WIth a Twist: (The Club #9) (4 page)

Chapter Nine

Starr

I laid there in Bryant’s arms, naked in the middle of nowhere. I wondered if it was ironic that our first time together was out in nature, considering my childhood, or if there was a deeper, more poignant meaning.

In reality, thinking deep thoughts was too exhausting after what we shared. I wanted to simply enjoy being in his arms. Words weren’t necessary, or even possible. I was pretty sure I had an out of body experience.

I must have dozed off, because the next thing I remembered was opening my eyes and needing to take a minute to realize how old I was, where I was, who was with me. Once everything fell into place, I sighed and turned my head to see Bryant watching me. “Hi,” I said softly.

“Hello. Have a good nap?”

“Yeah, I did. Sorry.”

He chuckled. “No need to apologize, I feel like I must have done something right if you were able to fall asleep so easily.”

I raised an eyebrow at him, deciding not to feed his ego. “How long was I out?”

“Not too long. We still have plenty of time to head back before it gets dark.”

I rolled over on my stomach and looked at him, enjoying the sensation of him playing with my hair. “What are you plans? Are you going to stay in Karim?”

“What do you want to do?”

“We aren’t talking about me.”

“I’m happy wherever you are. We can go wherever you want.”

“You’d be okay if I said I wanted to stay here?”

“Of course. I was planning on moving here to begin with. I’m looking to expand, and Karim has some great opportunities for me.”

“Don’t you have a home base somewhere else?”

“Yeah, I do.” He shrugged. “But it’s easy enough to find something you like here and move it here. I’ll always need a place in New York City, it makes sense to keep it, even if we can’t use it as much as I was able to before.”

“But in New York City, having valuable real estate sit unused most of the year is a waste.”

“Little Starr, it will be cheaper in the long run and I’ll end up making more money if we ever decide to sell later, than I will now. The market isn’t the greatest, and probably won’t be for a couple of years yet. Don’t worry about it.”

“But I do, there have been times when we didn’t have enough money for food. It’s a feeling I’ve tried very hard to never have again.”

“I know it seems like I might throw money around, but understand, I also started out with nothing. Everything I have I built and fought for. If something is important enough, you do whatever it takes to make your dreams come true. Like you, there were times I went hungry, and I never wanted to feel like that again. So I worked hard, and then I worked some more until finally, I felt like I could breathe. Like I never had to worry about where the next meal was going to come from. And then I kept fighting, kept building because with this wealth, I’m able to help people. Kids that were in the same situation as I was growing up. A broken home, my mom was a dreamer. That’s where my love of fairytales came from. She was always telling me the stories. I think it was more for her, she wanted to believe there was someone out there for her, not like my father, who was more interested in where the next fix would come from than me. That meant he was never able to give my mom money. She was a simple woman, she didn’t want much, which was good, because we didn’t have much.”

“What happened to her?” My heart broke at the thought of a little boy left alone with a father who didn’t care about him, only the drugs, and a mother who tried so hard for him, but it still wasn’t enough.

“She worked herself to death waiting for her Prince Charming to come. It was my senior year in high school. I had a job to help with expenses and ended up getting fired because I had the flu and had to miss a whole week of work. She picked up extra shifts while she could and I looked for another job and still went to school every day.” He stared off and traced lazy circles on my back. “I didn’t even know she had gotten the flu from me, she kept pushing through until the day she collapsed at work from the fever and never woke up again.”

“Oh my God, Bryant, I’m so sorry.”

“Me too. If only she had said something to me, I could have done something, anything. We didn’t have insurance, that was a luxury, but I would have done something.” He shook his head. “Anyway, I started a national foundation called Bedtime Stories. It mainly focuses on single parents whose ex doesn’t help out, or can’t help. The foundation makes sure they have food in their bellies, warm clothes, and a safe place to sleep at night, free from any harm.”

“That’s amazing. I’ve heard of it, I didn’t realize you were part of it.” I frowned trying to remember everything I had heard about the foundation. After leaving my mom, I had tried to find safe places to stay and they had helped me a couple of times in different cities, even though I wasn’t a single parent.

“I keep in the background. I want everything to focus on the people we help, not me.”

If I hadn’t already been in love with him, I’m pretty sure I would have fallen at that moment. He was a good man.

