ROMANCE: The Bad Boy Meeting (4 page)

              Kate had not always been the type of woman who loved herself. She had always been categorized as ‘plus sized’ and that was on a good day. On a bad day she was just fat. Her weight had always been a point of contention ever since she was a small girl. There had never been a time that Kate could remember feeling confident.

              School had been a horrendous experience. She grew up in a small town in Tennessee, full of people who had way too much money and no sense to invest it. Their sons and daughters were dressed in the best clothes money could buy and they all seemed to be thin. In Franklin there was a certain type of person who was welcome and a certain type who wasn’t. Kate fell into the second group of people.

              She was part Native American, so her skin always had a healthy tan to it but not the same kind of tan as the other girls. She was short with too much padding in her hips and ass. She had an ample chest but it didn’t make up for the extra weight everywhere else. Not even her sky blue eyes distracted people from her weight.

              As a result, she found herself eating to curb the pain. Food was her comfort. Her parents were both from the south and in the south, the dinner table was a safe place where families gathered and enjoyed each other's company. She had always equated eating with happiness. So, when she was sad or depressed, she ate.

              It was a vicious cycle that didn’t seem to have an end. She wanted to be thin and pretty like all the girls in her school and even though she was an absolutely beautiful girl with shining black hair, she could never see herself as beautiful. She’d gotten her mother’s hair and eyes and her father’s cheek bones and complexion. Her parents often told her she could have been a model but she didn’t think it was true. How could someone her size be a model?

              Kate kept her head down out of fear of being made fun of. She didn’t speak up and she just kept her nose in her books. She had a few friends but they were all outcasts too. Her best friend was a girl named Maddy. Maddy was a little weird. She like Japanese cartoons and always wore black. They had different interests but they cared deeply for each other. Maddy and Kate would never leave each other’s sides even when college came around.

              Since they were never welcomed at parties or anything in the social sphere, Maddy and Kate graduated at the top of their class and the world became their oyster. They managed to get into one of the best schools in Tennessee and they got to go together.

              Kate had come to terms with the fact that she was going to be the fat girl for the rest of her life. That’s who she was going to be known as. She wasn’t okay with it but she’d accepted it. She had tried to change her body for so long and without results that she’d just given up. How was college going to be any different than high school?

              Then everything changed.

              A perfect storm of events change Kate’s life forever. In an attempt to be social, Kate ended up going to an expo for new students. It was a collection of all the clubs in the school. She had wandered through all of the tables and wasn’t having any luck until she stumbled on a group of girls who were putting together a burlesque club. She had never heard of burlesque before and the girls explained that it was a type of entertainment that involved taking your clothes off. She was surprised that the girl explaining this to here was even bigger than herself.

              Kate was hesitant to join but seeing that there were other plus sized girls in the club made her curious. Would people really come and watch ‘fat’ girls take their clothes off? Turns out, the answer was yes. She joined the club and it turned her into an entirely new person.

              All of her insecurities went out the window every time she performed. She became one of the top performers in the club and started performing in nightclubs around the state. She had gone to college with the aims of being an English major but she knew that this is what she wanted to do with her life.

              The newly found self confidence helped her kick her bad eating habits and also put her in a strict exercise routine. She was never going to be small, and she didn’t want to be. She no longer envied the skinny blonde girls. She was the one the skinny blonde girls envied and it felt more amazing than she could have described.

              Kate got her degree but continued becoming better and better at burlesque. She was getting paid for her performances now and was starting her own line of burlesque outfits. By the time she graduated she had her own company and was performing for pay on a regular basis.

              She wanted something more steady though. Kate was making plenty of money but she wanted a home base. Somewhere people would come to watch her perform. She loved Nashville and she didn’t want to leave it so she was looking local.

              After a few failed contracts she was sitting in her breakfast nook one morning, drinking her coffee and reading the newspaper. Her eyes happened to scan over an advert for a new club opening up. It was in the heart of downtown and was called Draca. It was a weird name but the owners were advertising for entertainers.

              She jumped on their website to make sure they weren’t a strip club before shooting an email to the owners as well as a video sample of one of her performances. She received a response within an hour and she couldn’t help but be pleased with herself.

              The email was offering her an interview at the club that very night. They also requested that she bring an outfit so that they could see her perform in person. She smirked a little and sent an email back.

             
You got it, hon.

                            XOXO,

                            Kate.

              A tall, dark handsome man was seated in the office of his new club. An equally handsome man was relaxing in a chaise on the other side of the room. He had a cigarette in his mouth but it wasn’t lit.

