Marco (The Men of Indecent Exposure #1) (26 page)

Mona turned to me with excitement in her eyes. “Wanna go?” she asked.

I tried to match her enthusiasm. “Actually, I think I’m gonna go grab some water at the bar,” I replied, using that as my excuse. But the truth was, while I didn’t have any qualms about strip clubs, I
did
feel weird about watching Marco’s friends—especially knowing they’d be baring it all tonight.

All.

“Go ahead!” I assured her with a smile. “Have fun.”

“I’ll go with you,” Pam interjected, offering to take my place beside Mona, which made me feel less guilty.

Mona didn’t pick up on me having ulterior motives for not following her and that was a good thing. I crossed the room headed toward the bar. I grabbed an empty stool and was more comfortable with my back to the stage, with my back to Marco’s close friends.

When the bartender asked, I ordered and paid for my bottle of water, thanking him seconds later when I had it in my hands. I took one sip when my phone buzzed in my purse, vibrating my hip.

Marco’s text read
: ‘Did you run and hide or did you stick around?’

I smiled and moved my fingers across the screen.
‘Cute. I’m still here. How come you’re not on stage?’

I had a few more sips in the time it took him to respond. However,
‘It’s not time,’
was all he said.

I put my phone away and drank slowly, in no rush to return to my seat. I scooched over a bit when two women approached, passing one a faint smile when she excused herself for crowding me. It wasn’t a big deal, though. It was hard to move
anywhere
in here without touching someone.

“I can’t believe you talked me into coming back here,” one of the women said, pushing long, brown hair behind her shoulder.

The other ordered two virgin daiquiris before responding to her friend, yelling of course, because that was the only way to be heard here.

“Elena… you’re being silly,” the blonde said reassuringly. “Avoiding him isn’t gonna make you feel any better.”

“And neither is putting myself out here like some… lovesick dog,” the one named Elena said, emphasizing her point when she gestured with her hands. “And… to add insult to injury, there isn’t even any alcohol tonight.”

Her friend laughed and I smiled to myself.

“Listen, just… shoot this guy a text, let him know you’re here, and watch; I guarantee he’ll be glad you came back,” the blonde one said, giving Elena a pep talk she clearly didn’t want to hear.

“I haven’t even heard from him since then,” Elena exhaled, glancing down at the surface of the bar when she did. She looked sad. Hurt.

“I mean, he was practically in love with you back in the day,” the friend said. “Feelings like that don’t just disappear.”

Elena was quiet, thinking, and then she spoke again. “They do when he’s expecting a kid with someone else.”

The words made me pause with my bottle pressed to my lips. I didn’t drink, though.

The friend shook her head. “They’re not together. Isn’t that what you told me?”

Disinterested in her drink, Elena didn’t answer right away.

“They’re not together,” the friend repeated, trying to get Elena to change her feelings. “You know what? Give me your phone.”

Elena didn’t have a chance to fight as her cell was taken from inside her purse and the friend tapped the screen, clearly drafting a lengthy text.

“No. Nope,” Elena replied, refusing to let her friend send the message. “If he sees me on his own, that’s one thing, but I’m not about to text him. It’s bad enough I showed up at all. Now you’re gonna have me looking like some damn stalker.”

When she finished speaking, the look on her friend’s face made a smile break free on Elena’s. While they chatted a little more, the friend handed the phone back to Elena with the unsent message still showing. I couldn’t fight the pull to look there, at her screen, hoping it was all just some huge coincidence that she was here to see a dancer who fathered a child with someone he wasn’t in a relationship with. It was a stretch, but I held to that hope right up until the name
Marco
glowed at the top of her screen.

“Stop thinking it’s over,” the friend encouraged. “You never know what could happen.”

*****

“You okay?” Mona asked, nudging me lightly with her elbow. She and the others had eventually come back from the stage to their seats.

I realized I hadn’t said much in the last hour and forced a smile, nodding. “Yeah. Everything’s fine,” I lied.

Truthfully, I felt incredibly…
off.
Vulnerable. Marco hadn’t lied, so it wasn’t that. In fact, hearing Elena’s reiteration of what happened that night lined up exactly with the details he’d given me. It was just the combination of seeing her face-to-face, being here, hearing Marco’s name in passing as club regulars anticipated his performance. It felt like… like he was unattainable, like too much of him belonged to everyone else. Someone wanted by so many women, someone being fed all this attention… could they ever truly be satisfied settling down or was this lifestyle an addiction? Something he’d always need?

