GRIND Page 3

  In the early morning light I learned that Jacob was actually a doctor—or at least training to become one. He was interning at the local hospital not too far from the strip club. When I asked him why he stripped, he levelled me with his gaze.

  “I would think that’s pretty obvious to someone as smart as you. I’m trying to leave med school without any debt hanging over me.”

  I was always of the mind that if you had it, flaunt it, so I understood. “That’s a good point. I always thought that was a cliché, but I guess it works, doesn’t it? So you technically work like two jobs, then?”

  Jacob shrugged, turning to face me. “At least one pays decently. What about you? I have this crazy theory that you’re actually some foreign princess sowing her wild oats in America. Am I right?”

  Snorting not so gracefully, I blushed, unable to help myself. It was actually a pretty sweet thing to say, considering. “Not even close, I’m afraid. Born and raised here in California. And I, uh, help out at my father’s… business.”

  The last thing I wanted to do was go into the whole ‘my dad is actually the mayor’ spiel. I usually got weirded out looks whenever I brought it up. Mainly because a lot of people are pretty terrified of my dad, since he was also the top-rated criminal defense attorney in the country leading up to his first election.

  “That wasn’t oddly mysterious at all,” he laughed, his voice throaty.

  “What can I say? I like to keep an air of mystery about me.” I wiggled my fingers in his direction, smiling.

  I was still in awe of the guy’s obvious dedication, and honestly… a little jealous of it, too. I never really had to worry about what I wanted to do with my life, since my dad always insisted that I would work with him in some capacity. And once he became mayor of Los Angeles, everyone looked at me as some sort of pretty trophy that sat delicately in its display case.

  I used to do everything I could to smash that idea, hating the very thought of it.

  Minutes went by before I realized the soft breathing coming from Jacob was actually him falling asleep, his thick lashes flush against his carved-out cheekbones. The last thing that ran through my mind before I passed out was what I would give for never having to use mascara again…

  I leaned against the serving bar, watching Sasha as she stirred her creamer into her coffee. “Out with it.”

  Shooting me an all too innocent look, Sasha raised a shoulder at me. “What?”

  “I’m just waiting for the question. You know the one. So… Where did you go off to last night?”

  Sasha was nowhere near as nosy as Britney, but I could already see the curiosity in her eyes. After texting her from the other end of the strip club last night, telling her I was leaving early, I got three or four texts back that I had only seen this morning as I woke up.

  We found an open table outside, the dark umbrellas already pulled open under the hot desert sun.

  “Well, I mean you might as well just tell me at any rate.”

  I pointed my finger at her. “I knew it! You think you’re stealthy, but you’re not. Luckily for you I’m about to die if I don’t tell someone something…”

  Sasha leaned in, blowing over the top of her coffee before taking a sip. “Color me intrigued.”

  “While you and Britney were off drooling over the first act last night, I had an unusual close encounter of the sexy kind. Remember the doctor?”

  This caught her attention. “You mean Dr. Jake the Snake? That hottie with the tousled hair and abs I could wash my clothes on?”

  I nodded. “The very one. Well, he started talking to me, before I even knew he was part of the… entertainment. And then, well, I think we both had an itch that needed to be scratched.”

  Sasha gasped. “Oh my God, are you serious? Did you guys actually…?”

  “Oh. Yes. Many times, in fact. We went back to my place, and I only just fell asleep around what, four-thirty… or maybe five?”

  “What was it like?”

  There was no denying the grin on my face as I chewed on my straw. “What was it like? He was… perfect. A real professional, if you will. I kind of met my match in the bedroom. Didn’t think that was gonna happen, especially after everything that happened with…”

  It hit me just then. I’d gone a whole night without thinking about Liam. It was a small victory, but progress nonetheless.

  Sasha caught on, nodding along with me. “No kidding? Never thought I’d hear you say that.”

  It was true. In our small circle of friends, I was known to be the insatiable one, which may have been one of the reasons that drove a spike between me and Liam. He thought our marriage would be for show, and I wanted him in every possible way to be mine. When I committed, I really committed.

  Seeing the complete freedom from Liam so close in my head lifted my spirits immensely. That, and the thorough fucking Jacob gave me the night before, of course. I finally understood what people meant by floating on cloud nine. It was like something had been taken from me, a weight off my chest, even. And Jacob was the one who got me to that point. Damn, was there anything the man couldn’t do?

  “I don’t know… it was just a nice way to get out of my own head. I feel like I’ve been stuck in there too long, trying so hard not to think about Liam and all that shit, that I made it impossible not to. The whole time last night all I could think about was the here and now. I wasn’t worried about what happened before. That probably sounds weird.” I looked down, stirring the green straw around in the cup.

  “Why would that be weird? I think it’s great you’re finally starting to get over Liam. I knew you’d need some time. And now you can go bang all the hot beefcakes your little heart desires,” she added, winking at me.

  I giggled. “You’re terrible. And also very right.”

  With everything that had gone down in my life recently, I was glad that at least someone understood where I was coming from. And maybe I was just thinking pretty, but I saw Jacob as someone who might even understand where I was going.