              The man behind the desk glanced at the man with the smoke and sighed “Don’t you dare light that thing, Marcus.”

              Marcus cocked one thick, perfectly groomed brow and chuckled, speaking with a bit of an accent “What are you going to do about it, Jean?” His voice had a teasing tone but there was also a bit of a challenge there as well.

              That was the problem with having two alpha males running a business. Even though they were friends, there was always the threat of a challenge. Club Draca was owned by Jean Bertrand and Marcus Mancini and while they ran the business together they played very different roles. Jean was more of the business man. He handled things like taxes and legalities while Marcus was often responsible for more social things like marketing and overseeing the activities that went on in the club.

              Having separate jobs kept them from ripping each other’s heads off but conflict couldn’t always be avoided, especially given their...fiery tendencies. Both men were of European descent and both were dragons. Of course that seemed impossible but so does keeping nightclubs open for more than a year.

              Jean’s eyes flashed golden for a moment before returning to their normal hazel color, the only sign of the gold that remained was the flecks in the green iris. He seemed to bristle for a moment before relaxing “Stop trying to start fights and put the damn thing away. We have an appointment in a few minutes, anyway.” He said, closing out of the spreadsheet on his computer.

              “Who’s coming?” Marcus asked, turning his head and watching as Jean came over and snatched cigarette from between his lips, tossing it into the trash.

              “A young woman named Kate Winchester. She’s a dancer.”

              Marcus grinned and sat up, waggling his eyebrows a little “A dancer, you say?”

              “A burlesque dancer. She’s going to be our main entertainer so don’t get any ideas. I don’t need you chasing another girl away.” He said firmly.

              They had traveled together for well over three hundred years, going from place to place. They were never able to settle in for very long, seeing as someone always found out who they really were. Dragons got a bad wrap. They had never been out to hurt anyone but they always seemed to get blamed for kidnapping women. Marcus was responsible for his share of ‘kidnappings’ but the truth of the matter was that they often went with him willingly. Getting them to leave was the problem.

              The women would often fall for their charm and the excitement of having two lovers. They were happier with the dragons. They were kept safe, warm and fed, which was more than they could have hoped for in their villages. Marcus and Jean were looking for love, like any other creature but their lovers were dragged away more often than not and Jean and Marcus would be forced to flee their home and their loves. It was a sad existence, really.

              They held their human form most of the time but when threatened they morphed into more dragon like creatures. Claws grew from their hands and massive scaled wings grew from their backs. Their noses elongated and turned to snouts suitable for breathing fire. In folklore they were huge, monstrous creature but in reality they stood about seven feet when fully transformed. They were quite monstrous, though. They both understood the fear that humans had of them and because of that they were prepared to move around.

              Nashville was their most recent stop, though they had nightclubs all over the country. The clubs were open to humans and supernatural beings alike, though they seemed to draw werewolves and vampires more than a human clientele. Those supernatural creatures preferred the fresh smell of a human woman. There was a sweetness and softness in the human form that others didn’t seem to have. A human entertainer was always preferred.

              Marcus and Jean had a specific type of woman in their mind's eye. A woman with thick thighs and a soft belly, large breasts and a pretty face. Their vision of what their performer should be was shaped by their own desires, but that couldn’t be helped. Most of their clients preferred thick women and they were getting hard to find. Marcus had always mourned the 1950’s. It had been a time when thick women with curved waists were abundant. Now it seemed they couldn’t get anyone in their office that didn’t look like a prepubescent girl.  They didn’t want girls. They wanted women and so did their clients.

              “Get up and put your blazer on. We need to look professional. This isn’t some stripper. She’s the top burlesque performer in the state. She’s not going to come work for a pair of schlubs.” He said sternly.

              “Of course, mother.”

              Jean’s nostrils flared as he turned, his eyes flashing gold again. He was a second from hissing when there was a loud knock on the door. His eyes quickly returned to their normal color as he turned to the door. He snatched up the blazer and tossed it to his tan partner who was running his hands through his long black hair and tying it into a ponytail at the base of his neck.

              “Put the damn jacket on.”

              Marcus rolled his eyes but stood and slipped the perfectly tailored jacket on as his partner went to the door. Jean had always been the person who was more concerned with appearances. He took a moment to smooth his own blazer out before opening the door.