The real question on my mind, the one I was ignoring was:
Would I ever really be enough?

I let out a breath, realizing this sudden onslaught of insecurity hadn’t been within me before tonight. Or if it had, I was able to ignore it. Now, listening to it all,
seeing
it all, there was no getting away from these new concerns. Adding insult to injury, Elena and her friend had found a seat diagonal to ours, so I had her in my line of sight now. It was impossible to put it out of my head that she was here, too.

For him.

A breath rushed over my lips when I sighed again.

I barely even noticed the lights had dimmed, but the volume lowering in the speakers did catch my attention.

“Are you having fun yet?” the emcee asked, aiming her mic at the crowd for several seconds as they yelled back.

She smiled big, giving them a chance to settle down before she went on.

“Y’all showed up on the right night,” she went on, “because it’s
All-In Saturday
and you know what that means!”

The first half of the show hadn’t featured any of the guys naked, but I knew it was coming. Apparently, they all came back out and did a second set and that’s when things really got crazy. I ran my fingers down the side of my neck, feeling more uncomfortable as the seconds ticked past.

“Our next guy needs no introduction. Hell… he’s probably the reason most of you showed up tonight. Am I right?”

At her words, Marco’s name hit my ears from every direction. Mona nudged me jokingly, under the impression that it was a coincidence that the man these women were all falling over shared a name with the man
I
knew.

Little did she know…

“Ladies… if you want him, yell his name… like… you…mean itttttttt!!!”

And so they did, they yelled his name until it drowned out the sound of the music now flooding from the speakers. They yelled it until they couldn’t anymore.

They yelled it until I was sure he was just as unattainable as I already knew.

I put my head down.

The tone of the screams changed, became higher pitched, and I knew he was up there. Lifting my eyes toward the stage, I took a long, hard look at him—confident, sexy, bold—but he was all those things to
everyone.

Not just me.

My stomach churned and I wished these feelings hadn’t come up, but they did. I’d never been incredibly unsure of myself, nothing outside the normal highs and lows most women experience, but tonight, seeing them all losing their minds over the one man I wanted… it was hard to watch.

So, acknowledging what tonight was—
All-In Saturday—
and acknowledging what Marco’s performance tonight would entail, I lowered my head.

I didn’t need to see anymore.

I’d already seen enough.

Marco

The spotlights never bothered me, but tonight they did. Even with my cap shielding my eyes, it was hard to see through the crowd. These particular Saturdays were always crazy. There was no telling where Brynn was hiding. And I meant that. As reserved as she was, I was sure she found a dark corner to sneak off to.

I’d find her, though.

When the ladies didn’t settle quickly enough, Ivy cranked up the volume to drown them out. Security was already stationed near the steps making a path because they knew I was coming down. They held an empty chair aside for me to take—which I could’ve brought from backstage, but it was more theatrical for me to come down into the audience to set the scene on my own. It was all about the show.

Taking slow steps in my boots, the
Timberlands
I left here specifically for performances, I walked on stage again and set the chair in the middle. Removing the large, black towel from my shoulder next, I draped it over the back of the chair. Every movement, even now when I wasn’t dancing, was calculated and served a purpose.

These women came here to have a fantasy played out before their eyes. Watching me set up was a part of that; not knowing who I’d pull up here this week, imagining it would be them—it all sent the anticipation through the roof. I learned a long time ago that the more authentic, or unrehearsed, a one-on-one striptease felt, the more explosive the reaction. That was the sole reason I didn’t do costumes for these acts. All I needed was the white tank and dark jeans I brought to throw on with my boots and baseball cap. The idea was to make this feel like I was a regular guy off the street.

The screams were deafening when I stood front and center, scanning the crowd. While I was sure the hundreds of women here thought I was trying to decide who to bring up on stage tonight, I already had someone in mind, although I didn’t see her anywhere.

I walked to the edge and crouched lower, making a show of my search, hooding my eyes with my hand to block out the light even more.

“He’s on the prowl, ladies!” Ivy said through the speakers, getting them even more hyped. Hands grabbed at my arms and pant legs, one to the back of my neck.

