CHAPTER 18
RICHIE
She was smokin’ hot. The more time I spent with her, the more attracted I was. Her smile alone was enough to knock me off my feet. In fact, if my ass wasn’t planted on this seat, I’d have been picking myself up off the floor.
Not only was she beautiful, but damn she was so sweet. Her soft laugh sent my throbbing cock into overdrive. I longed to know what she tasted like, so I did the next best thing. I leaned into her, placing my hand on her knee to test the waters and inhaled deeply.
Floral.
Jasmine, maybe? Lavender? Lilac? I wasn’t sure but whatever it was, it was just as lovely as she was.
I loved the fact that I still wasn’t really confident she was even attracted to me. She was smiling and laughing and being completely polite, but she wasn’t throwing out the usual signals. She wasn’t fawning over me, she wasn’t laughing too loudly at my jokes, she didn’t even put her hand over mine when I placed it on her knee, which really threw me off. She was keeping me guessing, which turned out to be the biggest turn-on.
And, she wasn’t really opening up much. Most of the time, I’d heard a woman’s entire life story by this point in a date. She’d been asking about me, barely talking about herself at all.
All of which led me to this — maybe this wasn’t a date at all.
Suddenly, I felt like I’d been hit upside the head with a reality stick. I pulled my hand away from her knee and put it back in my lap.
Of course, this wasn’t a date. I’d met her at the club and went out for a drink, but for a woman like her, I’d be crazy to think she counted it as a date. She’d expect much more from a man. At the very least, a real date, with flowers and an arranged pick-up time, dinner, dancing, whatever else the non-Tinder crowd did these days.
Stripping had ruined me. I’d been so immersed in the culture of the club for so long that I’d slipped, allowed the instant hook-ups and easy self-gratification masquerade as real courtship.
“So what do you do for work, Tillie?” I asked.
“I was mostly just a housewife. Not sure what I’ll do now.”
“You have kids?”
“No.” Her lips pursed tightly, and I took that as a signal not to question her any further on that subject.
“Me, either,” I replied. “Pets?”
“Yes!” She said, her eyes lighting up. “I have two cats. Leo and Milo. I just rescued them a few months ago from the shelter.”
“Nice,” I replied. “I’d love to get a dog, but I’m rarely home.”
“If you buy your own club, you’ll be home even less, right?”
“I suppose.”
“You don’t sound so confident.”
“I’m not. Yet.” I hated that, too. I wanted to impress her. I don’t know why impressing a woman I was probably never going to see again once she left town was so important to me, but there I was, feeling like an inadequate failure.
“I think what you do is so great,” she said. “At first, I thought it was going to be really cheesy and silly, but you make it exciting and fun.”
“Thank you,” I said, grateful for the compliment. “I put a lot of work into my shows. So do my buddies.”
“Are there are other clubs like your’s in town?”
“Yes, and they do much better than our’s,” I said, pushing away the irritation and taking a big slug off my beer. “I’ve been trying to get the owner of our club to make some renovations but he won’t put any money into the place.”
“That’s too bad,” she said, her gorgeous green eyes gazing over at me with concern. “Is that why you want to start your own club?”
“My plan is to buy the club from him.”
“Oh,” she nodded. “That’s a fabulous idea. Then you can do whatever you want.”
“That’s the idea.”
“I hope it all works out,” she said.
“Me, too, thanks,” I replied. And then, much to my dismay, she yawned.
“I’m so sorry,” she said, throwing her hand over her open mouth. “It’s late.”
“Let’s get you back to your hotel,” I replied, finishing my beer and standing up. I threw a twenty on the table for Mike and reached out to help Tillie out of the booth. The slide of her palm against mine was like an electric shock and I gasped, our eyes crashing into each other.
She smiled, so lovely, so enchanting.
“Must be the carpet,” she shrugged.
“Right,” I nodded, keeping her hand in mine as we walked out of the bar.