Stripped Bounty by Dorothy F. Shaw Read Free Book Online

to help decorate…which of course meant his boys had all been in early, too. After all their hard work, the Halloween party appeared to be in full swing. Badger ran his palm along his jaw. He was fucking exhausted.
    The majority of the dancers were wearing the typical stripper Halloween costumes: Bunny ears with a puffy tail, devil horns with devil’s tail or a halo—minus the wings, because a lap dance with wings could be a problem. He hadn’t seen Rosie yet, so her costume was still a mystery. Though he had to admit, only to himself of course, he was curious. A few of the guys had started calling out bets regarding what she might pick. Naughty nurse, school teacher or librarian were in the running. One even said Cat Woman.
    Badger disagreed with them all, though he didn’t so much as make a peep while they speculated. He knew better. She wouldn’t pick something so predictable. Rosie would be in something no one would expect. It would be different, and every guy in the house would be drooling at her feet.
    Except him.
    He wouldn’t drool, not visibly anyway. But he’d watch. Not only because that’s what he was paid to do, but because that’s what he always did when it came to her, even when he tried like hell not to. It was unavoidable and confusing as fuck, so he’d given up forcing himself to not watch, nearly a month ago.
    There was just something so…well, just unique about Rosie. He couldn’t help but watch her. Maybe it was those pretty yet sad brown eyes and the mystery behind them. Or the care she took with each of her dance sets, the outfits and dresses, her moves…fuck him, her moves. Every bit of it was enough to make a sane man lose his ever-loving mind to lust and intrigue.
    But whatever it was, whichever thing, didn’t matter. She was just different, and all that different made him want things he shouldn’t want and wouldn’t take. So instead of touching her, Badger watched her. He watched when she danced onstage but didn’t watch when she was on a customer’s lap because the sight of that made him want to crack a motherfucker’s skull open.
    Outside of that, he avoided her like the fucking black plague.
    “Ladies and less than gentlemen, let me hear you make some noise for the best Halloween bash in the valley!” Rick’s voice boomed over the sound system and the crowd went nuts. “Are you ready for your favorite dancer?”
    The crowd cheered again and Badger shifted his weight, settling with both feet braced apart, arms crossed. She was coming, and he knew it. Not because Rick had just called out what had become her standard intro, but by the way the knot curled tight in his gut and his skin itched.
    “I can’t hear you.” Rick paused and the crowd got louder. “Come on, Phoenix, you better make our girl feel welcome. You’ve been waiting for her. Let me hear you now. Shout your love for Ariannaaaa !”
    As the customers yelled out, calling her name, whistles sounding from several people, the lights dimmed…and then the crowd went quiet. The first words of Hozier’s “Take Me To Church” cut the silence and Badger watched as the two small spotlights came up and—
    Badger’s breath caught in his throat.
    She stood just past the up-stage pole, shrouded in a hooded white cloak. Two black silk drapes hung from the handles on the old spinner wheel, mounted in the ceiling center stage. No one used that thing anymore—except Rosie. The young breed of strippers were more or less happy to play on the poles rather than mess with the spinner.
    It seemed tonight, Rosie had something different planned for it.
    He watched as she danced, keeping her body hidden under the cloak. She glided between each pole downstage, her movements loose, yet deliberate and definitely titillating. As she grabbed hold of a pole with both hands, she swung herself around, the cloak flaring out behind her as she twisted her body, and somehow managed to not get tangled. Half the time Badger thought he was