Keeping Blossom Read online

  The song is only on for about a minute before she ends it, and I think I’ve lost my last chance for fast money.

  “Was it that bad?”

  “Honey, it wasn’t bad at all. With moves like that, you’ll have men begging to marry you. Come down here.” I join her at the table with my luggage. “This is how it’s going to work. You get paid by what hits the stage or what they hand you. The more you strip, the more these fools will toss their money at you. No removing your panties, but the rest is up to you. It’s getting close to prep time so I want you to go in back with Star and she’ll get you nice and waxed for the show. You start tonight.”

  “Tonight?”

  “Yes, might as well rip the bandage off quickly. Don’t worry. I can tell this isn’t your thing, but some of the girls were in the same boat.”

  “Thanks, so much. I need this. I can’t sleep at a shelter one more night.” I cover my mouth.

  “Shelter?”

  “It’s my only choice at the moment. It’s either that or the street.”

  ~~~~

  It’s almost show time and I’m frazzled. I spent the afternoon getting torn to shreds by these monsters; waxing is not my thing. I hope I don’t have to do this for too long. I guess I could just take a bus back to Ohio depending how this goes, but I don’t have a job to go back to even if I do go home. I’ve been fighting an ever-present force of shit. One thing after another led me to this point. God, I wish I could get a do-over. I wouldn’t have taken the train; I would’ve gotten into Devin’s car and let him take me wherever he wanted to. And after the stuff Adam pulled when I first arrived, I never want to see him again. He managed to make my life worse than it already was.

  Shaking off the nerves when I hear my name from backstage, I get to my walk-on spot when the DJ calls out, “Let’s give a special welcome to the lovely Blossom, who’s ready to bloom!”

  The crowd goes wild with catcalls and whistles. I close my eyes and dance for Devin— The only man to have ever made my body burn with desire. It’s not a minute into the song before chaos erupts around me and I’m being carried out of the club.

  ~~~~

  “Hey, Devin, it’s Michael. I’ve got good and bad news. Bad news first, I’ve looked into several areas and there’s no record of her leaving Chicago, so I’ve got no way to track her movements unless I search credit cards and that’s out of my scope. The good news is that I’ve got a full name for her. When I cross checked your flight manifest with the times of other flights, there was one from Cincinnati, Ohio with a nineteen-year-old female named Blossom B. Bennett.”

  “Thanks, man. I owe you, but I need to find out where she went then. I’ve got to go.”

  I call my asshole step-brother, but the fucker refuses to answer for me. I close up the office because I have a late-night meeting with the guy who could drop the assault charges on Adam. He’s a shady attorney.

  I hate having to meet clients outside my office, but this place is a first for me. I ask my driver to bring me because I want a quick getaway. I step out of my SUV and look at the dilapidated sign. The Pole. Wow, what a classy joint! I shake my head and tuck it down so no one sees me enter. It wouldn’t ruin my career, but I don’t want to be associated with this place. Who the fuck holds a real meeting in a strip club? There’s so much tits and ass everywhere; no one’s going to be paying attention. Well, except me. Strippers do nothing for my cock. I find it disgusting and shameful, but fuck it— to each to his own. I hope no one recognizes me here. As I feel my fear of crowded places, I think about how I really hate Adam more and more as time goes on.

  I walk into the strip club and it’s packed as fuck, which only adds to my trepidation. My eyes scan the tables to find the guy I’m meeting. Not that I know what he looks like, but he should be alone and on the lookout for me.

  “Hey, Williams, over here!” The fatass at the table five feet from the stage calls me over. Rolling my eyes, I make my way to the dumbass. When I get to his table, I don’t sit; I just want this over and done with. Sitting will make him think it’s time to relax. It’s not playtime for me.

  “Take a seat, Williams,” he demands.

  I peer around the room and see shit that legally shouldn’t be going on here. There’s one guy at a table openly sniffing coke and one of the cocktail waitresses is crawling under the table. I bring my eyes back to him and explain, “Hell no, I’m liable to catch syphilis or herpes sitting here. I’m here for business only.”

