Chapter 1 - Mr. Arrogant Asshole

Never did I think that I'd work in a strip club. The economy was bad and everyone was out of a job, including me. I saw an advertisement in the paper for a waitress and I figured I had experience, what the heck right? I had never heard of the restaurant before, it was someplace in Monroe. Driving into the parking lot I almost lost my nerve. I checked the address twice and a bead of sweat dewed on my forehead. The restaurant in question was named, Hooligans…Strip Club. My phone interviewer happened to leave the last two words out of the name. So here I was in the parking lot of a Strip Club with a job interview in ten minutes. I needed the money bad. I lived with my Gran and the house needed work and lots of it. Money didn't grow on trees, so I swallowed my pride along with my Christian beliefs and stepped out of the car.

It was early in the morning, thank God or I might have turned around and walked out. I had never stepped foot in a place like this before and if I wasn't in desperate need I wouldn't be here. My interviewer, surprisingly was a woman named Amelia Broadway. My God, the woman even wore a pantsuit, I liked her already. We chatted about different places I worked. I explained how I lost my job when Merlotte's, a bar in my hometown of Bon Temps, decided to close its doors after its owner packed up and move out of the backwater town in Louisiana that I lived in. My heart felt heavy when I thought of this, not only because I lost my job, but I lost my dear friend in the process.

So here I was explaining to a classy woman the reason I wanted, no needed to work here.

She gave me a wicked grin and exclaimed, "You have the position on a trial basis."

I looked at her momentarily confused. I had the job? I expressed my thoughts to her and she laughed when I asked why.

"It's because you look innocent. Some of our customers get a little…over excited. You're perfect, looking like an innocent school teacher. Wear square glass frames on your face and be here at eight tomorrow night. It you can survive the week, you're our new waitress." She stood and opened a drawer behind where she sat. "Size six, right?" she asked.

When I was a teenager maybe, but now definitely not. So I corrected her, "Actually I'm a size eight on a good day, a ten on others."

With a wicked glint in her eyes, she said, "Oh I know, but here, you're a size six now. We like our uniforms to fit nice and tight. Don't wear any undergarments, I hate seeing panty lines." I nodded my head wondering how this woman could guess my size just by looking at me. I was a little nervous to be wearing something that snug. I hoped that whatever uniform it was, it had a bit of give, because dammit, I was going to need it. She picked out, what I guess to be my new uniform and handed it to me. I thanked Amelia again for the opportunity and swore to her that I wouldn't disappoint.

So here I was…again on my first real night of work. My shift started in fifteen minutes and I hadn't made it out of my car yet. When I stood in front of the mirror with my new uniform on, I almost croaked. Never could I get out of the house with Gran around in this. So like a thirteen year old high school girl, I pulled a pair of jeans and a loose fitting t-shirt over my 'work' outfit. Now safely inside the confines of my car, without the watchful eye of my Grandmother, I removed my outer layer of clothing. I had no idea how I was going to do this. I felt naked and exposed practically wearing only underwear and a halter top. The black boy-style shorts barely covered my ass and dipped fairly low below my navel. The white halter top, if you could even call it that, exposed my midriff. The elastic ran right underneath my breast line, two strips of fabric crisscrossed over my well endowed bosom and tied up behind my neck. One false move, one bump and my breasts would come loose for the world to see. Being as paranoid as I am, I even fastened the tie with safety pins just in case some eager customer decided to make a play to release my goods to the world while my hands were otherwise occupied. Not that the safety pins would deter someone if they wanted to accomplish that feat, but it made me feel better just the same. I slipped on a pair of red rectangular frames that I picked up at the local thrift shop this morning and took one last look at my appearance.

As satisfied as I would get with my new look, I took a deep breath and emerged from my car. Apparently some sort of function, like maybe a bachelorette or several for that matter were here tonight. I made my way up to the front of the line and approached the bouncer. He was a brute of a guy with very large muscles threatening to tear his cutoff shirt in half. He had the most amazing eyes I had ever seen, it had to be the florescent lights from the neon sign that made his eyes an almost violet color.

