Teased (The VIP Room, #1) (17 page)

Vida lay down and Colton spread out a
blanket on top of her. Giving her a gentle kiss with a sweet
“Goodnight” against her parted lips, he left her tired and confused
about his treatment of her.

He could be so domineering and arrogant, yet
he had reassured her and made her feel wanted and desired as
well.

He had let her know he had every intention
of having sex with her and confirmed her worst fear that
emotionally they were growing closer.

Confused, Vida stared at the dark ceiling,
her mind in turmoil and her body still desperately wanting
Colton.

Chapter 14

Vida dressed in loose jeans and a pretty red
top that had capped sleeves, her tattoo looking pretty against the
bright color of her top. Brushing her hair, she pulled it back from
her face with two combs, but left the long length down her
back.

“
You look fucking gorgeous,” Colton
complimented when he saw her. A blush rose in her cheeks. He had a
way of making her feel feminine and sexy with simply a look from
his eyes, however he didn’t try to hide the dirty thoughts going
through his mind.

Vida shook her hair back. “How does it
look?”

Colton’s gaze didn’t go to her tattoo as she
had intended, but to the cleavage her top exposed. He opened his
mouth to reply.

“
I meant the tattoo.”

Colton closed his mouth. “Let me rub some
more lotion on it before we go. It looks good on you. I do good
work.”

“
Yes, you do,” Vida
complimented.

Colton rubbed the lotion on the still tender
skin. His knuckles brushed the tops of her breasts before stepping
back.

“
We better go, or we’re going to be
really late.” His tight jaw left no doubt what activity would delay
them.

They stopped for breakfast at a waffle house
on the way to the shop. Colton chose a different one than the one
Tammy worked at, which was close to the apartment. Vida didn’t
question his choice, merely giving him an amused grin.

Enjoying herself, Vida found herself
relaxing even more in his company as he told her stories about when
he first joined the Predators and their exploits to embarrass the
new recruit.

She laughed until she was almost crying when
he described standing watch over a dumpster that the brothers told
him had a money drop in it until someone came to retrieve it. When
the brothers came back to pick him up and he told them no one had
showed, he had to jump in the dumpster to retrieve the drop bag. It
hadn’t been easy to find and was outside in an alley that had
several restaurants. He had described how he had almost vomited
several times, only the humiliation he would suffer if he had, had
him choking it down. When he had finally found the bag, they had
told him to open it. Inside the bag, he told her, they had placed
his cut. They had made him a member, and he had passed his final
test. Of course they had made him walk back to the clubhouse, as no
one wanted to ride double with him.

“
I can see why you miss that life,”
Vida teased. “Gives you an excuse to go dumpster
diving.”

“
When we have time, I’ll tell you some
stories of what I used to pull on the recruits,” he
bragged.

“
Worse than dumpster
diving?”

“
Much worse,” he confirmed.

Vida climbed on the back of his bike,
laughing at his dire voice.

The ride to the shop didn’t take long, both
of them walking into the shop with smiles on their faces. Tessa
stood behind the counter with the appointment book in her hands,
eyes narrowed on them in suspicion.

Vida ignored her, letting Colton deal with
the temper she could see brewing. She was not able to prevent
herself from feeling guilty when she remembered she was his wife,
however close to a divorce they were.

“
I was wondering when you were going
to show,” Tessa said snidely.

Colton gave her a sharp look; Vida could
tell he wasn’t happy with her sharp tone of voice.

“
I’m not late. In fact, my first
client isn’t scheduled for another thirty minutes.”

Forestalled in her effort to find something
to rip into him for, her eyes fell onto Vida’s tattoo. “When did
you get that tattoo?” Her eyes bore into it.

“
Colton did it last night after the
shop closed.” Vida tensed, seeing from Tessa’s face going pale that
something was wrong. Her eyes turned to Colton, shocked to see
apprehension instead of the anger she expected.

