Nina Levine - Fierce

* * *

The next day, I sailed through my shift at the vets as thoughts of Scott flitted in and out of my mind.  I’d memorised his muscles, the ink on his arms, his lips and his eyes.  These images were floating around my head all day and I’ve gotta say, they made me a happy girl.  Even my boss’s snarky attitude towards me all day couldn’t change my mood.  Nor did thoughts of the bills my Mum was facing in her café.

A couple of hours later though, I completely changed my mind about Scott Cole.  At the end of my shift, my boss called me into his office.

“Harlow, I’m going to have to let you go.  I’ve had a complaint from Rod about the way he was treated the other day.  The way you dealt with that situation was completely unacceptable,” he said, as he shuffled papers on his desk and did his best to avoid eye contact with me.

My heart started beating faster, and heat flooded my body.  How dare he fire me over that idiot.  “You’re kidding, right?  You fire me without even getting my version of what happened?  Rod is one of the rudest customers I’ve ever dealt with in my life, and you’ll regret choosing him over me!”

“I don’t think so.  He’s one of my best customers; that dog of his is always in here getting something done.  I can’t afford to upset customers like him.”

I picked up my handbag that I had placed on his desk, and stood up.  “You know what?  I don’t want to work for an idiot like you anyway.  I think this will be for the best after all,” I snapped, and then stormed out of his office.

As I drove home, I assessed the events of the last week and decided that Scott had screwed with my life.  My mother and I counted on that income from my job at the vet to help cover her mortgage and her bills from the café.  Unless I found a new job really soon, I worried that she wouldn’t be able to cover all her bills, and wondered where that would leave us.  If I ever saw Scott Cole again, I’d be sure to give him a piece of my freaking mind.

Scott

“Fucking hell!” I yelled as I rifled through the beer invoice that I was holding.  Moving my eyes from the invoice to J, I continued, “How fucking hard is it for them to get an order right?”

J grabbed the invoice from me and assessed it.  “Before you take that temper out on the supplier, you’d better check with our staff to make sure it wasn’t them who fucked it up.”

“Yeah, I’ll do that, but brother, we need a new manager because neither of us is cut out for this shit.”

“I hear you.  I’ve got some more interviews to line up.”

“Good.”

J looked at his watch.  “I’ve got to head home.  Call me if something urgent comes up, otherwise I’m busy for the night.  And when I say I’m busy, I mean with a woman who you don’t want to fuck with.”

I held up my hand.  “I don’t need to hear anymore.  We won’t be bothering you.”

Nash wondered into the storeroom at that moment and the air thickened with tension as he and J watched each other.  I’d thought that once Madison made it clear she was settling down with J, these two would start getting along but it didn’t seem to be the case.  If anything, they were getting along worse than ever.

“Marcus asked me to pass along that he thinks he’s talked some sense into Blade.  Thinks that Blade will pull back on his coke distribution,” Nash shared.

“What makes him so sure?”  I seriously doubted this was true.  Blade had now had a taste of the money coke bought in; he wouldn’t give that up so easily.

Nash shrugged.  “Got no idea, brother.  Just passing on the message.”

As Nash and I talked, J walked towards the storeroom door.  “I’ll catch you later,” he said to me, ignoring Nash.

We watched him leave and then I asked, “Why’s he so dirty with you still?”

“Don’t know and don’t fucking care.  J’s an asshole who I have no time for.”

“You still got a thing for Madison?”

“Fuck no, brother.  She could do better than him though, and I haven’t been backward in telling her that.”

“I’d stay out of it now, if I was you.  Now that J’s home, you don’t want to be fucking around where Madison’s concerned,” I warned him.  There’d be hell to pay if J ever found out what Nash had been saying to Madison.  And that was hell that our club didn’t need.

“I’ve said my piece and I’m out of it.  Got better things to do with my time anyway,” he said with that Nash grin that meant only one thing; sex.

I chuckled; the mood now lighter.  “I’m sure you fucking have, brother.”

“We need to hook you up, VP.  You’re more moody than normal and some pussy will help that.”

He was right.  “Yeah, but let me do my own hooking up.  I don’t want the kind of bitches you’d find me.”

“Pussy’s pussy, brother.”

“No it fucking isn’t.”

“When did you get so picky?  I remember a time when you’d take anything and everything on offer.  Wasn’t so long ago.”

“Christ, what the fuck is this, Nash?  Quilting fucking circle?  I don’t want to sit around and dissect my sex life.”  I started walking out of the storeroom, towards the office.

Nash followed me and along the way we ran into Velvet.  A scowl crossed her face when she saw Nash but she quickly hid it and turned her attention to me.  “The place is hopping tonight and there’s a shitload of dickheads in attendance.  You might want to call in some more of your guys.”

Just what we needed.  “Will do.  You up soon?”  Being the star of our club, there was often some problems with drunk patrons when she performed.  We were down some security tonight so I wanted to be out there ready for any issues when she was on.

“In about fifteen minutes,” she answered me.

“How many boys you want me to call in?” Nash asked, his phone ready to go.  Velvet was back to scowling at him which was strange.  I thought these two were good friends.

“Get four of them in and tell them to hurry the fuck up,” I said to Nash, my interest in what was happening between Nash and Velvet gone.  So long as it didn’t interfere with Storm or Indigo, I could care less about their issues with each other.  “I’ll be out there soon.  I want to keep an eye on you tonight, just because we’re down some men,” I said to Velvet.

She looked happy with this news.  “Thanks, boss,” she said and then left Nash and I alone.

