Marco (The Men of Indecent Exposure #1) (14 page)

Typically, I didn’t invite women here. It did unnerve me a bit, but only because I wasn’t really myself here. I had to disassociate myself from Marco Rios and become someone else. That was always harder when someone I knew popped up in the audience. Still, if I asked her not to come, she wouldn’t understand.

‘Sure. That’s fine,’
was all I said back.

Time passed pretty quickly after that. I put on the rest of my costume after oiling up. Me and the guys made our way backstage in black slacks and matching, brimmed hats. No shirts. We listened to the crowd as Ivy hyped them up. They were particularly wild tonight, which meant one thing—we’d be lining our pockets nicely after this.

“Ladies, are youuuuu readyyyyyyyy?”

The answer to Ivy’s question was the clash of howls and screams that filled the air. I leaned my neck to the side, cracking it as I loosened up. Logan slapped his chest in usual fashion while Justin adjusted his hat.

“I don’t think the guys heard you,” Ivy said loudly into the microphone, inciting a deafening roar on the other side of the heavy, velvet curtain.

“Fellas?” she called out next. “Get out here and give these ladies what they want!” That was our cue.

With me leading the pack, we stepped out on stage in formation. While, yes, we came out here to dance, we were entertainers first and foremost. The directions were to get on your post, keep your head down, no smiling. The crowd went crazy as the red lights above moved over our bodies, glinting off our skin as they passed over us. A dense fog crept up on stage as the bassline dropped and at that exact second we each hit our marks, in synch like one well-oiled machine. Tonight, me and the guys did the same thing we do
every
night here at
Indecent Exposure
. We did what we do best—

…soaked every pair of panties in the damn room.

Mothers, wives, teachers, lawyers, cops… we had fans from every walk of life. The mixture of foreign and familiar faces became a blur as I stepped outside myself, feeling the music, being whatever, and
whoever
, these women needed me to be. Hands slipped down my chest and arms before grasping at my waist, begging me to
‘Take it all off!’

Making them wait turns them into animals and experience taught me that there’s a sweet spot when women were most willing to come out of their pockets. There’s a point of vulnerability right after making eye contact, right after making them feel like they’re the only one you see. The group of women off to my right were primed and ready to throw cash. All they needed was a little coaxing.

In unison, me and they guys came out of our pants and tossed them into the crowd. They loved that, too, feeling like they had a piece of us, having a memento of the fantasy.

The women I spotted before became more keyed up as I stood over them, staring down my chest with what they perceived to be lust in my eyes. Among other things, I’m an actor.

Greedy hands groped my legs. The more aggressive one of the group grabbed a little more than that, palming my crotch as she sucked her bottom lip.

From the corner of my eye, I saw one of the security guys making his way over, but I put my hand up, letting him know I could handle it. He stopped, but stayed close and kept his eye on the rowdy one.

“How ‘bout you bring that big dick back over here,” she crooned with glassy eyes, making it obvious she’d gotten the party started early with a few drinks before arriving tonight. I smiled at her request, but moved downstage a couple feet to her friends.

Crouching down, too many hands to count caressed my thighs and stomach. While I had them there, in that place of lust and desperation, I singled one out and looked into her, making her believe we connected. And like clockwork, money was shoved into the waistband of my briefs. Her friends followed her lead and the night had all the makings of a good show.

The hours bled into one another until I lost track of time. That was usually the case. Before I knew it, the place had gone dark and the screaming and hollering had been replaced by the low murmur of our cleanup crew.

“Good show tonight, guys,” Ivy said when Logan and I passed her in the hall. She’d just gotten done doing the books in her office and we were all pretty much set to go home. I grabbed my bag from my locker and checked my phone.

“Waiting on a call from Elena?” Carlos said with a laugh as he got his things together.

It wasn’t until he mentioned her name that I actually thought about her, which was kind of messed up. The only thing on my mind was:
did Brynn call?
I hadn’t been able to get a hold of her since our text conversation earlier in the day and it wasn’t like her to not respond. Something could’ve been wrong and I would have no way of knowing.

Elena hadn’t shown up, so I assumed she changed her mind. It was just as well, though. Granted, she already knew what I did for a living, but that didn’t necessarily mean I wanted her exposed to it. Seeing me up there on stage can give a woman the wrong impression. We had to turn the charm and flirting up to one-hundred in order to get paid, but very rarely was it ever real.

This was the reason most of us had trouble maintaining relationships, and those who did were rarely ever happy. There was always drama, always jealousy, always an issue. These were all reasons I couldn’t remember the last time I tried to have anything solid with a woman.

“How’d you end up talking to her anyway?” Carlos asked, bringing my thoughts back to Elena. “Wasn’t she living in Connecticut?”

“Colorado,” I corrected.

“Same thing.” His tone was dismissive as he closed his locker and grabbed his keys. “She looked you up or something?” he asked next.

We left the room, headed for the back door when I responded. “I ran into her at the grocery store some weeks back. I had to pick up something for Ma’s Sunday dinner and I ran into her when I was in line. Apparently, she’s moving back here soon.”

Carlos nodded without speaking right away, but then he did and I wasn’t surprised by his question. “Does she know about your… you know… your situation?”

I shook my head. “Nah, I didn’t bother. We haven’t even been out or anything. And that’s not the kind of thing you lead with, you know?”

He nodded, agreeing, but then became thoughtful again. I unlocked my door using the remote as we moved closer to it.

“That’s gotta be rough,” he started, “trying to still live your life with a kid on the way. For you
and
her.” I knew he was talking about Brynn this time, not Elena.