Without me saying a word he appraised my 'outfit' up and down and said, "You must be the new girl starting tonight. I'm Quinn, the bouncer here at this lovely establishment." His smile was infectious and I found that some of my nerves melted away. Maybe this job wouldn't be so bad after all, I thought to myself.

Smiling back I responded, "I'm Sookie…Sookie Stackhouse, new waitress at your service." What the hell? Could I have made more of an ass out of myself? It was obvious to why I was known as crazy Sookie. I grew up with a brother, who had all the charisma in the world and women just fell at his feet to jump in bed with him. Then, there was me, awkward Sookie, who never said the right thing and constantly was a victim of word vomit. My brother had women throwing themselves at him since he was a teenager, then there was me, who, in her late twenties had only one experience of very horrible and awkward sex in her life and only because I shamefully indulged my 'friends' in a game of truth or dare.

When I was sixteen I found myself locked in a closet with one of my best friends JB. I almost backed out, but I had something to prove. I know, I know, very cliché letting snobby teenage girls get to me, but thank God it was with a person that wouldn't go around and blab to the entire school how extremely awful and pathetic the entire experience was. The closet was so dark, that when poor JB leaned in to kiss me I accidentally punched him in the face while trying to move some of the hanging clothes out of our way. What happened next was even worse, I have no idea how I even bit down on his penis, but I did. Somehow in the process of giving him a blow job, I lost my balance and almost toppled over and took JB's dick along with me. Not my finest moment, the poor guy walked funny for over a week. So needless to say that after almost castrating my best friend I decided to live my life celibate. Now being twenty-six, I am almost ashamed to admit that I'm still a virgin.

My smile faltered with my words as I saw a strange expression cross the hot bouncer's face. He waved me on and I walked with my head down into the lounge area. My senses were assaulted with Justin Timberlake's Sexy Back and I about died when I rounded the corner to see three hot blond hunks on stage dancing. I wasn't really sure if dancing was the word for the obscene movements they were doing. My best friend Tara and I had a dance in high school that involved a little bump and grind, but this was beyond anything we ever did. Every time Justin sang, put your sexy on, the men jumped, raising their hands in the air and thrust forward with their hips. The girls screamed wildly. I knew that I'd have a severe migraine by the end of the night, and the three men had not even taken off their very ripped, in all the right places, jeans. My mouth must have been hanging open because I heard Amelia's voice over the crowd.

"You like what you see, Sookie?"

I brought my hand to my mouth to wipe off any access drool before I answered, "It's…alright." I tried to return an impassive look, showing that I wasn't affected by the very male, very sexy stage performance.

"Couple of rules before you begin tonight. No dating co-workers, not that that will be much of an option for you anyway. Most of my male strippers are gay and the one that isn't," she nodded to the gorgeous sex on legs over six foot blond god that graced the middle of the stage, "he's not at all friendly and has a huge arrogant ego the size of the planet, but the women love him, go figure." I looked again at the man with the hard mask on in the middle, the more he scowled, the more the women swooned. He acted like they should all pay homage to his very presence, I didn't like him already.

She continued, "Your tables for the night will be that section over there," she pointed over to the left of the stage and I was relieved that it was the closest to the bar and kitchen area. I could focus on my job and not have to walk in front of the stage all night. Nothing worse could happen then dropping a plate of food when a gorgeous male ripped off his pants.

I nodded my head that I understood and mumbled a 'thanks for the opportunity' once again.

"Don't mention it. The frames are perfect by the way; you look just like an innocent school teacher. Though, the look won't help you tonight as much as it will Saturday. We'll see if you survive tonight first." I had no idea what she meant by Saturday night, but I had work to do.

For the first hour or so everything went like clockwork. I was able to ignore the gentlemen on the stage. I did notice that every time that one hot blond came out all the women would scream. From the hyperventilating women, I discovered his name was Eric Norman or something like that.

I had never seen a finer specimen of a perfect body on a man. He had long lean lines and when he turned his backside to the audience, the crowd would roar. His amazing derriere could win a competition. I tried not to look, really I did, but when I had a free moment I couldn't help but stare. I quickly had to turn away though, because I was so hot and bothered I was afraid that I'd get so worked up that I would pull a crazy Sookie and fall flat on my face.

