Little Bird by Kally Ash
Wren
God,I hoped I knew what I was doing. Through the windshield of my car, I looked up at The Dollhouse, feeling my stomach churn. I felt like I was making a deal with the Devil here, although if I were honest with myself, Bane Rivera was one fine-looking devil. Glancing at the black card on the passenger seat, I tried to recall what he’d told me on the phone this afternoon after I’d finished with my last client. He’d said I could come through the front, that the bouncer would wave me through.
As I worked through washing dogs and clipping claws, I had time to think about Bane’s offer. He said he’d wipe Hawk’s debt if I worked for him. He never said how long, though, or doing what, although I suspected I already knew, so I’d reasoned with myself that this was just a meeting to discuss the particulars. I had not said yes to this. I was not committing to working at a fucking gentlemen’s club, no matter how exclusive it was.
Letting out one final breath, I got out of my car and locked it. I glanced around as I made my way to the front, feeling like everyone was staring at me.
“Can I help you, ma’am?” the bouncer asked, his bald head gleaming with sweat in the late evening heat that was still clinging to LA.
“Yes, my name is Wren—”
“Go on through,” he said, cutting me off. “Mr. Rivera is expecting you.”
“Th-thank you.” I stepped through the door he held open for me and let out a sigh as the cool air swirled around my feet. The club looked much the same as before, the lux fabrics and the opulence an almost indecent assault on the senses, especially when it was pared with women dressed in lingerie dancing on raised platforms with poles, in cages, and on men’s laps. I walked to the bar, then stopped. Bane never said to go to his office, and I figured barging in on him once was enough. I waited for him by the black-lacquered bar, my gaze bouncing around the room.
There were so many men here already, a lot of them sitting in quartets in comfortable-looking leather armchairs with high rolled arms. The women were perched either on their knees or on the arms of the chairs themselves, their long, lean legs draped over the men’s laps. A lot of the women didn’t look real to me. How could someone look like that, I wondered, and how could they choose this as their career?
“Little Bird.”
Jumping, I turned to find Bane standing there in the same suit as I’d seen him in this morning, although he’d jettisoned the jacket. His shirt was open at the collar, revealing a tantalizing look at the tattoos that continued from his neck down onto his chest. His dark hair was fuck-me tousled, his dark eyes drinking me in.
“Jesus, you scared me,” I told him.
He smirked.
The bastard.
“Would you like a drink?”
“Fuck, yes. Whisky on the rocks.”
His smile widened a little more before he turned to the bartender waiting at his elbow. After he’d ordered our drinks, we waited in silence. Bane was staring at me, his gaze never staying in one place too long. It dropped from my face to my chest, then lower. I had no idea what he was expecting to see. I’d come straight from work, so I smelled of wet dog and was covered in hair. I’d toyed with the idea of getting changed, but I figured this wasn’t actually going to take too long. I’d find out the details, then I’d leave.
“Let’s go and sit down,” he said, handing me my drink and gesturing to the main floor of the club. I let him lead the way, trying to ignore how great his ass looked in those slacks. He picked a couple of seats at the far end of the club as far away from the gyrating pole dancers as we could get.
“I thought you might want a little privacy,” he told me in a dark voice that made my ovaries quiver a little bit.
I took a sip of my whisky, savoring the burn. “This won’t take long.”
With humor dancing in his eyes, he also took a sip from his glass before placing it onto the small table beside him. “I make it a point never to do things fast with a beautiful woman.” He lounged back in the chair, his elbows on the high arms, his legs spread wide. I got a very vivid picture in my mind of what it would be like to be with a man like him, one that oozes dominance and power.
I cleared my throat. “We need to discuss the offer you made me this morning.”
He steepled his fingers together in front of him. “And I am all—”
He was cut off when an artificial redhead in matching red lingerie flopped into his lap. “Hi, daddy,” she purred, running her finger over his jaw like a lover would.
With far more gentleness than I expected, he eased her off his lap. “Get out of here, Syn. You can clearly see I’m in a meeting.”
The woman, Syn, cast her eyes to me, her expression turning sour. “A new Doll?” she asked.
Bane stared at me, a smile on his sinful mouth. “Maybe. Now get the fuck out of here.”
I watched the other woman go, then swallowed another mouthful of whisky. When I turned back, Bane was still staring at me, only all amusement was gone.
“What’s a Doll?” I asked.
“What I call my dancers.”
“Oh.” Nervous energy fluttered around inside me, pinging against my skin and making me suddenly jumpy. Is that what Bane wanted me for? To be one of his Dolls? I looked around at the other women. They were all dressed in barely-there lingerie, their faces perfectly done, their hair immaculate. If his offer was for me to become one of his dancers, I wasn’t sure I could.
“Should we get down to business then?” he asked smoothly.