  “Adam said you were a stuffed shirt. He was right on the money,” Andrade mocks.

  “Get to the point Andrade. You’ve got two minutes.”

  “Relax Devin, there’s new merchandise coming on stage next. I hear she’s the sexiest thing this place has ever had, but I’ll be the judge of that. Hopefully, I’ll be the one to christen her in the backroom with some Andrade juice.”

  “Aren’t you married?” Every word out of his mouth only serves to make me more and more disgusted.

  “You’re a lawyer like me. You know damn well what real men do. My wife isn’t anything compared to these broads. They know how to take it the way I like. Damn, I wonder if her lips are as plump as I envision.” That’s the tipping point. Fuck Adam and his fucked up problems, and fuck this scum here with a dirty cunt.

  “Andrade. Listen to me and listen good, you need to find another lawyer to take your lawsuit case. I won’t lower myself to deal with you in exchange for your client dropping the charges against Adam. I already made a mistake coming here in the first place.”

  “If you don’t take my case, the charges aren’t going to be dropped on your brother,” he warns me, but it’s more like a threat. I don’t give a shit about Adam. Jail time isn’t going to kill him.

  “Represent yourself and he’s not my brother,” I snarl at the fucking pig in front of me. He just laughs at me, takes a drink, and focuses on the stage as the lights change and center there. With a shake of my head, I make my way out of the place. I feel like an ass for not being able to help keep Adam out of jail, but I can’t let go of my own scruples. Once you work with people like Andrade, the stink never comes clean.

  “Let’s give a special welcome to the lovely Blossom, who’s ready to bloom!” I hear the name as I start toward the exit. Blossom. Something about hearing her name makes me turn around to see the stripper. The one who of course couldn’t compare to the Blossom that lives in my head.

  To my utter disbelief, there, in a flower costume, is the woman I’ve been looking for. The woman who’s captivated me with just a conversation. Blossom comes out wearing knee-high white boots with large white petals wrapped around her shoulders like a halter top just covering her bra and leaving nothing to the imagination. She’s strutting around the stage like she’s done this a hundred times before. She’s all strippered out. Blossom’s in a barley-there outfit, and her tanned, glossed, waxed body is revealing more than she should be as she turns around giving us a view of her cheeks in her thong. She dances with so much sexy confidence that I wonder if my initial assumption about her was really wrong, but then I notice her eyes are closed. With her lips parted, I know she’s dancing for someone in her head. In a state of pure shock, rage, and lust, I do something I never thought I would. I make a scene, but I don’t care because she’s not going to be one of Andrade’s backstage whores. Bum-rushing the stage, I push past the security guard and toss her over my shoulder and out of the club.

  Chapter 6

  “Put me down!” I shout, kicking and screaming at my captor. His smell is familiar, but I don’t know who’s got me. That’s what I get for keeping my eyes closed and thinking about Devin.

  “No, Blossom. So calm the fuck down,” he orders. It’s him. It can’t be him. The smell is his. I remember when he leaned over and caressed my cheek on the train. Soap, fresh laundry, and man, that’s his scent. The tears are pooling in my eyes. I don’t understand how he could’ve found me or why he’s got me over his shoulder, but I want him to take me away.

&nbs
p; I’m happy as hell right now, but I feel a breeze. I reach for my ass and try to cover one of my cheeks. It may be him, but my ass is still up in the air on a cool May night. “Devin?! Put me down.”

  “I said no, damn it. Stay still,” he snarls angrily before spanking me hard on the ass.

  He pulls his phone out of his pocket and dials while ignoring me. He practically snarls into the phone. “Chuck, bring the car around. I’m outside waiting.”

  “Devin, my ass is a little cold and exposed,” I shout from my perch over his shoulder.

  Before I have a chance to brace myself, he slides me down and wraps his arms around my waist. My ass is pressed into his pelvis, hiding it from anybody passing by. “You didn’t seem to mind it being exposed to those fucking perverts in there, and trust me, we’ll be dealing with that later.”

  “That’s not fair. If it weren’t for you and your asshole brother, I wouldn’t have been stripping to get money to go back to Ohio.”

