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  Shine On

  By

  KT Grant

  Copyright

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  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Shine On

  Copyright  2017 by KT Grant

  Cover art by Insatiable Fantasy Designs

  Smashwords Edition

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work, in whole or in part, in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.

  Published by KT Grant

  Shine On

  Jade Moretti’s job at Lovely Diamonds, the most popular gentlemen’s club in Las Vegas, pays well. She’s not a stripper but an accountant who loves running numbers and watching revenues rise. Lovely Diamonds is a family business, run by her former stripper mother for over thirty years. At twenty-three, Jade is ready to embrace adulthood and live life on her own terms.

  As Jade catches the eye of a former popular classmate from high school, another face from her past reenters her life. Her former best friend, international rock star Ivy Falls, has returned, not only to shake up the town but to jumpstart her relationship with Jade, who she left behind for fame and fortune.

  Ivy wants a second chance, and won’t take no for an answer. Is Jade willing to forgive the woman who walked out on her, leaving her heart shattered in the process?

  Dedication:

  To those who find love through music:

  “Where words fail, music speaks.”- Hans Christian Andersen

  CHAPTER ONE

  The wave of heat, as I stepped out of my five-year-old red hatchback, made me want to get back in and blast the air conditioning to arctic, turn-my-nipples-into-an-ice-cube setting. At four o’clock in the afternoon, brutal weather was par for the course in Las Vegas. But whining about it after living with it since I was born wouldn’t change anything.

  The heat wasn’t the only thing making me crankier than usual. Sleep hadn’t been on the agenda last night. I was slightly hungover in part because of a wedding Mom made me go to for some political bigwig’s daughter. Also, the one-night stand I had with one of the guests didn’t help. A surprising blast from my not too distant past—the daughter of the man who was once my dead father’s enemy—may come back to bite me in the ass. But the sex had been worth it. My way-too-long dry spell was now over.

  “Hey, pretty Jade,” Grover, one of the bouncers at the door to Lovely Diamonds—Vegas’s most popular gentlemen’s club, and my mother’s pride and joy—flashed a toothy white grin among his dark skin.

  “Hey, sexy,” Grover was one of my favorite Lovely Diamonds employees, and extremely easy on the eyes, which was to be expected since Mom employed some of the hottest people in Vegas.

  “You’re here until midnight?” He gave me a fist bump.

  “Yep. Payroll has to be turned in tomorrow, so I’ll be chained to my desk for most of the night.”

  With a wave, I entered the main room where women, wrapped around metal poles in various degrees of undress, entertained a rowdy audience from five stages. Servers in skimpy outfits paraded around with trays of drinks. More strippers in G-strings and high heels prowled the floor between their turns on stage, offering lap dances.

  Strobe lights flashed above, while music blasted. At the bar, my younger brother Kenji reached for a cocktail shaker. Five female bartenders were also on duty tonight, each clad in a shimmery tank top with the Lovely Diamonds logo plastered over their generous breasts, but Kenji offered eye candy for the lady customers. As always, a group of them gathered by his section of the bar, focused on his every move. A girl with purple highlights, twined around one of the poles mounted on either end of the bar blew me a kiss. I blew her one back then returned my attention to my brother.

  He flipped a bottle over his shoulder and then, without missing a beat, poured the booze into a martini glass. The cluster of women oohed and ahhed, and one leaned in to kiss him. He smiled and tossed a cherry in her mouth instead. Once he lined up their drinks in a row, he bowed, and they all cheered, handing over payment, with a little extra for his performance.

  The cherry swallower, a few years older than Kenji, grasped the back of his head and pulled him in to whisper in his ear. He swept his hand down her arm then shifted back, displaying a smile. She returned a blinding one and pulled out a white square with print on it. He snagged it with two fingers and slid it into the pocket of his jeans. The woman flicked her dyed red hair over one shoulder as she took her drink and walked away with her friends, adding an exaggerated sway to her hips.

  Kenji watched her leave, until one of the other bartenders came up to him and said something to make him laugh. He gave her a thumbs-up. Turning, he paused, noticing me off to the side.

  “You’ve been here for what, less than an hour and already got some chick’s number?” I moved behind the bar.

  “This is the first one of the night. The chick is Jetta’s friend.” He thumbed over his shoulder to one of the bartenders.

  “Good thing you didn’t sleep with Jetta, then,” I said with more snark than I intended. Taking out my stainless steel bottle from my bag, I opened the small fridge.

  Kenji crossed his arms, brandishing his black Zibu symbol tats. “Somebody’s bitchy. Didn’t get enough sleep last night because you didn’t sleep in your own bed? Hmm?” He tapped his chin.

  I chucked some ice in my bottle and poured in cranberry juice. “Don’t start. In the year or so we’ve lived together, you’ve spent many Friday and Saturday nights sleeping at someone’s place, and not always with your best friend Scarlet.”

  “You’d rather wake up the next morning to see some strange girl in our kitchen eating your cereal and drinking coffee from your favorite mug?” He had me there. Last girl he had over did just that. I gave him the cold shoulder for almost two weeks after.

