"You're beautiful," he whispered in my ear as I danced against his lap, grinding into him provocatively. I could hear a smirk on his lips as his hands came around my waist and pulled me against him, nearly ruining my routine.
"But I'm not stupid," I huffed, yanking out of his grip and finishing his lap dance by turning to face him completely and straddling his hips, my lips nipping up his tattooed neck, tongue slipping underneath the collar of his hoodie and slipping across his collarbones causing him to shudder, hands moving once again to my lower back and holding me in place, fingers slipping under my booty shorts, something papery being put between my G-string and asscrack.
"Then what made you chose this job of all things?" he inquired as I breathed down his neck seductively and rubbed my chest against his, the song starting to come to a close.
"Circumstance," I said quietly as the song ended completely and I backed off, his friends began to laugh and cheer, money being tossed at me. Hurriedly, I gathered it all up before swaggering off, swaying my hips maybe a bit too much, the feeling of the rolled cash in my thong all to familiar, my heart beating too fast, the Adderall fading quickly, and strange butterflies smacking against the inside of my stomach as I dizzily slipped into the dressing room and collapsed against the wall, unwanted tears slipping quietly down my cheeks, smudging my makeup. I hated my job.
***
Sixteen-year-old Karmen Kingsten hasn't had it good all her life, her mother being a pill-popper druggie and her father having left awhile ago. To add to her plate she has to get through highschool still and care for her baby cousin. The only way to support her family is through stripping. Karmen's barely holding on, the only thing keeping her sane is baby Benz. But what happens when Karmen's life gets entangled with an upcoming rapper's, job complications, addiction, her past, and the ultimate threat--her heart being broken..?
They don't warn you that power comes in lace and blood.
By daylight, I am the girl mothers point at with pride -
president of my sorority, top of my class, pearls and GPA polish.
A future carved in ivy halls and legacy dreams.
At night, I trade pearls for silk and champagne light.
I dance under neon like sin made flesh,
and men pay just to breathe the same air as me.
A fantasy they can't afford.
A secret they'll never own.
Two worlds.
Two kingdoms.
Both mine - because I built myself sharp enough to rule them.
And then he walked in.
Romeo Vescari.
A name this town whispers like a prayer they know God won't answer.
The heir turned king of a mafia bloodline older than the gold veins in Valle Aureo's hills.
He doesn't ask for loyalty - he absorbs it.
Quiet, lethal, carved from discipline and violence, dressed in money and menace.
People don't fear him because he kills.
They fear him because he decides.
And the night he found me - silk wrap slipping, diamonds biting my collarbone, a room full of men on their knees without ever kneeling - he didn't look at me like temptation.
He looked at me like competition.
Like he'd crash worlds to watch me notice him.
Like he'd bleed if it meant I'd taste it.
Sorority president by day.
Pink Panthers' siren by night.
I don't get claimed.
I don't get chosen.
I choose.
But when his eyes met mine, something inside me shifted -
not weak, not soft -
just aware.
There are monsters you run from.
And then there are monsters you walk toward,
just to see if they ruin you gently or burn the world instead.
He was both.