              Draca hadn’t been all that easy to find. It was tucked away in a small corner of the city that She rarely had reason to go to. It was an area frequented by celebrities and people with way too much money. Kate had gotten over her jealousy of the people she’d grown up with but she still had no desire to associate with them.

              She was making good money now, but she loved her quiet, modest life. She wouldn’t have traded it for the world. Kate didn’t want to be a part of the problem. She had promised herself that she would never tear people down the way she’d been torn down growing up. Even though she was successful, she knew that people in places like this till looked down on her and considered her fat and out of shape. But that was their problem.

              When she finally found the right building a man standing at the door asked for her name. He seemed gruff and a little angry at first but then a charming smile came to his rough features when she told him who she was and he opened the door, letting Kate up the stairs. She couldn’t help but smile at the change in demeanor. Looking angry and mean probably went a long way for a bouncer.

              She took the stairs up to the top where a large set of double doors waited for her. She knocked on them firmly, hearing the sound of two people arguing on the other side. There was silence and then the lock clicked and the door was pulled open.

              The man on the other side took her breath away. His hair was short on the sides and long on the top. It was slicked back out of his perfectly chiseled face and she could see tattoos poking out of the collar of his shirt, though the black ink was mostly hidden. He had a clean shaven face and full lips. His green eyes almost burned through her and she couldn’t help but notice the golden flakes that made his eyes pop. The long lashes didn’t hurt either.

              Another man was standing just behind him and when she saw them standing together, she knew she was in trouble. The man with the pony tail had light brown eyes that seemed to reflect his soul. His smile was warm and welcoming and he was the first to speak “Kate, I presume?” He asked, offering his hand as Jean stepped aside.

              Kate smiled a little, almost seeming shy. The small smile went straight to Jean’s heart. He was quiet, watching her with an intense gaze as Marcus took the lead “Welcome to our office, dear Kate. Come on in.”

              He brought her hand to his lips and she made a soft, surprised ‘oh’. Her knees were already weak. This was not good. She smiled a little and blushed, putting a hand to her cheek “Thank you for inviting me here. I’m really looking forward to working with you gentlemen.” She said, stepping into the office and taking in the expensive, classy decor. Everything in the office seemed to be made of real leather, the smell filling the room and her nostrils.

              She stopped in the center of the room, her heels clicking on the wood until she came to stand on the carpet  just in front a large oak desk. Marcus moved past her, his fingers brushing her shoulder “I’m Marcus Mancini and this is my business partner, Jean Bertrand.”

              Jean smiled and offered a bow of his head as he walked over to the desk and sat down “Welcome.” He said, echoing his partner.

              Kate was starting to figure them out already. Marcus was the more outgoing of the two and Jean was the responsible one. It was hard to find a man with both qualities so she could settle for two that each had one of them.

              Marcus settled into a chair next to Jean and smiled “So you want to work for us?” He asked with a smirk.

              Jean glared at Marcus a moment and turned to smile at her “Forgive my friend. He’s a little...aggressive. We saw your audition tape and we loved it. I was just wondering if you would mind giving us a little sample in person? You won’t be required to strip down, obviously.”

              “But we won’t say no if you want to!” Marcus sang.

              Jean slammed his own foot down onto Marcus’ and the man yelped. Kate smiled and patted a bag on her hip “I came prepared.” She said, winking at Marcus.

              Jean nodded and settled back against his chair as Jean nursed his foot. Kate started to unpack her things, setting a little speaker up and hitting play. The song was sensual with a strong bass and intense guitar. She stepped forward and shimmied a little, grinning as she began dancing.

              Her movements were absolutely mesmerizing. Every time she moved it awoke desires in both of the men that had lain dormant for decades. They had seen so many women over the centuries, taken so many and yet this one was the most beautiful, the most perfect one they’d seen. Her body radiated a brilliant confidence that was so hard to find.

              Every piece of clothing that was removed, revealed to them sun kissed skin and gentle curves. Her body wasn’t sharp and bony like the others. She was soft, beautiful and everything they wanted. The two men cast a glance at each other as her skirt fluttered to the floor, leaving her in a peachy lace bra and matching panties.

              The hunger in Marcus’ eye was unmistakable and Jean was sure that his own lust was more than evident. He just hoped it didn't scare this woman away. They wanted her around and for much more personal reasons.

              “Well, Ms. Winchester...We are certainly impressed. How would you like to be our new headliner?”

              Kate broke out into a grin, panting softly from her dancing, eyes sparkling. She felt like she’d won some sort of game.

              “I’d be honored.”