinned and dark-haired, tall and muscular.Her favorite. A woman sat on his lap but he wasn’t paying any attention to her. He was enamored by Dani, which is exactly what she wanted.
“I have a hard time watching her here and then seeing her at school. It’s weird,” Noah said as his eyes dropped from the stage to the drink in front of him.
“Then don’t look,” Theo chimed in as he leaned back in the booth, not having an issue watching Dani perform.
“She’s almost done,” I said as I slammed back the bourbon I’d been nursing for the last fifteen minutes. “Then I’ll take care of what I need to do and we can bounce.”
“Good,” Noah sighed. He pulled his phone from his pocket and busied himself with something. He didn’t like hanging at Ethereal. He’d rather be at my house playing video games or shooting pool.
Theo loved every second of it. They both knew I had shit to do for Dad–most of which involved the club. And since Theo was a bona fide manwhore, he was always down to hang out here while I worked.
“You two hate-fuck each other yet? Sometimes all you need to end the tension is to pound it out,” Theo said before he ran his hand through his dark blonde hair.
I grunted in response, returning my stare back to Marco.
“C’mon man. If you don’t, I will. Again.” Theo playfully punched my arm. I scowled in his direction and he threw his hands up in surrender. “I kid, I kid. She already told me it wasn’t happening again.”
Theo and Dani hooked up a few months ago, much to my chagrin. The last thing I needed was drama between my best friend and my…whatever Dani was. It varied between friend, enemy, and plaything.
“She has enough to worry about without you begging to fuck her again. Don’t you have any shame?”
“No,” Noah answered for him quickly.
Theo laughed and chugged the last of his beer. “I’m not going tobegher like I did last time, but if you aren’t going to tap it like I know you want to, be a decent human and tell us so I know she’s fair game.”
“You can do whatever you want,” I responded without looking at him. Dani’s song just finished and she was walking backstage. Marco’s eyes never left her backside, which meant he was done.
“Bullshit. You didn’t talk to me for a week after I fucked her. And you punched me! In our defense, we were both high as fuck. And that was the night you went on a date with Lauren. Pretty sure she was just trying to get back at you.”
That date.I shuddered remembering how annoying Lauren was. Super clingy, whiny, and overall boring to talk to. Dad forced me to go to some charity event with her on my arm. It was supposed to be Bobby, but with him in a wheelchair…
Dad had been working on a business agreement with Lauren’s father, which meant I was the lucky pawn that got to chauffeur his bitch of a daughter around.
Should’ve known that would make her fall in love with me. Well–the idea of me, at least. Crazy bitch. She was obsessed with my brother until his accident. I seemed to have taken Bobby’s place in more ways than one.
“I was pissed because I knew it’d make shit awkward. I knew you’d be obsessed with her pussy. I don’t want drama at the house,” I said just as Dani reappeared at the bar, stalking Marco who was throwing back another shot of tequila.
She slid into the space next to him and trailed her finger down his bicep, whispering something in his ear that made his eyes light up, pressing her full tits into his arm. Her fingers glided up through his hair as she nodded to the curtain at the end of the bar, which was guarded by bouncers, and he grinned in response.
“Whatever you say, man,” Theo laughed and Noah shook his head.
They could believe whatever they wanted. I didn’t have a claim on Dani just like she didn’t have one on me. If they wanted to fuck her, that was her decision.
I watched as Dani took Marco’s hand and led him to the bouncers. I realized my jaw was clenched so tight my molars ached, and my grip on my glass was so strong I was surprised it didn’t shatter.