I stare in disbelief as the most chiseled man I’ve seen in my life comes onto the stage to the song “Get Low” as fake smoke rolls across the stage.

He’s all muscles, upper and lower body. Below, he’s got a pair of tight black briefs attempting to cover his clearly gifted manhood, and up top a huge, ridiculous, black dragon mask covers his face.

The lights are dim, and the fake smoke lessens the visibility so all I can see is huge, broad, shoulders that turn into a perfect “V” as my gaze shifts down the man’s abdomen. His tanned body has a load of tattoos, though I can’t tell what they are in the darkened stage light.

I shoot Krista a disbelieving look. “You brought me to a male strip club?”

“It’s not really a male strip club,” Axel answers, butting in. “It’s a club where anything goes. It’s accepting of everyone no matter what your thing. And yeah, they have some private rooms in the back. For private dances, private whatever.”

“Private whatever?” I echo, curious what the ‘whatever’ could be that happens in the back room.

But I fail to listen to Axel’s answer to my question because I’m completely and utterly mesmerized by this man on stage.

The way he moves his body sends bolt of heat through me. Some of the heat lands directly in a spot right between my legs. My skin tingles.

“Holy shit,” I whisper.

“Yeah,” Amelia nods. “Who is this guy?”

Axel shrugs. “Just my buddy. He lost a bet, so this was his punishment.”

My jaw hangs open as he covers ground on the stage.

“You should get up there with him,” Ax prods.

“Oh, I couldn’t do that. Isn’t that like...extra?”

He laughs. “I’ll cover it, if it is. Just jump up there. Hey Dazzler!” he calls to the guy on stage. “We got a girl here who wants to get on stage with you! And she’s got mad cash!”

Ax hands me a wad of ones and winks. “Have fun with me, will ya.”

I hesitate. A pang of guilt rolls through me, and I feel weird about jumping up on stage with some random guy just to feel on his abs.

Especially after the night I had with Damien.

Amelia can sense my hesitation to get up on stage. “I see what you’re thinking, but be like Nike, Kris,” Amelia says.

“Yeah, like Nike. Just do it.”

“I don’t know,” I say, gritting my teeth. “Isn’t it kind of wrong to be grinding on some hot stripper guy when I really want to be with someone else?”

“Stop worrying so much!” Amelia says. “Here, finish your drink and get up there. It’s not a big deal, really.”

Ax shrugs. “I’m sure he’ll appreciate having someone up there to take the spotlight off him.”

I glance up at him, and there’s not much of a spotlight, really. It's so dark, in fact, I can’t even make out a single one of his tattoos.

“You’re worried about your one night stand, aren’t you?” Amelia says over the music.

I nod.

“I told you, you need to take things less seriously. You took Nick way too seriously—you did everything for him, and look where you ended up. It’s not like you’re making out with this hottie or anything. It’s just a dance.

I take a deep breath and shoot one more glance at the sexy-as-hell man in the shadows on the stage.

“Fine,” I huff, and adrenaline pushes me over the edge as I jump onto stage with the man, my heart jumping up in my throat and beating like crazy.

The dragon-man is getting low just like the lyrics describe—and I never thought it would be so sexy to watch a man move like that.

And as I get closer to him I feel my body heating up from the inside out.

Holy shit, I’m getting turned on.

As I approach, I can smell him. It’s a subtle, masculine scent, and I swear I recognize it from somewhere.

My heart beats too fast to think.

Now on stage, I close my eyes and just let go. I let my instincts take over, and do a move resembling a twerky grind.

The crowd gets into it, and I’m emboldened. I shake it faster. Harder. The high of the stage hits me.

Holy crap, this is fun.

Just then, I feel big, strong hands take hold of my hips, and the flesh of the sexy dragon man presses into me.

His big, muscled chest touches my back.

Losing myself in the moment, I let my hair fall over my eyes.

In another second he takes hold of my body, his large hands gripping my hips. His musk, the way he carries himself, his aura—they feel so damn familiar.

I can’t think straight enough to process who he might be, though, and I as I grind my ass into his briefs, I feel his hard length between my cheeks.

Holy shit, the dragon man is huge.

And he feels...like someone I know. But where?

It feels wrong to be this turned on in front of an entire room full of people, but I can’t help it. As he pulls me into his hard body, I grind my hips into him as hard as I can.

I feel his body heating up too.

The song comes to a crescendo and—I’ll just say it—we’re basically grinding so hard against each other we might as well be fucking.

I reach my hand behind my back and run my palm along his abs. The rippling muscles are giving me major dejavu!

“Fuck,” the dragon man finally makes a noise other than a grunt.

The blood runs out of my face, because I’d recognize that gravelly voice anywhere.

The song halts, and I spin around.

Dragon man takes off his mask.

It’s freaking Damien.

I glance at the tattoos covering his body, wondering how even with his trademark big rose tattoo I wasn’t able to recognize him.

“Holy shit,” he snarls. “It’s you.”

And I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.

But my heart is beating so hard it wants to jump right out of my chest.