It had not been a good week, to say the least.

I was tired, achy, and felt like an old ass man at the age of thirty-five.

I was a single father, who would soon be officially divorced, and I was also the owner of a lucrative company. Right now, I should've been feeling like a billion bucks or more, because that’s what I was worth, but working all day Saturday while worrying about your kid will make anyone feel deflated.

I was just driving around. I wasn’t ready to go home to a house without my daughter in it, but it was dark and there wasn’t anything to do. I finally turned toward the downtown street that would take me home, but my eye caught a sign that I’d seen before.

It was a bar that I’d passed countless times on my commute, but didn’t know very well. I wasn’t usually much of a drinker, seeing as how I had a kid to take care of. Its name was Peaches and Cheeks and so there was no way I didn’t know it was a seedy strip club, on top of the fact that the single male employees who worked for me liked to tell me stories about the hot dancers who worked there.

I always thought I’d leave that kind of stuff up to them to explore. It wasn’t my thing. But tonight, suddenly, the thought of being in there, where nobody knew me or could kiss up to me was very appealing. I didn't want to be the big successful billionaire tonight. I was just going to be a guy out to have a few drinks and forget his troubles for a couple of hours. In a place where no one knew me.

The music was loud and the smell of cheap alcohol was in the air. I inhaled it and sat down at the bar to order a drink. I would need it, to be in a place like this which wasn’t even normally my scene.

"Hey, can I have a whiskey on the rocks?" I asked the young male bartender.

"No problem."

He poured my drink and slid it down to me.

I downed the spicy mixture and savored the sting lingering down my throat.

Glancing over my shoulder, I saw a female dancer on the pole. Her light pale skin glowed under the lights that shined above her.

She wore a skimpy set of red lingerie. I would say she wore it confidently but— although she should have, because her body was fucking gorgeous, with curves in all the right places— she appeared to be shy and self-conscious. She stumbled here and there, which was another indication of her newness and innocence.

Suddenly, I felt fucking guilty for being in this place. My mind told me it was sad that females were subjected to this treatment because of the lack of money. I thought about Ariel. I was fortunate that she didn't have to ever look this life in the eye.

But I was also a red blooded male and that dancer was the hottest thing I had seen in a long time. I told myself not to feel bad. I couldn’t help it that my cock was getting hard just looking at her and thinking about what I wanted to do with her.

She wiggled her curvy ass and I thought about bending her over and fucking her from behind. She took off her bikini top and her breasts were so big and round that all I wanted to do was play with them.

For now, watching this hot yet innocent looking dancer on stage, I decided I wasn't going to worry about anything. I worried about custody and all that shit enough during other times of my recently stressful life.

I was here for a good time, so I straggled over to the stage where the beautiful blonde with a small waist and big nice hips danced. The men seemed to love it when she stumbled, looking at each other with nods and grins. Her clumsiness screamed fresh blood to them.

I dug into my wallet and saw that I had a stash of hundreds. Nothing smaller.

"What the hell," I mumbled to myself.

I took out a few and was prepared to hand them to her─ well, stuff them in her garter or wherever she preferred them. She did a few turns on the pole, and then began walking over to me to collect the cash. She looked hesitant at first but then appeared to have renewed resolve, lengthening her pace in her very high heels. She must not have been used to walking on them because something happened and she lost her grip, tumbling right over onto me.

"Ah!" she screamed, falling head first my way.

"I got you!" I said, catching her.

We both fell back onto the floor and the men whooped and hollered.

"I'm so sorry!" she apologized, checking my jacket.

Her voice was sweet, yet strong. It captured me in a state of slow motion. She flicked her long lashes up at me while her innocent yet still somehow sultry blue eyes peered up at me from underneath them.

Suddenly, I felt as undone as she had just become.

She’s just a fucking stripper, I told myself. And not even a good one at that. You could have any stripper you wanted, so don’t go getting attached to this one.

But I couldn’t seem to help it. It appeared she had some sort of magical spell over me.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

I rubbed my neck and grinned. "I'm good. You?"

Another dancer walked out on stage and the men turned their attention towards the obviously much more experienced stripper in black lingerie and latex thigh high boots.

"I'm okay. I'm such a terrible dancer," she groaned. “My boss is sure going to regret his decision to let me up here on stage tonight.”

So, it was her first time doing this. What were the odds? She must really need money.

I dug out the bills I had for her earlier and shoved them into her hands.

Big mistake. I shouldn't have touched her. Of course, she was sitting on my lap, but this was skin on skin.

That silky cool skin made my blood rush. As did the pink, erect nipples staring up at me from her breasts. I wished I could take them into my mouth and kiss them, suck on them, please her the way it pleased me to have her plush ass sitting on my lap right now, not even an inch away from my hungry cock.

