Chapter 4
Emerson
The girls arrived in Ruby's large SUV to pick me up the next morning at nine o’clock sharp. Like most of them, I was wearing a pair of shorts and a tee. Anyone knew that if you were going for a pedicure that you wore flip flops or sandals, and it soon became apparent that there was a competition as to who was wearing the prettiest pair. I instantly lost because I was wearing a pair of plain pink flip flops.
Della laughed. "Next time you'll know." She held up a foot to show me a jewel-studded sandal. "I've already spent a small fortune trying to outshine these ladies," she joked.
I laughed along with them. "Who determines the winner?"
"That would be you, the loser," Ruby replied with a snort of amusement. She was driving.
All at once there were five bejeweled feet sticking out in my direction where I sat in the back with Lonnie. I laughed, glancing down at them. "I'm honored! When do I make my decision?"
"On the way home," they said in unison.
"No pressure!" Cookie smiled, wiggling her foot at me.
"We can't promise that there won't be any bribes involved," Judith joked.
"Lunch is on me today," Della quipped, drawing my gaze to her.
"Oh, how generous!" Judith shouted.
"I mean for Emerson!" Della clarified. "The rest of you bitches can pay for your own lunch."
"Ouch! That's just rude," Cookie laughed.
"Which part?" Ruby wanted to know. "The ‘bitch’ part, or the ‘paying for our own lunch’ part?"
Laughter filtered through the SUV, as the comments and joking around continued all the way into Orlando and to the spa. It had been a long time since I'd been part of a girls' outing like this, and I couldn't help but wonder why I had been invited so suddenly. I knew the girls, they often accompanied their men to the bar, but I'd always felt like an outsider looking in because I was an employee and had no connection to any of the men.
I couldn't deny that I was enjoying the camaraderie. The girls that I worked with at After Hours were all friendly, and Bonnie and I had developed a close friendship, but none of us hung out together outside of work. We didn't go drinking or dancing, we didn't meet up for girls' nights at our apartments. It wasn’t completely abnormal, because I'd worked at other places where work and personal relationships had been kept separate. I knew that people had lives outside of work that sucked up what little time they had left.
It didn’t take me long to decide that I liked these women. Ruby was the only mother in the group, and her twin boys were almost two-years-old. They were gorgeous boys. Hell, they had gorgeous parents. All of the men in the Sentinels were muscular, handsome devils.
Thinking about the men in the Sentinels immediately made me think of Ace. He didn't think so, but he was handsome, too, even with the scars he carried on the right side of his face and neck. I hadn’t had an opportunity to confirm it, but I suspected that those scars marred a good portion of his body. I'd heard the stories of how badly wounded he'd been and how he'd almost lost his leg.
It was said that he'd returned from the military a changed and bitter man, darker than most, quiet yet reflective. He was lethal, too. I'd seen that for myself during the occasional fights that had broken out at the bar. He’d ended them with quick and brutal precision at the end of his large fists. When the fights were over, I would watch the savage darkness leave his twisted expression until calm returned to his eyes.
"You've grown quiet," Judith said to me unexpectedly. We were lying on massage tables across from each other. Ruby was also in the room, but it was clear from the sound of her breathing that she'd fallen asleep. Her light snores joined with the serene music playing through the room.
"Guess I was about to join Ruby in a little snooze," I lied.
A soft laugh escaped Judith. "We do this once a month, and every time she drops off during her massage."
"Who can blame her with two rambunctious toddlers at home?"
"I know. And before long I'll be joining the ranks of motherhood."
She was seven months along. "Do you know what you're having?"
She shook her head. "Mark and I decided that we want to be surprised. We did the nursery in neutral colors." She was lying on the maternity massage table. The plug at the center of the table had been removed, and her protruding baby belly was hanging slightly below it in a stretchy, mesh-like basket. "God, this feels so good!" she moaned.
She was right. The man working on me had strong hands and he wasn't afraid to use his strength to really work the kinks out. Soon the soothing atmosphere and muted lighting in the room caused me to doze off. I didn't try to fight it, and when the massage was over, our massage therapists left us alone in the room for a few minutes. I was as relaxed as a person could get by the time someone came back and led us away to be served lunch. By that time we'd already been at Pampering Professionals for half a day.
A full day spa package had set me back two hundred and thirty dollars, but so far I had no complaints. The package had included my choice of five of their paid services, which were plentiful, and included a champagne lunch. It was here that Judith, Ruby and I were reunited with the other girls as we sat in our soft plush robes, comfy slippers, and nibbled on a variety of cheeses and fruits as we drank bubbly champagne. As I took a sip the bubbles tickled my nose, causing me to giggle.
"What are you giggling about over there?" Lonnie asked me from her end of the massage chairs we were relaxing in.
"The champagne bubbles tickled my nose. I can't remember a time when I've treated myself to such luxury."
"You should join us every month. You deserve it after all the hours you put in and the crap you have to put up with at After Hours."
"Is that an invitation?" I asked Ruby. The thought of treating myself to a spa day once a month sounded like heaven.
"Of course!" she laughed. "I don't know why you haven't been coming with us all along. You've been at the bar so long, we think of you as family."
Murmurs of agreement made their way to me as the other ladies nodded.
