Total pages in book: 188
Estimated words: 179812 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 899(@200wpm)___ 719(@250wpm)___ 599(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 179812 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 899(@200wpm)___ 719(@250wpm)___ 599(@300wpm)
“He has not. I wanted to go—”
“So yeah, no,” he finishes on a long breath, “I don’t think I like the idea of you serving all the assholes of Bardstown. Except when the asshole is me.”
Slowly, I unfurl my fingers from the edge of the counter. I put my hands on the glass, my fingers splayed wide, and lean forward. I have to crane my neck up to look into his eyes, but I’m okay with that. As long as he can read every emotion going through my eyes.
“I have a lot of things to say to you,” I begin. “I’m going to list them in bullet points, okay? So I don’t forget anything. Number one: I don’t care whether you like me working here or not. Or anywhere, for that matter. You don’t get to decide that for me. So I’ll be keeping both my jobs. Number two: I don’t want your job. I don’t want anything from you. I don’t even think why you’d,” I search for the correct term before settling on, “consider me for the position but no, thank you. And number three, this one’s quite possibly the most important point of all: please stop. Stop whatever it is you’re doing. Stop coming into my work. Stop crashing my dates. Stop demanding naked lap dances from me. Just stop, okay? Stop. Lose my number and leave.”
His features are just as impassive as they were when I started my tirade, making me wonder if he heard anything I said. A second later I don’t have to because I know; he didn’t. Because he decrees, “You either quit your job at the strip club in the next seven days, or I’ll have you fired.”
“What?”
“From both jobs. And your occasional catering gig too.”
“You—”
“And trust me when I say, no one will touch you in this town once I make it known you’re my girl or they’ll have me to answer to.”
My cheeks are burning with anger. “What are you, the mafia?”
“And the royalty. I can make your life very difficult in this town, if I want to.”
“This is blackmail.”
“It’s what I’ll do if you don’t agree to be mine by the end of the week.”
“Do you think this is funny? Do you—”
His demeanor shifts then, grows intense and angry as he dips his face and growls, “No, I don’t. I don’t think it’s funny that ever since I saw you at that goddamn strip club, prancing around in your frilly little skirts and your fuck-me heels, looking like a piece of candy that every man in that joint wants to eat, I can’t stop wanting to beat the shit out of the first person I see. It’s not funny how furious it makes me to watch you in that hellhole, with men salivating after you like dogs. Especially when your asshole boss is one of them. By the way, what the fuck is it about you and your bosses, huh? Why in the fuck do they think they can get a piece of you? And I know you don’t like it either. I know you don’t like that job. You don’t dress like other girls. You don’t flirt with men like other girls. Or even if you do, you make sure to keep a distance and it makes me want to burn that place down. So no, it’s not funny.”
Then, leaning further down, “But you wanna know the least funny thing? It’s that six hours and forty-three minutes ago, give or take a few minutes, I had you in my lap. I had you exactly where I wanted you, exactly where I’ve been thinking about putting you, in the goddamn cage of my arms so you can’t run from me, but instead of doing something about it, I let you go. Instead of playing with you like I wanted to, all I did was play with your panties like a fumbling fucking teenager in the back seat of his first car. Imagine me, the toxic asshole with very little patience, acting like a goddamn gentleman. But I did it. I did it because I thought to myself, she’s young; she’s new; she doesn’t know how fucking filthy I can be. I’m already close to choking her out so I should start slow. I should try to be a little nicer to her. It’ll be hard but hey, for her, I’ll give it a try.
“But no good deed goes unpunished, does it? Not with you. Because all I did was touch you a little bit, grazed your wet panties a few times. Maybe circled your clit once, and you lit up for me like I’d been petting you for hours. Like I’d been pampering that pussy, paying special attention to it for days on end and you couldn’t take it anymore. You were fully primed and so you had no choice but to gush for me. Drip on my fingers like you really were my ripe little strawberry, just waiting for me to toy with you. So now I’m stuck, aren’t I? I’m goddamn motherfucking stuck trying to chase after that little taste you gave me, binging on strawberries all night, hoping that I’ll find one that tastes exactly like your pussy. So again, no. None of this is fucking funny. So you will quit that fucking job and agree to be mine or I’ll make you quit both and take you anyway. And honestly, I almost wish you choose the harder way because I’m not a fan of this job either. In any case, you’ve got seven days.”