Read Online Offensive Behavior (Sidelined #1) by Ainslie Paton - Free Book Online

might be like to touch her shiny hair, run his
finger over the peaked bow of her full top lip, was why she hadn’t told the
others how she’d saved his sick sorry self from being rolled on the street or
picked up for vagrancy.
    Curious
that.
    Why
would she do that?
    “Aren’t
you going to ask why we’re strippers?” asked Lavinia.
    He
wasn’t. He intended to watch Lux and construe increasingly more distracting
fantasies of them together in his head, like holding her hand, making her
smile, kissing her, rubbing his hands over her naked body, so he didn’t pick up
the subtlety until it was too late.
    “Why
are you all strippers?” he said.
    Mass-scale
grumbling ensued. He wasn’t supposed to ask that. Shit . Lux met his eyes
with her patented kiss-off look. Up close and casual like this when it couldn’t
be construed as part of her act, he didn’t like it one bit. And he didn’t like
the disapproval either.
    “Ah,
none of that. You’re not strippers, but why the hell not? You’re more than
halfway there, why not own it?” It was the same logic he’d used at Plus. Halfway
good was never good enough. To succeed you had to commit one hundred percent,
even when that went against common sense and collected wisdom.
    “Wow,”
said Cinnamon. “I’m a pole dancer because one day I’m going to be a
chiropractor and not crippled with debt when I get there. You do know what a
stripper does?”
    Interesting,
they expected him to judge them poorly for what they did. “Earns more than you
guys. Works in better clubs. Gets to become a debt-free chiropractor a whole
lot quicker.”
    “Takes
her clothes off for money,” said Lavinia. “Let’s men touch her. Gives lap
dances.”
    “None
of that is a crime. It’s a choice. It’s an art. It’s an industry.”
    “The
sex industry,” said Lux. “Which traditionally takes advantage of women.” Her
expression told him he could fuck off and die, but he didn’t get it. She didn’t
get it.
    “You
think because you don’t strip and you don’t work in a real strip joint you’re
not in the sex industry?”
    “Yes,
we’re hypocrites,” she said.
    “Exactly.”
So she did get it. “You get paid the same way.” He looked around the table. “You’re
all contractors, right? You have no benefits,” he threw his hands up in
frustration. “It’s like being half pregnant.”
    “I
don’t like this guy anymore. I’m ordering something expensive to go with my
hypocritical, not a stripper, not accidentally pregnant attitude,” said Lavinia.
She half stood with the menu in her hand to get a waitress’ attention and he
thought for a moment she was about to lean over and slap him. Maybe he deserved
it. Was it more chivalrous to suggest they should be fully dressed at all times
data-entry operators?
    “That’s
exactly what my parents think,” said Tiffany. “I told them it was just dancing.
They think I’m a prostitute.”
    “Now
that’s different. Dancing for money and sex for money are not the same things.”
Any fool could see that.
    “Some strippers
sell sex, so what you’re saying is we might as well all do that,” said Lux. She
had a way of putting words in his mouth that annoyed him.
    “I’m
not saying that. I’m only saying you’re all talented.” He glanced at Tiffany. “You’ll
get there if you keep working at it.” Tiffany ducked her head and blushed, and
it occurred to him he need not have singled her out, even though what he said
was true. Sarina would’ve chewed him out for that.
    “You
could all be doing better for yourselves at a better club.”
    “You
think we should be strippers, well of course you do,” said Cinnamon. “We only
get to be saints or whores.”
    “What I
think is irrelevant, but you’d be in good company. Gypsy Rose Lee, Josephine
Baker, Mata Hari, all strippers.”
    “Who?”
said Tiffany.
    “Have
you been researching strippers? That’s creepy, ew,” said Cinnamon.
    “I have
time on my hands.” And yes,