Strictly Business

Perhaps Scarlett should have gone to pick up her car before she got ready for work. As soon as she and Angel climbed out of Angel's little white Honda, all eyes were on them. She smoothed down her short black dress before heading toward the open bays of the garage where at least six men in gray Teller-Morrow work shirts had stopped what they were doing to watch her and the young blonde as they walked across the lot in their tall heels. Juice came out of the clubhouse, a smirk hitting his lips when he saw her and he walked over to meet them just as they reached the garage.

"Goddamn," he muttered to himself as his eyes slowly raked down her body and back up. She shook her head, a small smirk on her face and he grinned in return. "You workin' tonight?"

"I am."

"Good." He bit his lip, letting his eyes wander a moment longer before he finally looked up to meet her eyes with another grin. "I'll just go get your keys."

He jogged over to the office, leaving the two girls standing in front of the open bay and as soon as they were alone, Angel cursed under her breath and shook her head. "Jesus Christ, he is fine. Wish he'd come in sometime."

Scarlett followed her line of vision to the man across the lot, lighting a cigarette as he walked out of a door in the opposite building. He was tall and extremely well built with long blond hair and a pair of dark sunglasses on his face, along with the same black leather vest on his back that Juice wore. She looked back at Angel and rolled her eyes. "What makes you think he'd want a newbie?"

"You can't have all the hot bikers, Scarlett. That's just not fair."

Scarlett laughed, leaning against the back of the car that was parked behind them and crossing her ankles. "Angel, I promise if he ever comes in and he doesn't have a specific request, I will let you have him."

The younger girl grinned deviously at her and went back to watching the man across the lot while Scarlett licked her dark red lips and ran a hand through her long waves. The mechanics who had stopped working to watch them when they arrived were still focused completely on them. She didn't even have to look over at the men to know they were; she could sense that their eyes were on her, traveling all over her body and she could practically feel the lust radiating off of them like a heat wave. When she finally did turn her head to look over at them, they barely even noticed, their eyes too busy eyeing her body hungrily. Only one of them actually looked up at her face when he noticed her looking their way- the one with the scars- and she gave him a smile, which he returned.

"They didn't even notice us yesterday."

Scarlett's eyes snapped back to the blonde in front of her, her brows furrowing when she noticed that Angel was looking in the same direction that she had just been. "What?"

"All those guys. They didn't even give us a second look when we were here the first time."

"We looked like homeless people then," she reminded her.

"We were still hot," Angel countered. "But today they can't even work they're so busy staring. You think he told them all what we are?"

Scarlett just stared at her for a moment, unblinking. It had never occurred to her that he would tell all of his biker buddies that he was seeing a hooker at least once a week because she'd never had a customer who cared so little if people knew. But in this particular case, it was she that didn't want people to know. She wanted it to stay a secret, because even though she would never admit it, for some strange reason, she liked having that special secret thing with him. She didn't want people to know because she didn't want to ruin it. And as stupid and strange as it might have sounded, she kind of felt a little bit embarrassed- embarrassed that all those men standing around leering at her knew that she had sex for a living, that she had sex with him for a living. Because truthfully, it wasn't about the money with him.

"Probably," she replied and, as if she didn't know the answer until she'd actually said the word, she suddenly became angry. It was completely and totally unwarranted and ridiculous but she was angry at him. She didn't want him to tell everyone, but he most likely did and now she was upset about it.

"Hope we at least get some new customers then," Angel sighed, crossing her arms over her chest and cocking her hip out to the side.

It was only another minute or so of silence before Juice returned with her key ring and a clipboard, first handing her the clipboard and a pen so that she could sign the last of the paperwork. Once she handed it back, he gave her the car keys and she very unenthusiastically said thanks before walking away from him, looping her arm through Angel's as she passed her and dragging the younger girl with her toward the cars.

"Hey, Scarlett, hang on a minute," he called after her. She exhaled heavily and nudged Angel toward her car before she spun around to face him and he jogged over, coming to a stop right in front of her and awkwardly scratching the back of his neck. "You okay?"

"I'm perfectly fine," she replied, her expression completely blank.

His brows furrowed as his mouth turned down into a small frown. "Did I do something?"

"No."

"Are you sure?" he pressed. "Cause you're definitely mad about something."

"I said I'm fine," she replied again but it was less than emphatic.

He shook his head, rubbing his palm down the back of his head as he looked down from her intense gaze. "Oookay then.....I'll see you tonight?"

Scarlett only gave him a short, expressionless nod before turning away from him to climb into her car and he stepped back as he watched her silver car drive off the lot right behind Angel's white one, wondering what it was that he'd done wrong.



It wasn't an extremely busy night. At almost one in the morning, only fourteen customers had come in and Scarlett was left at the front desk, filled with dread as she watched the minutes tick by at an agonizingly slow speed. Finally, at six minutes past two, the front door opened and she looked up to see who had come in, effectively putting herself out of her misery. He approached the counter casually but he wasn't smiling like he usually did as she stood up to do her required greeting. "Welcome back, sir. Would you like to browse our selection?"

