I must've listened to the voice mail three times already. Mr. Savage wanted me to come in, to dance for him … privately.

Although I wasn't surprised since most strip clubs had an audition before they even considered hiring a dancer, this particular instance made me very nervous.

This was a job, a way for me to make money and pay my debts. Besides, if my hopefully soon-to-be boss knew that I was actually a virgin, he'd probably laugh me out the door.

How could he take me seriously for this job when I had no sexual experience? Didn’t a dancer have to have that eroticism, that knowledge of how to turn a person on in order to seduce them without even touching them?

But I knew how to dance, and I did it damn well. I didn’t have to know what a cock felt like inside of me to know how to move.

I just had to prove to him that I was good enough.

I grabbed my duffel that sat by the front door, picked up my car keys, and stared at myself in a little mirror above the foyer table.

Foyer … I could've laughed at the term I’d just used. The apartment I lived in was a dirty, run-down place that had one bedroom with a perpetual musty smell, peeling linoleum in the kitchen, and carpet in the living room that looked like it was from the seventies.

But this was home, at least until I could afford something better.

I climbed into my crappy, beat-up Honda. I haphazardly pulled up my hair and twisted it in a bun. I bobby pinned the hell out of it, smoothed my fingers under the slightly dark circles under my eyes, and tried to calm my breathing.

I didn't sit there for very long, because I knew making a good impression, even if it was for a strip club, was in my best interest.

I cranked the engine and headed down the road, not knowing how the day would go but feeling this excitement rush through me.

There was something about Cole Savage that had my blood coursing through my veins, had my palms sweating, and had my heart racing. I knew feeling this kind of arousal, this reaction to a man I didn't even know and had only met for a total of five minutes, was ridiculous.

But I also couldn't help the effect he had on my body. Ever since leaving his office, he was all I thought about. The images that flashed in my mind were filthy. The things I wanted him to do to me made me blush even though I was alone.

Stupid or not, I clung to my emotions, my arousal. I didn't want them to end, didn't want it to vanish as easily as everything else seemed to do in my life.

Although I was not broken and hadn't had a horrible childhood, I had missed out on life, on the things that I loved. Ballet was the thing I regretted the most. When your family showed their disappointment over the fact you won't be a coveted dancer, it was hard not to absorb that dark weakness that consumed you like nothing else.

But I'd done well to stay above the water, to not let it drag me down. Instead I embraced the things I did have, the things I was good at.

And right now that was to impress, and show Cole Savage what I had to offer.

* * *

I’d specifically closed the club for this moment. I wanted to watch Jana dance without any interference or distractions.

I wanted her to dance for me alone.

I led her to the back room, because even if there was nobody else at the club, I still wanted privacy. I didn't want anybody looking at her, didn't want anybody to see as she took her clothes off. That was all for me. She was mine.

Mine.

That one word had never meant so much.

She was nervous; that was clear by the way she kept twisting her fingers together, by the rapid beat of her pulse right beneath her ear. I knew she wanted to ask me why nobody else was at the club, because I could see her looking around, the confusion on her face.

I pushed open the back door, held it for her, and let her walk by me. When she passed me, I inhaled deeply, the sweet scent of floral and sugar filling my head.

I instantly got hard.

Although I knew when she was on that stage, twisting her body for me, even if she was still fully clothed, my dick would be rock-hard.

I've never felt such an intense need to claim a woman. It had been years since I took a woman into my bed. And even before then I rarely did that. Years of being celibate, of not having any desire for the opposite sex fueled my need to make my business rise.

But it had only taken a second for me to look at Jana to know I wanted her irrevocably. I'd own every inch of her before the week was out.

Insta-love, insta-lust, whatever it was called … she would be mine.

Once we were both in the VIP only room, I shut the door, the soft click sounding deafening as the silence stretched on.

She stood there, looking at the stage, her hand tightly wrapped around the strap of her duffel bag. I walked over to one of the tables, grabbed one of the overturned chairs that was on top of it, and placed it on the floor. I sat, not speaking because I knew she was smart enough to know that I wanted this to start.

Because truth was I was so fucking ready to have her get on that stage and show me what she could do.

It only took her a few seconds before she moved toward the slightly raised stage.

The lights were already partially dimmed, the only glow shining down on the silver bar in the center of the stage. My heart was thundering, this excitement racing through me at the very thought of what I was about to see. It had only been one day since she came into my office, but since then she was all I thought about.

I knew she wouldn't disappoint, simply because she was perfect.