“I love you, Marco! Pick me,” a chick off to my left yelled. I smiled, acknowledging her, but she wasn’t the one. Another gently took my hand and I smiled and kept moving.

It was against protocol to leave the stage unattended, but to hell with protocol. Searching from the stage wasn’t getting the job done and I wanted to find her. Security scurried toward me, probably calling me all out my name for getting down without one of them being present. More hands, running down my arms and back, a kiss to my cheek, hands all over my jeans, but I continued on with slow strides unfazed by all the touching.

And then I spotted her, realizing why she’d been so hard to find—she was the only woman in the entire building sitting.

She chilled there, zoning out in her thoughts, completely unaware that I was even coming her way. It was the spotlight trailing me that caught her attention, made those big, pretty, brown eyes find mine. She shifted in her seat, uncomfortable with everyone’s attention suddenly being on her. I took another step, closing the ten or so feet that kept us apart.

“Marco!” someone called out, but this time it was harsh, demanding.

The tone my name was spoken in halted me and I turned, meeting the cold gaze of a heavily made-up blonde waving her hands, trying to get my attention. I was just going to ignore her and finish making my way to Brynn when the girl pointed in front of her to a woman in a tight, red dress; a woman I recognized.

Elena.

We hadn’t spoken in weeks, not since the incident in the parking lot. Actually, I was pretty sure she was done with me after that. It had never been my intention to hurt her or to embarrass her, but I was pretty sure that’s what I’d done.

Elena shied away from my gaze when she pushed her hair behind her ear, wearing whatever insecurities I brought out from within her on her sleeve.

“Which way you goin’, man?” James, the head of our security detail, asked, leaning in when he couldn’t anticipate my direction. To my right stood Elena—the woman I would’ve given my right arm to have a chance with in the not so distant past. To my left, Brynn—a woman I was feeling more than I ever thought I would. Our connection was beginning to deepen and I loved getting to know her, letting her get to know me.

“Uh oh,” Ivy said into the mic. “Looks like we have a standoff tonight, girls. Who’s it gonna be?” she asked, hyping the room up even more, unaware of the fact that she made an already uncomfortable situation even
more
uncomfortable.

Elena only now made eye contact with me and I couldn’t ignore the hopeful look in her eyes, almost like she expected me to choose her. Brynn, on the other hand, looked at everything and everyone
but
me. It was her girls who made her stand to her feet when they realized she was on my radar.

She
was
uncomfortable with this, which I gathered from our phone call. This wasn’t an ideal situation for me either, but I wouldn’t let her know that. The fear of being judge by her was real, but only because I actually cared what she thought of me. I wanted this woman. More than I’d wanted anyone in a long time. More than she knew.

But, damn… I didn’t want to hurt anyone.

Still, I knew I had to choose. And I also knew beyond the shadow of a doubt who I’d be taking on stage with me. There was never a question about it.

“What’s it gonna be, Marco?” Ivy asked, laughing into the mic.

Time was running out and I had to just follow my gut… follow my
heart
. Elena’s feelings were a non-factor when it came to Brynn.

And now she’d know that.             

The look of disappointment on Elena’s face when I took that first step in Brynn’s direction made me feel terrible, but I didn’t regret my choice. Brynn was too important to me to put doubt in her head, especially knowing that being here tonight probably wasn’t easy. I wanted her to know that, whenever it came down to it, I’d always choose her. Any day of the week. In any situation.

I’d choose her.

She breathed in so deeply I saw her chest rise even with the distance between us. Her eyes softened and whatever she’d been feeling when I first found her seemed to melt away. I stood before her, waiting for her to agree to come up on stage with me.

A soft smile touched her lips as her girls urged her on, yelling and shoving her a bit. Eventually, she took a step closer and I gripped her waist in my hands.

“Be gentle with her,” one friend whispered into my ear, “She’s expecting.”

That made me smile—one: because she was adamant about looking out for Brynn, and two: because no one was more insistent on being careful with her than me.

“I promise not to hurt her,” I whispered back, and the friend nodded.

I turned my attention to Brynn again and pulled her close, which made the room explode with screams. My lips pressed to her ear as I held on. “Will you come up on stage with me?” I asked, not wanting to assume she’d be comfortable with that just because she knew me. I was pretty sure she knew tonight wasn’t just a normal night; my performance wouldn’t be like the ones I gave on other weekends.

