Текст книги "Chelsea "

Автор книги: Addison Jane

сообщить о нарушении

Текущая страница: 6 (всего у книги 19 страниц)

“You want another drink?!” Harmony called over the music.

I bobbed my head up and down before throwing back what was left in my glass. We’d decided on a night out. First we’d called it a girls’ night out, but that had quickly changed and Kit protested against letting us out alone. This was how we ended up at Glow, the strip club the Troy chapter owned in the local city.

That was the compromise we’d been given. Not really a compromise on the men’s part, but we took what we could get.

Missy, the woman who ran the club, was a riot. She’d joined us as soon as we had walked in the doors. I had the feeling she had an ulterior motive for joining us, though, as she and Tally, Kit’s VP had been giving each other side glances every two minutes since we walked in the door.

With a few vodkas in my system, I nudged her in the side. She turned to me with the most beautiful smile. Missy was stunning. She wore just the right amount of makeup to accentuate her features without looking like a hooker, and her body was all hourglass—slim waist and round ass.

“You and Tally have something going on?” I asked slyly with a wiggle of my eyebrows.

I caught the blush on her face before she had time to turn her cheek and shake her head. “Why would you say that?”

I looked up and caught him staring at her for like the hundredth time in the last hour. “Because that boy has been eye fucking you since he had you in sight.”

She brushed her hair back from her face and chuckled softly, but didn’t answer.

I sighed dramatically. “Come onnn…I need some excitement. Are you two doing it or what?”

Just as I finished, I realized the room had become quiet as the DJ was announcing the next girl on the stage. Everyone at the table stared at me with amused faces. Even Missy giggled at the awkward situation and Tally smirked at me from across the table, giving me a devious wink that only made me more frustrated that I didn’t know the answer to my question.

I wondered why Harmony was taking so long with my drink so I went in search of her. I found her at the bar with Kit trying to drag her away, pointing to the hallway that led to the private rooms. She was laughing and pulling back, but I could see he was breaking down her defenses. I walked up and threw my arms around her shoulders, poking my tongue at Kit like a spoiled child.

“She’s mine for tonight, buddy!” I grinned. “Take your…ding-dong, and use your hand if you’re desperate.”

Harmony and Kit laughed, but he released her hand. “It’s called a penis, Chelsea. P-e-n-i-s, penis!” he taunted, knowing the word made me cringe. I’m not sure why it did, it was just one of those words I didn’t like. Kind of like how some people hated the word moist, or throbbing.

I screwed up my nose, only making them laugh harder. Grabbing my drink off the bar, I pulled at Harmony’s hand. “Whatever! She’s mine.”

Harmony gave him a quick peck on the cheek as I pulled her past. Those two had an intense connection, even after only knowing each other for a short time. As much as Harmony had fought against it, I admired Kit’s persistence. He knew he wanted her and he wasn’t about to give her up for anything.

I thought about Optimus. He just wasn’t like that with me. Sure he chased me and had me in his bed over any other girl ninety-nine times out of one hundred, but I was beginning to think it was more out of convenience and pleasure than anything else. We both know that the chemistry we had together was explosive—something I’ve personally never experienced with anyone but him. But he never fought for me like Kit did for Harmony.

She nudged me in the side as we took our seats back at the large table that the club was gathered at. “Are you okay?” She’d obviously noticed the quick change in my mood, but I wasn’t about to let Optimus destroy a night out with my best friend. I plastered on a smile and leaned into her. “Are Missy and Tally doing it?”

She eyed me for a second, I’m sure curious as to what was going on in my head. But one of the things I loved about Harmony was that she didn’t pry. She knew I’d come to her when I needed her and she was okay with that. She understood that it was just who I was. And she accepted it.

Her eyes moved, looking over at Missy and Tally, who’d suspiciously moved to sit next to each other and were sitting extremely close having a quiet conversation.

“I don’t know. Do you think? Tally doesn’t really touch the girls at the club. I mean like, he’s the biggest flirt, but I’ve never seen him actually do anything. Do you think that’s why?”

Missy looked up and spotted us staring. She quickly sat back, shuffling her body a little away from Tally, who frowned as she did.

Definitely a story there.

“Harmony! Come dance with us.” I heard someone call as they came up behind us.

I recognized the girl as one of the strippers I’d seen on the stage earlier in the night. Harmony had told me the night before that she’d become close with a couple of the girls who worked at Glow.

