“There she is!” Poison declared, giving me a searching look.
I tried to shrug apologetically at her, but the guy leaning back against one of the desks lining the side of the room quickly caught my attention. He was much older than I had expected; he had white hair caught into small, coiled curls close to his skull, and his bulky body was wrapped into a suit with purple highlights lining the pockets and the lapels.
“Simon.” He announced himself to me, holding out his hand.
I hesitantly touched my hand to his, intending to shake, but he pulled my knuckles to his mouth and I quickly scrambled not to wrench my fingers out of his grip.
“Seraph,” I offered. “Nice to meet you.”
“So polite.” He laughed, releasing my hand and turning his attention back to Poison. “What are such polite girls doing trying to get a job in my club?”
“I ain’t polite.” Poison sounded offended. “Since when did I say I was polite?”
She was still chewing her gum, and though she was certainly much more striking than your average stripper… or even your average human being, she was still playing the part well. Unlike me. I quickly unbuttoned my coat, tossing it over the back of one of Simon’s chairs and crossing my arms beneath my breasts.
“Just trying to make a good impression,” I said, inserting a pout into my voice.
Simon’s eyes bugged on my corset, and then slid down my legs, before flicking back up again. He couldn’t seem to decide where to focus.
“Damn,” he choked out, slumping momentarily back against his desk and then just as quickly straightening up again, before leaning against the desk in a more deliberate way. “Damn… I could make a fortune off what you got going on there. I went to a conference last month where they talked a lot about niche marketing, and you’re a niche market right there. And you two together? It’s like good stripper/bad stripper. I like it. I like it a lot. Why didn’t you just take your coat off to start with? I don’t even remember your name. Neither of your names.”
“Poison.” Poison pointed to herself with an eye roll, before turning her finger in my direction. “And Seraph.”
He nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah, great stage names. Fits right in with the whole illusion. Bad Girl Poison and Good Girl Angel. You should change it to Angel, not many people out there know what a Seraph is. Only reason I know is that I went to another conference about book marketing the month before the niche marketing conference. I was hoping to publish a book since there are so many how-to small business books out there, but none of them are about strip clubs. Anyway, they only talked about stupid teenager books with angels and demons and vampires and werewolves. So yeah, you need to change the name.”
Whoa. The guy was completely mental. “Point taken,” I said dryly.
“Well I’ll give you girls a try tonight, but I’m making no promises. I ain’t gonna pay you for tonight either. It’s a trial day without pay.”
“That’s bullshit!” Poison spat, making me believe for a moment that she actually wanted the money.
“You came to me, princess, so that means you’re desperate. I don’t wanna hire you and then find out you ran away from your pimp. I ain’t gonna trespass on no G’s territory.”
I burst out laughing, and they both shot me vastly different looks. Poison’s was a warning look, but Simon seemed partway angered and partway confused.
“Don’t mind her.” Poison recaptured his attention. “She’s a little crazy.”
“The ones who look that good always are.” He nodded sagely.
I was still trying not to laugh. If he said anything even slightly as gangster as what he had said before, there was no way that I was going to be able to contain myself.
“You got any experience dancing?” he asked us both.
“I don’t need experience.” Poison sniffed, waving a hand down her body. “They aren’t going to care about my level of skill.”
Simon shrugged, jerking a finger at me. “We’ll see about that. And what about her?”
I had been slowly coming to terms with all of the collective information that I had gathered about the nature and ability of the Voda and Voda Heir, and I was almost confident that I could do with pole dancing what I had done with gymnastics and piano the year before.