Juice stayed silent, only shaking his head as he dropped a few bills onto the counter between them. Scarlett frowned as she reached over to take the money, not even bothering to count it before she put it away and called Kimberly into the room to take over while she was occupied. She led him down the stairs and through the hallway to the first empty room on the right and he automatically shut the door as she walked further into the room, reaching behind her to unzip the back of her tight dress. She unhooked the clasp at the top with some difficulty and then started to pull her arms out of the sleeve holes but he grabbed her hand, stilling her movement completely. When she turned around to face him, she almost took a step back in surprise at how angry he looked.

"What the fuck's your problem?" he asked her, his voice low and eerily calm.

"N-nothing." Her anger had been completely replaced by fear; she had never been scared of him until that very moment and she wondered how she hadn't thought before that maybe he was capable of being as cruel and sadistic as his fellow club member. After all, there was a reason they were both in a biker gang. They had to have some things in common and she was a complete idiot for ever making him angry. She should have known better. That special relationship they'd developed seemed to make her forget that he was still a customer and she never should have stopped treating him like one.

"Don't," he practically growled. "Don't lie to me."

"I'm sorry," she replied immediately, her voice weak and pleading. "Please don't-"

He reached up to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear, but she flinched backwards and squeezed her eyes shut in anticipation of the blow she was expecting to come, making him freeze completely. After a few seconds of absolutely nothing, she cracked one eye open to look and saw him standing there, his arm still raised but frozen in place and his mouth hanging halfway open as he stared at her in surprise. Her eyes were slightly widened as she studied his face and she tried to swallow the lump in her throat that felt like it was the size of a grapefruit.

"I'm sorry," she whispered again, raising her hands both in surrender and in plea, and when he looked down at them, he could see that they were shaking.

He turned away from her and walked over to the bed, collapsing on the edge of it and running his hands down his face while she stayed rooted to her spot, letting out the breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding in and pressing a hand to the center of her chest where it was now hurting from how violently her heart was beating. "I wasn't gonna hit you," he finally told her, shaking his head. "Jesus Christ, I wouldn't-.....I could never hit you, Scarlett."

She folded her arms over her stomach, kind of hugging herself, and kept her eyes down at the floor instead of meeting his gaze, which she could feel on her now. "Come here," he said gently, and she looked up at him, her eyes locking with his for only a split second before she dropped her gaze again and hesitantly moved over to the bed. She sat down on the edge next to him, but she kept about two feet of space between them and her whole body was tensed and rigid.

"I'm sorry," she started, apologizing for the third time. "I shouldn't have treated you like that. Sometimes I forget wh-......what this is." As much as she may have felt the contrary, the bottom line was that the two of them had a relationship that was strictly business and he was her customer. She had to remember that.

"What were you so pissed off about earlier?"

"Nothing, it's stupid," she mumbled.

"Scarlett, come on."

She shook her head and sighed, her frown deepening. "I've just.....never been ashamed before."

His brows furrowed. "I'm not following."

"I don't know what it is about you. I've never had another customer like you. You're different. This is all new to me, being treated more like a person than a doll, and I guess I just don't know what the hell I'm doing anymore. When I was in Vegas, it was always the same. There was no talking, no kissing, not even any eye contact. I knew what to do and I did it exactly the way I was supposed to. But when I got here, and I met you, I just got lost. That's why I had rules! And now I've broken them all and I don't know where I stand or where I'm supposed to go from here and I'm just fucking up everything in my head. The boundaries are so blurred, if not nonexistent and I don't know what to do with that. I got pissed at you today for something that I didn't have the right to be pissed about. If I'd followed my own rules, then it never would have even mattered, but I didn't and now-"

"Hey, hey, listen to me," he said, tentatively reaching out toward her and she didn't flinch this time but she did keep her gaze steady on his. He laid his hand on her shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. "You just said I'm different than the others, right? That makes us different. That means you can talk to me about shit like this. If it's new to you, then you have to make new boundaries and if you aren't sure about something or you don't know how you want something to be, then come to me. Talk to me about it. We can figure it out together."

"See? Fuck, you're just so....ugh! You're so nice. None of the others would ever say something like that."

"How many times do I have to tell you that I'm special?" he joked, with a grin. "Now, tell me, what exactly was it you were pissed at me for?"

"Honestly, it's so fucking stupid."

"Go on."

Scarlett sighed, pushing a hand through her dark waves. "You know, they didn't even take a second look at me yesterday when I came to the garage. But today they couldn't even do their work because they were so busy eyeing me up." She looked over at him, but he just looked confused as usual. "I've never been ashamed of who I am. I own it and I've become the best at it. For the most part, I've always been okay with the attention. But today, when they were all watching me, I was just kind of embarrassed. Because they know you and they know what I am and they think that's all there is to it. But it's more than that to me. It shouldn't be, but it is."

"Scarlett, they don't know," he interjected. "Well, Chibs does, but that's it."

"You didn't tell them?"

"I didn't want 'em to know. Not that I'm ashamed," he added quickly. "But because it's more than that to me too. I like being with you, Scarlett. I mean the sex is phenomenal, but I like just talking to you too."

She couldn't contain the smile that crept onto her face at his words. "I'm sorry I was a crazy bitch earlier."

"I don't mind a little bit of crazy bitch every once in awhile," he said, a cheeky grin appearing on his face. "Now enough of this shit. Can I fuck you yet?"

Scarlett let out a laugh and shook her head but then she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him to her, pressing her lips to his.