Page 24 of Ruthless Protector

Jude’s face popped into my head without my say-so.

And God help me, I clung to it. I let the image give me strength, let those soft brown eyes, that I saw clear as if they were right in front of me, give me courage. I sucked in a deep breath when I started to feel the music move through me, and tuned out the faces, only seeing those eyes. Jude’s eyes. Imagining them moving over me, encouraging me, making me feel beautiful.

I started to get into it, letting myself get lost in the music.

Steph’s hands slipped from my hips, and then she moved sensually around me, backed away, did a little half dance, walk around the stage and disappeared out the back.

I was on my own, but that was okay. I kept Jude in my mind as I tugged the straps of my dress over my shoulders, sliding the stretchy fabric down, doing a little ass shake as I took it to the floor, reaching for the pole to steady myself as I stepped out, and kicked it aside.

There were more whoops and wolf whistles.

I didn’t know anyone here. They didn’t know me. I was just a woman, a woman they knew nothing about. I could be someone else. I could pretend that the nightmares of my life weren’t mine.

I moved closer to the edge, using all of my body now, my hips, my hair, and all the while I saw Jude in my mind, watching me, wanting me.

I felt…I felt like for the first time in a long time, I had the control. That I was in control. It wasn’t something I expected to feel. I liked it. Needed it.

I went down to my knees, remembering what Josie did, and moved like a cat, twisting, gyrating my hips to the music, then crawled to the edge. I tried not to stiffen when the first bill was slid down the side of my G-string, forcing Jude’s face front and center again, and then I kept going, letting them give me their money.

Letting the cool touch of those bills against my skin ease away my nerves.

Jude

Jesus fucking Christ.

We’d come to Stilettos for a meet with Raul. He was a guy with a lot of contacts and helped us out at the agency from time to time. He was also the closet thing Van and Hunter had to a father.

When Willa had walked out, I’d sat there, stunned, everything else around me ceasing to exist. My next instinct, which was fucked up, had been to storm the stage and drag her off it.

Now? Now, I couldn’t take my eyes off her, and I wasn’t the only one. I didn’t like that. Which was also messed up, but apparently I had no control over it. No, I had the strong and fucked up urge to pluck every fucker in the club’s eyeballs out for daring to look at her.

Van glanced at the stage for the hundredth time, and I growled, actually growled. His eyes slid to me.

I shook my head.

His brows shot skyward.

“Don’t look at her.”

Raul frowned. “Something I should know?”

“No.”

The guy didn’t look convinced. “Her first dance. Rocky start, but she’s got the hang of it now.”

“You want to fill me in?” Van asked.

When I said nothing, Raul leaned in and said something to Van, obviously doing the filling in for me, telling him who she was to me. My tenant. My fucking tenant. I had no say in what she did. I had no right to act like a caveman. She wasn’t mine. That didn’t seem to matter right now, though.

I rose to my feet and moved to the stage, ignoring the looks from Van and Hunter, and Raul's frown.

The song was coming to a close, and I watched as she crawled to the pole in the center of the stage and slid her hand up the smooth surface, climbing to her feet. Holding it, she moved her hips deeper and my mouth went dry, even as I dragged my hand over my mouth, sure I was fucking drooling.

Willa was small, fine-boned—my gaze slid to her round ass—and I gritted my teeth, so hard I was surprised they didn’t shatter. Yeah, I was acting like a major creep, but I couldn’t take my eyes off her. She was a perfect little package. Hot as fuck, but it was her face that had me mesmerized. Her expression. I wanted to know what she was thinking, who she was thinking about. Then I wanted to hunt him down and kill him.

She spread her legs farther apart and looked over her shoulder at the crowd. She looked directly at me, but I knew she couldn’t see me, not with the lights, not from where I was standing. I groaned under my breath as she reached around and tugged on the string of her bikini top at the neck, then lower on her back, letting it fall…

I stalked toward the back, to cheers and wolf-whistles.