“
You gave her your symbol, but never
tatted one on me, even though you gave me three fucking
tattoos.”

Colton didn’t reply.

“
I don’t understand. What symbol?”
Vida stared back and forth between the two.

Tessa swung back to Vida. “Are you fucking
blind?” Tessa pointed to the butterfly. “He’s fucking telling
everyone that you’re his.” Vida looked down at her tattoo, not
seeing anything other than the butterfly.

“
She can’t see it. Even if she looked
in a mirror the lines would be reversed,” Colton
explained.

Vida began to get angry. “What did you do?”
Her voice had sunk to a whisper.

Tessa’s hand pointed to the pictures that
hung around the lobby. “Look how he signs his pictures.”

Vida got up from the desk and took a closer
look at the pictures hanging on the wall. Each one was signed with
a symbol, which blended the initials of his first and last name
together.

“
Why would you do that?” Vida
questioned him angrily.

“
Wanted to make sure that everyone
knew you were mine. Anyone that knows tattoos will easily see that
those are my initials.”

“
You might as well have his name
tatted on your shoulder.” Tessa swung back to Colton. “How many
times did I ask to put your name on me? You told me no.” Tessa’s
hand reached out and snatched up the stapler, throwing it at Colton
who didn’t move out of the way, but caught it in his
hand.

“
Do you really want to go into this in
front of Vida?” Colton never lost his cool, even when Tessa threw
the stapler at him. Vida was surprised; she had thought that Colton
would be the type of man who would react physically when challenged
like Tessa had by being the first one to try to get
physical.

“
I don’t give a fuck what she hears,”
Tessa screamed at him.

“
I tatted your name on me several
time’s, I told you I would be faithful, be committed to our
marriage. You were committed to one thing; the snow you shoveled up
your nose. You know why I didn’t put my name on you? You thought I
would forgive and forget. I can’t forgive you for what you did. You
lied to me straight out about how much you were using, then I
caught you stealing from the shop. And when I thought you were
doing better controlling your habit, you were selling your pussy
for Digger to keep you in your habit. Everyone in this town knew
except me that you were fucking around on me. Then, the night I got
busted by the cops, King told me everything, and every dirty little
detail your life had become.” Colton’s words were painful for Vida
to hear. She had been wrong to assume the failure of his marriage
rested on his shoulders.

“
Then why did you keep me out of
prison?”

“
Because you were carrying my kid,
Tessa.”

Vida stiffened in her chair. Seeing the pain
on Colton’s face, she knew that she didn’t want to hear anymore,
but she was trapped, not wanting to draw attention to herself by
getting up.

“
King called me when he heard from his
informant on the police force that the bust was going down. He told
me everything that was going on behind my back. You had told Digger
you were pregnant, but not me.” Colton paused before continuing in
an emotionless voice.

“
I wasn’t going to have my pregnant
wife in prison delivering my baby. So I took the blame, and you got
rehab.” Tessa had taken a step back as if struck when Colton had
mentioned the baby.

“
Colton, I was going to tell you,”
Tessa tried to explain, but Vida could tell it was too little too
late.

“
When were you going to tell me,
Tessa? You never mentioned in all this time that you were pregnant.
If one of King’s women hadn’t overheard you telling Digger, I would
have never known. When I went in prison, a couple of the brothers
kept an eye on you for me, that’s how I found out you aborted my
baby.”

“
Colton, I was doing so much coke. I
was messed up. I figured I had damaged the baby so bad
that
—
”

“
Shut up, Tessa, or so help me God,
I’ll hurt you.”

Tessa shut up. Vida heard Colton take a deep
breath, trying to regain control.

“
So, no, I didn’t want my name inked
on you to remind me every fucking day how stupid I was to marry you
in the first place. I called you every month while I was in prison,
serving your time, to get the divorce. When you didn’t, I handled
it, but you wouldn’t even show me the respect to sign your fucking
name to the papers.”