  “Me! I didn’t do anything, and you’re not going back to Ohio,” he says in outrage.

  “Where am I supposed to go? What did you call me the last time you saw me?”

  He turns me to face him, looking me in the eyes. “I thought you played me when he kissed you. From my stepmother’s opinion, and seeing him kiss you, I thought you were looking for a bigger prize. I’m sorry for that,” he apologizes. I see the depth of his sincerity. He’s not lying, but it doesn’t change what’s happened.

  With a finger to Devin’s chest, I let him know what Adam told me when we left him. “Your brother only kissed me like that because he said you wanted me. If he hadn’t kissed me, you would’ve helped me find a job. I’d be working somewhere semi-respectable and not taking my clothes off for strangers.”

  “That’s not my fault at all. If I had known he’d toss you out on the street, I would’ve been there to pick you up,” he counters. His face is soft and it gives me the feeling of his true concern.

  Pushing to find out his reasons for wanting to locate me, I ask, “Why? Because you think I’m an easy, money-grubbing whore?” He’s saved by the bell or rather the sleek looking SUV that stops in front of us. A big man exits the driver seat and quickly opens the door for us.

  “Get in.” I want to argue his pushiness, but I can’t. I’ve got nowhere to go and I’ve missed him. The last two weeks hadn’t erased that one moment we shared. “That was easier than I expected.”

  “I’m cold, tired, and living in a shelter,” I admit without hesitation. After all that’s happened these past two weeks, I can’t.

  I can’t see his face because it’s too dark in the all black SUV, but I can feel his anger running off his body. “Why didn’t you call me? You went this far.”

  “Adam took the card from me when I tried to call and apologize for what happened at the train station. He shredded it, then the next night when I wouldn’t have sex with him, he tossed me out. Gosh, I’m so stupid. I should’ve stayed in Ohio.”

  He doesn’t respond in words, but he pulls me into him, wrapping me in his arms and is rubbing my bare arms. He only loosens his hold to take off his suit jacket, placing it over my shoulders.

  “Chuck, home please.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Chapter 7

  I’m trying to keep it together here. But all I can think about is smashing Adam’s face in. He’s a true piece of shit. He purposefully hurt her because it would bother me. I’m done with him. She’s been living in a shelter for Christ’s sake! Hearing her say that just gutted me. Spending the last two weeks irrationally jealous of Adam, and he hid the fact that he tossed her onto the street.

  I don’t care if he gets locked up for a long time. I’ll call my dad tomorrow to let him know what’s happening. What am I going to do with Blossom? I want her, and I know that it isn’t for a night or a few. I’m keeping Blossom, but how do I make it so she wants to stay?

  “Devin, I know you don’t really know me, but if you can find me a job, I’d be grateful. I can’t go back to the shelter. It’s not a safe place.”

  “You’re not going back to the shelter. If you want a job…you can be my housekeeper.”

  “Really, thank you!” she gushes, hugging me with genuine sincerity. Fuck, she’s really naïve or underestimates her attractiveness.

  “Don’t thank me. I’m not doing this just for you.”

  “Oh, you still want me in your bed?” she says it like it’s a repulsive thing. I find it disgusting that Adam’s had her, but I can forget it because he means no more to me than any of her other past lovers.

  “Don’t say it like it’s a bad thing.”

  “Listen, Devin. Please don’t mistake my gratitude for an invitation to my body.”

  “Calm down, Brooke. I really don’t want you as my housekeeper, but if it’s a way to keep you near and safe then I’ll do it. Like I said when we first met, I want to know you, to date you and see what happens between us. I’ll give you time, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to try to seduce you.”

  “Fine. Challenge accepted. After your brother, you’ve got a difficult journey ahead of you.”

  Gripping her face, I look her dead in the eyes and warn her, “Don’t ever compare me to him. He’s not my real brother. My father married his mother and we’re nothing alike.” Unable to resist how close our faces are, I kiss her like I’ve been aching to do for three long weeks. Her lips are soft with some sweet flavoring gloss. I think I’ll forever associate her taste with vanilla. She parts her lips with a sigh. I take this opportunity to nibble on her bottom lip before slowly kissing her jaw.

