“That’s right. You remember me.” His words show like: I see I made an impression.
Uh, he’s one of those guys who thinks he’s god’s gift to women.
My internal radar beeps with a warning. He exudes the air of a man who's accustomed to turning heads, perhaps too aware of his own charm. It's a type I've learned to be wary of—someone who believes he's the ultimate prize in the game of attraction.
I hate guys like that.
“Not exactly.” I say and move around him to head down the hallway.
“Really? Then how did you know who I was?”
His words seem to insinuate, "I caught your attention, didn't I?" It's precisely the kind of arrogance I've come to disdain. I just try to ignore him.
“You're not as timid as you were. Which one is the real you, huh?”
He goes on from behind me.
I whirl around to face him and rest my hands on my hips. “Look. This is just some sort of weird coincidence. We met at the bus stop and nothing more. Now, this is my first shift, so I can’t be late. Excuse me.”
As I pivot and stride away, there's a shadow of amusement dancing across his features, a smirk that lingers in my peripheral vision. I turn around and head back into the main area of the club. The lights have been dimmed down from when I first arrived and there are people everywhere.
I weave my way through the crowd and head for the bar where I see one of my new coworkers already mixing drinks.
Her name’s Brandy. We have a class together and have talked a few times. She heard I was looking for a new job and referred me to this place.
When she spots me heading her way, she gives me a huge smile and a wave. I walk around the bar and tie my apron around my hips. This isn’t the first bar I’ve worked at, so I know the drill and jump right in to help Brandy serve drinks to rowdy customers.
There is a lot more diversity in clientele than at any of the other clubs I worked in. On one side of the bar there is a group of guys who are clean cut suits that are probably looking for an edgier spot to get drunk. Then there is a bridal party group who’re half drunk already and making eyes at the half dressed servers. There is a group of rougher looking people, and then there are the average joes just looking for a good time. Unfortunately, these average joes include men who are loud and snarky who do a lot of shit talking.
One of them flags me down from the furthest seat of the bar, and by how red his face is and the glossiness of his eyes, I can tell he’s already a few drinks in.
“Hi! What can I get you?” I ask him with as polite a smile as I can muster.
The pungent scent of alcohol and unwashed skin wafts from him, a heavy presence that hangs in the air like a suffocating fog. It's a sensory assault that makes each breath a conscious effort, contorting my features into an involuntary, subtle grimace.
"Another whiskey," he drawls, his words as sluggish as his demeanor.
"Of course," I reply, my voice steady despite the discomfort. As I reach for the glass to fulfill his request, I inquire, "Are you visiting from out of town?"
His response is a mere grunt, accompanied by an unsettling once-over that lingers on my form. An internal alarm rings, but I maintain a facade of congeniality, allowing a friendly smile to remain plastered on my face. With a deft motion, I set his drink down and smoothly transition to the next customer. One of the suits flag me down so I squeeze behind Brandy and make my way over to them.
“Hello gentleman, what can I get for you?” I ask.
“How about your number, beautiful?” One guy says.
His friends whoop and hoot at him, but he keeps his eyes on me. There’s a smirk on his face, but instead of making him look charming, it's giving me an uneasy feeling. He looks like the sort of guy who seems charming but doesn’t like to take no for an answer. I have to be careful around him.
“Sorry, not today, boys. How about a drink?” I ask again.
His smirk falls.
“Just get me a beer,” he snaps, his tone a sharp edge that causes me to involuntarily flinch.
“You got it.”
“One for me too, cutie!” One of the other guys says and soon the rest of them shout their orders.
I serve them as quickly as I can and move on.
“Hey new girl. Can you take this to booth three? I have my hands full.” a fellow server requests, handing me a bottle of champagne before bustling away before I can even agree.
I do as he asks and take the bottle to booth three. The booths are raised up over the main floor, so I have to climb the three steps to reach the table. My hand freezes mid air when I see the guy from the hallway. He’s sitting against the booth with his arms spread out behind two different girls and smirking up at me.
“Hello again.” He says smoothly.
“I have your champaign.” I say with a tight smile. “Would you like me to pour it or should I leave it on the table?”
“Pour for us.” He says with a nod.
I step closer and fill everyone's glasses, saving him for last. Once I’m done, I step back. “Can I get you anything else?”
“Now who might you be?” One of the other men at the table asks.
Honestly, I hadn’t really noticed him, but now that he’s speaking to me, I let my attention move to him. He’s handsome and has a smile that would make any girl blush.
