Chapter 27
As Violet tried to scramble out of the seat, the man grabbed her arm and pulled her back on the seat, and since the club was very noisy and they were in a corner, no one really noticed what was going on. And even if anyone did, Violet knew that they wouldn't think anything much about it because they would think that they were just like every patron and stripper trying to make out, which was also not a new thing in the club.
"You bitch! I'll teach you to act right!" The man hissed, more infuriated that she had burned his inner ear with her cigarette. He immediately grabbed one of her breasts and squeezed it hard through her bra, then he thrust his head forward, trying to forcefully release her nipple so that he could suck it.
Violet struggled with him, trying to shove him off her, but the man was not only determined to capture her nipple in his mouth, he was also stronger. As they struggled, he succeeded in snapping that strap of her bra and making the cup come loose on her breast, that she had to hold it to her chest to prevent it from revealing her breast.
Unknown to both of them somebody unsteadily approached the back of the couch and tapped the man hard on the shoulder. When the man lifted his head to look back in annoyance of being interrupted, he met the dazed displeased look of Stephen who suddenly grabbed the back of the man's head and slammed his face down hard on the table.
While he pinned the man's head down on the table, Stephen snatched the expensive bottle of wine by its neck, carelessly shattered it against the nearby wall making Violet gasp and flinch in fear then he pointed the jagged end of the bottle at the corner of the terrified man's eyes.
"Whenever you see her again, you keep your fucking hands to yourself!" Stephen warned. "You try to take her against her will and I'll dig your eyes out next time!" He threatened, pushing the side of the man's face harder against the table and the man quickly lifted his arms, immediately conceding defeat and acceptance of abstaining from further harassment of Violet.
Violet glanced around the club and realized that Stephen's open interference had attracted the attention of others to them now. And did he realise that he had just wasted a drink of almost sixty thousand naira?! She wondered.
Reluctantly letting the man go, Stephen staggered backward a bit while the man quickly got up, scrambled from the seat and dashed off for his life without the slightest hesitation. Violet stared at Stephen now and he gave her a lazy smile as he unsteadily moved again indicating that he was really drunk.
She felt grateful for being saved from such a pervert and was about to tell him so when the expression on her face changed to that of shock. A crimson stain was fast spreading on Stephen's side, soaking that part of his shirt.
"What?" Stephen asked in a partial slur but when he looked down at his side where her eyes were fixed, he was surprised to see the bloodstain and that was when they realized that when he had smashed the bottle, a fragment had flown into his side and had cut him deeply. Stephen pulled up his shirt slowly and had pulled out the fragment of glass, making more blood seep out of the injury, he looked up to smile at Violet then suddenly collapsed with a thud on the floor and in alarm, Violet scrambled on the seat on her knees to look over the head of the couch at him.
★★★
Several minutes later, Violet was staggering through the hallway of the club's hotel reserved just for the strippers. As she supported Stephen by placing his arm over her shoulder and guiding his steps, she prevented him from falling over several times despite how uncomfortable his weight on her made her on her heels.
Although Stephen was half-awake, he was murmuring gibberish and sometimes singing songs that made no sense to her but she had to tolerate his nuisance because he was disoriented and probably didn't know what was going on or where he was even heading to. As she led him towards her room which she often spent the night in anytime she was not sleeping outside the club, several strippers gave them curious looks as they passed by but Violet ignored them.
When she finally reached her door, she helped him lean his back against the wall next to her door to prevent him from falling then she glanced down the hallway to see the trail of drops of blood they had left behind. She didn't let it bother her because she knew that the cleaner would clean it.
As she unlocked her door and helped him in, he was so unsteady that he suddenly staggered forward and fell down hard, knocking her over with his weight and falling on her. Violet groaned as he almost knocked the breath out of her and the back of her head began to hurt from colliding with the floor.
"When a man drinks like this, he's either plain stupid and has a knack for misbehaving in public or he is only desperately trying to drain out his frustration, and I suspect it's the latter." She said more to herself then added when she realized that he had rested his face on one of her breasts which had escaped from her bra during the fall. "Though, I think that apart from being annoying, you're still a tad stupid Mr. Stephen!" She uttered then pushed and rolled him off her body to the floor.
She got up and quickly locked the door from behind because she was scared that the patron who had harassed her might return with some thugs to even out the score with Stephen who was not even in his right senses to defend himself or ward off an attack in his present state of mind.
After locking the door, she leaned her back against the wall and exhaled sharply then she took the strap of her fancy bag over her head and hung it on the wall. After that, she placed her hands on her hips and stared down at her half-asleep drunk saviour, wondering what to do with him. Remembering the injury on his side, she kicked off her heel shoes, quickly fetched her mini first-aid makeshift-box, knelt beside him and began to dress his injury after washing off the blood and cleaning the wound.
Then she placed some cotton wool on it and plastered it. After she had helped him take off his shirt and singlet with some difficulty, she noticed that he had so many scars on his body. Wondering what he was involved in that would have caused so many scars, she decided to leave the question for when he was sober enough.
She took off the rest of his clothes and left him in his boxers, then walking towards his head and placing her hands under his armpits, she managed to lift his upper back off the floor and began to gently drag him on the floor towards her mattress.
When she finally placed him properly on her mattress, she moved him close to the wall since she didn't like sleeping close to it because it made her feel claustrophobic. Glad that the final part of the task was over, she decided to go take a shower because she was so eager to wash off the touch of the patron who had harassed her at the club.
