Paradise Fought: Abel (7 page)

“Maybe you should introduce me,” Cain muttered.

The music ended, but I reached for him. In an unprecedented move, I grabbed his shirt and tugged it. He didn’t budge, but he stared at me.

“You’ll stay away from her.” I paused a beat. “Besides, don’t you want the other girl?”

His eyes shifted to that poisonous brown glare, then his mouth curled up on one side.

“You’re surprising me, little brother. Maybe I don’t know you either, after all.”

I let go of him with a shove at the term of endearment, which was a reminder of my place. I was behind Cain. I was the shadow. He was the star.

Suddenly, a large, burly man in black stood next to the table.

“Everything okay?” the voice asked. I looked up to face Kursch, my brother’s body guard.

“Everything’s fine, Uncle K,” I sighed, running a hand through my hair. I should have known that Cain’s second skin wasn’t far behind. He didn’t make a move without Kursch’s protection. Unfortunately, my moves would be reported to my father. I couldn’t think about that at present. Elma was leaving the stage after she’d been approached by a man seated at a table near the front.

Racing to the side door, where I assumed backstage was, I was met with the resistance of another large man, who refused my admittance.

“Let him through.” The deep voice of Kursch behind me surprised me. I glanced over my shoulder to get a nod of approval. The black man stepped back, warning me I had five minutes.

I found Elma in one.

“Abel, what are you doing here?” she sighed, looking around the dressing room, which contained four other girls, barely clothed. I reached for a robe and draped it over Elma’s shoulders.

“I’m going to ask you the same thing,” I snapped. She was reapplying some lipstick that made her lips a tempting bright red. The robe covered her shoulders, but her breasts still begged to be released from the vest.

“I work here,” she said into the mirror, avoiding my glare and tracing the edge of her lip to fix a smudge.

“No, you don’t,” I barked. “Not any longer.”

That had her attention and she stood up, letting the robe fall.

“Excuse me?” she demanded. My eyes were distracted as her hands went to her hips and her breasts strained against the tight vest. Not to mention, legs were on display below lace panties I hadn’t noticed were so sheer and left not much to the imagination.

“Elma,” I groaned. “Get dressed. I’m taking you home.”

“You are doing no such thing,” she squawked. “I’m on again in fifteen. I need this job. To pay you back, I might add.”

“No,” I bit again. “Not like this.” I reached for her arm, but she pulled back. She also stepped back, and I rounded the makeup desk that separated us.

“You quit.” I stretched toward her.

“I do not,” she demanded again, holding her ground, hands on hips, but her expression had changed. Her face faltered. I was close enough to feel the brush of her breasts against my chest. She took a deep breath in her agitation and her breasts rose and fell against me. I wasn’t certain I could phrase a coherent sentence as the tender touch of her distracted me.

“I’m not leaving,” she said, snapping me out of my fantasy of ripping the vest wide and cupping each tempting breast until she begged me by name to suck them hard.

“Yes, you are,” I said, pressing firmly against her. Her hands reached back for the surface of the station behind her. I leaned forward and placed my hands over hers. Her back arched. My pelvis region curved. I was against her in a most dangerously, delicious way.

“I can’t quit,” she breathed softly onto my face.

“You will,” I implied, as I gently nudged forward, letting my excitement rest against her.

“I…” she moaned at the sensation. Her voice faltered. “You don’t own me, Abel.”

I knew this. I didn’t want to own her, but I also didn’t want her working here.

“I feel another rule coming on,” I teased sarcastically.

“Rule four…thou cannot dictate my work.”

I laughed lightly against her.

“I can’t watch others covet my…” my voice trailed off.

Her eyes opened wide. Those bright red lips glistened for kissing.

“Your what?” she asked quietly.

“Never mind,” I said pushing off the desk. “Get dressed.”

I was pissed off at Abel for forcing me to leave Carrie’s. It was a hard gig, but a good way to m
ake money as an undergrad. F
ighting off the advances of old guys exhausted me, as well as creeped me out, but it wasn’t awful. I didn’t have any other skills. Dancing was what I knew. I’d volunteered at a dance studio near campus, hoping to secure a position a year ago, but it wouldn’t have paid a third of what I made at Carrie’s. She ran a respectable place, so to speak, and most of the girls were from the university. It wasn’t unheard of that female college students earned money as dancers.

I didn’t need Abel to take me home. I had my own car. I didn’t let my mother drive it. After the second DUI, and the fear of her ending her life in a car crash, I refused to let her have it. It was mine anyway. I needed it for escape. My work had been a means of escape, too, until Abel had to ruin it. He dragged me out the door, despite Jared’s interceding. Some man named Kursch seemed to throw his weight around, and Jared let Abel remove me.

In the parking lot, I shoved Abel hard off of me. I don’t think it was my strength as much as I caught him off guard, which made him stumble back.

“Get your hands off me,” I growled. “I needed that job.”

“Find another one,” he said, following me. The crunch of gravel echoed in the silence of the night. The steady drumming of a muffled beat came from Carrie’s behind us. It was my song someone else was dancing to now. My mental cash register was losing money as we argued.

“I could have made hundreds of dollars tonight, and you ruined it.” I spun to face him, without realizing he was literally behind me. I collided with his firm chest and bounced backward. Strong hands gripped my upper arms to hold me steady.

“Here,” Abel demanded, releasing me and pulling a roll of hundreds out of his pocket, waving it at me.

“I don’t want your damn money,” I yelled.

“Well, you took it before,” he huffed back at me, pulling me close to him.

