For the first time she could ever remember working at the club, she actually felt regret and guilt for being rude to a customer. Not just ANY customer, but someone that she had not only lusted for, but respected for many years. It didn't digest well inside her.

Kat gently tapped on her boss' office door, "Max?" she asked softly as she poked her head inside the room.

"Kat," he looked up from his desk. "What's up? Come in," he said politely as he motioned for her to come inside.

"Max," she began as she sat down in the leather chair in front of his desk, "I think I'm going to cut out of here for the night."

"Is everything ok?" Max asked with a tone of concern.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just have some things to take care of that I can't put off. I'll be back on time tomorrow, I promise."

"Take as much time as you need," Max smiled at her as he stood to escort her to the door.

Kat smiled back and left Max's office, slinging her bag over her shoulder. Her eyes darted side to side as she scanned the back hallway for Mo. He wasn't too hard to miss, he was a massive 6'4 black man that had shoulders the size of a truck bed. "Hey Mo," she called when her eyes finally found him.

"What's up Miss Katherine?" he smiled, putting his large arm around her shoulders.

"I need you to do something for me," she spoke up to him.

"Anything! You just name it."

"I need you to go find the guy I just danced for and tell him to come out front," she instructed.

"I don't think that's such a good idea sweetie," he shook his head at her. "You know you aren't supposed to take patrons outside of the club. It could get us both fired."

"Mo! He's not some jerk off the street. I know him," she began to trail off. "I mean, I don't KNOW him, but I know him. I know that makes no sense, but trust me--it's ok. Just do this for me. I can't walk out there..."

After a few moments of hesitation, Mo nodded.

"Thank you Mo," Kat stood on the tips of her toes to kiss his cheek. She waited until Mo went through the doors into the main room of the club before she headed outside.

Matt felt a heavy tap on his right shoulder and as he turned to see Mo, his stomach sank. He was convinced he was about to be given the beating of a lifetime and tossed out on his ass.

"Kat asked me to escort you outside," he spoke deeply.

"Way to go Sanders, getting us fucking thrown out of a bar!" Brian laughed in disbelief.

"Not you," Mo shook his head, "just him."

Matt stood reluctantly and followed Mo to the front door. As the warm Los Angeles air hit his skin, he saw Kat standing with her back facing him. She had on tight fitting skinny jeans, black heels and a fitted black t-shirt with her bag sitting at her feet as she talked on her cell phone.

She could feel the men approaching as she spoke into her phone. "I gotta go, I'll call you later," she clicked her phone shut as she turned to face them. "Thanks Mo," she smiled.

"If you have any problems, I'm right inside," he told her before he walked away.

"It's ok Mo," she assured him.

Matt stood awkwardly with his hands in his pockets as he wondered what the hell was going on. "Am I going to be jumped by some guys hiding behind the dumpster?" he tried to make light of the situation.

She laughed gently, "No, it's nothing like that. Look, I'm real sorry about what happened in there," she spoke as she lit up a cigarette. "I guess this place gets to me sometimes. I was thinking maybe you'd like to go to a REAL bar and let me buy you a drink to apologize," she sucked in a deep drag of smoke from her cigarette.

"Sure," was all he could mutter. "I should let my friends know I'm leaving..." he pulled his cell phone from his pocket. Kat watched him intently as he began pushing the numbers on his phone. "Syn, it's Matt. I'll meet you guys back at the hotel later, ok?" After a slight pause, he shut his phone and returned it to his pocket. "I'm all yours," he told her.

"Good," she smiled. "My car is over here," she picked up her bag and fished her keys out of the zipped pocket. Her thumb pushed the keyless entry twice as she opened the driver's side door, Matt following her and climbing inside the passenger side.

As the car arose from it's sleep, the speakers began to pound music out loudly, picking up where it left off when her car had been turned off earlier in the night. It startled Matt, causing her to laugh and turn the volume knob down to a lower pulse. "Yes, I like hip hop too," she joked. "Don't judge me!" Kat flipped through songs, finally deciding on a tune and turning the music up loud again as she backed from the parking spot.

No words were shared on the ten minute drive, just music and the wind whipping through the open windows. They pulled into the parking lot of a large log cabin-looking building with a large red neon sign that read HOGS & HEIFERS. There were motorcycles and custom classic cars filling up almost every space.

"This is more my speed," she told him as she cut the car's engine off. "Come on."

