Lover's Kiss (2 page)

Chapter 3

Beth smiled at Trevor, the stocky doorman that had treated her so well when she was a scared and stupid mortal. She walked past the short line of men anxious to get in, ignoring the whispers and looks. "Hey Trev, how are you?"

He grinned back at her. "A whole lot better now that I seen you, Miss Adams."

Beth grinned and shook her head. "You're one in a million, Trevor. I'm glad Penny found you."

"You and me both," he agreed. "I'm glad she found you too. I haven't seen Miss Penny happy like this since I met her."

"Stop," Beth said, pretending to be embarrassed. "I'm going to head in and get to work."

"Like you need to work," he scoffed. "Pretty young thing like you? You can just sit there and the men will throw money at you just to be near you."

"You're too much," Beth asked. She squeezed her heart rapidly, pumping the blood from her recent feeding through her body faster to warm her and then brushed her lips against his cheek. She saw his eyes widen and his lips raise in a grin as she slipped through the door into the club.

She walked into the club and looked around. She nodded to the waitresses that smiled and greeted her. They had their western costumes on, complete with cute cowboy hats. Aurora was on stage, a short blond stripper on the stage with a lot of curves and the ability to move them in ways most girls couldn't imagine. Beth nodded as she looked around. She had a lot of plans for the club, plans that Penny really liked. In fact, that was supposed to be the reason they were meeting there tonight.

Beth turned and made her way to the bar. Candy, another busty blond, gave her a wave and a grin from behind the bar. Beth made her way to a seat at the end of the bar and pulled it out. Before she could sit down Candy made her way down to her.

"Hey, Hon, want me to put your coat in the back?"

Beth froze and then stepped away from the chair. She'd forgotten all about her jacket. She smiled and said, "Would you? That's so sweet, thank you. It's so damn cold outside I guess I forgot all about it."

Candy reached for the long coat after Beth slipped it off her shoulders and folded it in thirds. Candy paused and let her eyes dance over Beth's outfit. She whistled appreciatively and winked at her. "Penny's lucky I'm not into girls."

Beth laughed. "Stop it! Why does everyone think that we're like that? We're just friends."

"Uh huh," Candy laughed. "It's your story."

Beth rolled her eyes and looked for a distraction. Her eyes fell on the small TV behind the bar. She read the text scrolling across the bottom of the recorded news broadcast showing several ships searching for something on the ocean. A salvage operation had gone missing. The entire operation, two large ships and a recovery rig designed to lift things out of the depths.

"Candy, why do you always have the news on behind the bar?"

The blond turned and glanced at it. "Wild, right? I mean, how do you lose that many ships? No wreckage or anything!"

"What?"

"Haven't you heard?" Candy asked. After Beth shook her head she continued. "Yeah, they found some underwater wreckage from a long time ago, like before the civil war or revolutionary war or some war. Anyhow, they were trying to learn more and salvage it, but they lost touch with them and started looking."

"Oh, um, yeah that's weird," Beth said. She looked around the club. "You think anybody's going to watch the news with Aurora shaking her ass up there?"

Candy laughed. "You'd be surprised. Some actually do. Mostly it's for me. I sleep during the day or have to help my kid with schoolwork. This is my only chance to keep in touch with the world."

Beth nodded and then shrugged. "If people are interested."

"It caught your eye, didn't it?"

Beth tilted her head and smiled. "Good point."

The song changed, signaling either a new routine or a new dancer. Beth started to turn to see but stopped when she noticed Penny walking towards her with two men following behind her. They were stocky and the grey haired man in front was almost chubby. The other man had a hat on over what, Beth assumed, was a bald head.

Penny walked up to her and stood beside Beth's chair. She turned and gestured at the two men, grey hair first. "Elizabeth, this is Mr. Donavon and Mr. Crispin. The contractors  that will be bidding on our renovation."

Beth slid out of her chair and extended her hand to the chubby Mr. Donavon first. She opened her mouth but only a squeak slipped out.

"Breath, sweetie," Penny reminded her.

Beth winced and sucked in a breath. "Sorry, I get excited and forget sometimes. I'm very excited to meet you, Mr. Donavon. And you as well, Mr. Crispin. Call me Beth."

The two men glanced at each other and then back at her. Any confusion they showed was washed away as their eyes roamed the skimpy clothing she wore. Mr. Donavon cleared his throat. "Beth? Excellent. A pleasure to meet you."

Crispin nodded his head with enough vigor to dislodge his hat. He reached up with his left hand and adjusted it and smiled as he shook her right hand.

"Let's go back to the office and talk about what we want to do," Penny suggested.

Beth considered letting the men go first but she knew they'd appreciate having her in front of them more. She offered them another smile and followed after Penny, sliding her hands to the button on her pants as soon as she had her back to them. She locked the zipper in place and unbuttoned her shorts, allowing a little more belly to show and letting them slide down her hips a teasing half inch or so as she walked.

She thought she heard a hiss of breath over the music but couldn't be sure. Beth smiled and walked on, swaying her hips in tune with the music as she walked. The confused and scared little girl that she'd been was long gone. She'd died two weeks ago, her heart beating its last as the elder spirits finished ravaging and evolving her body from the inside. Now Beth was born again. She'd risen from death to be amazing. It was funny how she'd had to die to learn how to live.

Beth stepped in behind Penny and held the door open for the two construction workers. They slid past her, each dropping their eyes to her cleavage before moving to take the two chairs in front of the desk. Penny motioned for Beth to sit in the chair behind the desk but Beth smiled and shook her head. She moved to the edge of the desk and sat on it, facing the two men. She took her time crossing her legs, drawing their attention to her smooth skin and watching them try to get a glimpse of something meaningful at the top of her thighs.