“Mila. I’m new.” I say, giving him a shy smile.
“You must be. I would have remembered seeing a sweet thing like you.” He looks me over and I have an urge to shift in place.
“Stop flirting with my staff, Ashton.” My head snaps toward the guy I’ve run into three times today.
“Your staff?” I ask stupidly.
He smiles widely. “That’s right, sweetheart. This is my club.”
Well crap.
“Oh. Well, I better get back.” I take the empty bottle of champaign and hold it against my chest like a shield as I make my way back to the bar.
My mind is racing. I told that guy off this morning because of some lovers' quarrel I had no business getting in the middle of and he didn’t fire me the second he recognized me. Why?
“Thank god you're back! Can you grab those guys down there?” Brandy says nodding toward the suit guys.
I groan internally but move in their direction. They’re a lot louder now, a clear sign that they’re too drunk to be having anything else.
“There she is! The only girl in the world who’s refused Robert’s charm.” One of the guys says before slapping the guy I refused to give my number to on the shoulder.
He scowls at me, but I try to ignore him.
The atmosphere is charged with an unmistakable energy, fueled by alcohol and the anticipation of an eventful evening. My nerves are on edge, but I plaster a polite smile on my face, ready to fulfill their requests and hopefully make it through the night unscathed.
“Can I get you guys anything else or would you like to settle up?” I ask, hoping they’ll get the hint that they should leave.
“Another round!” A few of the guys shout at once.
“You got it.” I get their drinks and line them on the bar.
The guy scowling at me grabs my wrist as I’m pulling my hand back and tightens his hold on me enough that it would hurt if I tried to pull away.
His eyes heavy with alcohol and entitlement. My heart stutters in my chest, and a sinking feeling settles in the pit of my stomach.
"How about you make things up to me?" he leers, his words dripping with innuendo that sends shivers of discomfort down my spine. "How about we go to one of those back rooms and you can give me a private show?"
His words hit me like a punch to the gut, triggering a flood of memories that I've fought so hard to suppress. My breath catches in my throat, my mind suddenly veering into a dark and suffocating place—a place I've tried to leave behind.
Before I can react, before I can find my voice to extricate myself from the situation, a voice slices through the tension like a knife through butter. “She isn’t interested. I think you boys have had enough.” Brandy says leaning over and pulling his hand away from me.
He laughs and shakes his head.
The ground shifts beneath me.
It's the only sign I get that all hell is about to break loose.
Mila’s POVI feel a gush of warm liquid smash against my skin and across my chest and down the side of my face. My eyes blink rapidly as I try to process the scene in front of me. All the sounds of chaos around me fad into a steady ringing sound when I look down at my hands and see them covered.Blood. It’s blood.My eyes lift to where the man who had been touching me is clutching his hand to his chest. One of his friends grabs his arm and wraps it around the bloody mess. His head snaps to me and he starts toward me.That’s when the noise snaps into place, and I stumble back. Someone from behind me wraps their arms around me, pining my arms to my side. I struggle against him, but he turns and pushes me against the bar counter and pushes my head down on the counter with his arm. He pins me there and I feel something cold and metallic against my lower back and a tug that causes my shirt to rip down the middle of my back.The fabric drops past my shoulders and a sob escapes me.“Well, it
Mila’s POVHis lips are firm as he kisses me with violent desperation. I start to feel lightheaded as he moves his hands back down my back, and I can’t help the way I grind down against him. The small sparks from his touch are making me want so much more. My whole body feels like it’s slowly catching fire and yet I need more of his warmth. So much more.The wind is knocked out of me for a whole other reason when he flips us over and dives in to kiss me without skipping a beat. In my head, I know this isn’t a normal thing for us to be doing, given the fact that this morning I tore him a new one for being rude to another girl. It’s the fact that he’s technically my boss and I don’t know a thing about him. I’m not someone who hookup with random guys, but I can’t seem to help myself. His touch is making em ache for more, like I can’t go another second if I don’t have more of him.Why is this feeling so intense?He breaks away from our kiss and treats a trail down the side of my neck as he
Mila's POVI could say no, but it’s as if there is a thread between us and he’s tugged it so hard that I can’t help but move toward him. It would have been sexier if I crawled to him across the bed, but since I don’t know where things are going now, I decide to climb down off the bed and walk around it to stand next to him. He looks up at me and then down at his shirt as he slowly unbuttons it. My eyes follow the motion until the last button is undone, and he pulls the shirt the rest of the way off, leaving his toned chest and stomach on display.A second later, he wraps a hand around my wrist and tugs me forward until I’m close enough that he can pull my hand and place it over his injury. He leads my hand across the area, but all I feel is smooth skin and the tense way his muscles are bunched up.“See? You healed me.” He says.I look back at him and see a smirk that I’m quickly associating with him now on his lips.“So there is nothing else stopping me from having you. Right. Now.” H