Ruby's comment choked me up, and I found myself blinking away unexpected tears. I'd been working at After Hours for almost three years, but had always made a point not to get too involved with the Sentinels and their women, with the exception of Ace. The fact that they thought of me as part of their family caused me to think about my own family back in North Carolina. If you could call what I'd run away from ‘family’.
I was finally able to manage, "Thank you, I'd like to be included." I purposely relaxed back in my chair and closed my eyes.
"As a matter of fact, we're having a girls' night out tonight, you should start joining us for that, too," Della added.
I laughed softly, keeping my eyes closed. "A girls' day at the spa and a girls' night out all in twenty-four hours? Is this what it's like when you belong to the men of the Sentinels?" I joked.
My remark was met with laughter. "Well, yeah," Judith replied for the group. "Our men are good to us and expect us to be waxed at all times." More laughter erupted.
"You forget that I don't belong to any of those men." I tried not to think about Ace and what we were doing.
Silence followed, silence so loud that I opened my eyes and peered at the girls to find all of their eyes fixed on me. There expressions reflected a mixture of surprise and confusion.
"You're kidding us, right?" Cookie asked seriously.
I shook my head. "No, I'm not. What made you think that I was?"
"Well for one thing, you disappear with Ace behind the bar several nights a week. Don’t try to convince us that you’re polishing his boots,” she laughed.
God, they actually knew how many times a week I gave Ace a blowjob? I felt my face heat up at Della's statement. "That doesn't mean anything." I fake smiled, hoping no one called me on it. "Maybe we're talking."
Giggles erupted. "Honey, the way Ace looks when he comes back inside, you ain't been talking," Ruby quipped. "Not with the look of flushed satisfaction on his face."
"I'd say you've been doing something else with your mouth," Cookie joked boldly.
"Ya'll are just guessing—"
"The truth," Judith insisted, sipping at her sparkling water.
I released a resigned sigh. What did it matter anyway? For all I knew, their men all gossiped like little old ladies and they already knew the truth. "We have a kind of unusual arrangement, but it doesn't mean anything. You all know Ace and his as anti-relationship rule."
"Huh," Lonnie started. "Seems that all our men started out that way. Their motto is, ‘hit it and quit it.’"
"She's right," Judith backed her up. "When I first met Mark he was quick to point out that he had one rule when it came to women--he never did them more than once. Said it kept life simple, and he didn't have to worry about a woman getting the wrong idea."
Nods revealed that they all felt the same way.
"Sid was the same way," Lonnie said.
"So was Rod," Cookie smiled. “But he never stood a chance.”
"Tanner was the worst," Ruby chimed in. "He was so determined to ignore me in the beginning. Once he gave into his one-time only rule, it went right out the window. Then he tried to convince me that he'd only broken it because he knew that I was leaving town."
"The fact that you and Ace have been doing whatever it is you're doing for months now is a big deal."
Della's comment made me feel sad inside, and a little embarrassed about what I had been doing with Ace. "You're all so wrong," I said softly, holding their gazes. "I've never had sex with Ace."
Ruby's mouth fell open. "But we all know that when one of the Sentinels drags a woman out back that they’re screwing her. And he hasn't taken anyone but you out there in a long time."
I reached for a grape. "That's what I thought, too, but he hasn't screwed me." It was one of the reasons I'd let him lead me out back that first time. I'd thought I was finally going to know what it felt like to be fucked by the hard biker. "I just give him a blowjob and that's the end of it."
"What?!" Lonnie shouted, drawing the attention of some of the workers who were mingling with other clients across the room.
"What a selfish jerk!" Cookie scowled.
"And you're okay with that?"
I met Ruby's frown. "Of course not. Well, I mean, I was in the beginning because I was hoping that it would lead to something else."
"Screwing?"
I nodded. "Yeah, I mean, I've heard stories—"
Della giggled. "Yeah, we've heard the same stories. Heard the man is hung like a freaking horse, but I've got no complaints about Skipper's size." She actually blushed.
"I can't believe that Ace would use a woman like that."
"It takes two," I said in response to Judith's murmur. "I'm not proud that I let him use me that way. It's obvious after all this time that he's never going to feel anything for me." Damn, I felt tears burning in my eyes. "If a man doesn't think enough of you to touch you . . ." I couldn't go on.
"So, what are you going to do about it?" Cookie wanted to know, her tone sympathetic.
"Yeah, he needs to be taught a lesson!" Judith hissed.
"I was just thinking about that last night, after, ah, you know." Suddenly I straightened my shoulders. "I'm going to break things off. I've decided I need to move on, and I can't do that if I'm giving him a blowjob three nights a week."
"Good girl!" Ruby nodded. "I love Ace, but he can't think that it's okay to use a woman as his sexual outlet and not give her anything in return."
"So, you'll go out with us tonight?" Judith asked.
"It will be fun," Della added with encouragement. "We get all dressed up and go dancing, hit a couple of bars."
I thought about the dress hanging in my closet, the only thing I had that could be considered going out clothes. Thank goodness little black dresses never went out of style. I hadn't gone out in months. It would be a nice change. Hell, who knew, maybe I'd meet someone. I certainly couldn't do it in my current lifestyle.
Today was turning out to be a pretty good day for me.