She explained that the club girls who lived at the Troy chapter were different than the girls we had back home. They were sneaky and devious, the type to stab you in your sleep if they wanted your man. Since she’d been here in Troy, she had had more than one run-in with club whores, but they had ended pretty quickly when Kit had thrown their asses out to the curb. Harmony was an Old Lady, and not just any Old Lady, she belonged to the President of the club. There was no way Kit was going to let some power-crazed club girl get away with treating his woman like shit.

If you can’t show respect for the club, you didn’t deserve their help or protection—end of story.

While we had girls back home, that could be a little crazy and possessive of the boys, most of us seemed to get along pretty well. The attraction to the men in the clubs couldn’t be helped really. While they were outlaws, and we all knew they had businesses on the side that we were kept in the dark about, the men were also, for the most part, genuine and gave a shit about us. We respected their rules and they treated us like human beings.

Unfortunately, some woman were just bitches—that was just life.

“Not tonight, honey. My friend is here,” she said gesturing to me. The girl gave me a big smile, she seemed sweet.

“She can join us. The more, the merrier!” she said, beaming.

“Chelsea doesn’t dance,” Harmony explained, laughing. I shrugged. I didn’t care if people know I couldn’t dance. It was a fact. I just didn’t have rhythm when it came to music and I wasn’t really sure how to move my body or make it look good.

“What do you mean she doesn’t dance?” Missy piped up, clearly shocked.

“I can’t. This amazing body just doesn’t know movement.”

Missy frowned. “I thought you said you were a runner?”

I nodded. “I am.”

“And you like sex don’t you.”

I rolled my eyes. “Duh.”

Missy pushed her chair back and came around the table. “If you run, then you know rhythm and movement. You just gotta learn, baby.” She held her hand out to me. “Come on, I’ll teach you.”

I shook my head. “Trust me, people have tried.”

“Come on, Chel. Please!” Harmony gave me some ridiculous looking puppy dog eyes that only made me laugh, but soon the whole table was cheering, telling me to do it.

I sighed. “Fine! But nobody is allowed to laugh.”

I took Missy’s hand and she grinned triumphantly. “Babe, I promise, if these bastards laugh, I’ll ban them from Glow for a month.”

The table groaned in unison.

“Can you do that? Doesn’t the club own Glow?” I asked skeptically as she pulled me toward the now empty stage that was closest to where we were sitting.

She smirked. “They may own it, but this place is mine. And without me, they wouldn’t have any girls to strip.”

Some slow music started as we climbed the steps and instantly I watched as Harmony and the stripper, Honey, began swaying and twisting with the sound. Harmony was stunning, her long blonde hair falling down her back and swishing back and forth.

I knew when we were done that there was no way in hell I was going to be able to keep Kit from dragging her to some room and having his way with her. But I didn’t mind. My best friend was happy, and that was all I cared about.

“Okay, I want you to think about running,” Missy said as she stood in front of me.

“Trust me, right now that’s all I’m thinking about,” I muttered.

She rolled her eyes, but moved forward and gripped my hips in her hands. “Close your eyes.” I sighed but did as she asked. “Okay, so at first you’re just going to start off slow, like a walk. But instead of your feet, I want you to put that movement into your hips.”

She pushed at my hips and I moved them from side to side, thinking in my head about the beat I would walk to while I was warming up.

“Instead of just throwing them side to side, I want you to twist them a little, and use your waist as well. Dancing isn’t just in the hips, it’s in your whole body.”

I tried to listen and do as she told me, attempting to keep my movements in some sort of time to the bass of the music, much like I would when I was running. I often used the bass of a song to keep a steady rhythm with my feet, it helped me to push further and faster.

“Great,” she exclaimed. “Now speed up a little, you’re getting a little faster.”

We practiced for a while before the song changed and Missy began to talk to me about how to use my arms.

“It’s just like having sex with yourself,” she explained causing Harmony, Honey and I to all laugh. “You’re going to move your hands over your body like you could imagine your man doing.”

I sighed but took a deep breath. I’d gone this far already, why not imagine I’m having sex with myself on a stage full of people. It wasn’t like I was embarrassed about it, wasn’t like I hadn’t had sex in front of people before.

My hips swayed side to side as I slowly moved my hands over them and up the sides of my waist. I cupped my breasts just quickly, running my fingers around them lightly like a feather before continuing to lift my hands up into the air. One arm stayed up as the other drifted down it, tickling over the skin as it came down and around my face.

“Open your eyes, Chelsea,” I heard Missy say excitedly.

My eyes popped open and I was facing the rear of the stage, but what I saw was myself. My body flowed and moved to the music, it may have been slow and there wasn’t a huge amount of movement, but what I saw was sexy and sensual. I gasped, but I didn’t stop, enjoying watching my body twist and sway as my hands roamed it just like a lovers would.

