Page 17 of Dance for Me
Still, she kept dancing, let everything go but the music, and by the time the song ended, she was sweaty, breathless, and her mind was clearer than it had been for a while.
“Well hell,” someone called out from below her, “Braun went and hired us a sexy as fuck dancer for the evening’s entertainment. Think we can keep her? I’d sure like to watch her dance like that under me in bed.”
Her hands fisted. Her breath sucked in so hard, she made a growling noise in the back of her throat. Using the lights to blind herself was a mistake; if she could have seen where the asshole was, she’d have already launched herself off the edge of the stage at him.
No. Braun said not to.
As indignant fury filled her to the brim, Bodie trembled and remembered she’d promised the club owner she wouldn’t cause that kind of trouble. There was to be no mouthing off to anyone in Avalon and in return she wouldn’t have to suffer through a punishment.
“Shut the fuck up, Jacob. You’re already skating on thin ice with Braun after that stunt you pulled.” Liam’s voice was taut with disdain. “Leave the talent alone because he’ll fucking scalp you if he finds out you’re hassling her.”
Bodie fumbled for the remote with shaking hands and switched off the music. Her excellent high was quickly fading as she listened to Liam wade straight into an argument with the man she couldn’t see.
“I’m a member, Liam. We get benefits,” Jacob hissed the word lasciviously.
“Memberships are easily revoked when members turn into lecherous assholes. This club doesn’t tolerate the kind of behavior you’re prone to displaying, Jacob, and I’d be well within my rights to terminate your access to Avalon. Braun really won’t have an issue with losing you.”
“Fucking faggot, who do you think you are, threatening me?”
Bodie bristled and turned toward the stairs. After Liam came out of the closet as bisexual, he’d taken more than his fair share of verbal and physical abuse from homophobic asshats like this one. She abhorred ignorant jackasses who thought bullying others made them big, macho men.
How tall would he be in the glare of her ire, she wondered as she stomped across the stage like a woman with murder on her mind. She’d reduce the fucker to a whimpering heap by the time she got through with him.
“Little one, take another step and we’re going to have a problem.” Braun’s deep voice rumbled, loud and clear. It boomed through the barn, silencing Jacob’s disgusting tirade of abuse. “Stay right there, Bodie. I’ve got my eye on you.”
She froze, obeying the command etched into his tone. It was that same dark, inarguable tone that made her panties wet and her belly ache. The fire thrumming through her veins with her vexation simmered down from a roaring inferno to a quiet glow, calmed but ready to flare again with one wrong word.
“Jacob. I take it you haven’t learned your lesson from the other night? You were told not to come back until you learned manners and how to respect a submissive in your care.” Braun did not sound amused; quite the opposite, in fact. The coldness in his voice sent a bolt of ice down Bodie’s spine. “Not only have you broken my rules on conduct, but you’ve blatantly disregarded the terms set in your contract by entering Avalon outside of business hours and verbally assaulting my manager.”
“Manager,” the man scoffed and, to Bodie’s disgust, made a loud hocking noise followed by spitting. “That limp-dicked wanker does nothing but perv over people paying good money to come to this shithole. Fucks men and women alike, spreading his diseases all over the county and back.”
That’s it. Bodie charged the remaining distance to the steps and clattered down them with her furnace stoked back to screaming. If there was steam coming out of her ears, she wouldn’t be surprised. “You homophobic, inbred, piece of shit!”
“Well, lookee here. Another slut under the faggot’s spell.”
“Stay right where you are, Bodie!”
“Ah fuck, boss, grab her!”
Cutting the strings loose on her temper, Bodie launched herself at the man standing in front of Braun. Her fists were clenched, and she swung at him as soon as she was within reach. Her scream was one of pure outrage as an incredibly strong arm banded around her waist and snagged her in midair, pulling her up tight against a broad chest and pinning her.
“Get that bitch under control.”
The body holding her captive seemed to snap with a burst of energy, and she heard the dull thud of flesh meeting flesh, then flesh meeting wood. “Consider your membership revoked, Jacob.” Braun snapped, barely breathing hard. “Liam, call Jasper in here and get him to give you a hand taking the trash to the end of the road. This fucker shows his face again at my club, you call the fucking cops.”
“My pleasure,” Liam drawled.
Bodie snarled as the room spun around her. “Put me down!”
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