He finished up his call.  “I’ll go out and check what’s happening.”

“Sure.  Be out soon.”

He nodded and then left.  I sat down at the desk in the office and spent a couple of minutes looking through invoices that needed payment or some kind of follow up.  This part of the job was the shit part.  We’d better have a new manager soon because it was headache material.

* * *

An hour later, I was kicking back with a beer.  Velvet’s performance had gone off without a hitch, our extra security had turned up and the place seemed to be under control.  Nash was sitting across from me at the table; once again, enjoying the show.  From where I was sitting, I could see the front door and I was surprised to see Harlow stumble through it.  The friend she was with was also stumbling; they’d obviously been out drinking for the night.  How the fuck they ended up in a strip club was anyone’s guess.  Harlow didn’t strike me as your standard strip club patron.  I stood up, watching her intently.  She was making a beeline to the bar even though any fool could tell she had enough alcohol in her system to last her for a long time.  Suddenly, our eyes met and a shitty look crossed her face.  She changed her direction and started towards me.

She kept coming until she was almost in my face, and shoved a finger at my chest.  “Scott freaking Cole!” she slurred, “You owe me big time.  I lost my job because of you.”

“What the fuck?  Why?”  I took a step back, to move away from her, but she stepped forward and maintained our closeness.

“You pissed that customer off and he put a complaint in about me.  He’s one of our best customers so the vet chose him over me.  Thank you very freaking much!”

“He deserved everything I said to him,” I defended myself although I wasn’t sure why; it wasn’t something I was ever compelled to do.

“Yeah, he’s an asshole for sure, but you didn’t have to get your dick out and wave it around like freaking King Shit, threatening him and all.  I could have handled him by myself.”

She jabbed her finger at my chest again and this time I stopped her and grabbed her hand.  We were already close, but I tilted my head so our foreheads almost touched; our breath mingling.  She smelt of bourbon mixed with some other smell that hit me right in the dick.  Christ.  “Babe, I’ll get my dick out and wave it around like fucking King Shit anytime I fucking want.  And I’ll especially get it out whenever someone treats people the way that dickhead treated you.  You didn’t deserve that shit.  So, don’t come in here poking your finger at me and yelling at me for something that needed to be done.”

Her eyebrows shot up and she sucked in a breath.  Her lips parted and I could hear her short, choppy breaths as they quickened.  I kept my eyes focused on hers, and we stayed locked like that for a moment, just watching each other, taking everything in.  My senses were assaulted by her; all I could see, smell and hear was her.  And fuck if I didn’t want a taste as well.

I let her go but neither of us moved.  Her eyes softened; the hard glare she’d been looking at me with a second ago, gone.  A flush came over her cheeks and a hint of a smile touched her lips.  When her tongue darted out and licked her lips, a sensation shot right through me and wrapped itself around my cock.  It settled in the pit of my stomach a second later.  Fuck, what was that scent she was wearing?  It was screwing with my mind and my body.  I resisted the urge to lean right into her and inhale it.

Harlow made the first move; she stepped back, right into Nash who was now standing behind her.  He reached out to steady her, his hands gripping her hips.  “Watch out, sweet thing, or you’ll excite my ankle spanker even more than you already have.”

Confusion flit across her face.  “Your what?” she asked before turning around to look at him.

Nash’s hands curved around Harlow’s ass as she turned.  I zeroed in on this, as well as her failure to remove them.  I clenched my jaw and fists; ready to strike but not even sure why.  Trying to fight the urge but not succeeding, I reached out and yanked Nash’s hands off her ass.  I then hooked my hand around her waist and pulled her back towards me, away from Nash.  She gasped as she lost her balance but I held on tight to prevent her fall, and she ended up backed right against me.  Nash just looked amused; probably wondering what the fuck I was doing.  I knew I sure as hell was.  Seeing Nash’s hands on a woman was a normal occurrence for me so why was it any different when it was his hands on Harlow?

“Nash has a filthy mouth.  You don’t want to know half the shit he talks about,” I murmured near her ear, her hair brushing across my face.

She made a noise that sounded like a moan before mumbling, “Well, I’d like to know what an ankle spanker is.”

I’d met a lot of women in my life.  Hell, I’d fucked a lot of women in my life.  They came and they went; I hardly remembered faces, never remembered names, and had no desire to know any of those women beyond the feel of their pussy wrapped around my dick.  They would have all known what an ankle spanker was.  Harlow stood there, blazing with naivety and I was damn sure her name and face were burned into my brain.

Letting her go, I waited until she turned slightly so she could see both Nash and I before telling her, “It’s a huge cock, sweetheart.  Nash here likes to consider himself well hung.”

Her face flamed with redness.  “Oh.”

Nash grinned, and I scowled at him.  He wasn’t easily put off though, and indicated for Harlow and her friend to sit with us.  “I’ll get you some water, ladies,” he said as he guided them into their seats.

Harlow’s friend’s eyes trailed up and down my body before she fixed a filthy stare on me.  “This is the guy who lost you your job?”

Before Harlow could answer, Velvet appeared at the table.  “Boss, we’ve got a slight issue at the front door.  Might need your help.”

Reluctantly diverting my attention from Harlow, I nodded at Velvet.  “Be right back,” I said to Harlow before heading to the front of the club.

My blood boiled the instant I hit the footpath outside.  A couple of people were milling around a chick who was sitting on the ground crying.  Her cheek was swollen and painted with blood.  I flicked my glare to our bouncer who had a guy up against the wall.  I stormed over to them and pulled the guy around so he was facing me.