Secret Love (Love Stings Series Book 2) (6 page)

Chapter Eight

Damien

My eyes open, and I find Carrington gone. I slide my hand over her spot and find it still warm. I roll onto my back and stare up at the ceiling. Last night Carrington fell asleep with her head in my lap while we watched a movie. When it was over, I was going to wake her so she could go home. Letting her stay was entering dangerous ground, but I loved the way she snuggled into me. I carried her into my room and then laid her down on my bed, climbing in behind her. She fit against me perfectly, and I loved that she snuggled in as close as humanly possible.

The sound of music coming from the living room brings me out of my thoughts. I throw my boxer briefs on and make my way down the hall. What I see stops me in my tracks. Carrington is standing in the middle of my living room in her bra and panties with her hair piled up on her head.

The tempo of the music picks up, and then she starts to move. I know nothing about dance, but the way she moves and twirls around my living room has me in awe. Obviously, I knew she could dance, but this is so much more. Her muscles contract as she moves. She kicks her leg up, grabs it, and spins around. She does complex-looking kicks that have her completely in the air.

My dick is hard as hell as I watch her move. When she finishes, I move toward her, wrapping my arms around her waist. “That was beautiful, baby.” I run my tongue up the side of her neck, tasting the saltiness of her skin.

“Thank you. Contemporary dance is kind of my thing. I love letting the music flow through me and guide me. The music didn’t wake you, did it?” She turns in my arms and wraps her arms around my waist.

“No, it didn’t. You better put a shirt on or something before I take you right here.” I reach around and slap her ass. “Put one of my t-shirts on.”

She wiggles her tight ass at me as she moves down the hall to my bedroom. Shaking my head, I head to the kitchen to start breakfast.

Carrington joins me a few minutes later in one of my black button-up shirts with the sleeves rolled up. She’s drowning in it, but damn if she doesn’t look sexy as fuck. “So what do you have planned tonight?” I ask her.

“I actually picked up a shift in the ER tonight. Are you working at the club?”

“Yeah, I have to take care of business for the club. So what do you do in the ER?” I hope it’s nothing that puts her at risk for getting hurt. I can’t afford to worry about her all night long.

“I’m pretty much a slave to the nurses. I get the patients stuff, clean up rooms after they leave, help transport to the floors if they get admitted, and sometimes play babysitter to kids when we’re treating the parents. It’s not glamorous, but it’s where I want to work once I pass my boards, or I should say if I pass them.” I hate seeing the embarrassed look on her face.

“Hey, you’ll pass it. I’m gonna help, remember.” I tuck a strand of hair behind her ear, and I lean forward, pressing my lips to hers.

My phone rings, and I grab it off of the counter. “It’s Rafe. Can you watch the bacon? I need to take this call.”

She hops off the counter, and I walk to my bedroom and shut the door. “Hey, Rafe. What’s up?”

“Damien, my man. I’ve got some shit I need you to do. You know what we talked about Saturday night? Well, we’re ready to move forward. We’ve got some grade A pussy coming to the club, and a few of the dancers want in. Friday night we’ve got a bachelor party coming in, and they’ve rented out the room. They want at least three girls and some blow. I need you to talk to Cari.”

“Okay, but why do I need to talk to her?”
Please don’t say she’s got to do it
, I repeat over and over to myself.

“They’ve personally requested her. If not to fuck, they at least want some lap dances. She’ll get a cut of the room. If she just does the lap dances, we can even have security in there to make sure they don’t try anything. What do you think?”

Rage fills me, and I seriously want to reach through the phone and rip his fucking face off. I clench my fist in my lap so tight that my knuckles are white.

“I doubt she’ll be down for fucking, but she’ll do the lap dances. I do want to be the one in there, though. I have faith in my men, but it’s easy to get swayed by the mighty dollar and she’s our biggest moneymaker. I don’t want to lose her because some douche crossed the line and one of our men let it happen. What about the coke?”

“Tonight I’ll give you the money to go get it. The person I work for has made arrangements for the exchange.”

Rafe tells me that he’ll give me the address when I come in tonight. Carrington has to pass that test. I won’t make it through this assignment if something happens to her. Why couldn’t she have been a mediocre waitress without any interest in dancing?

I end the call and take a deep breath. This is where things are going to start getting crazy. Right now I’m purely gathering Intel, getting myself accepted into the inner circle and reporting back to my superiors.

The smell of bacon pulls me out of my thoughts, and I follow the scent. Rounding the corner, I find Carrington moving around my kitchen. It’s domestic and a complete turn on, especially since she’s wearing just my shirt.

“Sit down and I’ll bring your plate to you,” she says, not even looking at me. A minute later and she carries two plates to the table. She gives me a kiss as she hands me mine. Carrington sits down across from me, and we dig in.

We sit in a companionable silence. These eggs are the best I’ve ever had, and I moan with each fork full. She smiles at me and then takes a big bite of her bacon.

“Was there a problem at the club?”

“No, he just wanted to let me know we’ve got a big party coming in tomorrow night.”

It’s a lame as hell excuse, but I can’t tell her anything else, and I don’t know how to tell her that the party requested she be the main entertainment. She may still have to dance privately for them, and I don’t want her feeling awkward.

She watches me from across the table, and I wonder if she even believes the shit I’m saying. “Oh, okay.” She picks her plate up and grabs mine for me. I hear her scrape the plates off and then rinse them off.

“You don’t have to clean up,” I tell her, walking into the kitchen to make coffee. “Can you stay for a little bit? Maybe sit outside and drink coffee?”

“Yeah, sure.” Her mouth spreads into such a wide smile that I can’t help but return it. This girl is something else.

