Bare Necessities. Marie Donovan
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in comparative lit at Chicago University.”
He shook his head. “Forget about my weakness for you, Bridget. You know this is a bad idea. Promise me you won’t dance at Frisky’s until we talk again.”
He had a weakness for her? Well, vice versa, Adam. “I don’t know….” She pretended confusion until she saw his anxious expression. “All right, I promise. I won’t wear sexy lingerie and take it all off at Frisky’s for a man who’ll beg to see my bare breasts swaying in front of his face. And I definitely won’t wear my garter belt and stockings to give anyone a lap dance so that he’s squirming under me from sheer arousal.”
He swallowed hard. “Fine.” His voice squeaked and he tried again. “Fine. Thank you, Bridget. You’re an old-fashioned girl. You don’t belong doing any of that.”
Oh, yeah? Bridget gave him a tight smile. The next time she saw him, this old-fashioned girl would do things the old-fashioned way and take him all the way.
4
“ADAM SAID WHAT?” Electra reached for the plastic sword stuck in the waistband of her Amazon costume as if to run him through.
Bridget lifted her glass of champagne in a weary toast from where she reclined on her futon. Was it her second or third glass? She couldn’t remember. Probably a bad sign. “He said I was an old-fashioned girl who shouldn’t be giving him a lap dance.”
“He’s totally repressed.” Jinx snorted. She stretched on the other end of the futon in sweatpants and a black punk-rock T-shirt. Her brand-new red vinyl devil costume was tossed over a nearby chair.
“He never used to be,” Bridget complained, sucking down more champagne and raising her glass for another refill from Jinx. “My brothers used to brag about how wild he was, hopping from girlfriend to girlfriend, blowing money at strip clubs.”
“He’s not a regular at Frisky’s, anyway,” Sugar commented, twirling in front of the mirror to get a better look at her royal-blue Chicago Cubs bra-and-thong set. “I’d remember him.”
“Or at least what his wallet looked like,” Jinx cracked.
“One time in college he even had a threesome with two cheerleaders.” Bridget had been jealous but aroused when she’d overheard that gossip, imagining him spread out on a bed, his silky hot skin licked and caressed….
She hadn’t had the chance to do any licking and precious little caressing. Why should two greedy cheerleaders get all the fun?
She stared moodily into her champagne. Heavy drinking was probably a dumb idea at three in the morning, but the dancers had just finished their shift and wanted to pick up their new costumes. Along with Bridget’s rent money, they had brought a few bottles of contraband champagne.
“What are you gonna do now?” Electra pulled on the breakaway tabs of her golden breastplate and shrugged it off. She’d had implants as well, but in a more modest size to better fit her more muscular build. Electra had told Bridget that she’d been a highly ranked track-and-field athlete until she’d blown out her shoulder shot-putting.
Maybe Electra would shot-put some sense into Adam. “I don’t know what to do. After what we did together last weekend, he can’t still possibly think of me platonically.”
“There’s no such thing as platonic between men and women. Every man has his breaking point. You just have to find it.” Sugar carefully hung her Cubs lingerie and matching ball cap on a padded satin hanger she’d brought from home.
Bridget frowned. “Breaking point? That sounds kind of violent.”
“Some guys like that.” Jinx gave her a sly smile and caressed the red whip she’d bought to go with her new outfit. “Big, bossy men get a taste of this and beg for more.”
“I don’t want to break him, I only want to…”
“Screw him?” Sugar added, gliding over for another glass of champagne.
Bridget blushed.
“Same thing.” Jinx shrugged.
Bridget yanked up her shirt to show them her new red lace bra. “Do I look old-fashioned? Do I? I even have the matching thong on, too.” She stood to show the dancers, but got dizzy and plopped on the futon.
“Yeah, you’re a real wild one, Bridget.” Jinx rolled her eyes.
Sugar thoughtfully tapped her acrylic, French-manicured nail tips on her glass. “Let’s dress her up.”
“Like what?” Electra glanced at the red vinyl outfit. “Our regular dancer outfits would make her self-conscious.”
“The guy has a point—she has that kind of girl-next-door, take-home-to-mommy look. Something classy, yet sexy,” Sugar pronounced. “What do you think, Bridget?”
Bridget blinked. She’d been daydreaming about Adam. “That’s me, classhy and seckshy.” Funny, her mouth didn’t seem to be working right.
Jinx sat upright. “I know, I know. The Age of Innocence.”
Her suggestion met with guffaws from the other two dancers. Electra said, “Honey, none of us has been that age for a long time.”
“Not that, you ignorant bimbos. I mean the book The Age of Innocence. Edith Wharton’s novel about upper-class New Yorkers in the late eighteen hundreds?” Jinx heaved a sigh of exasperation. Her grad school tuition in literature at Chicago University was very expensive, just like Jinx. By dancing at Frisky’s, she made more than her professors and had no student debt, as well.
“It was a movie, too,” Bridget volunteered. “Daniel Day-Lewis, Michelle Pfeiffer and Winona Ryder. Lotsa cool coshtumes.”
Sugar nodded. “Oh, right! His character was having an affair with Michelle even though she was his girlfriend Winona’s cousin. Winona’s character took him back.”
“I had a guy do the same exact thing, except it was my sister he was banging,” Electra offered. “Only I didn’t take either of them back.”
Silence fell over the room. Electra didn’t look particularly upset, though.
“Anyway,” Jinx said, clearing her throat, “think corsets. Think stockings. Think crotchless drawers.”
“They had those back then?” Electra looked impressed. “Who woulda thought?”
Jinx hopped up and flipped through Bridget’s clothes rack. Sugar came over to the futon and unclipped the barrette on the back of Bridget’s head. “Let’s see this clump of hair.”
“Hey!” Bridget batted her hand away. Sure, her hair was messy. But if people wanted to visit at 3:00 a.m., they took their chances.
Sugar ignored her and rubbed a few strands between her fingers. “It’s actually in pretty good shape. When was the last time you had a deep conditioning treatment?”
“Um, never. Except for when my hair got really fried in the summer and I put mayonnaise on it.”
She shuddered. “Here in the big, bad city, you can actually buy conditioner that doesn’t make you smell like an egg-salad sandwich. But for now, you really need some color.”
Bridget sighed. “I bought a box of highlights but haven’t put them in yet.” She pulled herself off the futon and dug the hair-color box from the linen closet.
While Sugar examined the box, Bridget gave a jaw-cracking yawn. “Maybe some other time. I’ve only had a few hours’ sleep….”
Jinx clattered the hangers and turned to her. “I can understand if you don’t want that guy Adam. He acted really wimpy when I cracked my whip and kicked him in the ass. Never even tried to hit me or anything.”
Bridget straightened from her slouch, her sleepiness gone. “He is not wimpy! He would never harm a