"Here you go, beautiful." I place the last glass on the tray. "Don't drop it." Monica rolls her eyes and I give her a wink as she picks up the medium-size tray.

I place both hands on the bar as I watch her strut off into the crowd of people. She doesn't have to say a word, that sassy strut says enough. Her curvaceous hips sway side to side like a siren's call and it takes everything in me not to leap over the countertop.

This is the first shift Monica and I have worked together, which is most likely a good thing. Her and I working in the same place probably isn't the best idea because my testosterone levels are already altered just being around her, let alone when she's dressed like that and around a bunch of grabby men. But, in a weird way, watching other men look at her like they want to devour her and knowing she's mine and that I'm the one who gets to climb up underneath that dress every night is immensely satisfying.

She'd agreed to pick up some shifts at the club after Trevor had offered her the opportunity the other night. After finding out Monica had been a waitress and managed to get herself fired he threw the prospective job of cocktail server or, as I'd call it, shot girl out at her. Since she hadn't found another job yet because of her preoccupation with a certain someone and certain activities she took the job.

"So, you've already managed to fuck the new girl." Lola says it like a statement of fact as she watches Monica walk around with the tray of shots. "She's been working here for only a week and you've already gotten her to spread them for you?"

I cock an eyebrow up at her sardonic tone. "I've known her for longer than that. She's my neighbor and my..."

"Hey buddy, can I get two Coronas with lime?"

"Sure, no problem." I nod at the guy and turn around to grab them.

"Oh, so you the two of you are like a thing?" She questions, finishing where I'd left off my previous thought.

I shrug, "Yeah, I suppose you could say that." I pass the beers over to the guy and he slides me a few bills. "Why do you ask?"

"No reason." She shakes the drink in her hand but there's a strange look on her face that I've never seen. Lola glances off into the crowd, "I just thought you weren't that type of guy."

I scrunch my eyebrows together, "what do you mean by that type?"

"You know, the relationship type." She pours the mixture into a glass and pushes it towards a rather busty brunette.

She's not wrong per se, but there's something about her tone that's just off. "I'm not. Not usually, that is. But Monica, well she's just..." I scan the crowd until I find her curvy body covered in the beautiful red fabric of her dress.

She's so fucking gorgeous. The amount of blood rushing to my dick right now almost hurts as I think about all the things I want to do to her. That and all the things I've already done to her, with her. I want to fuck her right there in the middle of the dance floor. I want to take her so hard that she claws at my back in that delicious way she does whenever she can barely take me slamming into her. I wouldn't give one single fuck who witnessed because they'd all know she is mine.

Mine. My inner lion is basically stalking around restlessly in my head now.

I don't think there will ever be a time or a place where I won't want to be buried inside of Monica. Her tight little heat and the way she milks me so perfectly when she's coming all over my cock is the best fu-

"Well, she's just... what?" I hear Lola ask in the middle of my publicly indecent fantasy.

"Huh?"

She rolls her eyes. "You were saying you're usually not that type but she's just..."

Whoops. There I go off into pussyland again. It's like my brain is hardwired to my dick every single time I look at her.

"She's just different." I shrug not knowing what else to say to her. It's hard to explain something so foreign and new to me. Different is the easiest way.

I suppose there's really no other way to describe it. How I am when I am with her is just different, completely different. Monica is like a drug that's been perfectly tailored to suit my particular needs. She has the ability to turn me into an entirely unrecognizable individual.

She changes me into someone better. At least I think that I'm better when I'm with her. My demons aren't constantly drowning me anymore, so that's definitely a plus. I'm not a complete raging asshole either. Well, not when I'm in her presence, that is.

Lola looks me over with another look I can't decipher as she asks, "What do you mean she's different? Like, how so?"

What's up with the fucking inquisition?

Lola is starting to really, really fucking annoy me with her incessant questioning about Monica. "Well, considering the fact that she's the best fuck I've ever had in my life probably has something to do with it." There are a lot of other reasons but none of which I'm trying to get into with Lola of all people.

"I mean, she's alright looking."

"What?" What the fuck did you just say?

"I'm just saying you could do a lot better, Sean." She makes a spectacle of looking me up and down. "I know what's underneath those dark wash jeans." She licks her lips and takes a step closer to me, "speaking of which," she places her lips to my ear "it's been a while since you and I had some fun."

I take a step back from her not knowing what in the actual fuck has gotten into her. "Listen, that isn't going to happen anymore."

"Oh come on. No more quickies in the back room? This girl isn't going to be able to keep up with you, Sean. She can barely manage to walk around in those fucking heels let alone handle someone like you."

I purse my lips and my jaw ticks in irritation. "You're starting to sound like a fucking jealous bitch. You know that, Lola?" I throw an empty beer bottle from the counter into the trash angrily.

She's taken aback momentarily. "I, I'm not jealous, Sean. I mean," she lets out a sardonic laugh "there's nothing to even be jealous over."

You wouldn't be acting like that if there wasn't.

"Here's the deal, Lola. We've had sex like a handful of times, right?" She doesn't say anything, she just nods at me with a cocky smirk. "Has there been any indication that I've ever wanted anything more from you than that?"

"Well no, but..."

I hold up a hand cutting her off. "So stop your shit. I'm with Monica. I want more from her, not you."

Lola crosses her arms in irritation as she looks out into the crowd. I know the moment her eyes land on Monica when a look of bitterness washes over her face. "She's the girl from that night, isn't she? You know, that night when you beat the living hell out of that guy and went full Punisher-mode on him."

"Yup, she'd be the one." I smile as I think about how I had royally fucked that guy up. The day after that had changed something inside of me. More accurately, Monica had changed something inside of me. All of those little fucked-up moments brought us to where we are now. I can't help but smile to myself as I watch her.

She's the most beautiful thing in my universe.

"Why'd you get her a job here?" Lola asks snapping me out of my Monica trance. "You know you're probably going to get sick of seeing her so much." She turns away from me and I'm quite positive that's because she is still being a fucking jealous bitch.

I'm just going to disregard the second half of her statement before I let myself get too pissed. It's highly doubtful that I'd ever get sick of seeing Monica here. Especially doubtful when she's wearing dresses like the one she's wearing tonight. No, I could definitely never get sick of seeing her perfectly round ass strut around in those heels or those amber eyes that look at me like no one else ever has. She looks at me like I'm the only person in her world.

"I didn't get her a job here and I never asked for her to work here. We were here the other night and Trevor offered her a job. I guess there was a position open after some other girl quit."

"Yeah Lucy, she's on to bigger and better things now. She's dancing on poles and giving lap dances, I believe."

"Remind me never to go to the strip club she works at."

"Looks like you won't be going there any time soon anyway since you've nabbed yourself a girlfriend." She sneers the last word.

I've always liked Lola and I've never had a particular problem with her, ever. We've never fought. We've never even bickered. We've just had a bit of sarcastic play here and there and that's about it. The fact that she's acting so hostile, even if she was trying to be subtle about it, is the biggest fucking turn off in the universe.

I'm now finding that jealousy is the most ugly, unattractive thing to me.