Page 68 of Savior

“How could you even help it? Look at her!” Brynne retorts.

I don’t register that she’s slid off Ardesia’s lap until she’s before the stage, sliding bills beneath Sloane’s panties, backing up a few steps, and clapping in appreciation of her dance.

Sloane gives an appreciative smile as she turns and drops to her knees, pushing forward onto her hands and then bouncing her supple ass cheeks to the beat of the music.

If this is fate, it’s trying to kill me.

Brynne whistles right as I register a hand on my arm.

“I think you’re lost,” the girl slurs and leans in to yell in my ear.

I narrow my brows, looking her up and down. I’ve never seen her in my life.

“How so?” I ask her.

She has to be referring to my collar. Ardesia told me it would draw the unwanted attention I thought would keep me free from.

“Our party is over there!” She points to a corner where a bachelorette party is in full swing. Signs hang surrounding the table, and balloons with the wordbridefloat in the air.

“What? Why would I want to join your party?” I shout back to her, annoyed that I’m missing Sloane’s dance, even though I shouldn’t be watching it.

Let alone enjoying it.

“Move along, you’ve got the wrong man,” Ardesia tells the girl, coming up beside her.

“What do you mean, the wrong man? Who does she think I am?” I ask, and Ardesia’s lips lift in an unguarded and wild smile.

“Oh, sorry,” the girl says, laughing gleefully as she heads back to her party.

I watch in confusion as she tells the table what happened, and they all laugh at her.

“Who did she think I was?” I ask Ardesia, still confused about what just transpired.

He sits back down, watching as his wife puts bill after bill in Sloane’s panties.

“She thought you were their stripper, Luca.” He sips from his whiskey, a rueful glint in his eyes as I choke on the notion.

“What?! She… But I…” I stammer.

“I told you that fucking collar was going to get you into trouble in a place like this. You didn’t listen.”

I’m taken aback as the music fades, and I look back to where Sloane is collecting money off the stage to leave. Her eyes finally lock on mine and go wide.

I beckon to her with a look, urging her to come over and speak with me, as she appears panicked at seeing me at her workplace.

A deep rouge colors her cheeks, but I don’t know if it’s the embarrassment that I found her or from the mind-numbing dance she’d just performed.

“Give it up for, Lo! A fan favorite that keeps you coming back week after week,” the DJ shouts over the chaos of the club.

And without thinking, I clap.

Ardesia spits whiskey back into his cup, and Brynne slaps him on the shoulder.

“Go easy on him; it’s his first time,” she jokes, and now my cheeks fill with blood.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Sloane

---