"Oh?" she said, looking at the money in her hands. "Thank you!"

Such innocence. What the fuck was she doing here?

She ran off into the back and I watched her perfectly round ass cheeks bounce as she disappeared behind a curtain.

If it weren't for the guard that stood there, I'd have followed her and begged her to come with me. It was as if she had been some fucking magical fairy who had flittered into my life and back out again in such a short amount of time that I didn’t know what hit me.

I didn't know what led me to stay there. But I found myself in the corner, tearing my eyes away from the current dancers to the curtained door over by one of the bouncers to see if the hot girl who had literally fallen into my lap while wearing sexy red lingerie would come back out again.

Minutes melted into hours, and then those hours bumped into the early morning hours. Two in the morning, and I was still there. I hardly even drank my whiskey. The guards shooed off the rest of the men and I got up to leave.

I was a fool. She could have left hours ago through the back or something.

Just as I headed to the exit, I saw her come back out in her regular clothes. Two men who had exited the bar after her continued to trail close behind her. I ran over and followed them into an alley.

"Hey, baby, we were waiting to see you back on the pole. Or out walking the floor so we could get a lap dance. Don’t be a cock tease. Let us take you back to our place for a good time!" slurred one man.

"Yeah, we got plenty of action left in us,” said the other, his voice way too loud.

She shook her head. "Sorry, gotta get home."

When one of the men went to grab her arm, I stepped in front of him and elbowed him in the face.

The woman yelped, "Behind you!"

His friend tried to attack me and I stuffed my foot in his face. Scooping up my curvy blonde in my arms, I ran off with her out onto the main street where there was plenty of lighting.

I sat her down and checked to make sure she was okay.

She was gorgeous up close with those big baby blue eyes and dark thick lashes.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"You... I remember you.” Her cheeks turned pink in the street light. “Thank you. I'm fine."

She looked around and glanced at the bus stop across the street.

"Don’t you drive?" I asked her.

"No, I take the bus."

"Let me drive you home, my car is right over here. This isn't the time for a young lady to be out here." She looked at me and then over to the bus stop.

She was weighing her options. Then she stepped over to me and smiled. "Okay. I don't think you're like the others."

"No, of course not."

At first I was a bit insulted that she could think so. Then I realized I had been in a strip club all night long. But then again, so had she.

I walked her to my Lamborghini and opened the passenger side door. She slipped in like a soft piece of silk, then down into the seat as if she belonged there, as part of the car, as part of my life.

I hopped in on the other side and turned on the light inside the car.

I caught another good look at her. The scent of her floral perfume lingered in the air.

No, don't do it, Darien. You remember that clause. No dating or sexual relationships. Don't risk your custody of Ariel!

I revved the engine and pulled out of the parking spot.

She told me her address, and I drove her there. It was disheartening to hear that she didn't have a safer way to get to her job.

Before she left, I tapped her shoulder. "You should get a car."

She shook her head and bit her lip. "I can't. I have to take care of my brother. He needs my help. But thank you so much for the concern and the ride."

"What's your name, if you don't mind me asking?"

"My name is Willow.” She laughed a little. “Before you ask, yes, that's my real name. Haven't thought of a proper dancer name yet."

“I’m Derien,” I told her. “How could you never came back out on stage?”

As soon as I asked the question, I realized I sounded like the creeps who were trying to follow her home. But I didn’t want to explain that I had been sitting out there for the purpose of wanting to see her again. Not just her gorgeous, almost naked body on the stage, but her very essence. How could a man explain that in a way that sounded realistic? So, I didn’t even try.

She didn’t seem offended by the question.

“Oh my God,” she’d said. “I got in so much trouble for falling on you. My boss said I’m not allowed back out until I can prove I’m not a clutz. So I spent the rest of the evening watching YouTube videos on my phone, to teach me how to be a stripper. And practicing on the pole in the back, with some of the other girls trying to teach me. I doubt I’ll get it though.”

The way she shook her head when she said this was so cute. I couldn’t help but wonder why she wanted to learn how to be a stripper. I figured it was none of my business. And that I couldn’t find out more about her without doing stupid things I couldn’t be doing. So, it was time for us to part.

Willow leaned in and gave me a peck on the cheek. "Thanks for the ride. Maybe I'll see you again soon!"

She smiled and got out of the car. I watched her walk up to her home and didn't leave until she was safely inside.

Such an innocent kiss lit a fire in me. That’s just the celibacy talking, I tried to tell myself. But deep down I knew she had ignited passion within me that I hadn’t even realized could exit.