It was mesmerizing.

I was dancing.

The song came to a stop too soon. My body halting with it. But then came the booming sound of applause and whistles and hoots from the people behind me. Harmony threw her arms around me and squeezed before stepping back. Her face looked as though it was about to split she was smiling so hard.

“That was awesome. You were dancing.”

I couldn’t help but laugh.

I was dancing.

I looked over at Missy, who stood to the side of the stage with a smirk on her face. The woman was good. More than freaking good, she was amazing. The cheers continued and I turned toward them and gave a small curtsy—not so easily in my short mini.

Harmony hooked her arm through mine and we walked off the stage. “Lucky I told all the boys that they had to keep their hands off you. Otherwise, you’d be getting mauled right now.”

I laughed, a little relieved. Unfortunately, there’s only one man I wanted to maul me, and he was back home.

“Another drink?” Harmony beamed.

I swallowed tightly and nodded. “Hell yes, another drink.”

I groaned as I rolled over on the bed. My head throbbed and there was a trail of drool slipping from the side of my mouth and down my cheek. I wiped at it with the back of my hand.

Fuck, I was sexy.

Even though my head pounded and I felt a little like I might be sick, I knew I wasn’t in my own bedroom instantly. The bed felt like I was sleeping on a rock and the sheets smelt like they had been locked away in a grandma’s closet next to the mothballs for about ten years. Just that smell alone was enough to make me heave.

Luckily there was a glass of water and some aspirin sitting next to the bed as per usual. I silently thanked drunk me as I threw a couple pills in my mouth and chugged the glass of water, forcing it down. I was one of those people who got hangovers just from the smell of alcohol. I don’t know what it was about me, but it had always been the same. You’d think it would put me off drinking, but instead I had taught myself to leave what I needed next to the bed the night before instead.

In my brain, it seemed logical.

The room I was in was small, but it was private. Harmony had even managed to score me one with a small toilet and shower attached. At first I wondered what brother I’d kicked out for the couple of nights I was there because, let’s face it, I knew it wasn’t a club girl’s room. But as I climbed in the shower I was grateful that I didn’t have to drag myself out and see people as I went in search of the communal bathrooms.

As soon as the hot spray hit my naked body I let out a sigh. It felt good, soothing. I took my time soaping myself and washed my hair.

Optimus had given me three days to have a break and sort myself out, but I was already feeling a little homesick. It was a strange feeling, one that I’d never had before. Growing up I had moved from foster home to foster home—the need to just get away was so strong. It was like I felt as though someone was chasing me and I had to keep moving in order to survive. But there was no one chasing me. No ghosts from my past coming back to haunt me.

Some of the homes I’d run from hadn’t been horrible. A couple, at some point, even made me feel like I could stay and that I could be happy there. But it wouldn’t take long before I couldn’t fight the urge any longer, my mother’s words playing over and over in my head.

Run.

Keep running.

Don’t stop running.

The clubhouse has been the only place I’d stayed at longer than about a year. At first I thought it was because of Harmony. We had connected straight away and were inseparable since. But I’d had friends before and I’d left them without even looking back.

I knew it was because of Optimus.

He had filled a void that I never realized I had. Sure, I’d had boyfriends growing up, started having sex younger than I should have. But there was an air about Op that just drew me to him. Maybe it was his strength or his commanding personality. Maybe it was because he gave me something I hadn’t had since I was little—a family. I wasn’t sure.

The shower finally began to run cold so I turned it off and climbed out. After drying and dressing I was about ready to go in search of Harmony, and see if we could find some extremely fattening food that would satisfy my turning stomach, but before I could head out there was a knock on the door.

I got up and flicked the lock, expecting to find my best friend behind it but instead finding her other half.

Kit gave me a gorgeous smile. “Morning. How’s the head?”

I stepped back, letting him inside. “It’s pounding a little. I was just about to go see if Harmony wanted to come find some food with me.”

“Yeah, she had to go out. She’s doing guitar lessons and one of her students rang this morning saying she couldn’t make it to her lesson tomorrow so could they do it today,” he explained.

“Oh, okay,” I said, slightly disappointed.

“Yeah. You know her. If music is involved, it’s always urgent,” he chuckled.

I nodded in understanding. Harmony was dedicated. She loved music and anything to do with it. Sometimes I wondered if it even came first in her life before Kit.

“I’d like to have a chat with you, so how ‘bout I take you out for breakfast?”

