Private Dancer (3 page)

She turned around and her thighs were a mere inch away from his lap when he finally spoke again.

“Stop.”

Marise froze.

“What was that hun?” Marise licked her dry lips as she looked over her bare shoulder. Kasen followed the motion with his eyes and he felt his cock stir. Dammit, he wanted to help her, not fuck her silly on the floor. Kasen swallowed hard to get past the lump in his throat.

“Stop, and turn around.” His baritone voice gave no room for argument. She obeyed. She slowly turned and kept her eyes fixed to the floor.

Fuck, she is somewhat of a submissive too? Damn it all.

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Nevea Lane

Private Dancer

“Look at me.” Kasen commanded, his voice low but authoritative. He could tell Marise was trembling inside by watching her long fingers jerk involuntarily. He knew one wrong move and she would bolt.

Looking her in the eyes, he could see she wasn’t really seeing him, just another paying customer.

He kept his hands at his sides as he stared at her slowly spreading her thighs and straddling his lap. Rubbing her hands on his chest, Marise tried avoiding his gaze. What did she think would she see there? Kasen wondered. Disappointment in her choice of a second job or maybe lust?

She looked at the ceiling, gazing at the disco ball as if she could see her future in it. Her gaze fell on his fingers that were clawing the couch. Gyrating her hips on his hips in a back and forth motion, she looked everywhere but at him.

“Marise, quit,” he barked. The heat from her body was feeling like it was burning through his pants. Marise still refused to meet his eyes. It took every ounce of self-control that he possessed to keep his cock from rising. It was painful, but he learned self-control a long time ago.

“I said enough!” Kasen growled, sounding like a wolf ready to kill.

His tone made Marise gasp. His breathing was ragged and her hands ceased rubbing his chest.

She could feel his heart pounding. Finally, her chocolate eyes flew to meet his cerulean gaze.

The feral gleam in Kasen’s eyes was not lust, nor desire, not even a greedy smile of sickening, lecherous thoughts. It was unadulterated anger. Kasen’s eyes glowed icy blue.

“Please,” Marise’s weak voice surprise him and Kasen felt the air rush into his lungs. “Please, don’t say anything.” Marise stopped moving, yet she leaned down low and whispered in his ear.

“I can’t sit still; the bouncers behind the mirrors will get suspicious. Please don’t say anything.” Her husky voice and breath tickled Kasen’s ear.

“How can I not?” Kasen hissed, trying to clamp down on his arousal and his anger. Marise’s eyes darted to the mirror and looked at him, hoping that he comprehended what she was telling him.

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Nevea Lane

Private Dancer

Kasen’s eyes shot to the mirror and returned. He focused top of her forehead. He knew he couldn’t stare at her, and he didn’t want to look anywhere else. Not if he wanted to walk out of Harem with his respect for her intact. Kasen expelled a breath.

“What are you doing here, Marise, this just doesn’t seem like you.”

“I have to do this and you don’t know me.” Marise hissed back, rolling her eyes. She turned and put her back to him again. Kasen clenched and unclenched his fists several times. Why am I so angry? Isn’t this every man’s fantasy? His prim and proper secretary was doing the nasty grind in his lap? No not him and not Marise not like this.

“I think I do know you, and you don’t have to do this. Don’t I pay you enough?” he whispered against her ear.

“Yes, Mr. Montgomery. You pay me quite well, but not enough to pay off my debt.” She whispered. Kasen could almost feel her shame and tried to check his anger.

“Then why didn’t you come to me? We could’ve done something.” His voice low and endearing, he felt like he finally had some control over his sex drive and could get her out of this place.

“No offense, but it is not your problem. I’m almost done with this shit. I just need a little more.” She hissed.

The music quieted. Marise got up off Kasen’s lap, turned, and refused to look into his eyes again.

Out of options of where to stare, she chose to focus on his necktie. Her hands on her hips, she looked as though she couldn’t bear to look at him. She tried to smirk, to seem confident Kasen was sure, but he could tell it was a false show, as false as that awful wig and her smeared beauty mark.

Kasen handed her a fifty-dollar bill. Marise was surprised; he knew a private dance was only twenty bucks thanks to the many women who had approached him earlier. When she reached out to grab it, his fingers curled around hers and he pulled her close.

