Electrified(6)

He just shook his head, because he got it. It was Vegas. Everyone was hiding from someone or something, so she didn’t need to explain anything more to Asher. Most of the locals were hiding from one thing or another, and she blended in.

Asher hadn’t seemed one bit nonplussed with her two-bit story, which made her breathe a sigh of relief.

He’d looked her up and down, finally settling on her eyes. He’d given a final nod when he looked straight into her eyes. At the time, Lila had no idea what the big deal was.

Now, almost seven years later, she knew they were her calling card, despite the fact she always wore sky-blue-colored contacts. One prominent entertainment magazine had recently noted:



Sienna Flower pulls you in with her eyes, a tunnel straight to the desires of any man’s soul, an electromagnetic doorway to baser desires from what feels like a virginal source.



Seven years ago, with long, straight blonde hair thanks to a bad home-dye job and a motel hair dryer, and wearing what she considered to be a skimpy black halter top, too many bangle bracelets, bad boots, and skinny jeans hung low on her hips, Lila had answered Asher’s help-wanted ad in the paper for a cocktail waitress. She didn’t have any experience, unless one counted entertaining company—silently and begrudgingly—in her old life, although slinging drinks while showing a fair amount of skin certainly hadn’t been part of entertaining in her former life.

Lila had dressed how she thought she should as a potential cocktail waitress. She needed to at least look the part. Actually, what she needed was to hide, fade away from her former life, and immerse herself in a world so different from the only one she’d ever known.

She knew she had to play the person she wanted to become in order to get the job, which was a woman so intrinsically different and more sophisticated than the one she had been raised to be. It was a massive task considering the sheltered world Lila had been raised in, yet the seedy, sin-filled land of Las Vegas was her only choice in destinations when she fled years ago.

Once there, she decided to insert herself even deeper into a place where she’d never be found. While letting the bruises heal, Lila looked for a job with cash tips. One that was far removed from any of her old values.

Seeing an ad for a cocktail waitress in an out-of-the-way strip club, off the Strip, was the answer to her prayers, and she had a lot of those. Prayers. Much different from the ones she used to pray, but prayers nonetheless.

These days, when Sienna looked in the mirror, Lila wasn’t there at all. Her former nondescript brown hair was perfectly dyed and highlighted golden blonde. Her eyebrows matched her locks, showing off her big, beautiful, innocent eyes. She never went out without her blue contacts, so no one even considered her to have any other eye color.

Sienna was a blue-eyed, blonde-haired, supple goddess.

Lila had light green eyes the color of the sea and a slight bump in her nose. Sienna didn’t have even the tiniest bump in her button nose, thanks to another gift from Asher. After her first successful run at the Tunnel, Asher had a close personal friend, a regular at the club who happened to be a plastic surgeon, fix Lila’s nose.

It wasn’t just about making the club money, though. She’d become Asher’s family as much as he’d become hers. Their financial success was only the icing on the cake for them. The two had both been left without any family, so their bond ran deep. Deeper than blood. That was what happened when two people who had been abandoned found and learned to rely on each other.

When Lila began dancing, she was scared and timid despite the fact she’d already been waitressing in the club for close to a year. The slightest clap of hands made her shudder during her first performances.

With a little experience, some added confidence thanks to Asher, and a few dances under her belt, Sienna Flower bloomed in the bright lights, loud music, and throbbing pulse of the club.

This was the only place Lila felt safe anymore—shimmering in her solo spotlight. The club gave Sienna Flower life when Lila was dying.

I’m onstage right now, Sienna Flower, not Lila. Sienna Flower to everyone but Asher, and that was the way it would remain.

She snapped out of her memories as the beat of the music deepened, causing the floor to shake from the vibrations. It was a mash-up of a rock song mixed with rap, made just for her by a local DJ. This wasn’t uncommon. Sienna Flower only danced to original music.

With her head tilted, Sienna’s hair flowed all the way down her back. It was loose tonight with a light wave accentuating her perfectly and professionally colored tresses. Wearing only a metallic gold bustier and matching thong, she slid her leg up a pole.