Stay With Me

16. Threats

Defenders Bar, Philadelphia PA. July 27th, 2018.

Music blasts through the sound system inside Defenders on opening night. Bodies rock to the beat of the live band playing on the new stage Steve, Thor and Tony built two days ago. And Juliette's smile is almost as bright as the lights flashing behind the band.

Steve looks over to his fiancé, the familiar tug in his groin makes him swallow the lump in his throat as he forces a smile and wraps his arm around the half drunk woman who asked him for a picture. He's lost count how many pictures he's taken tonight, how many autographs he's signed. Annoyance bubbles up inside him until he catches Juliette's eyes.

And he remembers why he's here. For her. She grabs a stool and climbs up onto it. Her ass nearly on display in the impossibly short black leather mini skirt he forbad her to wear and yet there she is, taunting him with what he didn't get to have despite his promise to have it. Not to mention the halter top that shows her naval among other things.

Her body stretches reaching something on a the top glass shelf. Someone is spending big money here tonight. Top shelf liquors are just that.. top shelf. Most expensive.

The skirt hugging her ass rides too high up her legs, and multiple male patrons turn their disgusting attention to her, eyeing her long legs and tight round ass. Steve decides then and there that he needs to have a serious conversation with her about her work attire. He'll be damned if he's going to let wife dress that like and leave the house.

His jeans tighten across his groan and he prays the half drunk friend on of whoever is clinging to him now, doesn't notice the bulge pushing it's way down his thigh.

Baseball. Dead puppies. Punching Landon Watts in the face. Think about anything except how to punish Juliette for the outfit she wore when they go home later.

As if she has that kid's - Queens - spidey sense ... tingle... what ever he called it, she looks over to him. Her pupils blowing out from across the bar as her eyes wander down his body and rest at his hardness. He tilts his head and narrows his eyes, silently warning her.

To tempt him further she hikes up her skirt more, until it barely covers her ass. She winks at him quickly before turning around and climbing up onto the bar. He didn't even realize the band stopped playing and the DJ come back onto the stage. The first song the DJ plays is the choreographed dance Juliette, Louie and the other bar hands all dance too. They suddenly stop what their doing and immediately start dancing in unison. The lights dim and illuminate the women dancing on the bar, Juliette in the center like the star she is.

Her body rocks and grinds, one wrong move, one dip too low and the skirt is history. Steve's breath catches when her legs kick open and her hands slap her thighs as she all but squats. His heart stops and restarts, thumping so hard he feels nauseous.

It takes every ounce of willpower has to stay calm and not grab her off the bar and lock her in the office.

—————————————————————————————

In the dark corner, opposite fucking Rogers and the band of misfit assholes someone claimed were Heroes, a man with dark brown hair and an attempt at a beard sits nursing a Hennessy Paradis.

His tongue slides over his lip, tasting the cognac as he watches Juliette rock to the music. Her hands sliding up her ribs, over her tits — which she squeezes — before lifting her hair off her neck. It's been days since he's seen her, the better part of two weeks.

After he had to delete the footage from her house and remove the surveillance programing before he sold his computer to help pay for the damn loan he had to take out to cover the cost of the assholes who cleaned up his mess. As much as it pains him to admit, he's glad he took their advice to make sure nothing illegal was in his house. Including everything in the office.