The Predator and His Prey

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Jade had never worked on the main floor before, but they were short a girl and there was a big group of VIP's. She was the lowest man on the totem pole being the last girl hired for the lounge, so she was drafted into filling the spot. She felt spoiled as she moved through the busy club with the loud music. The lounge was smaller, intimate, and less noisy, it was going to take getting used to. She moved to the table, the bottles they had ordered on her tray as she smiled at the party.

They didn't say anything to her, didn't even acknowledge her other than a few males' eyes raking over her body as she slightly bent to place the bottles on the lower table. It was not like the lounge, where everyone knew her name, smiled, and had conversation with her. In the lounge she was treated as if service was an art form and she an artist. There in the VIP she was treated as just another piece of meat. She ignored the way it made her feel, her heart racing at the idea of so much male attention on her in that vile way.

She left, ignoring any more eyes on her and went back to the bar to pick up another order. She didn't know any of the girls on the floor, none smiled at her, talked to her. She was competition in their eyes and new, even if she had been working in the club for almost two months. She smiled at the bartender as he came to take her order, he was a big guy but with a kind smile, reminding her of Aidan, which reminded her of Dominik.

Jade hadn't seen Dominik since the night he told her details about the club. They had locked themselves inside Gina's extra bedroom, not leaving until the early morning. She had pushed aside her feelings of jealousy, or rather he had pushed them aside for her. The moments of doubts, insecurity when it came to Gina, something the other female used to get under Jade's skin often. His words, his brief admission, that he hated her being in danger, had made her heart pound. He had been good at letting her know that there were some emotions between them, it was something more than physical. But hearing him say those words had her feeling more. She hadn't known how to respond, she didn't want to send him running for the hills with a spew of emotions, so she said nothing, letting her lips do the talking for her.

He had touched every part of her body with his hands and lips, giving her pleasure she had never known he was capable of giving to her, exceeding every time before. He had been gentle and sweet, loving and slow. She had felt as if her heart was going to explode from the way he made her body feel with his attention. He forced all doubts of his feelings for her out of her mind, all fears and insecurity about the depth of what they were away. Gina's words in the living room were long lost on her as she laid under him, her cries muffled into the bed below her as he spoke to her with his movements. She had felt in that moment that her life would never be the same again, that her life beyond Dominik would always pale in comparison.

Then she had woken the next morning and he was gone.

That was two weeks ago, she hadn't seen him or spoken to him since. Each call she made went to voicemail, each night she went to Gina's he never showed up. She reported everything to Gina, received all news from Gina. It was as if Dominik had decided he no longer could be bothered with dealing with Jade directly himself. The one time she made the mistake of asking Gina, she had regretted it as soon as she saw the slow smile spread across the other woman's face.

"He isn't answering?" Gina had asked, there was no malice in her words though but no pity either as Jade asked if Gina knew why Dominik wasn't responding to her calls. "I told you, Jade. We are all too fucked up to really love someone."

Jade had never made the mistake of asking again. For the first time, seeing Gina's word as something more then head games to get under her skin, instead cold hard truth. She could have easily reached out to others like Loco, but she didn't want to hear pity from Loco who was becoming a friend to her. He always called to check on her every Sunday, putting the phone on speaker for Jo to listen in and scream things to make Jade laugh in the background. Gina was right, after all the woman knew Dominik Kinkaid better then Jade did, it was all just a pipe dream.