Chapter Ten

Bryant

Later that night, I walked through the doors of The Club. Seems like Gordon could only bring a guest once a month. If I wanted to see Starr twisting on her hoop again, I was going to have to become a member. The good thing about being filthy rich was it opened doors that typically would be closed. Then you add in the fact I knew someone who knew Jet, one of the owners, and I knew I’d get what I wanted, and sure enough, I was in. Of course I had to meet with Jet, and received the warning. This wasn’t how they typically did things at The Club and I’d pay for it if he ever, even once, regretted bypassing the typical application process.

I wasn’t going to ruin my chances of being able to flirt with my girl while she was all dressed up as any man’s wet dream. Once again, I found my spot in the shadows and watched her emerge from the same door as she had a couple of nights ago. It was strange that it had only been days when my heart felt like it had been years.

Narrowing my eyes when Ricky came up to her, I had to control my urge to rip his throat out when he placed a hand on her shoulder. She smiled and said something to him and they walked together to the bar. Instead of watching Starr, I kept my eyes on him and how he always was watching her. We had talked about some of her co-workers, and I know she thought this Ricky guy was harmless and a friend, but I thought there was something else going on.

Wanting to know more about him, I texted my team, giving them the information I had. Since they had already done some research on Starr, they were able to start coming back with some information on Ricky. I wasn’t paying much attention to what was going on in the bar until suddenly, I felt something was off. I looked up and Starr wasn’t behind the bar. Quickly, I scanned the room and saw her coming out of a different door with a crate in her hands.

Someone came up behind her and grabbed her around the waist, stopping her in her tracks. I could see by the look on her face she wasn’t happy. She didn’t look scared, and was giving the guy an earful, but he wasn’t letting go. I was already halfway across the room when I saw her lift her knee and bring her heel down on the guy’s foot. He howled in pain and shoved her away from him. She stumbled and started to fall. I knew there was no way I was going to be able to make it across the room in time to catch her.

Ricky was out from behind the bar and caught her before she could fall, and two guys I could only assume were security were right there, getting the guy under control and escorting him out without disrupting any of the customers.

“Starr, are you okay?” I tried to pull her out of Ricky’s arms but he wouldn’t let go.

“Bryant, what are you doing here?”

“Yeah, Rich Boy, why are you here?”

My lip curled and I fought the urge to punch the little punk. “I’m a member.” I enjoyed seeing him get pissed off at that answer and turned back to Starr. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yes, yes I’m fine. Ricky, you can let go now.” She stretched her shoulders. “I’ve been taking care of myself for a while now. Things like this hardly happen here, I was distracted and not paying as good of attention as I should have been. It won’t happen again.”

“It shouldn’t have happened in the first place. Where is security in this place?”

Starr got in my face. “Chill. They were here, they did their job. I’m not going to have them up my ass the whole time I am here on the outside chance something might happen. Listen to me, things like that hardly ever happen, but they are going to happen, it happens less here than any other club I have ever worked at. Deal. This is what I do.”

“But-”

“Go home, Rich Boy, you’re not needed here.
We
have work to do.” Ricky put his hand on Starr’s elbow to escort to back behind the bar.

“Now wait just a minute, you little fucking-”

“Mr. Harrison, is there a problem.” Jet said from behind me.

Oh yeah, there sure as hell was a problem, but seeing the look in Starr’s eyes, I knew she didn’t want me to rock the boat with her boss. “No.” I shook my head. “No problem here.”

“Perfect. Then my bartenders can get back to work while I make sure the garbage has been thrown away.” He nodded to them and turned and left.

Starr came up to me and gave me a quick kiss on the lips. “You don’t have to stay.”

“I think I do.”

“I’ll be fine.”

I tipped her chin up so she was looking me in the eyes. “Remember those dragons, I’m here to slay them for you.”

“As you can see, I can slay them myself.”

“Yes, but you can’t have all the fun.” I smiled at her, hoping to make her relax.

“I have to get back to work.”

“I’ll be waiting.”

“Really, you don’t have to.”

“Yes, I do.”

“Fine.” She turned and strode back behind the bar. I could tell she was pissed I wasn’t leaving, but there was no way I was going to leave her here, wondering if that ass was going to come back. Besides, if me staying got under little Ricky Dicky’s skin, it was all the better.