Then, my worst nightmare or possible my best fantasy happened. The arrogant asshole once again graced us with his presence as he took the stage in a bathrobe, laced up leather boots, reading glasses and a newspaper. Two props men pushed a bed out onto the stage. Holy hell, mother of all fucking cheesecake, please don't tell me this is going to happen. I quickly made a beeline back to the kitchen to hide in the confines of my new sanctuary. I knew all the screaming women at my tables would be too preoccupied by Mr. Arrogant Asshole to even miss me.

I cursed my life to hell when the short order cook, Lafayette said with mock amusement, "Sookie, order up." I took a few deep breathes knowing that I would have to emerge from the corner that had been my safe haven for the last few minutes. Walking over to grab my food, Lafayette said, "You'll get used to it honey. Once you meet the arrogant ass in person, he won't have that much of an effect on you." I nodded my head as a blush spread across my cheeks. Taking my food I placed it on my tray willing my feet to move forward to quickly serve the food and run back in here to hide. I chanted to myself, you can do this. It's only a few feet.

When I opened the door I kept my eyes down as I made my way over to the table. I didn't want to even think of that arrogant ass sprawled out on a bed or whatever the hell he was doing at the moment. Making my way over to my table, I placed my back to the stage as I set the food down. When I asked the three women if I could get them anything else, none of them spoke but one did wave her hand at me and I took that as my cue to leave.

Stupidly, without thinking I turn myself around, but instead of turning away from the stage I turned towards it. That wouldn't have been bad in itself except it was precisely at the same time that Mr. Arrogant decided to discard his robe and drape a sheer white sheet, that had just dropped from the ceiling, over his goods. The sheet left nothing up to the imagination. I found myself tilting my head trying to get a better angle. Was he really that big? Holy hell, no wonder he could afford to be so arrogant. He bent his knees and lifted his arms up allowing the sheet to fall even lower. The only thing holding it up was the angle he balanced himself on. Then he did the unthinkable.

He turned around with his amazing ass to the audience and opened the sheet wide for a full on rear view, and hot damn was it a view. The screams erupted once again, but I didn't hear a damn thing. My entire focus was on that perfectly shaped romp. Then, he dropped the sheet into one hand and turned his naked body to the side, allowing his right thigh to cover his goods as he bent over grazing his right arm down his leg. It was at that point I dropped my tray. Thank God, nothing was on it, but the worst possible thing happened, Mr. Arrogant chose that exact moment to look my way. Filled with embarrassment, I picked up my tray and scurried off into my hidey-hole, the kitchen corner.

Heavily panting I pushed open the door to the kitchen and plopped myself on the floor. With my mad dash to hide I tried to avoid the view of Lafayette, but of course, being the perceptive man he is, he noticed.

Sauntering over to me with a sway of his hips, he leaned down on the balls of his feet making eye contact with me. All I could do was groan with my hands over my face.

He began, "Don't let that arrogant fool get your panties in a twist. Forget him. I know what you need." He clapped his hands together at his new epiphany. I knew that whatever it was, it was going to be bad. "Shopping trip tomorrow. Just us girls." I looked at him and laughed, a full out laugh, the first one since I discovered that I'd be working in a strip club. "Have you met Claudine yet? She's my girl. Her twin brother is the studly blond specimen that dances to the right of your arrogant hunk. She's around here somewhere. Anyways girl, she is fab when it comes to shopping, what do you say to us girls going out? We will get our own sexy on." He put his hand up and shook his shoulders, proving his point.

I couldn't help but to agree. I didn't have many friends and knew that Lafayette and I would get along great or at least, I hoped.

Trying to keep the word vomit to a minimum, I squeaked out, "Sounds like a plan."

"Wonderful!" He clapped his hands together and jumped up in one swift motion. "Now get back to work girl, I still want you employed tomorrow. You're too much fun to get fired so soon." Placing his hand on his hip and the other in the air, he walked back into his kitchen with attitude. I wished that I had the confidence to walk around like that.

Taking his advice, I went to check up on my tables.

