six
“Where did you go last night?”
Rena looked up from a bowl of Cheerios she was munching on while propped against the edge of Angel’s gold faux stone Formica counter. She looked rough as if she’d been out running all night.
Or having sex.
Angel would bet on the latter. She’d never known her sister to be one to go without. She was wild, untamed, and had a touch of a sweet and softer side, and that’s what drew the opposite sex like bees to honey.
The problem was, those bees usually turned out to be wasps and almost always stung.
“You’re up late.”
Angel arched an eyebrow. “I work late; therefore, I sleep late. So…what’s your excuse?”
“I had a few drinks,” Rena said around a mouthful of food.
Angel looked her over once more as she moved past her to retrieve a bowl from the cabinet for her own cereal. “Have fun?”
“Mmhmm. Sure did.”
Pouring some chocolate frosted flakes into the bowl, Angel asked over her shoulder, “With anyone I might know?”
“Gee, Mom,” Rena snarked, “I don’t know. What’s with the third degree?” She huffed and dropped her empty bowl into the sink.
Angel gave her a sidelong look as she opened the refrigerator to get the milk. “What’s with the attitude?” she shot back.
Rena stared her down for a moment before dropping the annoyed act. Except it wasn’t an act. Angel knew her sister well enough to know that she was hiding something, and if she was hiding something, it was because she knew Angel wouldn’t approve. So whatever it was, it wasn’t good.
“Sorry, sissypoo,” she cooed. “I guess I’m just not used to answering to anyone.”
“It was a simple question, not an interrogation,” Angel told her pointedly.
“Well, I realize that now,” she said with an obvious ‘duh’ in her tone and a roll of her bloodshot eyes. “Anywho, do you need the bathroom before I grab a shower? God, the smoke in those bars really clings to you!”
She was off and out of sight before Angel could respond that yes, she did need the bathroom. In fact, she had to leave for work in an hour, and she was still dressed in her PJs. Now it looked like she was going to be late.
To pass the time, she performed a quick sweep through the apartment, making sure everything was neat and tidy before she left. It was a habit she’d developed early on, coming home to a clean house after school taking a bit of the sting of being alone to fend for herself out of it. It was a sting she still felt now, but it was dampened by adulthood and familiarity. The only time she didn’t feel it was when Kane was camping out in her bed, but even then, the lack of it sparked a kind of wariness and discomfort that she had a hard time shaking, as if she’d grown so used to being hurt and alone that she didn’t know how to be anything else. And how was that for fucked up?
Angel shoved the dark thoughts aside. As soon as Rena was done in the bathroom, she dipped in and did a quick workup for herself with not a lot of time to spare and ended up walking through the club doors with a wet strip of hair nestled between her shoulder blades while she swiped on a lip stain that wouldn’t last more than a couple hours but would just have to do.
“Almost late, Grace,” Wanda, her manager and the strippers’ mother hen while on the clock, called out as she swept her way between tables lighting candles for the patrons who would be arriving just as soon as the doors officially opened.
“Almost doesn’t count,” Angel informed her as she breezed by on her way to the clock to punch in.
Wanda flashed her a smile. “That’s right, baby girl. But ya better hope nothing ever comes up, or that almost is gonna turn into a definite.”
Angel waved her off, all yeah-yeah. She already had a mother, and look how fantastic that turned out. She didn’t need another person in her life trying to give “helpful” parenting advice. It was almost, if not more, annoying than unsolicited pregnancy tips from third-time parents. Or so she’d heard.
Once she’d clocked in and practiced her deep breathing exercises, Angel hit the floor, which was now buzzing with activity. Same as every night, as soon as the clock hit eight p.m. and those doors opened, the party didn’t stop until the booze ran dry.
And she made sure to work every night Wanda allowed her to because the tips were amazing. Unbeatable. In the short time she’d been working there, she’d managed to pay off all of her debt and sock a good chunk away for a rainy day.
Or a vacation. She’d love a vacation. Had never been on one and wanted desperately to see places and things. Call it a dream or whatever, but Angel had ideas for what she wanted her life to look like, and a few palm trees and white sand between her toes sounded like a good place to start.
When Kade rolled in a few hours later, Angel was tired, sweaty, and more than a little happy to see him. He always had a ready smile and a hard-on for her, and no matter what state she was in, she was always ready to meet him halfway.
“How ya doin’, Mouse?”
Angel abandoned her empty tray on a nearby table and crossed the floor between them in a few quick strides, crashing into his giant open arms and lifting onto her toes to meet his warm, hungry mouth with her own.
He was delicious, like decadent chocolate-covered strawberries: hard shell on the outside and sweet as candy on the inside. He smelled just as good, like warm leather, motor oil, and a hint of beer.
Sinking her teeth into Kade Hunter was the sweetest treat she could ever imagine. After she’d had herself a good drink of him, she stepped back a bit so she could soak in the vision of him, too. As always, the picture he made in the flesh was better than her fondest memory could ever conjure up.
Kade was dressed in his usual black leather cut with the club’s logo emblazoned on the back and his handle and role at the table stitched on the front. Underneath he wore a crisp white T-shirt that was stretched to compromising around his bulky frame. The thick veins that ran down the front of each bicep always made her mouth water, and those narrow hips and large thighs in those painted-on black jeans killed her every time.
“You’re good enough to eat,” Kade said, that deep voice of his rubbing up against every nerve ending in her body. She blushed deep and scraped her top teeth over her bottom lip, and Kade’s light eyes darkened as he leaned in and added, “And if you keep looking at me like that, I just might.”
