West Richland Tavern.

[1millionsecrets]

Hannah worked casually, serving drinks to a few floaters. Lunch wasn't open today, so she mainly just waitressed, bussed and bartended.
Her long hair was slicked up into a fiery faux-hawk that glided all the way down to her mid back. Deep green eye shadow glittered on her lids and her lips held a berry lipstick. Her makeup was dramatic but flattering enough not to be gaudy.
Her body wad bound in a black leather corset, red fishnets, and a burlesquerear skirt with a flare. Her knee high six inch heels clicked against the floor softly with each step. Her ironically cross shaped nose stud glinted in the lighting over the tavern.

A soft voiceless music danced from her mp3 through the speakers, and along with it she sang softly.
"Love... Makes me treat you, the way that I do. Gee baby, ain't I good to you..."
A careful smile touched her lips, as she wiped down the bar's surface and filled several mixed drinks.

 

[raiguy]

DJ turned the shower on, before waiting for the water to warm up. Once it was warm, he pulled both himself and Alexa under the water. He smiled as he started to wash her, before letting the warm water run the suds off of her. He smiled, and kissed Alexa, enjoying the shower.

 

[celestialdragon]

Alexa smiled and kissed DJ back, lathering him up as well, enjoying the warmth and the company.

 

[merryohmd]

Rex accepted Hannah drink offer and then started working around the bar, tavern, and kitchen. He made sure that all of the glasses were clean and the supplies well stocked. Hannah worked in the tavern also but did not speak to Rex and since he knew who she was and had threaten him several times, he worked in silence. I wasn't long before the tavern was ready for opening. He decided to shoot some pool, even though he really had no idea how to play. Maybe DJ would show him some things if they ever had the chance.

 

[1millionsecrets]

Hannah sighed as she watched Rex from the bar. Maybe he wasn't so bad, and the drink offer.didn't really help settle his nerves any. She shook her head and continued straightening up. She wasn't even going to mention that he wasn't in uniform.

Her eyes flickered over to Troy, who was positioned outside. It had seemed so long since that night. When he held her and touched her like no one else. She missed him...

She thought about Ethan, and a shallow pain began to fill her chest. She tried to ignore it, but then thoughts of her father came flooding back, and then... Her angelic mother. Hannah had to.hold her breath to keep the pain from showing. Soon though, she regained composure and forced a smile. Maybe if she held it all in, all so close and bottled up. No one could use it against her.

 

[merryohmd]

Rex started to get comfortable playing pool. He actually found he was pretty good with the angles from cue, to cue ball, to target ball, to pocket. But he had no idea how to do what DJ did to make the cue ball ended up positioned perfectly for the next shot. If that happened while Rex played it was just by accident.

He wondered where everyone else was. He knew Tess was with Wolf's brother but he hadn't seen any of the other whores or DJ since yesterday.

He assumed the tavern would be open tonight but wondered how they would handle a crowd.

 

[Wolfias]

Tess had playfully swatted his hands away when he tried to grab her and pointed him in the direction of the door. When she was making the bed she heard him ask what happened and her face flushed red.

"Umm well I had a client and he broke the rules because he choked me until I passed out.
One of the guys that works here kicked the door in to get him off me, I guess the guy really got his ass kicked after DJ got him outside" she explained it as simply as she could. "That's why I didn't finish my shift yesterday" she averted her eyes from Eric's face.

She didn't want to think about Mack touching her that way,"it's not the first time," she added with a shrug. "My ex used to hit me too." It was the first time she had admitted what had happened to her to anyone in Richland.

Eric slowly turns around from the door he'd fixed, a angry expression flashed across his face. Slowly it changed to over protectively loving, as he steps over to the bed Tess was making. His muscular tattooed arms wrap around her, lowering his chin to her shoulder softly sighing.

''I would have done the same thing for you Tess, I'm just glad you weren't harmed.'' Eric's warm breath gently brushed against her cheek as he spoke softly to her. Hoping he didn't scare her away from him, with her he just couldn't help being over protective. ''I know I'm over protective of you Tess, but to be honest I hope it doesn't frighten you away from me''

Eric you idiot you'll definitely scare her away like this, mentally deriding himself over his behavior. He already knew his heart belonged to her, winning Tess's heart was a work in progress. Eric would be certain not to rush her, Eugene was right he thought holding her. ''I wouldn't harm you if my life depended upon it, I'd protect you from anything at all Tess''

 

[feistyphoenix]

Tess turned and was drawn into his arms, she inhaled softly against Eric's chest worried he would judge her but she should have known better. Eric genuinely cared and it had been longer than Tess cared to admit since a man had treated her like she deserved. Truthfully, she wasn't even sure what she deserved, she wanted desperately to be self reliant and able to stand on her own two feet. She relaxed against his hard body, she felt his steady heartbeat increase at her closeness. She wanted him to stay so badly, she was desperately hoping she was good enough for him. She finally found the words to respond to him.