The rest of the evening flew by without incident. I just remembered to keep my head down when I walked and not look at the stage. It was a hard feat, but I managed. Once I got into my groove, I hated to admit it, but I was actually having fun. It was definitely different that waitressing at a bar like Merlotte's. Many of the customers stayed all evening and never left, it wasn't a constant flow of people coming in and out, but the same ones. So my tips, weren't great, but the base pay was better.

Finally my evening was coming to a close and I was cleaning my tables with the rest of the waitresses. A beautiful blond girl, who must have been about six feet tall wearing five inch wedge heels to make her even taller, came over to introduce herself to me.

"Hey, I'm Claudine. Heard you weaseled your way into our girl's day tomorrow."

My eyes widened in embarrassment. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean…"

She cut me off with a giggle, "I was just teasing you girl, lighten up. I'm happy to have a newbie to shop for. I have a great fashion sense. You'll need me for Saturday night."

"What's…Saturday night?" This job was so new to me I hadn't worked out all the details yet.

"Every other Saturday night, by popular request, we have a female review night. Some of the female waitresses dance and the males wait tables. It was a way for us to branch out into the male population in the area."

My eyes widened in fear. Would I have to dance, around a pole? "Do I…" My fear paralyzed me and I couldn't finish my thought.

"Oh God, no honey. Some of us have been practicing for a long time. I actually find it quite stimulating to be up on stage in the spotlight. I can show you some moves sometime, it really frees your soul." That's not exactly how I would describe the experience. To me, it was more like jumping out of a plane at thirty-thousand feet, something I would never do.

"I don't think…that's for me." Claudine and I chatted while we cleaned. I hadn't really gotten a chance to go back stage and view all the props so Claudine offered to give me a tour.

Behind the stage were things like beds and other types of furniture. I even spied a few long poles and hanging ropes and other contraptions that I could only guess were for some kind of trapezes act. She brought me into a costume room which was quite fascinating.

"Here we can dress up in anything we so desire. You want to be a princess? Well you can. You want to be a Gladiator, the costume's right here." I listened as Claudine talked. I swept my hand over the silky fabric of the fairy princess outfit. I always wanted to have wings so I could fly when I was a child. I always thought that if I was a fairy then I could disappear just before I was about to humiliate myself or turn back time when I did.

Claudine began walking and I followed. She led me to another door and explained, "These are our lockers. Yours is the last one on the left hand side. Go on in, I'll be back in a minute, I just have to grab something."

So Claudine left me standing there to fend for myself. What the hell, I had already made it through my first night, I could open a door by myself right? Wrong. I opened the door to see Mr. Arrogant Asshole himself standing in front of his locker, which happened to be next to mine, without a stitch of clothing on. I thought about doing an about-face and walking right out the door I just came in, but I didn't. Instead I did the worst possible thing, I stared.

In a voice that could only be described as pure sex, he asked, "See something you like?"

My head snapped up as Mr. Arrogant himself spoke to me. I met his eyes and a warm blush spread across my face as he turned to the side giving me more of a view of his, um package then I had previously seen on stage. Forcing my eyes to remain on his face, I casually answered, "Not really," when I wanted to scream, yes, God dammit. Show me more!

He smirked as he turned back to his locker knowing that he managed to capture my attention. I drifted over to my locker, which was next to his, for lack of a better thing to do. I opened it and stared at the empty space for a minute or maybe two, until I heard Mr. Arrogant slam his and exit the room. I sank to my knees on the floor and closed my eyes thinking of the gorgeous man who had been standing next to me. I knew at this moment, I was done for. I had no idea how I'd get through tomorrow night.

Please tell me what you think! Please press the little green review button, it's almost as good as Eric clad in furs. Yum!

Thank you to my fabulous Beta, Charverv for holding my hand with this new story. I hope you all like it and depending on the response, I'll continue. The link below is the Chippendale's act Eric's act was based on. Take out the (dot) and place in the actual dot. I hope it works for you because I kept trying to put the link of my profile and the site kept crashing on me.

http://www(dot)youtube(dot)com/watch?v=kYYrwXISdvM