Colton nodded his head towards Vida. “She
doesn’t think I can be a faithful because I fucked so many women
when I got out of prison and was still married to you, when the
truth of the matter is, our marriage ended the first time you
spread your legs for a dime bag of coke.” Vida saw Tessa swipe away
the tears on her face.

“
Now, can we get to work before the
clients start coming in and someone else hears my private
shit?”

Reverend and Carlito came in the door, both
coming to a stop when they saw everyone look their way.

“
What’s up?” Reverend said into the
tension-filled silence of the room.

Colton and Tessa remained silent.

Vida spoke up, trying to get the day back on
track. Opening the schedule book, she read off everyone’s first
appointment. “Carlito, you’re first up for walk-ins.”

“
Cool, they end up being more fun.”
Carlito was a good-looking man of Mexican descent who didn’t let
anything faze him. Vida had talked to him several times when he was
between customers. He would sit at the desk beside her, playing on
her computer.

The clients began arriving, so the artists
and clients moved off to their respective rooms. Thankfully, after
the rocky start, the shop was busy keeping everyone occupied. Tessa
remained quiet when she would venture into the lobby to greet her
customers, not even looking at Vida who felt uncomfortable after
hearing the details of Colton’s and her marriage.

Vida didn’t know how she felt. She was angry
that Colton had tattooed his symbol into her butterfly, but at the
same time, she felt a sense of belonging that she hadn’t
experienced since her mother’s death. She refused to dwell on it
until she was able to talk to Colton about it tonight. She had been
scheduled to perform at the Strip club for the last time, but
Colton had called and cancelled for Vida after Digger had promised
to return Sawyer. King hadn’t protested, relieved that his part in
retrieving Sawyer was no longer necessary.

Vida glanced up when the door opened and
Seth entered, wearing a sheepish expression on his face.

“
Hi, Vida.”

“
Seth.” Vida’s voice was cool. The
hurt she had experienced when he had left after learning she was a
stripper was evident.

Vida watched as he blushed at her cool
reception.

“
I know you’re angry, Vida, but I’m
hoping we can go out to lunch and talk, please. We don’t have to go
far, just across the street. I’d like to explain.” Seth’s
apologetic gaze had her hesitating in giving her refusal. She had
liked Seth and thought they had become friends. She hadn’t thought
that he would have been the type to turn his back on someone
because they might not live up to his standards.

“
I don’t know,” Vida tried to
prevaricate.

“
Please, Vida. If not lunch, then how
about a cup of coffee? My treat. I really would like to explain why
I was a jackass.”

“
Let me tell Colton I’m leaving for
lunch,” Vida gave in.

Carlito, escorting his customer out of his
room, said he heard her. “I can watch the desk. I’ll tell Colton
when he comes out.”

Vida hesitated, thinking she should tell
Colton, but knew he didn’t like to be interrupted during a session.
“Okay. Thanks, Carlito.”

Vida and Seth walked across the street to
the coffee shop where Vida sat at the table while Seth braved the
long lunch line to get them a couple of coffees. Vida wasn’t hungry
and didn’t want to be away from the shop too long. Something told
her Colton wasn’t going to be too happy to learn that she had left
the safety of the shop to be alone with Seth. She actually wasn’t
too certain it was a smart idea herself.

Seth sat down across from her, giving her
the cup of coffee she had asked for with packets of sugar.

Vida took a drink of the sweet coffee,
looking over the brim of the cup at Seth who was staring at the
customers sitting at tables surrounding them. He looked back,
catching her eyes on him. He seemed different since leaving the
shop. More assured and confident, his shyness was gone and he was
meeting her gaze directly.

The cautious feeling Vida had was becoming a
definite twinge of fear as she could see the dramatic change in
Seth.

“
Don’t be afraid of me, Vida. I’m here
to help you.” The self-assured voice trying to calm her was a far
cry from the diffident tone she usually heard from him.