Chapter Eleven

Starr

I tried to block out the fact Bryant was now a member of The Club and was watching me like a hawk. Ricky was of no help either, every chance he got, he was bashing Bryant. I didn’t know what was up with either man. The only thing I could figure, was they were getting in a pissing match about who was there to keep me safe. By the end of the evening, I wanted to bash both of their heads together.

I should have known Bryant wasn’t going to let things go. As soon as I was off the clock, he was there waiting for me when security escorted me out of the building. I was hoping I was going to be able to walk home like I usually did and clear my head, but when the suit took me directly over to his car, I knew there was going to be no arguing. He must have talked to Jet, and Jet’s orders were to make sure I was safely in Bryant’s car.

Getting into the car, I made sure I slammed the door so everyone, including Jet, who I was sure was watching on the security camera, would know I wasn’t happy with the situation. As the powerful engine roared to life, he whipped out of the parking lot and within a couple of minutes, he was parked outside of my building.

“I’ve got it from here.” Quickly, I opened the car door and walked as fast as I could to my front door, hoping I’d make it in before he even was out of the car, but I should have known better. Before I could open it, he was there beside me.

“Do you think I’m going anywhere?”

“Right now you could go to Hell and I wouldn’t care.”

“Oh now, Little Starr, you don’t mean that.”

“I sure do, Bucky. Now excuse me, I’d like to get some sleep.”

“I could help with that.” He grinned at me.

“Do you really want to do this? Because I’m pretty sure right now we’d be having some angry sex.”

“Oh, see, there you go, turning me on… again. Come on, let’s go in and we’ll both get it out of our systems.”

“Kiss my ass.” I opened the door just enough for me to get through and quickly tried to close it, but he was there, slamming his hand on the door to keep it open.

“My pleasure,” sarcasm dripped from his every word.

“You don’t get to be pissed.” I stared him down.

“The hell I don’t. You’re mine, I protect what’s mine.”

He backed me into my apartment and slammed the door behind him.

“I’m not some stupid object.” I yelled at him.

His eyes narrowed and his lips thinned into a straight line. “You know better,” his voice was too calm.

“I don’t know anything.” I flung my arms wide. “How can I trust this? It’s too quick.”

With two strides, he was in front of me, wrapping his hands around my upper arms and lifting me up so we were eye to eye. “Look at me,” he demanded. “Look at
me
.”

I tilted my chin. “I am.”

“No, you’re not. Because if you really were looking, you wouldn’t ask such ridiculous questions.”

“Ridiculous,” I sputtered. “Listen here, mister, just because you don’t agree with the questions I’m asking doesn’t mean they are ridiculous.” I tried squirming out of his grip, but he wasn’t letting go. “You want ridiculous, I’ll fucking show you ridiculous you-”

The air left my lungs as I was slammed up against the wall, his body pinning me there as his hands moved down to grab my ass and pull me in closer. His lips cut off any word I might have uttered. I nipped at his tongue as he forced it into my mouth.

As his fingers danced closer to my pussy, I couldn’t take it anymore, and it pissed me off, this power he had over me. My fingers dug into his shoulders and I wrapped my legs around his waist, squeezing harder than I needed to.

One of his hands came up and pulled the shirt I was wearing up, pushing my bra out of the way at the same time. With a growl, he pulled me up higher so he could suck on my nipple. I wanted more. Grabbing his hair, I tugged his head back, my body shivering when his teeth grazed my nipple. “I want you inside of me. Now.”

My head spun at the speed in which he moved me to the couch, tossing me down. I watched with hooded eyes as he pulled his shirt off, the light of the full moon casting shadows across his body. As quickly as I could, I ripped my own clothes off and starting running my hands all over my body as he was trying to concentrate on sliding a condom on.

“You’re taking too long.”

“Shut-up.”

“Make me.”

Grabbing me by my knees, he dragged me to the edge of the couch. He dropped to his knees and without any finesse, his cock thrust into me. A loud moan filled the room as my body quickly adjusted to having him there.

With our eyes locked together, we continued to battle, first one position then another. All the while, each of us wanted to be the one driving the other over the edge of sanity and into submitting to the other. As I straddled him, his cock buried deep inside me, our arms wrapped around each other and he pulled my hair back, limiting my movement.

“I love you,” his raspy voice filled the room as he thrust harder with each word. “Damnit. I fucking love you.”

I could feel his cock grow inside of me and tension filled his body. That and his words tipped me over the edge. As my body shuddered and shook around him, I screamed my love for him.