Letting her hands rest on my shoulders, Brynn nodded and Ivy killed the music, changing it to the special, extended version of the selection I’d given her right before coming out, a last minute switch—
Drake, ‘Own It’.

I took a step back, letting my hands fall from her waist. My fingers interlocked with hers, feeling the softness of her skin against mine as I led the way back toward the front of the room with her in step right behind me.

I never turned to see Elena’s reaction, but I felt her watching, felt the hatred her friend wanted me to feel, but I didn’t care. My decision was clear.

“Watch your step,” I mouthed to Brynn, slowing my pace.

She was so shy and it only intensified when we stepped onto the stage in front of everyone. All eyes were definitely on us. Her hands hung in front of her, clasped together as I backed away, wanting the full view as I looked her over. My eyes traced every curve—her breasts, her hips, her thighs—all of them, feeling my hands burning to touch. The powerful craving I had for this woman was real, not the scripted interaction I had with others I brought to this stage. As I admired the smooth peaks and valleys of her beautiful body, I rubbed my chin, slowly circling her, sizing her up as she tried not to smile, but then she did.

Big
.

Stepping behind her, I moved in close, letting my body press flush up against hers as I removed the black, silk scarf from my back pocket and leaned in.

“I need you to trust me,” I whispered, feeling the rim of her ear against my lips. “Can you do that?”

Her shoulders lifted with a deep breath first, and then there was a nod.

Taking both ends of the scarf in my hands, I lifted it over Brynn’s head and lowered it to her eyes, tying it so she was now completely in the dark, so it would feel like there was no one here in this room with her but me.

She touched the material and I noticed her shaking just a little as she adjusted to not seeing what went on around her.

“Trust me,” I whispered into her hair and she settled right after.

Starting at her hips, I dragged my fingers up her body—enjoying every second. There was something so damn sexy about how, no matter where my hands moved, they were met by her soft warmth. Her voluptuous form filled my hands and I loved that. I lifted her arms into the air and left them there, bringing my hands back down slowly, keeping her close.

This performance had given me an excuse to satisfy the urge that struck next. When I got to her breasts, I decided to go with it, letting my hands cover them, biting my lip at the feel of their weight against my fingers. A visual of the night I bathed her popped into my head. She’d covered herself with a white towel that, when wet, left little to the imagination. Then, I wanted nothing more than to touch, and now, that wish had been fulfilled. I gently cupped them at first, but when tight nipples pressed into the centers of my palms, I squeezed gently.

Brynn sucked in a breath at the feel of my lips grazing the side of her neck while my hands continued to work. She tilted her head to the side, allowing me to kiss her there. The screams that erupted from the women surrounding the stage almost went unnoticed as I touched her,
aroused
her, for the crowd. Even without a blindfold over my eyes, it was only Brynn and I there.

I took my hands down her waist and secured them at her hips again, holding them steady while I moved my body against hers, grinding into it like I’d imagined doing so many times before, only naked, without the barrier of clothing. The deep, rhythmic vibrations of the music flowed through me like hot liquid and I followed it, letting my body do what now, after eight years in the game, came naturally. Like second nature.

My movements matched the fantasy playing out in my head—of being deep inside her, balls deep with her soaking every single inch I had to offer. At the thought of it—her hot, saturated pussy—I broke a cardinal rule, feeling my dick stiffen as I pressed into her. That wasn’t allowed, but no one knew except Brynn.

I had to back off of her a bit so it could relax again; had to think about something other than what it would feel like to come inside her, something other than needing to feel her naked body in my hands.

It took a while, but I was in the clear again, so I moved away, coming back to face her, discovering that the nervous look had faded completely as lust took over. She breathed differently, deeper.

She took steps backwards when I led her to the chair waiting a few feet away. Making sure she didn’t stumble, I had her sit, still blindfolded. For a moment, only the audience would get a show as she sat there in the dark.

Once again at center stage, I stooped down and untied my laces—slow, unhurried, seeing the look of anticipation that passed over the crowd. I stepped out of the boots and set them near the stage’s exit, coming back right after, claiming my spot in front of Brynn again. My back was still to her as I teased the crowd, lifting the hem of my tank a few inches, exposing my abs to them slowly before pulling the shirt off over my head. Like always, I tossed it out to them and several scrambled to the floor, wanting to claim it.