"Gentlemen," Penny said, drawing their eyes to her. Beth would have laughed if she'd had breath in her lungs at the time. "Paradise Lost has been my baby for a couple of years now. I had it built to my standards and it's done well, but times change. Elizabeth is my partner. Her voice is the same as mine, as far as you are concerned. She has some ideas that will take this establishment from what it is to something truly amazing."

The men nodded and turned to look at Beth. She smiled back and then heard Penny clear her throat. "Oh!" Beth blurted. She clapped her hands together to make her breasts jiggle beneath her shirt. From the way the contractors eyes bounced she knew her lapse was forgiven. "Right, so, how do we want to do this?"

"Why don't you tell us what you've got in mind?" Mr. Donavon asked after he forced his eyes up from her chest.

Beth didn't mind. She'd learned that dressing like this was an open invitation. Hell, she paused to check herself out every time she passed a mirror. She smiled at the thought and turned so that she had to stretch for a sketch pad on the desk in front of Penny. Penny caught her attention and rolled her eyes. She knew what Beth was doing. Beth grinned and turned back to face the two men that had gotten an eyeful of her thigh and ass hanging out of her shorts.

"So here's what it looks like now," Beth said as she propped the sketch pad on her thighs and used the bottom of her boobs to hold it in place. "Here's the bar, the main stage, the back stage, and the dressing rooms."

"Looks good," Mr. Donavon said. "Accurate, maybe not quite to scale, but we get the idea."

Beth raised an eyebrow and looked down at the sketch. She shrugged and folded the front page over, then held out the next sketch. She held it out in front of her so they could see it better, or be forced to notice it rather than her chest.

"Woah," Mr. Crispin said first. "That's a complete overhaul."

Beth smiled. "Yes, the back stage becomes the main one and it's bigger, with hookups for a band or a DJ. Poles that descend from the ceiling when needed for dancers around the edges, and then a dance floor all around that. Tables at the edges and additional runway style mini stages here, here, and here. Main bar stars with some minor changes, including a couple of mini-stages."

"Holy shit," Mr. Donavon said. He slipped a pair of glasses out of his pocket and reached for the sketch.

Beth smiled and let him take it. She watched as both men focused on the design and glanced back to see Penny beaming at her. Her sapphire blue eyes twinkled and she gave Beth a nod of approval. "Like I said, she has some amazing ideas."

"I'll say," Crispin said. He glanced up and smiled. "I mean, this is big, and game changing. What are you trying to do here, exactly?"

"Right now we've got a gentleman's club," Beth said. She glanced at Penny and received a nod to continue. "We make sure it's high end, but how much can we really do with that? I think we can do more. I want to turn this into a club. A full club, with dancing and everything. Right now we only get in the ladies that either were dragged in by their men or the ones that like other women."

Donavon put his glasses away and asked, "You think this will change that?"

Beth nodded. "I hope so. Maybe bring in a slightly younger crowd too. Instead of men focusing on live entertainment and paying to be teased, they'll come here because other women come here."

"And why would other women come here?" Crispin asked.

"To find a man. This is a meat market right now, but it's meat they can't have. We make it hip and modern and that will bring in the younger girls looking to meet up with men. Wealthy and affluent men. Men that have already been turned on by the venue we operate."

"Venue?" Crispin chuckled. "I like that."

Beth beamed at him. "Thank you," she lied. He saw tits and ass and thought she was a brain dead stripper. Okay, she encouraged it with her flirting, but it still irritated her.

"Wait, if you switch to a night club or dance club, why do the men still come? The naked girls are gone."

"Half naked," Beth corrected. "And we don't plan on stopping that. Rather than focusing on single girl shows we'll have the entertainment be bands and DJs with multiple exotic dancers at one time."

"Like a Vegas show?" Donavon guessed.

Beth nodded. "I've never been, but that's what I'm shooting for."

"Never been to Vegas? You don't know what you're missing," Crispin said.

Beth glanced at Penny. "Maybe we should do some research? Road trip?"

Penny smiled. "If you want to, I'm sure we can arrange something."

Beth turned back and saw Crispin looking between her and Penny with one eyebrow higher than the other. He shrugged and glanced back at the sketch. "This is going to take a while."

"Money too," Mr. Donavan said. "You're talking about demo work and then a lot of wiring for the new stage. Getting poles that go up and down and are safe to, um, use won't be cheap. I'm guessing a good fifty grand and probably three weeks of construction, maybe four."

"Show him the next level," Penny said.

"Next level?" Donavon asked.

Beth smiled and leaned forward, threatening both men with her cleavage straining against her top. She took the sketch pad back and flipped to the next page. "More seating and some smaller dance floors. More poles too, and a second bar."

"Holy shit!" Crispin muttered.

Donavon looked up at the ceiling. "You got the owner's permit to go higher? There might be structural concerns."

"We got approval," Beth said and glanced at Penny. She winked at her mentor and then turned back to them. "Engineers have approved the exterior walls of the club to be load bearing, We'll be fine. When you're ready to start you'll be provided with blueprints, of course."

Both men studied the latest sketch, including an inspection made with Donavon's glasses on. He looked up at her before taking them off and asked, "Is this it, or is there more?"

Beth giggled for effect. "That's it. Can you do it?"

He blew out a breath. "Twelve weeks, two hundred twenty grand."

Beth frowned and glanced back at Penny. "The other guy said ten weeks, I told you that was the best we were going to get."

"What?" Donavan sputtered. "I thought we were your first!"

Penny gave them a flat smile. "My first, yes. My partner has been pursuing this while I attended to other matters."

Donavon turned back to Mr. Crispin and the two held a quick hushed conference. "All right, two twenty left a lot of room for contingencies. I'll offer eight weeks at two thirty. I'm going to need extra manpower."