“Come to work tomorrow, please.” There was a hint of desperation in his voice. “Trust me on this. Just don’t run from me, and don’t come back here tomorrow.” Marise nodded her head in agreement, took the fifty and ran from the lounge.

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Nevea Lane

Private Dancer

She’d a choice to make. Would she take Mr. Montgomery at his word or continue to do this?

She looked around the dressing room. She was due for another set on the stage in a few minutes. What is she going to do? Sitting down on the metal folding chair in front of the long mirror, she weighed her options. It isn’t like Mr. Montgomery came unto her. He could’ve and she couldn’t have done anything about. It was a strip club and after hours. Damn he really could’ve made her beg back there. Marise looked at the crumpled fifty in her hand. He didn’t but that didn’t that he wouldn’t, or won’t tomorrow, if there was a tomorrow. Fatima came clicking into the dressing room again.

“What did I tell your stuck up ass last month? You can’t come down here hiding all the time; you aren’t making any money that way. Get your arrogant flat ass up there and mingle!” Marise sighed as she realized the decision had been made for her. She couldn’t take any more of Fatima calling her stuck up or telling her that she didn’t have an ass.

“You know what Fati, I may be stuck up, but at least I have some damn manners.” Marise took off the high heels and slammed them into the one of the lockers. She pulled the wig off her head and rubbed the lipstick and beauty mark from her face. Marise threw on her sweatpants and a t-shirt and walked up to the prideful pimp and shoved a twenty down the front of her bra.

“There is the house money for tonight. I got a headache, I’m out.” Marise hissed and walked out of the smoky club. She could hear Fatima scream one last thing before the door closed behind her.

“Whatever you aren’t that good or that pretty, that man is going to use you!” As Marise hailed a cab, she prayed that Fatima wasn’t right and that Mr. Montgomery wouldn’t force her to quit. In the back seat, she closed her eyes and tried not to think. Tomorrow is tomorrow, she thought.

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Nevea Lane

Private Dancer

Chapter Five – Decisions, Decisions

Kasen was in his office the next morning, pacing the floor. He could not believe what he saw last night. What could he do to help Marise? She needed his help, obviously, but he knew she would be too proud to take it outright. He’d thought of a myriad of possibilities, most he dismissed because they seemed more demeaning than stripping. An idea had finally smacked him at two a.m. what he would do.

Marise appeared in the adjoining office, right on time. Kasen let out a pent-up breath he didn’t realize he was holding for the past eight hours. He’d been afraid that she would not come to work.

She looked nervous, and he would be too if he was in her shoes. At least she looked like his Marise again. Her hair was pulled back into a loose ponytail with a few spiraling curls framing her heart-shaped face. Her eyes were weary behind her thin wire framed glasses. She was dressed in an all black skirt that touched the floor. Kasen got up from his desk and opened the door a crack.

“Marise, can I see you please,” Kasen said softly. He didn’t want to scare her. Although he saw her shoulders slump, he was not deterred. She probably thought she would face the firing squad.

She walked in with her head bowed and sat down heavily in one of his high-backed leather chairs. Marise sat straight, feet crossed at the ankles. She stared ahead even when he resumed his seat behind his desk. She looked like she was facing an executioner. He leaned back into a reclining position and tried to offer her his smile. Marise told him once when he was nervous about a meeting that he’d a great smile. Kasen’s teeth were white, even and appeared strong. It was the only compliment she’d given him. He tried to use the information to his benefit.

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Nevea Lane

Private Dancer

“Marise, do you want to talk about it?” Kasen said, still speaking softly.

“Not really Mr. Montgomery. It is my problem. I can take care of it.”

* * *

Marise had thought about it all last night, sitting in her bed alone, again. She would not take Kasen’s money, no matter what. From the men she was exposed to during her life, they always wanted something in return. Nothing was ever done for charity.

“Does your husband know?” Her eyes flew to his face and she shook her head no. Darryl would kill her if he stumbled upon how she was paying off his debt. Would Mr. Montgomery tell?

“Please, Mr. Montgomery, this is none of your concern.”