***

It’s six o’clock when I step into the club. Sundays through Thursdays, the club is pretty quiet. The dancers are okay but nowhere near the caliber of the girls who dance on Friday and Saturday. We have two bartenders working and no waitresses. I give one of the bartenders, Kyle, a chin lift and make my way back toward Rafe and Tucker’s office.

A quick knock on the door and I pop it open. I find Rafe sitting behind his desk and Tucker standing next to him. They’re both looking at the computer screen. Neither of them looks up, but they signal for me to come in with their hands. I sit down in front of their desk and wait for them to talk to me.

Rafe looks up at me and gives me a chin lift. He sets a thick envelope on the desk in front of me. I pick it up and peer inside. It’s a large stack of hundred dollar bills. He reaches out to me with a piece of paper.

“Here’s the address. You’ll be hooking up with a guy named Tony. He’ll take the cash and then he’ll have a small duffle bag for you.” I pick up the address. “Damien, we’re trusting you with this. Don’t let us down.”

“Don’t worry, you can trust me. I’ll be back ASAP. Do they know to expect me, not you?”

“Yeah, they know our head of security is coming. Take this with you just in case.”

Tucker opens a drawer and pulls out a .22. I take it from him, check the clip, and tuck it into the back of my jeans, pulling my t-shirt out so it covers the gun. I take the money and take my leave. Out in the parking lot, I stick the money in the glove box of my Jeep. I punch in the address on my GPS.

It’s a twenty-minute drive, giving me lots of time to think about things, about Carrington. I shouldn’t be fucking her because if I were to get compromised, it could be bad for her. I’m a selfish bastard though, and I don’t care since I’m not done fucking her out of my system yet. In all seriousness, I want to help her pass her boards so she can stop fucking dancing. As much as I love watching her and fantasize about her dancing just for me, she deserves so much better than that life.

I pull down a street filled with McMansions. Each house is big and looks identical to the next. The GPS tells me I’ve reached my destination when I pull up in front of the monstrosity at the end of the street. If their plan was to look inconspicuous, then they’ve failed. The house itself looks normal, but the landscaping is ridiculous. The shrubbery is shaped like animals, and there are so many flowers gracing the yard that I can’t even tell if there’s grass.

There is also the large man wearing his sunglasses at night, standing by the front door. I get out of my jeep and make my way toward the front door. The guy with the sunglasses is watching me as I make my approach.

“Can I help you?” His voice is deep.

“Yeah, Rafe sent me.” I’m not scared, but this guy does make me uneasy. I’m not a small man, and this man is huge compared to me.

“Turn around. I need to pat you down.”
Well, shit
.

“Just to let you know, I have a .22 in the back of my jeans.” He grabs it from me, stuffs it in his pants, and finishes frisking me.

“You can have it back when you leave. Go on in, have a seat in the first room on the right. Someone will be with you shortly.”

Opening the door, I step inside and notice the inside is just as gaudy as the outside. Gold is everywhere. It’s like they’re trying too hard to prove something. I commit everything I see to memory and step inside the room I was instructed to have a seat in. The artwork that fills the room is erotic; there are sculptures of people in various sexual positions and photographs of naked women in various poses.

Carrington immediately comes to mind. What I wouldn’t give to have some photos of her like that. I quickly banish those thoughts because I don’t need to get an erection right now. Before I can push the thoughts away, two women step into the room and sit on both sides of me. The one on my left puts her hand on my thigh.

“Hey, big boy. Are you looking for some company? You look like the kind of guy who could handle both of us.” I turn and look at the girl who said it and can tell right away she’s high as a kite. Her pupils are dilated, and she’s got a tiny bit of white powder in her nostril.

“I’m sure I could, but I’m not interested. I’m just here to pick something up.” As if right on cue, a man a little shorter than me enters the room. He’s carrying a small duffle bag.

Both girls immediately get up and go to him. I control my features when he grabs the chin of the one who propositioned me and turns her face toward him.

“Were you in my stash again? If you’re going to touch my shit, the least you could do is clean your fucking nose off before you come out to speak to any potential clients.” With the quickness of a snake striking its prey, the mystery man backhands the girl. “Go get cleaned up before I get rid of you.”

He watches the two girls scramble away and then turns back to me. I can tell he’s sizing me up the way his eyes travel up and down my body. It’s certainly not in a sexual manner, but more curiosity. He’s probably wondering if he can best me if need be.

“You Rafe’s boy?”

“I’m no one’s boy, but yeah, I work for Rafe. Is that the package?” I motion with my head toward the bag in his hand.

“You got the cash?”

I hand him the envelope and watch as he opens it and counts it. He hands me the bag. I unzip it and look inside. There are two large bricks of coke inside. “Looks good.”

“You work at their club, right?” I nod my head. “That dancer they’ve got…Pepper, is it? I’d like a piece of her. Maybe we could work something out. Tell Rafe I’ll be in touch.”

Schooling my features, I nod my head and head toward the front door. Big man at the door hands me back my gun, so I tuck it back in my pants and make my way toward my Jeep. My blood pressure is rising, and I’m ready to go ballistic. I’ll be damned if I let that drug dealing, pimping piece of shit anywhere near Carrington. She has to pass that test. If I could afford it, I’d pay for her to survive until she could take and pass that goddamn test.

As I drive back to the bar, I know I’ve got someone following me. Too bad whoever it is sucks at it. I clocked him tailing me about five minutes after I left. He fucked up my plan to call my handler. I can’t risk it. The guy could have equipment on him to listen to any calls that I’d make. All I want to do is get rid of the blow and go bury myself in Carrington’s sweet pussy.

That thought right there is why I should stay away from her, but I’m a selfish prick.

I’m finally back at The Thirsty Beaver and pull into the parking lot. My tail cruises right on by, thank fuck. I grab the bag and head back inside.