The inside of the bar was packed with bikers, metal-heads, punks, every walk of life imaginable. Even louder music ripped through the room, mixed with the sound of pool balls being knocked across the green velvet topped tables. It was like a scene out of Coyote Ugly--four beautiful female bartenders danced atop the beat up counter.

Kat took Matt's hand to lead him through the crowd. "Two Johnny Walkers!" she yelled to the bartender. She grabbed their drinks and headed over to a corner table that somehow seemed calmer than the rest of the bar. As they sat, she raised her glass of whiskey to Matt sharing in a salute and slamming the drinks in unison.

"Whew!!!" Kat threw her head back in a laugh, with a sour expression on her face. "That shit hurts!"

Matt laughed at her, "That's no girlie drink!"

As the drinks continued to flow, the two of them inched closer and closer--speaking intimately close, sharing jokes and random stories. The more the drinks sank in, the more freely their conversations flowed. Matt was fully enamored with this woman...she was breathtakingly gorgeous...her blue eyes lit up as she spoke. He couldn't decide whether to watch her eyes or her perfect lips as she spoke.

Several hours flew by in a blink of an eye and before either of them realized the time, a loud cowbell was rang as a buxom blond yelled, "FINAL CALL!" at the top of her lungs.

"Fuck!" Kat looked at the time on her cell phone. "It's 2 AM already? It's still early!"

Matt seemed somewhat disappointed, figuring this meant that the outing was over and it was time for them to go separate ways. His brain was racing with ideas of how to keep it from being over already...

"Do you want to go back to my place?" she asked suddenly.

'Problem solved,' he thought to himself. "Sure, why not? But...I don't think either of us are in shape enough to drive..." he trailed off.

"Normally I would totally agree with you," she stopped to take a final slug of her drink. "But lucky for you, I live right across the street. If you are able to walk, we should be fine," she chuckled.

"What are we waiting for then?" he asked as adrenaline pulsed through his body.

As they approached her apartment, Matt followed closely behind Kat as they scaled the stairs to her second floor apartment. "After you," she opened the door for him to enter.

The apartment was small, but suitable for a single twenty-something. The walls were painted a stark black with colorful reprints of traditional tattoo flash covering almost every inch of the walls. "Don't laugh," she said as her finger pointed to a large framed Avenged Sevenfold poster that hung over her couch.

Matt felt his cheeks flush, "There's nothing funny about that...it's quite flattering actually."

"Want a drink?" she asked, heading into the kitchen.

"A beer is fine," he answered as he kept looking the apartment over.

She soon emerged, holding two bottles of Corona complete with limes in the bottle neck. "Here," she offered one to him. "Make yourself at home!"

The two of them flopped down onto the couch, sipping their beer quietly.

"This is a cool place," he finally piped up. "Do you live here alone?" It was painfully obvious that she did, but any grasp at a conversation was good to him at this point.

"Yup, just me. That's why I have my trashy job dancing...living in this kind of luxury isn't cheap!" she said with a laugh. "I can't bring myself to leave LA, so I do whatever it takes to keep me here." She took another big swig of her beer. "What brings you to LA anyway? If my fan girl knowledge tells me correctly, you still live in Huntington Beach."

"Your "fan girl" knowledge would be correct," he laughed. "Every once in a while the guys and I spend a guy's weekend up here. Just to be somewhere different for a while."

"And to get away from the ball 'n chains for a while?"

'Val,' flashes through Matt's mind. "Well, that used to be the case for me...but not so much anymore."

"Why's that?" she pressed. She could see him becoming uncomfortable at this particular topic, his head laid back with the nape of his neck resting on the back of the couch as he stared at the ceiling. "Sorry...you don't have to elaborate. It's cool," she back tracked.

The fact is, the only woman Matt had ever been with was Val. His first love, his first sexual experience...his ONLY sexual experience. He had stayed true to her through the rise to fame and never once felt like he was missing out on anything...but that feeling wasn't holding his heart at that moment.

Without another hesitation, Matt sat up and leaned closely to Kat as he sat his beer on the coffee table in front of him. His warm breath was saturated with alcohol, but it smelled sweet and made her thighs tingle. He softly began to kiss her lips, his large hand sliding up the back of her neck. He tightly grabbed her hair in his fist and pulled her head back as he sucked and licked along her throat.

Matt's thoughts of Val disappeared and his body went into auto-pilot....