I shrugged. “It is what it is. She’s got some guy she was seeing before all this happened—a friend or something. For all I know, they’re kicking it again.”

The words left my mouth casually, but honestly? It was a strange thought. The situation would only get even more awkward once our daughter got here. The thought of some other guy being in my baby’s life, sharing moments with her that I wouldn’t get to share because of me and Brynn’s situation.

“Marco,” Carlos said low, nodding off to the left. I glanced that way and a pretty smile greeted me.

“I’mma take off,” was Carlos’s way of dismissing himself when Elena approached. A tight, black dress hugged her curvy frame and I looked her over from head to toe, being reminded of all the reasons I chased this woman without hesitation years ago.

She flipped her gold-streaked hair behind her shoulder and stopped once she was right in front of me.

“
Now
she shows up,” I teased. It was well after two in the morning so the only reason I could imagine she was out here this late dressed like
that
was that she and her friends had chosen to go to a different club nearby.

“I’ve actually been here since eleven,” she countered, shocking me. I looked for her several times and each time I didn’t spot her.

“For real? I didn’t see you.”

“That’s because those women are insane,” she said with a laugh. “Every time me and my girls got close to the stage, one of those beasts would shove and elbow us back. Eventually, we gave up trying and just watched you do your thing from the bar.”

The mental image of what she just described made me chuckle. “Wow… I apologize for that. If you’d told me sooner, I would’ve made special arrangements for you.”

She nodded and let her eyes slip down to the pavement, giving a shy smile. “You were…
good
out there. I see why your fans go crazy over you.”

“They weren’t just here for me,” I corrected. “Plus, the guys do a lot of promoting on off days, so that keeps the place pretty full.”

She grinned up at me, wearing a look that led me to believe she wasn’t buying that explanation. “Your modesty isn’t fooling me. I saw how those women were falling all over themselves to get to you and I’m not deaf either. It was
your
name they were calling.”

It crossed my mind that she’d been clocking every move I made tonight. If that was the case, she was probably traumatized by everything she saw. When I perform, I give it my all. In this business, holding back will leave you broke, so I didn’t subscribe to that method.

When I lowered my head, I scrubbed my chin with my hand, wanting to change the subject. “How long are you in town? Maybe we’ll grab lunch tomorrow.”

“Unfortunately, I fly out in the morning—at ten.”

Seeing as how it was already so late, I knew there’d be no time to squeeze in a meal.

“Damn… I guess I’ll have to see you next time, then.”

Elena nodded, smiling. “Well, I’ll be back in a month. I actually wasn’t supposed to be back at
all
until then, but I had an interview, so…”

“Congratulations! Good for you.”

Her cheeks tinted red. “Thank you. It went pretty well, so I’m excited about it.”

She met my gaze for a moment and then looked away, pretending to be more interested in the few cars that passed than she was in me.

“Seems like things are coming together for you.”

She nodded and couldn’t fight the pull to look me in my eyes. “Yup… seems like it,” she replied. “Everything’s just kind of falling into place.”

Her words were simple, but it felt like she was saying more than that. However, before I could read too far into it, she glanced down at her watch. “It’s super late and I should get going. Can’t afford to oversleep and miss my plane.”

I nodded, agreeing, wishing we had more time to catch up.

“I’m glad you called me. Next time, hopefully, I’ll get to take you to dinner or something.”

Her eyes lit up. “I’d like that.”

Taking a few steps closer, she made another suggestion. “In the meantime, we should chat. I’ll give you a call.”

Liking the sound of that, I smiled at her, but the next thing she did caught me off guard. Her lips lightly pressed to mine and my knee-jerk reaction—damn it all to hell— was to push her back. With both her shoulders in my hands, I put space between us.

…and there was no taking it back now.

Hurt.

Embarrassed.

Elena’s expression captured both of those emotions.

“I’m… oh my gosh, I shouldn’t have—”

“Please, don’t apologize. You didn’t do anything wrong,” I assured her. If anything, her actions were in line with whatever this was we were doing. I was the one who needed to explain.

Elena folded her arms over her chest and looked everywhere but at me and I couldn’t blame her. Taking a deep breath, I knew I needed to say something, but the question was:
What exactly was I supposed to say? What had even happened a moment ago? Why did I push her away?

“Listen… I’ve just got a lot going on, a lot on my mind,” I clarified. “I haven’t really been myself lately.”

She nodded right away, clearly still feeling ashamed for making a move and being rejected. “No, you don’t owe me an explanation. It’s cool.”

Taking a breath, I realized that wasn’t exactly true. I
did
owe her an explanation. It felt wrong not letting her know what all I had on my plate right now.

“I’m uh… I’m gonna take off so I can get some rest,” she reasoned, although I knew she was only hurrying off to save face.

“Elena, wait.”

My words halted her as she stood there with her back to me. What I had to say would actually be easier not having to look her in her eyes anyway.

“I uh… I meant what I said about not being myself. Things with me are… they’re complicated right now.”

First, she glanced at me from over her shoulder, but then turned around completely, concern heavily filling her expression.

Damn… this was about to be awkward as hell, but it needed to be said. The last thing I needed was her thinking she’d done something wrong, thinking she’d misread my signs.

“I have a daughter on the way.”

I just said it. Flat out. There was no nice way to put it.

Her eyes widened and her lips parted like she was about to say something, but then they closed again.

“I’m not with her mother, but… things are hella complicated right now. I’d be lying if I said they weren’t,” I added. “So… my mind is just kind of all over the place these days.”