Angel’s core clenched tight at his suggestion. “Don’t you threaten me with a good time, Kade Hunter,” she scolded with a flirtatious smile. Grabbing the lapels of his vest, she pulled his chest up against hers and looked straight up into his lust-filled eyes and breathed, “I just might take you up on it.”
Normally, Angel wasn’t the openly flirtatious type. Her style was more cagey and quiet, but from the moment she first laid eyes on him, she’d found it impossible to hold anything back. There was just something about Kade that brought out her inner vixen.
“Might?” Kade smirked down at her as he grabbed two handfuls of her ass and ground his pelvis against hers, allowing her to feel his hard and hungry erection. “Mouse, there’s no chance in hell you’d not take me up on it.”
Angel combed her fingers through his closely cropped hair and brought her mouth to his, lightly kissing him. “You say that with such confidence.”
“Because I know how much my woman likes to ride my dick.”
“And so crude too,” she remarked, ignoring how nice his claim on her sounded to her hopeful ears.
“Oh, I’m sorry, Mouse. Did I offend your delicate sensibilities?” he asked while openly transferring his hand from her ass to massage one of her now very sensitive breasts.
At least it was mashed between them. Anyone who walked by would have a good idea of what was going on, but they couldn’t see anything too damning. But Kade was like that. He played hard and fast and without any reservations, but he wasn’t the type to put a woman on display—at least not one he cared about.
That was something Angel had a hard time allowing herself to think or hope for. She wanted Kade to care about her, but she also didn’t want to reach that far into the stratosphere because that kind of fall was killer, and she was definitely destined to fall if she wasn’t more careful.
Even if he did care, it didn’t mean Kade would stick. He was a man surrounded by women, all at his choosing and disposal. There was no obvious benefit to being with her, other than he could have all the milk he wanted for free without worrying about having to buy the cow first.
And Angel was going to keep telling herself she was okay with that arrangement because she wasn’t willing or ready to do anything different.
With a proper Southern accent that she sometimes used in jest when joking around with the few friends she had, Angel said, “I don’t know that I have any delicate anything, sir, but I am a nice girl, and nice girls shouldn’t be spoken to that way. You ought to be ashamed of yourself.” She gasped lightly and tipped her head back, pressing the back of her hand to her forehead as if moments away from succumbing to a fainting spell.
Kade took the opportunity to capitalize on her position and swooped down, his hot, wet mouth latching onto her throat and blazing a path with his velvet tongue up to her chin and finally her lips, his teeth grazing her skin. The unexpected kiss shot fire through Angel’s veins and not an inch of her skin was left untouched by the explosion of gooseflesh.
Southern charm had flown out the window faster than a lightning strike, and Angel wrapped herself around Kade like a decorative scarf, practically hanging off his neck as she laid one hell of a kiss back on him.
“You two outta get a room,” someone said as they passed by. “They’re twenty-five an hour at that motel down the road, if you don’t mind risking bed bugs and body lice.”
Kade and Angel lifted their heads in time to catch Wanda’s fleeting, teasing smile as she approached a three-top to take their drink order.
“Hmm, sounds kinky,” Kade said with a wink.
Angel wrinkled her nose as she reluctantly pulled free of his embrace. “Sounds dirty.”
“Just how I like it.”
She shot him an unamused look. “Not gonna happen, big guy.”
Dropping his smile, Kade hooked a hand around Angel’s hip and drew her over to a dark corner, pressing her back against the wall. But she knew from the look in his eyes that this wasn’t going to be anything sexual. Whatever he was about to tell her, it was with a seriousness that made the tiny hairs on the back of her arms stand on end.
“Look, Mouse, I gotta lotta shit I need to take care of tonight, so I might not be seeing you later. I’ll be by as soon as I can though. Don’t worry. Just sit tight until I call.”
She frowned, not liking the sound of this for a multitude of reasons, the least of which being the one that implied she was going to just sit around twiddling her thumbs like a good little housewife would—which she wasn’t.
“I don’t like the sound of this…”
“Just business, babe. Like I said, nothing to worry about.”
“Then why am I worried?”
He smirked. “Because you’re a woman. It’s what you do.”
She might have looked like she was playing around, but the fist she planted in his shoulder had the full backing of her irritation.
“Shit, Mouse, what was that for?” he complained while rubbing his arm.
“For thinking that I’m the kind of girl who sits around waiting for a man to call.”
Kade smirked, all cocksure and mocking. “Oh, I see. You think you’re the kind of girl who won’t sit around pining for her man when, in reality, that’s exactly what you’re going to be doing.”
Angel narrowed her eyes. “You’re a prick, you know.”
“I never claimed not to be, baby girl. Just speaking the truth.”
She wanted to argue with him, but the argument itself was what ensured she would, in fact, be sitting around tonight thinking about him nonstop until he called or showed up, whether out of anger or concern.
She kind of hated that, but more than anything, it worried her. She was getting in too deep, wasn’t she? And she didn’t even know where they were going with this, if anywhere.
“Get on off to work, Mouse,” Kade told her, stepping back to release her from the wall. “You’ll hear from me later.”
“Yeah, sure, whatever,” she huffed.
She caught Kade’s darkening gaze an instant before he snatched her up by the waist and yanked her against his chest to kiss the sass right out of her. When he released her, she was kiss-drunk and grinning like a fool.
“That’ll have to hold us both for a few. Stay out of trouble while I’m gone.” He turned and marched off so fast, Angel could practically see the vapor trail.
What little upset she had experienced had been dampened after that mind-numbing kiss, and Angel decided it wasn’t worth dwelling on. As long as she kept her head clear and reminded herself—regularly—that they weren’t a “thing,” she would just continue to enjoy their time together.
All fun. No stress. That was the name of the game.
She just needed to figure out how to play by the rules.