Page 17 of Plunge into Obsession

“But you can be. You certainly have the body for it.” His eyes moved up and down the length of me, lingering in some places longer than others. I resisted the urge to cover myself or run home and take a scalding hot shower.

“I don’t want to.”

His face darkened. “That’s tough. I just got a call from Jessica. She broke her leg, and I am down a dancer for the month. I need someone to fill in.”

“Hire someone. Or ask the other girls if they want to because I don’t.”

“I don’t have time to hire someone, and it’s not like I could pick some random woman off the street.”

“Why me?”

“Because you’re perfect for it.”

I shook my head.

“No? I’m not asking, Bianca. I need you to step up and fill the role for a while as I look for more dancers. If you don’t, then don’t bother showing up on Saturday at all.”

“You’re going to fire me for not agreeing?”

He shrugged, not even looking sheepish about it. “Think of it like that if you want.”

“I don’t have to think. It’s true.”

“I can always ask Cami to take the spot. She’s young enough that these old fuckers would get a kick out of it.”

My fists clenched.

“Aren’t you close with the younger girls here? Don’t you and Kaia have something set up for them?” He rolled his eyes as if he thought helping those girls out was ridiculous. He was talking about the living arrangements we had set up for four of the younger girls there, which wasn’t a secret around the club. “Cami needs the money, doesn’t she? I bet she won’t want to return to bussing tables once she gets a taste.”

I narrowed my eyes at him but didn’t say anything. My eyes moved past him to Cami talking with Allie, another young girl who was about twenty. She just got promoted to serving tables.

They giggled at something, and at that moment, Cami looked more her age than she did most of the time.

“Think about it,” Corey said, following my gaze and watching the girls as well.

He walked away, taking with him the strong, nauseating cologne he seemed to bathe in.

3

BIANCA

“That bastard!He can’t do that!” Kaia screamed.

We were in the middle of the living room in our modest three-bedroom ranch-style home.

I looked around the clean space, then down to the bowl of popcorn on the coffee table, and Freddy Krueger’s face paused on the TV screen.

It was early afternoon.

We were still in our pajamas, and I had tried to enjoy the movie, but my conversation with Corey kept invading my mind, and I didn’t know how to stop thinking.

It didn’t help that I saw Cami and Allie walk out of their house a few minutes ago, all smiles.

The girls, along with two others, lived in the house next door to Kaia and me.

I used to live in that house.

Kaia and I had been lucky enough to have found two houses for rent next to each other a few years back, and we went from roommates to neighbors for a while.

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