  4

  Jacob

  Responsibility kicked my ass once I got back home. By the time I dragged myself to bed, it was pretty much time to get up and go to the weekly meeting on campus for interns. I couldn’t even count the number of times I had to hide the yawns sneaking up on me while our instructor droned on about the latest tachycardia case we studied and sat in on a surgery for. It was a damn good thing I’d already taken notes after, or I’d have been out of luck trying to put it all down on paper at that moment.

  Once class had finished, I had a few hours to kill before I had to be back at the club, so I decided to catch some sleep while I had the chance.

  “Hey Ma,” I said as I walked into the kitchen, the smell of fried chicken and her usual candles thick in the air. “Are you cooking that just for me?”

  She looked back at me from over the stove. “Well, I’m not just making it for myself.” There was a quiet smile before she turned the flames down. “How was work and your class?”

  “Work was all right. Same ol’, same ol’. And our instructor didn’t really go over anything I didn’t already manage to write down this week. How was work yesterday?” Of course I wasn’t about to mention any of what happened between me and Gabi.

  My mom, strangely enough, was one of my biggest supporters. She didn’t mind the stripping so much, especially since she knew it was only temporary. To help out, she let me stay in the duplex apartment next-door to hers.

  “Probably not as interesting as whatever you did last night,” she said with a laugh, plopping some of the fried chicken onto a plate.

  After sitting down and having some lunch with my mom, I walked the extra five feet to crash in my own bed, practically asleep before I even hit the sheets.

  It was a pretty usual night working at the club. My mind was literally everywhere else rather than focusing on dancing for the crowd below, and while I felt bad about it, I just couldn’t get my mind off of her. Gabi.

  I played al
ong with my show, gave the women what they wanted, and even stopped to take some extra photos with some of them, leaning in for selfies and waving at those who shyly passed by with nothing but a blush on their face. Pretty usual night.

  I was up for the late show, as Bill called it, one of the three staying for the private sessions for the night. It was probably one of the worst nights for me to try and give my all to some random stranger who paid good money for it, but I wasn’t about to drop out of an extra $500, either.

  I drew the curtain open and slowly pulled it closed behind me, the barely lit room illuminating the beautiful young woman sitting on the leather couch in front of me. She was cute, petite and pale with long brown hair pulled back into pigtails. Usually the women that came in for the private dances were older, less likely to procure their own piece of ass, but that wasn’t the case with this girl. She twirled her hair around her finger, grinning widely at me.

  “This is sort of my first time,” she said sweetly. “Just so you know.”

  Something surged through me at her soft voice, but I was surprised to find that it wasn’t excitement, but rather something else. Disappointment? I wasn’t sure, I just knew I had to do what I had to do, and oddly enough I wasn’t really into it.

  I danced for her the best I could, even letting her touch me everywhere she wanted to, a no-no in the private lap dance rooms. But instead of looking down and seeing the girl’s face, I imagined it was Gabi’s. Gabi’s hands all over me, rubbing me, touching me everywhere.

  And that was how it was each night for the next three or four nights in a row that I worked. Instead of physically seeing the woman I was stripping for, I just visualized Gabi standing there in the crowd, or it being her face and her hands in the private session booth.

  The more I thought about her, the more I wanted her. By the fourth night I felt like I was going to lose my mind if I didn’t somehow find her again. And I wasn’t surprised to see that she wasn’t at the club after our night together. Gabi just wasn’t the type to hang out at strip clubs like that, from what I could’ve figured.

  I didn’t even know her last name… The only thing I did know was where she lived. And I wasn’t about to just show on up to her penthouse in the hills, and knock on the door. I didn’t want to freak her out or anything, and it was very likely that she wasn’t quite as attached to thinking about me as I was to thinking about her.

  I threw my duffel bag onto the bed, gritting my teeth together in frustration. What the hell was I supposed to do? How to get this off my mind somehow…

  I let the hot water wash away as many of my thoughts as it could in the shower, leaning against the cold tiles and imagining what I could do to find her again. I wasn’t about to start, or anything, but I wanted to see… I wanted to see if maybe I wasn’t crazy and there was something more going on between the two of us.

  The rational part of me that had to sit through class and intern at the hospital tried to reason with me. I was just infatuated, it was just a chemical reaction of my brain from thinking about Gabi and her body, the tantalizing curves, the soft skin, her pouty lips… All of it was triggering a response. Especially to my swollen dick, hardening under the hot water as I thought about her lips wrapped around it. I stroked myself thinking of her, wishing it was her I was fucking instead of my hand. I wanted to squeeze her tits in my hands, to taste her delicious sweetness on my tongue again. I wanted to feel her shake because of me. I wanted to bury myself inside of her and stay there.

  I imagined it… Gabi opening the shower door and surprising me, completely naked and stepping in after me. Dropping to her knees in front of me. Trailing her fingers up and down my thighs. Waking me. Sucking me. Stroking me until I released my hot load down her throat. My eyes rolled back my head as I came hard all over the shower tiles just thinking about her. Never before had a woman had this kind of effect on me.