Drawing in a shaky breath, I turned back to him. “Yes,” I croaked. Jesus-fucking- Christ, what was I doing? I knew I was considering making a deal with the Devil, but could I lower my standards this much? I had no issues with sexuality. I had no issues with other women who wanted to express that sexuality, but the idea of becoming a dancer was throwing up roadblocks in my head. I couldn’t do this—not even for Hawk.
I threw the last of my whisky down my throat and stood. “I’m sorry, Mr. Rivera, but I can’t do this.”
“Do what, exactly? We’re having a drink.”
I ran a hand through my hair, checking my ponytail was still in place. Of course, it was. It hadn’t moved all day. Why the fuck was I stalling on this?
“I can’t become one of your Dolls,” I blurted out. “Hard limit.”
His eyes became hooded. “I never mentioned anything about you becoming one of my Dolls.” His words were controlled like rage was suddenly seeking to claw out of him. What had I said to make him react like that? “In fact, what I want from you, you probably won’t want to give me because if you’re offended by some women dancing in lingerie, you won’t like what I was about to offer you.”
Keeping Hawk’s life firmly in my mind, I let out a breath. “What are you offering?” I asked in a whisper.
He gestured to the chair. “Sit down, and I’ll tell you.”
I stood there a moment longer, waging war with myself. I could do this. I could sit and hear the guy out. Moving back to the chair, I sat, bringing my legs up beneath me. “If you expect me to whore myself out, you’ve got another thing coming. Nothing is worth giving up my pride for that.”
I glared at him, but what I’d said had clearly amused him.
“I don’t want you to whore yourself out as one of my Dolls.”
“What do you want me for then?”
“I want you to be my personal Doll.”
A shot of lust ricocheted through my body at the same time as outrage did. Conflicted by the two strong emotions, I shut my eyes for a moment and breathed. “Your personal whore, you mean?” When I opened them again, his dark eyes were roving my body.
He shrugged unashamedly. “I don’t care what you label it… I want you for myself.”
“What if I told you I had a boyfriend? Would that offer still stand?”
His dark eyes clouded over a little as he leaned forward in his chair. “You don’t have a boyfriend, Little Bird, so don’t even fucking think about playing that card.”
Although outrage still hummed through my body, I swallowed down the insults I wanted to hurl at him, remembering my brother’s life could hinge on this. “How long?”
“Two weeks.”
“And after two weeks, I’m free to leave, never to see you again?”
“If you can walk away from me at the end of those two weeks,” he replied smugly.
I huffed a laugh and unfolded my legs, placing them onto the hardwood floor. “What would be involved with me being your Doll?”
“You will be available to me at all times.”
Narrowing my eyes at him, I rolled that statement around in my head. Available to him at all times was a pretty broad request. “Available for what?”
He smiled, and my heart nearly jumped right out of my chest. It was terribly unfair that he was this good-looking. In fact, why would he even want to be seen with me? I smelled of wet dog and was covered in fur six days a week.
“This and that,” he replied, taking another sip from his glass.
“This isn’t how contracts work. You can’t be vague or ambiguous. I will never agree to broad statements like ‘available to you at all times’ and ‘this and that.’ Sorry.” I folded my arms defensively across my chest and stared at him.
“All right, Little Bird, do you want to know what I really want from you for two weeks? I want your complete submission in all things. Sex, yes, but I will make that very pleasurable for you, but in other ways, too. You will be there to accompany me to dinners and meetings when needed.”
“Jesus,” I muttered. This sounded a hell of a lot like Pretty Woman. Hey, at least we were in the right city, right? I stared at him, taking in every angle of his face, his jaw.
Two weeks.
Could I give up two weeks of my life in order to get Hawk off the hook?
“What about my brother?”
He spread his legs out a little wider, my eyes tracking the movement. “I’m not into men.”
“No, I mean, what happens to his debt? Will it be wiped?”
“Of course.”
“I want that written into the contract.”
“Contract?”
“You think that all this won’t be put into writing? I’m going to make damn sure it is, so we both know where we stand.”
“No contracts,” he said in a hard voice. “My word is my bond.”
“Then, we don’t have a deal,” I told him, daring him to counter my threat with one of his own. When he didn’t, I stood. He mirrored me, his expression vacillating between humor and frustration. He finally fixed it on indifference and held out his hand for me to shake.
“I’ll let you think about this a little longer before you give me your answer.”
What an asshole. Opening my mouth to argue, I shut it a minute later. I didn’t need to waste time on this. It was not beneficial, and it would only serve to put me in a worse mood. He brought my hand to his mouth, brushing his lips against the back of it.
“I will be seeing you later, Wren. You can count on that.”
As I stalked away, the only thought I had was that I would never sell myself to a man like that.
Not even for my brother.