"You don't scare me Eric," she said, her voice was muffled by his large body covering hers. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and lifted her mouth to kiss his neck tenderly before snuggling against him, wishing she could lay down with him and let him hold her. She felt his breath on her bare skin and a light kiss on her shoulder in response and she smiled.

"I should really get downstairs for lunch," she told him gently, what she wouldn't give for more time with him.

They shared one more slow kiss before Eric headed back to work. Tess sat on the freshly made bed and sighed longingly. She mentally kicked herself into work mode and headed back downstairs.

Surprisingly there were no customers. According to the clock they should have been open 10 minutes ago. She walked to the front and realized the sign wasn't on so she flipped the switch wondering if Hannah had just gotten busy and forgotten. She also wondered where the hell Alexa was.

She saw Hannah come out of the kitchen and she headed over to the bar, noticing immediately Hannah was wearing her leather cuff. Tess was very familiar with it, Hannah had bought it when they were together shopping once. They were much younger then, and Hannah only wore it when she was hiding her cuts. Tess had given her one hell of a tongue lashing when she found out about it but Hannah refused to tell her why she had done it.

"Hannah, what happened?" her voice was quiet and serious. She wasn't going to let it go this time, Tess couldn't believe Hannah would regress to doing something so self damaging again. She wondered if Hannah had done it when she hadn't been around.

 

[Wolfias]

Eric sighs quietly at the tender kiss Tess placed on his neck, she spoke gently in response to his words. Her snuggling into his body his heart rate quickens, leaving her now the last thing that he wanted to do. When she tells Eric she has to go downstairs, he nods with a slow smile giving Tess a loving squeeze. Their lips met slowly in a gentle warm lingering kiss, reluctantly breaking the kiss to gradually let her go.

''I'll see your pretty face as soon as I get a chance, busy week Bro's going to go with Raven do things'' Backing out of Tess's bedroom door, with a small wave Eric was soon downstairs, and out of the door. Crossing the busy street at quick trot smiling, looking back to the tavern he strolls into the bike shop. ''I'm back Bro going to get that transmission built now'' Walking up to the workbench getting to work.

Eugene stood to torque down the cylinder heads. ''Almost done with the S&S and the rims got here. Primaries assembled all we needs the transmission, we'll bolt em together and test fire the engine too'' Eugene throws a shop towel hitting Eric him in the ear. ''So...the lunch date with Tess? It go alright?'' Eric throws the shop towel back at Eugene grinning broadly. ''You could say it went...very alright Bro.'' Eugene chuckles at Eric's comment. ''Wish me that type luck with Raven then.''

 

[merryohmd]

Rex saw Tess come downstairs and Hannah come from the kitchen. He wondered why there were no customers yet. It would be a slow day without them. He also hadn't seen DeeDee, Kari or Alexa. He approached his boss and Tess.

"I saw Raven go down the fire escape yesterday and haven't seen her since. Anyone know why she sneaked out"

 

[feistyphoenix]

Tess sighed at the inturrupting by Rex, for the second time today.

"She left a note about having to go to her brother's for a week. Eric told me Wolf is going with her," she raised an eyebrow at Hannah like she had no idea what that was about," and I have no fucking clue where Alexa is but she better be walking through the door any minute." Tess' tone turned threatening, she was definitely not happy.

 

[raiguy]

DJ finished washing both of them, before shutting the shower off and pulling Alexa out of the shower playfully. He dried her off, and then himself, before rolling his shoulders. "Time to get dressed so we can go to work," he said, before quickly pulling his clothes on. He knew they'd be running a tick late, but nothing more than 5 minutes.

 

[celestialdragon]

Alexa nodded and got dressed easily before looking at the time and swearing. "I'm going to be dead meat the moment I walk through that door and Tess sees me," she groaned. "I'm going to be late, and that's real bad." She looked up at DJ and smiled. "I don't mind too much, though," she said.

That, of course, was a lie. What if she got out of a job because of this? She knew that she couldn't keep travelling and hitchhiking her way to finding jobs, it took her two weeks to find this one!