  That was how I knew Gabi was something special. Something more. She wasn’t some demure little flower who needed someone to show her the way, no, she knew the way all by herself. Just from the little bit that I saw of her, it was already something that I admired.

  As I turned off the shower I stood there for a minute, letting the cold air slowly in, and I let my mind wander to the last part of our conversation from the other night. She had been intentionally vague about herself, which only led me to be more curious. How was I going to find her if I didn’t know where to look?

  5

  Gabi

  My heels clicked across the marble steps as I quickly ascended them, hoping I wasn’t as late as I thought I was. The huge building loomed ahead of me, the Lady of Justice blindly holding a balanced scale as I passed under the high arches.

  I was the head of the L.A. County food drive this year, and if there was one thing I knew it was that I would be pretty much demonized for fucking something like it up. So I had to be my best behavior, especially on behalf of my dad.

  I used to come up the steps every day after school, with big dreams of someday working inside the illustrious Los Angeles City Hall. That was back when my dreams were more of the political nature, wanting to follow in my dad’s footsteps and become a figure that people could look up to. Attorney? Hell no, but someone who could work on the inside and get things done? Definitely.

  But then I realized that just wasn’t my style, and let that dream fade away.

  “Miss De Leon, pleasure seeing you here, as always,” Frank, the officer who headed the security team at the front, greeted me. He tipped his hat to me and I gave him a small wave.

  “Good morning Frank.” I saw him eyeing the folder I was carrying. “Yeah, it’s about that time of the year again.”

  He shook his head and chuckled, folding his arms across his large chest as he waved me through the metal detector. “And they somehow got you in the middle of it this year, huh? Well, I’m glad to see your face around here again.”

  “Yeah… It’s been a while. Wish me luck!”

  I jammed a finger into the elevator button to go up to floor number twenty-seven, the top floor of the building, where most of the head honchos’ offices were located. Since I was the daughter of the mayor, for some reason they felt the need to hold something that was as trivial to them as a food bank drive in the elaborate conference room usually reserved only for big issues. I wanted to feel flattered, but I felt that it probably had more to do with my father. It wasn’t as if they gave a damn about me, anyway.

  I nearly tripped into the elevator, glad that no one else was around, as I pushed the button for the twenty-seventh floor. I flipped through my folder, making sure I had my notes, pretending that I didn’t at all notice just how sweaty my palms were. Public speech just wasn’t my thing.

  I took in a deep breath and closed my eyes, waiting to get to the top floor. As the doors opened, I said a little prayer to help me get through it, and walked into the main hub.

  “Gabrielle! It’s so lovely to see you, dear.”

  Martha, one of the other city leaders’ secretaries, pulled me in for a hug out of nowhere. I hadn’t seen her in at least a couple of years. Her gray hair tickled my nose as she pulled away.

  “Good morning, Martha. It’s nice to see you again, too. Do you know if my father is around anywhere?”

  She shook her head. “The last I saw him, he and Mr. Davies were going into the main conference room. That was let’s see… twenty minutes ago?”

  I glanced over her shoulder and saw the ornate clock on the wall behind the main front desk, paling when I realized that yeah, I was just that late.

  “Oh man, I better hurry up and get in there. Thank you, Martha.”

  I scrambled down the hall, trying my best to maintain my dignity while still walking as fast as I could in the heels I was wearing. I threw open the door, just in time for everyone inside the room to turn back to face me, curious to see who had interrupted the meeting. Of course, my dad was standing at the head of the table, pointing to the projector which was already showcasing some o
f my notes that I’d sent to him. Here he was, handling the project for me, even though it was supposed to be something that was my responsibility. I felt smaller than ever before, slinking into the conference room. This was not how this was supposed to happen.

  “Gabrielle. Thank you for joining us. I was just going over the results from last year’s food drive with the other board members here. Perhaps you’d like to… take over?”

  There was no disdain in his voice, but I could definitely hear the edge of disappointment. While Leonard De Leon was known for being a hard ass to literally everyone else on the face of the earth, I was daddy’s little girl, and he was never that harsh with me. So naturally, I felt like dying a little bit inside.

  But instead of letting it swallow me up, tilting my chin up, I gave him a smile, thanking him. “Of course. I have my notes already with me. Feel free to take a seat, Dad, I’ll take it from here.”

  Despite the sweat that was building up under my boobs and arms, I made it through the meeting unscathed. Or at least relatively unscathed. I was sure everybody was just going to whisper about my tardiness, but I could hardly care less at that point.

  As everyone began to quietly disassemble from the conference room, Dad put his hand on my shoulder, holding me back until we were the last two people left in the room.

  “Any particular reason you’re late this morning?”

  I bit my lip. “Traffic?”

  He sighed. “Gabi, if you want these people to take you seriously, you have to show some initiative. You know that. You’re the one who requested this project, are you not?”

  Well… That wasn’t exactly true. My dad insisted that I picked something to work with in the community, claiming that it would not only be good for any potential resume that I may come with up with, but it would also help his reelection campaign. And dad was all about the politics when it came to how he looked in public. And unfortunately for me, how I looked in public reflected on him, too. At least how he saw it.