42. Exposed
Cassidy’s one of the people who value self-worth. It was weird for someone who grew up with money where they value people based on their net worth. But her parents were not one of those rich snobs, Cassidy would remember them as the good philanthropists. Sadly her dad died from a sudden heart attack, then her mom followed not long after. They said it was because her love for him was so great that she lost her will to live. Though young Cassidy believed otherwise, her mom loved her children. It was just God’s will.
Cassidy was the oldest of three, her twin brothers Dillon and Edmond were still in private school. They live in a dormitory, fully paid from their parents’ insurance money. Not long after her parents passing, Cassidy was left with her family finance to deal with. It didn’t take long for her to decide to rent out their huge house since there was no way Cassidy wants to live there alone and not to mention the maintenance and the workers. At nineteen she was already responsible for handling her parents’ business after a year of looking after her mom’s health soon after the death of her dad.
Her mom was a mess, their family lawyer was not very good at his job. His dad tends to do everything by himself, and though he had funds stored away for his children, the amount of money slipping away because of the family’s lawyer’s incompetence was alarming. And Cassidy knows she needs to get back to the issue sooner than later, but with her school and what happened with her mom, she was at a breaking point.
They didn’t have aunts, uncles, not even grandparents, no other relatives aside from close family friends who looked at them as the orphan kids who were deeply loved by their parents. Cassidy now lived in her small studio apartment, she didn’t need a bigger one. With her family’s financial mess, Cassidy decided to downsize, she had to think about her little brothers’ college education. She wanted what was best for them and therefore she decided to put funds away for them, not that they didn’t have enough, but she needed to feel safe. Just in case things decide to get worse.
Aside from school, Cassidy loves to dance. She loved it when people looked at her while dancing on stage or on the dance floor. Then it was one of those freak coincidences when a bunch of her girlfriends from campus decided to head out to a strip club and dance their asses off at one of their competition nights. It was nice, they can dance, strip, and not be pressed by unwanted bodies grinding their dicks like they were asking for it. Because Cassidy and her friends just wanted to dance, wanted the attention. And after that memorable day, she slipped back into the strip club the next weekend and asked if she can work there part-time.
It was the stress release that she needed, between school, the twins, and the web of family finance. She started finding freedom at Babes. Her co-worker never knew the truth, she was hiding it well. Up until one day when Rowan Madden the hot silver fox decided to entertain himself by walking into Babes and feast on scantily clad women twirling around the pole, dancing sexily to the beat of the music.
Cassidy almost fell on her heels when she saw him. Her legs were wrapped around the pole, she was still fixated on the sexy beat of the song when she felt his eyes on her. It was a miracle how she was able to finish her routine before Jade was filling in after her place.
The med student was hiding in the changing room when Dee walked in and told her she had a lap dance request. “He’s waiting at the VVIP room, the silver fox is hot.” She giggled and quickly sauntered out of the changing room, telling Cassidy that her routine with Jade was up next.
Cassidy knew who was waiting for her and she wanted to say no, but Dee was already gone. She sighed and face the inevitable. Years ago she used to have the biggest crush on Rowan, up until he was married to a high-end fashion model. The couple looked perfect together when Cassidy saw them both at her parents’ last anniversary dinner.
Her mind was thinking of different scenarios when she walked to the VVIP room. Cassidy was asking herself why would Rowan visit the establishment when he has a gorgeous wife waiting for him at home. Her question remained unanswered when she stepped into the booth and his eyes scanned her body from her beautiful long hair to her glittery stripper heels.
There was a different expression plastering his face, but before she allowed him to say anything she closed the door behind her and pressed play on the music player and the surrounding walls start to thump with the steady beats of the seductive music. “You can swipe your card there,” Cassidy was liking the new payment system Gage had made to the club where they just need to swipe in their member card for every transaction in the club and pay the bill when they decided to leave. It makes lap dancing easier than letting men slip in bills to your g-strings before you take it off, only to have to gather them again after you finished with your routine.
“Cassidy Rhodes, don’t pretend you don’t recognize me.” The man stayed seated on the chair, with his eyes glued on her body while Cassidy started swinging her hips to the music while her hands linger sensually on her body.
“Well, hello Mr. Rowan Madden, how is Mrs. Madden?” she asked sweetly with every intent to make him feel guilty for looking at other women while his wife was probably at home, maybe staying with their kid. Damn, Cassidy sure hates the idea of Rowan having kids with the gorgeous model.
“There’s no Mrs. Madden I’m divorced, been over six months now.”
“Uh-huh,” Cassidy quickly filed the information into her already jumbled-up brain. Within her study, her little brothers, and her family’s financial situation, now she needs to think about her divorced silver fox hunk sitting in front of her waiting for his lap dance.
She was a stripper, an exotic dancer, a pole dancer whatever terms people call it and she was it. Cassidy had no business to even thinking about the handsome man. So, she danced, she smiled and she give him her best moves but she stopped when his hand grabbed her wrist most likely to stop her tease.
“Rules, camera, no touching the dancer.” She winked and pointed at the camera. The security measure was also why she chose Babes, she feels safe at Babes. Her dance is her release, she needed the routine despite what people may think.
“Cass, why are you doing this? Is it the money?”Belongs to (N)ôvel/Drama.Org.
She laughed and kept to her routine, the song was almost over. The barely there attire will come off at the last minute, giving men the satisfaction of seeing her naked body before the song ended.
“Stop this!” Rowan practically growled and stop the music. And as expected one of the men that was on floor duty that night knocked on the door and Cassidy answered.
It was Rockford, it was a pretty slow night and their boss Gage was probably at home snuggling with Bree. Rockford must be on duty, the man was no doubt circling the floor and making sure the girls were not being harassed.
“I’m okay, I know him,” Cassidy assured the big guy and closed the door again. She didn’t turn on the music again, but she gave the camera her thumbs up telling everything was good.
“If you don’t want a lap dance you should go. Your time is up.” She shrugged, she didn’t want to send him away but she was on the clock.
Cassidy sighed when Rowan swiped his card twice, knowing that it’ll earn him two songs. But instead of turning on the music, he shook his head.
“Talk.”
Cassidy sighed and told him that she wanted to dance at the club. “I’m safe, it’s safe for me to dance here rather than in clubs. There are no random guys who’d slipped drugs here, no unwanted men grinding me when I don’t want to.”
“There must be some other place, dance studio?”
Cassidy laughed. “Why do you care?”
“You’re a Rhodes, my best friend’s daughter.”
She winced at the thought of that, it was true he was her dad’s best friend. Though Rowan was a couple of years younger than her late dad, he was still too old for her, according to society. She should not have fantasized about him years ago, it was not right, but still, the image of him had her climaxed many times before.
“What time are you done here?”
“In about an hour?”
“Charge my card for the rest of the hour, you’re going home.”
“But…”
He got up, Cassidy can see the tightness on the front of his pants but she quickly diverts her eyes and concentrates on the card that was in her hand. She was supposed to say no but Rowan was not taking no for an answer when he left the room and headed out straight to the bar.
“I’ll wait at the bar, go get changed. I’m taking you home.”
It was supposed to be a slow night, she was supposed to dance then go back to her apartment, do her homework and have a quiet night to herself.