Page 104 of Burn

Firefighters are so fucking weird. He can’t even keep his stories straight as towhyI’m doing this. “But why a lap dance?”

“He’s got a fear of strippers.”

“So?”

Owen glares at me, and I don’t like it. He looks scary. “Just do it, okay? It’s blackmail for when he decides he’s going to fuck with me again.”

“I can’t believe you’re making me do this. What did I ever do to you?”

“It’s not what you did, it’s what your boy did.” And then he slaps my ass. “Now go, make me proud.”

Him proud? What the fuck is happening?

I’m caving when I see Jacey appear with a smile. Somehow I think she’s in on this.

I turn to Owen. “How do you think they’re going to let us do this? This isn’t exactly a strip club.” The dark bar is sleek and more upscale than the average strip club in Seattle, surely. It certainly isn’t the kind of place where I would expect someone to perform a lap dance.

“I know the owner, Drake,” Jacey pops up with, pointing to him and then a back room. “You can do it in there. I’ll get Caleb in there, and you do the rest.”

See? Told you she’s in on it.

“How do you know the owner?” Owen asks her, amused and leaning casually against the wall beside me. “You blow him?”

“Stop being nasty. Idatedhim for, like, a week, Owen.” She shrugs as if it meant nothing and then says, completely serious to me, “Don’t talk to Drake. Don’t even look his way. He turned me into some kind of suicide risk.”

“I’m not surprised by that.” Owen laughs, and after a closer look at the owner in the corner of the bar, I can tell he’s just the type of guy Scarlet would date too. Tattooed up to his jaw, pierced lip, eyebrow, and nose. I have no doubt those piercings went lower, too. Hell, he’s the type of guy I used to date. Used to be the keyword here. Now I’ve moved onto mentally fucked-up firefighters.

Biting on my nails, I take a look at the back room. “What song?”

“Pony. It’s what all lap dances are done to,” Jacey says immediately, and walks inside the room to a stereo in the corner.

Oh Jesus. What is this, an audition forMagic Mike?

And then I panic. “I’ve never danced to that song.” It’s a lie because I’ve totally danced to this song naked. Only it was in the shower and ended with six stitches in my chin.

Aside from that, and remembering the blood pouring from my chin that night, I think Owen and Jacey can tell I’m moments away from chickening out and telling them both to fuck off.

Nervously, I bite my lip. What if this pisses Caleb off?

Owen pushes me forward into the room. “Just feel the music and move. I know these hips of yours know how to. You got Caleb’s attention.”

I whip around to face Owen. “What the fuck does that mean?”

Sighing, he rolls his eyes. “Such amateurs I’m dealing with here.” He narrows his eyes. “You know what the fuck it means. Take it as a compliment and just focus. This is our entertainment for tonight.”

Of course I’m their entertainment.

Jerks.

“Stop thinking.” Jacey grins. “Just do it. It’s, like, a four-minute song, and then it will be over. Own it.”

Glad she’s so confident.

While I yank my dress down a little more in the front and hike it up around my upper thighs, Jacey teases my hair a little.

Stepping back, she eyes her handiwork with her hands on her hips. “Perfect.”

Jacey does as she said she would and gets Caleb into the room, sitting in a chair with his drink in hand. The fact that he’s willingly going into a dark room, led by Jacey of all people, isn’t lost on me either. He’s drunk. Which is even better for me because I won’t feel like such a fool for listening to these bitches.

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