 

[raiguy]

DJ could see Alexa was worried. "I will take the heat, if it gets rough," he said, knowing that if it got bad, he would step in and deflect the heat. He wasn't going to have anyone lose their job on his account. Besides, he wasn't sure what was going on anymore, and was just going with it for the most part.

He smiled and then grabbed his stuff, before looking at Alexa. "Ready to go?" he asked, knowing he would probably get reamed up one side and down the other by either Tess or Hannah, or possibly both of them.

 

[merryohmd]

"Oh, thanks Tess." Rex said and went into the kitchen to get some water before returning play more pool. As he played he watched Hannah and Tess as they talked but was too far from them to hear what they were saying. The best part about being on the other side of the tavern was getting the opportunity to check both women out. He thought they were both attractive and liked to look at them.

Shot after shot did not go the way he thought they would. Well, he'd obviously never earn money playing pool the way DJ did.

 

[celestialdragon]

"Yeah, I'm ready," Alexa said. She ran her fingers through her hair and went out the door with DJ, a smile on her face.

 

[raiguy]

DJ nodded, before locking his house up and heading to his truck. He held the door open for Alexa, before putting his stuff into the back seat, and climbing into the driver's seat. "And we're off," he said with a smile, starting the truck and backing out, before heading to the Tavern.

As they parked, he looked at Alexa and smiled. "I really enjoyed this, and hope it just wasn't a one off, but if it was, I understand," he said quietly, before grabbing his stuff and heading over to open her door.

 

[celestialdragon]

Alexa smiled wistfully. "I hope it wasn't a one-time thing, I really enjoyed it too," she answered softly. She got out of DJ's truck and she got her stuff before heading into the Tavern, tossing her hair back. She nodded to Rex and gave a sheepish, and very embarrassed smile at Tess and Hannah before retreating into her room to prepare for the shift.

 

[raiguy]

DJ walked into the tavern, before heading to his desk. He wasn't going to focus on anything but work, unless Tess or Hannah brought it up. He quickly got everything set up, before pulling the MP3 player out of the port, and set his laptop up to play. The music started seamlessly, and he smiled as everything got going. He checked to make sure everything was in order, before heading to get a drink from the bar.

 

[FireyIce]

Jack had decided to stop by the bar shortly it had opened. As he made his way inside he noticed that it wasn't quite as busy as it had been. Nevertheless he made his way to the bar and waited until someone came over and he ordered a beer. He started to slowly drink it as he looked around to see who was working today.

 

[feistyphoenix]

Tess could see Hannah wasn't ready to give up any information during work hours, that was fine though, Tess would get it out of her later.

She saw Alexa rush upstairs after her "walk of shame". Tess saw Jack sit down and order a beer, there was no one in her section yet so she walked over to say hello.

"How are you today Jack," she asked as she leaned back against the bar slightly, the angle elongated her body sensually.

 

[FireyIce]

Jack turned his head and looked up as Tess made her way over to the bar and leaned her back against it. "I'm doing very well, Tess. And yourself?" he asked as he glanced her over. "Would you like a drink?" Jack asked.

 

[celestialdragon]

Alexa came downstairs, wearing a more modest outfit than normal. She didn't feel right putting on more risque clothing for the time being. She had dressed in a little black dress that was strapless and hit midthigh, and was very form fitting. Her hair was down and she wore a few bracelets. She felt like a little girl again, almost, and she decided to see how that would portray into tonight.

So far, there was no one in her section. She saw Jack and Tess talking, and she went toward the back, avoiding Tess. She knew she would have to answer for her actions, but she would wait until after closing, so she could focus on work.

 

[feistyphoenix]

Jack turned his head and looked up as Tess made her way over to the bar and leaned her back against it. "I'm doing very well, Tess. And yourself?" he asked as he glanced her over. "Would you like a drink?" Jack asked.

"I'm fine, and I never drink on the clock," she said and smirked," what brought you in today?"

She was internally wondering if he wanted her companionship again, the thought of it made her a little nervous after yesterday but she calmed her nerves by reminding herself she had nothing to fear from him. He was a good client, an attractive man if you liked the bad cop look.

 

[FireyIce]

"Well at least I offered," replied Jack. "I have a few hours to kill so I figured I'd stop by here and see how things are going. Kind of a few hour break between work right now." He took a quick drink. "Hopefully there hasn't been any issues going on here," he said.