Julian’s POVMila tries to cover herself, but I snap at her.“Don’t hide yourself from me.” I warn her.Her eyes widen, but she gives me a small nod and relaxes again.“Now, hold still.” I tell her because I don’t want to hurt her.I can tell by the smell of her she’s human, even with the power she possesses. That means I could kill her if I’m not careful and I don’t want to do that. She’s too beautiful and smells too delicious to end in such a brutal way. So I take a deep breath and cover her now naked body with mine and the second our skin touches, my power fluctuates until it becomes a steady pulse of electricity that matches the beating of her heart.My body is reacting to her like it never has to anyone else, but I try not to focus on what that could mean. I think that's just an illusion. She's just too pretty.Right now, all I can focus on is getting some relief.“Ready?” I ask her.Also, something I rarely do, but like I said, I don’t want to hurt her. She nods and I smirk down
Mila’s POVMy body feels sore and my eyes feel too heavy to open, but something feels off. I fight a battle against the urge to get comfortable and continue sleeping, and when I finally open my eyes, I notice Julian isn’t in bed next to me. I lift my head and glance around the room, but I don’t see him. The blankets pool at my waist when I move to sit up and I quickly grab them to cover myself. I look around the room and don’t see any sign that Julian was even here. What I do see is my shredded clothing on the floor.Where did he go?I don’t know what to do. My clothes are ruined, which means I’m stuck unless I can get someone to bring me something. I wrap the blanket around myself and climb off the bed and rush over to my pants to find my phone. When I pull it out of the back pocket, I see a dozen text messages and seven phone calls from my stepmother. Shit.There’s nothing I can do about her until I get some clothes, so I try not to think about that mess just yet. Instead, I pull up
Mila’s POVThere is a soft knock on the door of the room I’ve been hiding out in all morning. I heard movement outside a few minutes after I called Isabella and ran over to the door, locking it so no one would walk in and see me. Since then, I’ve been pacing and running through everything that happened last night in my head. I felt something when I was with Julian, and the way he talked I thought…I thought he felt it too.I’m so stupid.This is why hooking up isn’t a good idea. Not that I’ve ever done this before, but now I understand why this would have been dangerous. As much as I wish, I could say that it was just sex, and it meant nothing…it didn’t feel that way! Still here I am alone with no wearable clothes, and Julian is nowhere to be found. What did I expect? He’s so handsome and has this dangerous aura about him that all girls love.He also owns this place and had more than a few women giving him attention last night. I was just the poor idiot who gave in and slept with him,
Mila’s POVAfter a breakfast of French toast covered in fruit and whipped cream, Isabella takes me back to her house where we watch movies and bing on junk food. I should call my stepmother and tell her what happened, but I can’t bring myself to ruin all the work Isabella has put into trying to help me forget what happened today. One more day or pretending that woman isn’t a part of my life and then I can go home and let all her vile words roll off me. Her other punishments will take more effort to ignore, but I’ve survived this long on far less to distract me with.Isabella’s able to find out that I have to work again tonight at some point between the mimosas at breakfast and the strawberry margaritas after lunch. Yeah, it was that kind of day. She talked me into wearing another outfit of her choosing. It didn’t escape my notice that it looks a lot more my style than any of her clothes ever have. I’m going to have to ask her about that when my head isn’t spinning over the fact that I
Julian’s POV I’m taken by surprise when Mila slowly steps inside. “Mr. Keller, Adam said we are low on Bourbon and that you had the key for the storage room.” Her voice is hesitant and subdued. She also doesn’t seem to be able to look at me. “I do have the key, but I want to talk to you about something first.” I motion for her to sit and she does. She sits with her back ramrod straight and her hands folded on her lap. What the fuck is wrong with her? “I wanted to explain about this morning.” I start but she cuts me off. “You don’t have to explain. It was what it was, and we don’t need to talk about it again. I know it would probably make things weird if anyone found out, so let’s just forget it happened.” She stands before I can say anything else. I watch her fidget in place, waiting for me to hand over the keys. This isn’t where I hoped this conversation would go, but if she’s so eager to run away, then I won’t force her to stay. I may be an asshole in the dating department, b