  I went to slap him in the gut, but he grabbed my wrist in a loose hold. My slap wouldn’t have done much harm. He was firm in the stomach area, complete with a six pack or, by now, an eight pack because of his obsession with the gym. As much as I enjoyed computing numbers, he was a beast when it came to fitness because of his plans to become a personal trainer or physical therapist.

  “If I had coffee, I’d be more awake.” I glanced at my cranberry juice, wishing I had stopped for a latte.

  “Posey didn’t make you coffee this morning?” He wagged his eyebrows.

  “She prefers tea-shit. How do you know about us?”

  He slid his arm around my shoulder. “Mom.”

  I cursed under my breath. “Did she sound upset when she told you?”

  He squirted some soda into a plastic cup. “She asked me if you came home last night, and I said no. You’re surprised she knows? You left her at the wedding to go off with Posey Holland. What was she doing there?”

  “The same reason Mom and I were there. Posey’s dad is buddies with the groom’s parents. I never meant to leave with her, but we were drinking and catching up. The next thing I know, we’re in her car making out and heading to her apartment. At least I texted Mom I left with a friend.” I took a swig of my juice along with some aspiri
n from my bag. “What’s stranger is, before I left with Posey, I caught Mom and Posey’s dad talking at the bar, almost chummy like. I thought she couldn’t stand Vance because of the drama between him and Dad over the years. What’s changed?”

  Kenji finished his drink and poured more soda. “Maybe she’s okay with you and Posey doing your thing? I overheard Uncle Ry telling her how Holland stopped in for dinner at the restaurant last week, a first, and they talked. Maybe it has to do with the anniversary of Dad’s death on Monday?”

  Dad and Vance Holland had been best friends up until he married Mom. Something happened right before they married to ruin Dad and Holland’s friendship. I had a feeling it might have to do with Mom, but she never discussed it. But now with me and Posey hooking up, and the possibility of something more, maybe Mom would be open to talking about the real reason Dad and Holland had become adversaries.

  “Is Mom in her office?” I asked, unable to give Kenji a reason why Mom and Uncle Ry would be cool with Holland now. Even in death, Dad was still liked within the community, so much so he would be inducted in University of Nevada, Las Vegas’s Hall of Fame next weekend.

  “She was there when I got in.” Kenji checked his watch. “You’re ten minutes late for your shift,” he teased, staring at my bottle of cranberry juice as if it didn’t belong. “Hoping the juice will not only get rid of your hangover but help clear your bladder?”

  I rolled my eyes and lobbed ice at him. “My bladder is fine, thank you very much.” Saluting him with my full bottle, I moved away from the bar. Cheers and whistles near the back stage filled the room when one of the girls on the stage did a split and then tumbled to the front to press her chest into some lucky guy’s face. An array of bills floated up in the air.

  A stream of people approached the bar, so I waved to Kenji, who went back to serving. He shared claps and wrist shakes with a group of men wearing UNLV T-shirts or ones with Greek letters on them. No surprise he knew these faces. As big as UNLV was, with over twenty-five thousand, he was very popular on campus. It might have to do with the discounts he gave his friends or other students, who then spent more money on the Diamond girls.

  As I moved toward the back, servers and girls walking the floor in the hopes of giving a lap dance waved or said hello. The patrons ignored me. Even when I dressed to impress, I could never compete with the Diamond performers.

  I walked under the staircase to the second level where the VIP suites were located. My stomach gurgled at the scents of sizzling meat and spices emerging from the elevator used to bring food to the private dining rooms. A good sign because all I could stomach this morning was orange juice. I’d offered Posey a rain check after I turned down breakfast. I had the feeling she would call on it tomorrow morning if I stayed at her place tonight.

  I stopped at the door marked Owner. Mom and Dad had shared the office until his death. I always admired how their marriage was a true partnership, even in business. When I was little, I wished for the same type of marriage they had, but, even then, I knew it was a fantasy.

  I wasn’t sure how Mom would react to her daughter having a one-night stand with the daughter of the man she could barely stomach. But, based on what had Kenji had said, I wasn’t as anxious as when I had first arrived. I would accept the consequences of my actions even if it meant disappointing Mom. Grasping the doorknob, I exhaled and entered the room.

  Mom stared out the window. She wore a sheath dress I had seen her in many times. She also wore black ankle-strap sandals. Since Dad’s death she had added more black to her ensemble. Sometimes, she shook up her wardrobe with red or yellow because Dad had loved her in those colors. She rarely wore pants or shorts, and never sneakers. Her walk was impressive, something I tried to mimic but never could. She’d once had a shot at becoming a professional ballerina, but it meant leaving Dad behind and moving to New York. She gave up one dream for another, and had never regretted it.

  She didn’t turn away from the window when I entered. I shut the door and set my things on my desk before I approached her from behind and wrapped my arms around her. She set her hands on mine and squeezed.