  I try to back away to stop this before I go too far. She’s in a vulnerable place and I can’t do this unless I know it’s what she really wants. Tonight is not that night. Stealing one last deep, tasty kiss, I sit back and observe her. She’s just opened her eyes slowly. I can see the hunger in them; it’s equal to mine, but I can’t go there— yet.

  I see indecision and embarrassment in her greenish-gray eyes. “Don’t. I’m not going to make this about sex because with you, I know it’s something more. I haven’t figured it all out yet, but I want you and to know everything I can about you.”

  “This is so complicated. I must be out of my mind,” she sighs.

  “Just relax and rest. We’ll talk when we get to my place.”

  The rest of the ride is filled with my thoughts. I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing with her. She’s got something that’s captivated me from the start. I was honest about it being more than sex, but she’s right— it’s complicated.

  Once we pull into the underground garage, I escort her to my personal elevator. Waving Chuck off for the night, I press my button and enter my passcode. “Figures. You have your own private elevator in a fancy building.”

  “Figures?”

  “You’re a rich, young lawyer.”

  “Most of my money comes from my family, but I’ve made my own sizable share through hard work.”

  “I didn’t mean it in a bad way. It’s just we’re so far apart in everything.”

  “Opposites attract, sweetheart.”

  ~~~~~

  We enter his place and it’s just like out of a movie. I immediately feel out of place. It’s shiny, expensive, and super clean. I turn around, facing him and give him a skeptical glare. “You really don’t need my help with housework, do you?”

  “Just because I don’t need it, doesn’t mean I don’t want it. I’d like to not have to clean and cook during my free time, plus I’d like to have an excuse to have you cook for me.”

  “Oh, okay. So I know this is all a last minute thing, but is there anything in particular you need me to do?”

  “To eat and relax. You’ve had a rough few weeks, and I feel terrible about it. I’ll show you where you can sleep.”

  “In your bed,” I mumble to myself, but I think he heard me.

  Devin shakes his head but doesn’t respond. There’s a room down the hall from a chef’s kitchen. He opens the d
oor into a small, clean bedroom. “This is your room. If you choose to sleep here or if you want to sleep in my bed, that’s fine either way, but just so you know, I like to sleep naked.”

  I blush at the thought of seeing him naked, which inspires a wicked grin from him. “Don’t worry. I don’t sleep-walk, but if you do, my room is upstairs and to the left.”

  Thinking about sleeping naked, I realize all my belongings are at the strip club if they haven’t already tossed them in the street. “Shit! My suitcase is at the club.”

  “It’s okay. I’ll call them right now and have it sent over.”

  “I don’t know if that’s smart, considering you stole me from the club. They’re probably not too happy with you.”

  “No, they’re not. You would’ve brought in an enormous crowd, but I don’t care. You’re not stripping for money. Now, if you get the urge to dance for me, I won’t have any complaints.”

  “You’re not going to quit, are you?”

  “Nope.”

  “Just like…” she glares, but I cut her off before she says something that makes me kill Adam.

  “Don’t mention my brother again. In fact, better yet, I want to get him out of the way of whatever we have, so tell me about your relationship— Just leave out the sex.”

  “That’s easy. We never had sex.”

  “You two didn’t,” he says in disbelief, tossing himself back onto the bed.

  “No, we haven’t, and it’s the reason we broke up.” I pause, but he looks at me demanding I tell him more. “I met him at work one day. He was with a couple of guys and they all tried to run their game on me. I’ve been around long enough to know that it was a competition to see who could get my attention. I bit and let your brother win. At first, it was just to get them to leave me alone, but then he was nice to me. Of course, I learned exactly what he wanted by our first date. I told him I wasn’t that easy, and he said I was worth the wait. We spent the summer getting to know each other when we had time. It wasn’t very often because of my chaotic life. One day, I wanted to surprise him because I got out early, and I found him in his car having sex with another girl. It’s the reason he was willing to wait. He was already getting some on the side.”