Jessica shoveled another spoon of ice cream into her mouth, feeling marginally better with each gulp. “That guy is sleazy. All he does is stare at my br**sts.”
“Everyone stares at your br**sts, Jess.”
“I’m also the only student he knows by name.”
“You really don’t get it, do you?”
“Get what?”
“You’re gorgeous. You have guys falling all over themselves to be with you, yet you turn them all down. And how long has it been since you’ve had sex?”
“You know I haven’t since—”
“You dumped that stupid prick you were engaged to.”
Jessica nodded. She didn’t understand why Sed still plagued her.
“Are you ever going to get over him?”
“I am over him.” She hated his f**king guts. Mostly because she missed him so much.
“Whatever, sweetie. Just who do you think wiped your tears every night for six months?”
“But I don’t cry over him anymore.”
Beth gave her a pitying look. “I know. I’m sorry I brought him up.” She slurped ice cream from her spoon. “Did you find a job yet?”
“No.” Which worried her. All the paying positions she’d tried to line up for the summer had fallen through. She could have her choice of unpaid internships, but she needed money and the job market sucked. “I’ve got to make at least $8,000 extra this summer. One of my scholarships was only renewable for two years. I have to replace that money somehow.”
“Just take out some loans.”
“I refuse to be in debt. You’ve seen my mother’s situation. I’ll never follow her path to financial ruin. Required to have a man to take care of me. No self-respect.” Jessica shoveled several spoonfuls of ice cream into her mouth at the thought of her mother.
“I don’t think it’s quite the same, Jess. You’re paying for an education. What was she paying for?”
Jessica rolled her eyes. “Breast implants. Nose job. Tanning. Body wraps. Lingerie. Things to land herself a rich husband.”
Beth chuckled. “Yet she married four losers.”
“Five, if you count the current loser.”
“See, no comparison. Just take out a loan and spend the summer on the beach.”
Jessica smiled. “You’re a bad influence, Beth.”
“The only way you’ll make that kind of cash in three months is illegally.” Beth got a reflective look on her face. “Or…”
“Why don’t I like the sound of that ‘or’?”
“My cousin, Aggie, works at a strip club called Paradise Found in Las Vegas.”
“A strip club? What does that have to do with me?”
“She makes a fortune, Jessica. With your looks and that body, you’ll have men throwing money at you by the handful.”
“No way in hell, Beth.”
“Why not? You were a natural when we took that pole dancing fitness class. The instructor said you should go pro. And I know you had fun. You liked it.”
Pole dancing was fun and she had liked it. Loved it, actually.
“Don’t you think exotic dancing will hurt my chances for respectable employment as a defense attorney?”
“Nope. Not really. Just use a stage name. No one will know.”
“Uh, duh, Beth, employment history is searchable under your social security number.”
“No one is going to care if you worked in a club while you were in college. Stop making excuses. Admit it. It’s a good idea.”
“It’s not gonna happen. Just drop it.”
“So I guess that means you’re staying with your mother and stepfather this summer.” Beth snorted with amusement. “That should be fun. How’s Ed?”
As a rule, Jessica tried not to think of her stepfather, Ed. The way he always stared at her with his protruding eyes. Accidentally touched her and rubbed up against her. Picked the bathroom door lock to catch her in the shower. Watched her sleep. Used her toothbrush “by mistake.” One time she’d caught him jacking off in her closet with her panties wrapped around his pathetic cock. Jessica shuddered. Ed was a good enough reason to avoid going home, but her mother’s inevitable “blame Jessica for my darling hubby’s weakness” position was too much to bear.
Jessica covered her churning stomach with one hand.
There was nothing wrong with exotic dancing, really. Perfectly legal. Great money. Potentially empowering. Maybe it was time for her physical gifts to give her something besides anxiety.
“Paradise Found, huh? Do you have Aggie’s number?”
Chapter 3
In the dimly lit bedroom of Sinners’ tour bus, Sed gazed down at the bombshell blonde. She pressed her unnaturally firm breast into his arm, a coy smile on her hot pink lips.
“But Sed, the show’s sold out.” She pouted and placed a presumptuous hand on his belly. “Don’t you have some extra tickets?” When he didn’t respond, her hand drifted toward the low waistband of his jeans.
These chicks were all the same.
“I might.” Sed rubbed his jaw. He needed to shave before they headed to the club for his lead guitarist’s bachelor party. He had a few minutes, though.
“Can I have them?”
“Depends. What will you give me in return?”
Her hand gripped his waistband and she jerked him toward her. “I’ll suck you off.”
They never offered to do his laundry.
Sed fished several condoms out of his pocket and examined them. “I’ve got cherry or piña colada flavored.”
“A condom?” She wrinkled her too-perfect-to-be-God-given nose at him. As hot as she was, with her bleached hair, bronze tan, and long pink fingernails, she radiated fake.
“I don’t know where your mouth’s been.”
She shrugged and grabbed a condom out of his hand. “Whatever.”
She opened the fly of his pants and freed his half-hard dick from its confines. By the time she unrolled the condom over his cock, he was rock hard.
“I wasn’t expecting you to be so big,” she said in awe.
“Afraid you can’t take it?” he said, grinning crookedly.
“No, I think I want you to f**k me.”
“You think?”
She grabbed the base of his shaft and encircled its head with her bright pink lips. Overly plump lips. What did they call that shit they injected into them? Collagen?
At times like these, he missed Jessica. Jessica had been real.