The VIRGIN STRIPPER

72

***** Lisa Michaels*****
"How did you know I was planning to come back home?"

"You were?" Dave asked with a frown and I smiled gently as we walked from his car to the hotel's entrance.

Staying at the hotel had been a battle I'd lost after hours of arguing with him. I had suggested staying at my mom's when I found out we were coming to mystic woods but he politely refused my suggestion by kissing all my arguments away.

"Are you okay?" I asked as we took the elevator to our suite on the 18th floor as per the receptionist's instructions.

The reason for my question was because he was acting antsy even with the teasing and banter on our way here, it was like something big made him more cautious to let in joy from any moments we had.

"Not really," he said and gently squeezed the hand wrapped around his upper left arm. "I don't know how you're going to take my surprise."

"Well, is it something big?" I asked him, feeling nervous myself.

"Sort of." He replied as he watched the buttons on the elevator.

"Does it involve crowds?"

"Not really. It's something intimate."

My heart jerked as I tried to deny myself the assumption that had crept into my thoughts so easily.

"Uuuh... A proposal?" My voice was as tiny as it could be when I asked this.

With a soft chuckle, he shook his head and kissed my forehead before the doors opened. "You won't know when I propose to you."

"So I have to worry about that too?" I asked him with a playful shove as he slid the key card into it's slot on the door.

"Are you trying to hurry me into marrying you?"

"Shut up," I scolded, "you know you want to do it anyway."

"You do too," he countered and pulled me to the bed with him. "If you don't like my surprise don't get mad at me okay?"

"How bad is it?"

"I meddled in something I shouldn't have bad?" He said his sentence like one word and it made me narrow my eyes at him. "I called Aden."

"Why would you call Aden?" I asked him as I took my jacket off and bent to take my shoes off as well. "How do you know Aden?"

"A friend of mine was helping me prepare your surprise and he found out that Aden had investigated you before so I got ahold of him."

"You know it's funny because when Aden mentioned someone paid him a fortune to have me investigated I readily assumed it was you." I told him frankly and turned to find him gaping at me with feigned hurt on his expression.

"How low do you think of me?"

"You just admitted you asked a friend to do a background check on me," I accused, narrowing my eyes to make me look intimidating.

"I was doing it for a good cause," he defended.

"Of course you were. So what did Aden help you with?"

"Before I tell you that, I need to know something, were you and Aden a couple? He was very adamant on not telling anything to us until he met you in person. Said something about you being a close friend."

"We weren't a couple but we're friends. We kissed though." The additional information was supposed to sound as casual as possible but Dave's furious coughing as he choked on a sip of wine he'd taken from a glass he'd only just poured himself made me look like a villain.

His phone rang before he could say anything and I took that as my chance to slip into the bathroom.

"Your friend is here," Dave called from the other side and I dried my hands before walking back to him. "We're meeting him downstairs at the restaurant." He told me with a small frown.

"It was one kiss." I told him, foolishly digging myself back into a hole that I'd barely crawled out of.

"I'm not mad about the kiss," he huffed.

"What are you mad about then?" I pushed, walking closer to him.

"If he gets touchy with you I'll rip his arms off." He warned and I laughed.

"Okay, papa bear." I said patting him on the chest before giving him a small peck.

"Let's go. " he prompted and walked to the door, holding it open for me to step out first.

Aden sat at a table by the far end with his arms crossed at the top of the table while he watched  something on his phone that lay directly in front of him.

"Hi?" I greeted with a smile on my face and he stood up to hug me.

Dave pulled a chair for me a little noisily once I pulled away from Aden.

"I still can't believe you made me bring my woman down here just so you could see her." Dave huffed as a form of greeting and I groaned a little.

The groan wasn't from annoyance but from the fact that my body couldn't find a logical way to react after the "my woman" bomb was dropped just a few inches away from me.

"Nice to see you too Morgan, " Aden said with an amused smile as he stuffed his phone into his pocket.

"Now will you tell us what we need to know?" Dave asked impatiently and I flagged down a waitress who came over fast enough to derail the conversation a little.

After our orders were taken, Aden pulled out an envelope and skimmed through papers before pulling out one.

"This is from the previous report when I first did a check on you," he handed me the paper and Dave leaned to check the paper.

"Why did you do a check on her before?"

"She's a person of interest, " Aden said with the same light tone he'd used before. "Your father offered me a fortune just to have her checked."

At this Dave stilled and looked up to meet my eyes. I wasn't as surprised though because my hunch had led me to the conclusion that it had to be one of them but my bets had been leaning on his mother the most before I met the couple recently.

"I'm sorry," he said quietly,  "I didn't know that."

Reaching for his hand on the table, I nodded and continued to scan through the report.

"I'm guessing you haven't told her yet?" Aden asked Dave who nodded and turned to me.

"I asked him to look for your real dad." I sucked in a breathe and felt my heart lurch a little.

"I did a few checks and asked a few close friends and found out from them his identity but you're free to get a DNA test done once you meet up with him tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" I asked, turning to Dave.

"All Aden told me was that he was from this town." Dave said, eyeing me as if I was about to blow up.

"Who is it?" I turned to Aden who smiled a little more and pulled out a picture from his envelope.

Never in a million years had I thought I could be related to him.

******
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Love,Eline ❤