“How is it not my concern? I watch your face drop and your dimples disappear when the clock strikes five. I want to help.”
Since when did he notice that she’d dimples?
Marise thought as she stared at him.

“I only have to do it for a little while longer. There is only three thousand left. I can be done in a few months.”

Kasen shook his head and clinched his fist in his lap, almost breaking the skin of his palm with his nails. The hell she would go back to that place.

“No. You aren’t going back.”

Marise’s eyes grew cold, who in the hell was he to tell her what to do? She stared at him.

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Nevea Lane

Private Dancer

“You can’t make that decision for me, Mr. Montgomery.” Kasen sighed. He knew he sounded like a dictator, but he couldn’t allow her to go back to the Harem. “You are right. I can’t order you, but I can make you a better counteroffer.” Marise looked at him and rolled her eyes.
Here it comes. He is going to ask you to sleep with him. He is
going to blackmail you. Remain strong, Marise, you are no one’s plaything.
Marise steeled herself and got ready to tell him to go to hell. Her jaw dropped at his actual proposal. “I want you to dance with me.”

“What? Dance with you?”

“Yes, dance with me. I have a small dance studio at my loft. I’m learning to waltz and do classical dances for my family reunion this summer in France. I need a partner. I have not done these dances since boarding school, but my mother expects me to dance them perfectly.”

“Mr. Montgomery, surely you can find someone else, I don’t know how to do those dances.” Marise shook her head. She’d not waltzed since her physical education class in seventh grade.

Being the tallest girl in the class had made that moment even more awkward.

“I will teach you. I have about five months to learn for the reunion in August. I think me teaching you will refresh my memory. I will pay you for your time, five hundred dollars a week.”

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Nevea Lane

Private Dancer

Chapter Six – Lesson One

Marise arrived promptly at six. One thing Kasen loved about her, she was always prompt.

Kasen sighed when he caught sight of her dressed in sweatpants and white girl shoes. At least he would not be distracted by her calves tonight. This was purely about helping her, Kasen told himself for the hundredth time that hour.

“Hi, Mr. Montgomery.” Marise said as she walked in to his condo. Marise gasped as her eyes caught glimpse of the view from his large windows. One could see the Mississippi river and the trees that dotted the banks. It being still early in the year, there were no leaves, and a few flecks of snow still clung to the rocks.

“Let me take you coat, and stop calling me Mr. Montgomery.” Kasen took her coat and led her into his studio. Actually, he thought, it is more of a corner with a wall length mirror and wood flooring. There was a small stereo in the corner playing soft piano music. The recessed lights were dim and Kasen looked like he was glowing in the soft amber lighting.

She looked at him and put her hand on her hip, and said nothing. Damn she was a hard cookie to crack.

* * *

“So where do we begin?” Marise said, looking around her. This corner was bigger than her living room, and Marise liked the homey feeling in Kasen’s condo. It felt lived in, not some model thrown up to attract the young jet-set crowd. His paintings were colorful with hues of rust and yellow. She smiled at the figurines that lined the large window sill, which stood kiddy corner from the mirrored wall. They were all couples, entwined in a state of dancing.

“Well, we will start with a basic waltz. Everything else is just as easy, just with a few more turns. So come and stand face to face to me.”

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Nevea Lane

Private Dancer

Until that moment, when she was asked, Marise hadn’t bothered to look at him fully; not at work, not in passing, not ever. A part of her knew it was because she couldn’t afford herself to view Kasen Montgomery as a man, just someone who signs her checks. Right now, she saw him as just a man. His pectoral muscles showed definition beneath the gray cotton tank top. For the first time, Marise realized how devilishly handsome her boss was. It was his hair that made Marise gape at him. Usually it was styled out of his face, but tonight, it was unruly waves on his head. The shades of brown and blonde swirled together like his paintings. His body was more artistic than the paintings. Even though he wore baggy navy blue sweat pants, they dipped at his waist, a telltale sign the rest of him was as defined. Marise shook her head of her thoughts.

She’d to focus. This was for her and Darryl, her husband. Sooner or later, Darryl would get enough of running the streets and it will just be them. With no threat of death and debts hanging over their heads, Marise believed that she and Darryl could make things work.