Completely stripping herself naked and finally taking off her face mask in the room after confirming that her unplanned guest was deeply asleep, she walked into the bathroom to have her bath, and as she soaped her wet body, she was least prepared for what that night held in store for her.
Maybe if she had known better or could predict the future, she would have sent Stephen on his way home not minding that he was drunk and helpless. Perhaps, she wouldn't have been moved by his valiant act by bringing him up to her room just to repay his kindness by treating his injury and also letting him pass the night in her room.
★★★
After having her bath, Violet walked out of the bathroom, creamed and then finally donned a short transparent flowering gown. She turned her head to look at Stephen when she saw him stir in his sleep then relaxed once again when she noticed that he was not waking up but was only changing position. After she creamed her face with her special face lotion, she pulled out some oranges from her small fridge, cut them open with a knife and began to suck the juice. Oranges and cherries were her best fruits.
When she was done, she left the knife on the plate of sucked oranges close by, intending to dispose of them in the morning. Then she took her iPod which had only selected music in it, switched it on and put on her earphones, then she switched off the light. She had developed the habit of sleeping while listening to music because it made her sleep quicker and easier.
After checking once again if her door was locked, she left the bathroom door open because of the light the got into bed and lay down on it, placing her music player next to her pillow as she listened to the "What About Us" by Pink.
In a matter of minutes, she slept off. As the two slept for hours, Stephen soon began to stir in his sleep after four hours of deep sleep. At first, he lifted his head off the pillow, confused about where he was. Where was he and while was he stripped down to his boxers? He asked himself as he glanced around with narrowed eyes, trying to figure out where he was, from the light that illuminated the room a bit from the open bathroom.
Not recognizing where he was or being able to recall how he had got there, he slowly tried to sit up now then winced in pain. This made him look down at his injury and he was very much surprised when he realized that it was bandaged but little blood had seeped to the surface of the plaster.
He tried to recall what had happened and how he had gotten the injury and that was when he remembered that he had been in the club and had come to a certain stripper's aid to rescue her from a patron who had been sexually harassing her. Well, that was all he could remember until Violet's pearly white smile suddenly flashed in his mind and he remembered her vividly now.
As he pulled one of his legs up and bent his knee to the side, on the bed, he felt his knee brush someone and in his tipsy state, he looked down and realized that there was a lady sleeping down on her stomach beside him, on the bed. Wondering who she was and why she was on the same bed with him, he craned his neck to look at her face but couldn't really recognize her.
He stared down at the alluring figure of her body under the transparent material of her gown and his eyes slowly moved down her back towards her waist which was sexily lined with several local waist beads in pretty colors.
His eyes descended lower towards the firm mounds her naked buttocks gave off in her gown and he instantly felt an erection. He felt a bit-lighted and was still partially under the influence of alcohol. He didn't know where he was or what room he was in, neither could he remember wooing or paying a stripper to spend the night with him.
He couldn't even remember paying for or checking into this room, that is if it was a hotel room. The one person he would have loved to spend the night with had gotten irritated at his manner of approach and had angrily turned him down. Just then, he noticed something fluttering against the wall from the breeze caused by the fast-rolling fan and when he looked at it, he realized that it was the black mask with the feathers at the sides and on that same hook were several other masks of different colors and designs.
Now knowing that he was in Violet's room, he tapped her on the shoulder now with two fingers and said in a low voice: "Hey..." He tapped her again when she didn't respond the first time. "Hey..." Suddenly, Violet spun around, immediately getting into a sitting position and pressing a knife to his throat with her suspicious eyes fixed on him, even though they still looked sleepy.
Stephen didn't even flinch, although he was surprised at her reaction and that she had a knife. "What are you doing?" He asked now, his chin raised a bit to prevent the blade of the knife from nicking him. He could only see thirty percent of her face which was facing the bathroom but the rest of her face was lost in the shadows
"Protecting myself against you." She answered, removing the earphones from her ears.
"You were never really asleep, were you?" He asked in skepticism.
"I don't sleep deeply, Stephen, especially when I have a stranger in my room which barely happens." She told him.
He remained undaunted. "I see..." Then he asked after sniffing the air in front of him. "What was the last thing you cut with the knife?"
She gave him a puzzled look, glanced down at the knife and answered: "Oranges."
Stephen smiled knowingly. "Thought as much." Then he let his eyes roam the room as he asked: "So... if you really don't like strangers in your room, why did you bring me here then?"
"Just saving your ass after you saved mine...and you were stone drunk!"
"You treated me?" He asked, pointing at the plaster on his side.
"Yes, but that injury will teach you never to smash a bottle of wine that expensive again. You made me lose money big time. I could have resold it to the bartender and gotten at least forty-five thousand naira."
"I see... Sorry about the wine. I wasn't thinking straight."
"Yeah, right, you sure weren't!" She concurred.
"And you took off my clothes too I guess." He asked now, his head still tilted a bit backward to lessen the pressure of the blade against his throat.
"Correct." Answered she. "By the way, did you usually sleep-talk?" She asked next.
"What do you mean?" He asked with a puzzled frown.
"You kept murmuring a name while you groaned in your sleep and it was annoying!" She told him.
"What name?"
"Susan." She answered. " (Who's Susan?)"
He gave her a look now and said tersely: "Someone you don't need to know."
"Just say it's none of my business... I do not intend to pry anyway..." She stated then suspiciously asked now as she quickly glanced down at his left fingers: "Are you married?"
"No."