“You said it wouldn’t come to that,” Auger reminded him.
Fucking backstabbing, lying JERK!
“Yeah… uh, yeah. I did say that. OK. You just dance around for a couple minutes and then take a knee,” Bryce muttered uncertainly.
“That’s the plan?”
“Yes! That’s the plan,” Bryce repeated, offering a convincing smile. “This is just entertainment, not a serious match or anything. Hey, Callie? You hear that? It’s an exhibition match. Nothing serious. Nothing to get worked up about!”
“So basically you’re just strippers?” she sneered, hoping a little shame might yet talk him out of it. Her hands shook at her sides.
JERK!!!
Bryce rolled his eyes then hopped to a crouch and stood up, bouncing and grinning. She tried to glare at him but with all that puppyish energy, she was having a hard time getting her eye-beam-lasers to kick in.
He boxed at the air and wiggled his eyebrows at her. “Call it what you want, Cal. Technically we’re outlaw barefisted fighters who people just happen to find irresistibly sexy.”
She scoffed, choke-barking at the air like “sexy” was the most ridiculous description he could have used. “Yeah… fine whatever.”
“So, you’ll do it?” Bryce said, turning his attention back to Auger. He wanted to get Auger’s country-boy word on the matter so he could be sure there would be no backing out. Auger chewed the inside of his cheek for a few seconds, his square jaw working back and forth. Callie watched his stubbled jaw intently, hoping there was still a chance he would change his mind. Then he nodded.
It was a done deal.
Bryce raised his arms in the air and whooped. “OK! Excellent! We could call you... Odin?”
Auger snorted derisively. “My real name will be just fine.”
“Oh you won’t think so when these guys start following you and trying to track you down every day. You need a stage name. You look like a Viking…. I think Odin’s a cool name.”
“So we are definitely strippers,” Auger sighed sarcastically, quirking an eyebrow at Callie.
She looked away, defeated. “Don’t ask me. All I do is walk in a circle with my arms over my head.”
Auger snorted and she cringed, suddenly remembering that agreeing with him was never the right plan. “Fine. Then how about Thor?”
Bryce rolled his eyes and dropped to the floor, holding himself up on arms like stout tree branches. He pounded out ten fast push-ups with seemingly no effort. “Wow, ego much?” he grunted as he dashed off another dozen.
Ego much? she repeated wryly to herself, finally just accepting defeat and leaving the room. Brother, you have no idea.
CHAPTER 2
Auger
Callie walked ahead of Auger and Bryce, her long coat cinched around her waist. With every step, her ass rolled underneath the fabric. Auger tried to look away but his only other options were the tourists, the guys selling incense and boat tours, and Bryce’s goddamn smirking face. So he kept coming back to Callie’s ass.
More than a handful, that ass. More than two. Plenty to go around and strong as a mule. If you slapped it, that ass kept wobbling for longer than it should. You could feel a good slap all the way around to the front of her.
That ass.
But he knew Callie wasn’t speaking to him again, and probably wouldn’t for awhile. He could have explained but what’s the point? Callie never listened to anybody. Hardheaded. Stubborn.
Two of Orion’s huge, block-shaped bouncers stood at the ends of the gangplank that led to the cruiseliner. The ship dwarfed the smaller pleasure boats on either side of it. As they came up they could hear the thump of house music rolling from the upper deck. Strings of small light bulbs illuminated a party going on far over their heads.
A group of giggling teenage girls made faces in front of the bouncers as they approached. The guys looked over the girls’ heads like they were invisible, which seemed to just egg them on. As Callie walked up, they parted to let her pass and then closed up again.
“Whose boat is this?” demanded a saucy redheaded teenager with a judgmental pout toward Callie’s impressive backside. Bryce looked her over once and quirked his eyebrows at Auger. He shook his head in warning, No way, man. Looking at young girls on Navy Pier could easily get your ass kicked, he knew. Kicked in a permanent way. You never knew who they were with.
“Well, it’s not ours,” Bryce said with a frown, making eye contact with the taller bouncer who edged slightly aside to let them pass. They squeezed between them, the girls’ voices still floating up to them as they climbed the long ramp up to the main deck.
“I don’t see what it would have hurt to just talk—” Bryce protested.