  “How’s the view of the parking lot?” I peered over her shoulder at the parked cars against a backdrop of the buildings making up the Strip.

  “I once tried persuading your father to moving the office to the second level so he would have a better view, but he liked being on the main floor.” She patted my hand and then turned around. A small smile lit up her face, clear of the lines most women her age would have around her mouth. She took incredible care of her skin and face, staying out of the sun as much as possible. I once overheard one of the Diamond girls ask another if Mom had Botox or any facial surgery, but she never had. It was her great genes. Must be those Japanese beauty secrets handed down from her side of the family. Her eyebrows formed perfect arches. She didn’t have to pluck them. I didn’t think she had to shave too often, either, even with her jet-black hair.

  I wasn’t as well put together as Mom, but I was proud of my Japanese-Italian heritage even though it was a wacky mash-up. If I were more attractive, I would have been the perfect stripper or exotic dancer. But my boobs were too small and my ass too flat. I lived in my flip-flops, while Mom loved wearing high-heeled sandals.

  She brushed my bangs to the side. “You didn’t get enough sleep last night. Your eyes are bloodshot and smudged with shadows.”

  My face warmed. I had the reaction whenever she caught me doing something I shouldn’t. “I stayed with Posey at her condo last night. Are you angry with me?”

  She blinked slowly, her long eyelashes almost brushing the tops of her cheeks. “Angry you left me at the wedding, or angry you went home with Posey?”

  “Both?” I scraped my bottom lip with my teeth.

  She rolled her shoulders back, a strand of her long hair falling down her arm. “I rather you had called me instead of texting you were with Posey. But since all the kids your age prefer to text, there’s nothing I can do about it.”

  I shifted back in surprise. “You’re upset I texted and didn’t call you? Why aren’t you giving me the third degree about Posey with your bad relationship with her father?”

  “Bad?” She snorted and draped the rest of her hair over one shoulder. “Vance and I don’t have an unpleasant relationship any longer. It’s all water under the bridge.”

  Sometimes, it was hard to figure out what Mom felt because she was difficult to read. Where I had a bad habit of blushing or looking down at the ground when I was nervous or embarrassed, she was more like a statue, revealing nothing. But now her cheeks had more color to them. Interesting.

  “You and Mr. Holland had a nice talk at the wedding, then?” I asked, wondering what had happened between them after Posey and I left.

  “We did.” She nodded and moved behind her desk to boot up her computer.

  “That’s it?” I crossed my arms, knowing there might be more to the story.

  She continued to examine her planner. “He told me he recommended your father’s induction in the UNLV Hall of Fame. He’s the alumni representative on the board of directors and did it to extend an olive branch. I accepted his apology. Now, we’ll move on.” She pressed her lips together. “It was what your father would have wanted.”

  I couldn’t believe Dad had been gone five years. It still hurt now as much as it did when I was eighteen. My eyes stung as more memories of Daddy popped into my head. “Will you ever tell me the real reason Dad and Mr. Holland stopped being friends?” I asked with a slight plea in my voice.

  She gazed at me, again showing nothing other than a pleasant expression. “The reason they stopped being friends is ridiculous.” She fisted a hand on her hip. “Something about borrowed money and reneging on a business deal. But it doesn’t matter any longer. Also, Vance admitted he puts fresh flowers on your father’s grave once a month.”

  “He told you this at the wedding?”

  She sat in her chair and folded her hands on the desktop, he
r engagement ring and wedding band winking at me. “When I visited your father’s grave yesterday morning, Vance was there.” She flattened her hands on the desk and stared at her rings. “He’s tired of the gossip that has spiraled out of control because of how he and Dante parted ways.”

  “Wow. Do Kenji and Luka know?” If I’d had my cell out, I would have texted them both the deets.

  “Not yet.” She started to recline in her chair but then stopped. “I’ll tell your brothers on Monday when we go to the cemetery and then to dinner.”

  “Mr. Holland isn’t invited?” I asked, resting a hip on my desk.

  “No. Monday is for family,” she replied in a stiff tone. “If you’re thinking of inviting Posey to di—”

  “I’m not. Posey and I are just…friends.” I shrugged, not sure what we were. I guess lovers would be appropriate, but telling Mom made me too uncomfortable.

  “Posey is a lovely girl. I don’t have any issue if you two date.” She gave me a warm smile. “I think Vance would approve also.”

  “He doesn’t have a problem with his only child being gay?” I lowered my gaze, shamefaced. I never officially sat down with Mom and had the I’m gay talk with her. We never had to. She figured it out the day after Dad’s funeral when she found me in bed in tears, not because I missed Daddy but because I had been rejected by my best friend. I’d made the big mistake of telling her I loved her and then kissing her after drinking too much wine. She had freaked out and told me she didn’t care for me that way and was in love with someone else—another woman, one of the biggest female pop stars on the planet.

  Mom got up and came over to me, tucking a strand behind my ear. “He acted like he didn’t care, just like I don’t care who you love. I hope you’ll find someone like I did with your father.”