I raised an eyebrow. “Do you know the difference between a chat and a lecture?”

He chuckled as he headed for the door. “Come on, I’ll even pay.”

I sighed, not sure how this little chat would go. But I did know that Kit cared about both Optimus and I. We took his truck into town which I heard him grumble about quietly as we climbed in, but we both knew that the back of his bike was now reserved for his Old Lady. We found a nice little diner that according to him served amazing big breakfasts and took a booth in the corner of the room. The waitress eyed Kit shamelessly as we ordered, something I was used to while going places with the brothers, but that still annoyed me. I glared at her as she walked away with a purposeful swish of her hair and sway in her hips. When I looked over at Kit, he just laughed.

“You need any club whores? You should hit her up, she seems keen,” I joked.

“Yeah, like I need any more drama in the clubhouse than there is at the moment. Honestly, you women—”

“I dare you to finish that sentence.”

He chuckled but kept his mouth closed. When the food came, I pushed past the smell, knowing that I would feel better as soon as I got it into my stomach. “So, chat away,” I told him before filling my mouth with hash brown.

He placed his knife and fork on the table. “Op is worried about you.”

I scoffed. A very unladylike thing to do especially with a mouth full of food.

“Listen Chelsea. This life we have, it can be very dangerous, you know that,” he explained, leaning back in the seat. “I know a lot of brothers who choose to be alone and remove themselves from anyone that they could possibly care about because they’re scared of them getting hurt. It’s one of the reasons we have club girls. The men get what they need without the attachment. Well, that’s how it usually works.”

“You don’t have to explain that to me, Kit. I live it, remember?” I told him, pushing some food around on my plate with my fork.

“No, you’re different. Optimus cares about you, and he’d kill me if he heard me say it, but that scares the shit out of him.”

I screwed up my face. “It’s hard to believe when sometimes he’s pulling me in and others he’s pushing me out. It’s like I’m on some crazy roller coaster ride, but I’m too scared to get off because I may never be able to feel that same thrill anywhere else.”

He looks at me sympathetically. “Optimus is a hard man to get through too. But he wasn’t always that way. His parents were great. We used to take family trips to visit every few months. Op and I were both the only children, so having him around was like having a brother.” He sighed and looked down at the table. “His mom died when he was in his teens. Some little fuckheads in a street gang thought they were hard and drove past the club one day when there was family gathered to welcome a brother who was getting a full patch. They had a couple of submachine guns.”

I couldn’t help the gasp that came out of my mouth. Optimus had only ever shared with me that his mom was killed, never the details of how. Neither of us had been intrusive into each other’s lives. While you might think it was important, it just never seemed to matter. It was in the past and we were living in the present.

“The boys were in church so by the time the shots started, they were already too far away and couldn’t get there fast enough. Little bastards were there for less than twenty seconds before they drove off. A lot of injuries, six dead.”

“There’s a fence, so you can’t see the barbecue area and where the kids play from the road.”

Kit nodded. “Was put in afterward.”

I was sad, I could feel the emotion sitting in my throat. That must have been a horrible day for the club.

“And Op’s mom?” I asked, wondering if I really wanted to hear it.

“She was sitting at a table eating,” he shook his head. “Optimus should’ve been there too, but he was at that age where we all thought we were too cool to sit with our parents. He wanted to be inside with the men—he was already dreaming of prospecting.”

I’d managed to eat some food, but I pushed my still half full plate away. I wasn’t sure how to react. “He...he doesn’t talk about her like he does his dad.”

“Yeah, it’s a shame really. She was an amazing woman.” He picked at his food, also feeling a little put-off, I think. “I think he’s a bit ashamed. He feels like he should’ve been there to protect her. Maybe if he had been, he would’ve been the one to take the bullets instead of her.”

I swallowed harshly. Optimus harbored a lot of guilt, it was sad because he was an amazing man. Every brother looked up to him.

Kit cleared his throat. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to make this all depressing and shit. I just wanted to let you know, Op has been through some bad shit. I think deep down he feels like he was responsible for both his mom and his dad passing. So he feels like he needs to keep the ones he cares about at a distance, so the same thing doesn’t happen to them.”

I nodded.

It made sense.

Everything in me screamed that I needed to go to him.

“Go home, Chelsea.”

I looked up, feeling like Kit had read my mind.

“Are you kicking me out?”

He smirked. “Sure, if that’s the excuse you want to use, but we both know you want to go back. I know you Miss Harm, but she’ll always be here, you can visit anytime.”

I smiled. “Okay, but I better wait till Harmony gets back or she’ll go fucking loco on the both of us.”