We puffed at each other in the cool mountain air. Our breath mingled as the heat of our anger rolled between us. Abel gave in first. His shoulders relaxed and his grip lightened.

“You can find another job,” he said softer.

“I can’t just find another job.”

“Where do you want to work? I’ll help you get a different job.”

“It’s not that simple,” I sighed, exaggeratedly.

“Do you need something immediately? I’ll get it for you.”

“Look, quit using your gold card to save me.”

Abel released me and stepped back. His mouth opened then shut. His lips twisted as he thought.

“I’m not saying I’d pay…”

“You already did pay, as you just reminded me,” I snapped. “Why don’t we just get this over with, and you can call it what it is?”

“And what is it?” Abel demanded, anger growing again to match mine.

“Slumming it. You sleep with the poor stripper girl, who has a reputation, and you get what you paid for.”

“I…” His hands fisted at this sides. I could see a vein ripple up his long forearm. He had on one of those damn button downs again, but at least it was rolled to the elbow and untucked from his jeans. It looked kind of hot, actually. His hair stood up as he’d obviously run his fingers through it several times, as I’d seen him do often in class this week. I’d snuck looks at him, feeling his eyes drilling into me while I sat next to Thor.

“Are you taking off your clothes in there?” He choked then shook his head. “Don’t tell me. I’m not slumming it with you; so quit the shit. And I told you before, I’m not sleeping with you,” he huffed. We stood for a moment breathing fire.

“Why did you help me, Abel? Why?”

“Because you needed it,” he snapped. Anger was still present in his tone as his hand swept through his hair again. It stood up straight in the night’s air.

“And I need you,” he softened. I blinked. It shouldn’t have had any effect on me, what he said, but it rippled through my body like the mountain breeze.

“Abel, you don’t really need me,” I sighed.

“I do,” he replied, looking away from me for a moment. The night suddenly seemed very quiet.

“I’m not good with girls, and you promised to help me.”

“You did just fine the other night,” I said quietly, afraid to disrupt the silence too loudly. Abel stepped toward me. I stepped back and my back hit the side of my car. His hand reached out to brace on the roof and his body leaned in.

“Really?” he asked. “I did okay, huh?”

“Well, maybe,” I swallowed. He was in my space like he’d been on Friday. He was so close to me, I could feel his breath mixing with mine. I had the strangest thirst to kiss him. Abel had soft looking lips, and I wondered briefly what they would feel like on mine. For someone claiming innocence, he knew how to work a girl up. I’d been turned on enough Friday that I felt it between my thighs. I intended to work off the energy with Thor, after he interrupted us. Unfortunately, Thor had passed out after a failed attempt to kiss me. I gently shoved him back when he missed my lips, and the second he hit the bed, he was out.

“Maybe?” Abel teased. “Were you attracted to me?”

His innocent question startled me. I couldn’t be honest with him.

“No,” I laughed, nervously. The hurt in his eyes was instantaneous. My heart ached that I caused him pain. He had been a decent guy. He wasn’t forcing himself on me. He wasn’t taking advantage of me. I didn’t feel threatened by him. Ironically, I felt safe without really knowing him.

“Well, maybe,” I changed my answer. It was closer to the truth without being a commitment.

“And if I kissed you, would you be attracted to me then?”

I bit my lip. My mouth watered. I was attracted to Abel, when I shouldn’t be. Despite the reputation, I didn’t sleep around. I knew what I had. It was the reason I danced at Carrie’s, but I didn’t let my body be taken advantage of. I would only use it for what I wanted, and what I wanted was to avenge my brother’s death. That meant I had to stay focused. I needed Thor.

“No,” I lied. Abel’s eyes proved I’d crushed him. The blue was lighter than normal and glowed in the one light that lit the parking lot. He pressed off the car roof. Air swirled between us, and I released a breath I didn’t know I was holding after the fib.

“Go home, Elma.”

His voice had changed. His tone was hard. Something told me that my plan to reenter the bar after he left me wasn’t going to work. He was going to wait until I entered my car, left the lot, and drove away. I did just that, giving myself ten minutes, before I U-turned and returned to Carrie’s. I parked in the space I’d vacated, as it hadn’t been filled, and was marching across the dark lot when a large man blocked my way.

“Ms. Montgomery?” the man said. He was bald, with huge biceps that bulged as he crossed his arms.

“Who are you?” I asked, trying to display confidence I didn’t feel.

“I believe Mr. Callahan asked you to leave.”

“Mr. Callahan?” I questioned.

“Yes, the young man who escorted you out of the building.”

Callahan.
The name was familiar. Too familiar. He couldn’t possibly be related to Cain Callahan. Cobra. It would have been ironic. Abel was too meek compared to what I’d seen of Cain. It struck me that I hadn’t caught Abel’s last name before. Surely, I must have heard it when attendance was called on the first day of class, or when he paid for my tuition, except I left before he finalized the payment. I couldn’t recall learning his last name.

“Callahan,” I said, playing coy. It was a common enough name. “Abel Callahan,” I said the name again, letting it roll over my tongue.

“Yes. He asked you to leave. I’m not about to let you reenter. Carrie knows you’ve quit. She’ll send you two weeks’ worth of pay.”

It wasn’t going to be enough. What I counted on was the tips. What I needed was the cash. Damn Abel Callahan, and his soft looking lips, with his demands.

“Fine,” I said, stomping my foot and turning away from the door. I trudged down the wooden ramp, back to the gravel drive, to find a dark truck parked in the back of the lot, with Abel sitting in the driver’s seat.