Total pages in book: 29
Estimated words: 27423 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 137(@200wpm)___ 110(@250wpm)___ 91(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 27423 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 137(@200wpm)___ 110(@250wpm)___ 91(@300wpm)
“I guess I know what you mean,” I say.
We lay in silence for a few minutes, Cole tracing my ribs with his fingers.
“Where do we go from here?”
“How do you mean?”
I sit up on an elbow. “I mean that you’re my boss, and I don’t want everyone to think—”
“Right now I’m not your boss. When you come to work and clock in, then I’m your boss. I won’t give you any special treatment. You’re not going to get a salary bonus for sleeping with me. I’m not going to give you shifts that I think are better. When you’re an employee, that’s what you are. But once you clock out, if you’re willing, I’d like to see you again.”
I can’t help the smile that appears on my face. “To do this?”
“Something like it. There are a lot of things here that I think you’ll like.”
“It’s so weird,” I say.
He frowns. “What is?”
“This?” I gesture around to the room we’re in. “I mean, not weird. It’s just—I never thought I’d be the person who would have sex in a sex club. I never thought I’d be the person who had a job in a sex club. I know you’ll probably think I’m lying, but I really never had any fantasies like that. I’ve always been…normal.”
Cole leans over and kisses me. It’s soft and sweet and has just enough power to make me tingle. “This is normal,” he says. “As normal as anything really is. Normal is what you make it. Your choice. Normal can be having sex under the covers with all of the lights off, or normal can be playing the captive to a king,” He gives me a pointed look. “Your normal can be whatever you want here.”
The way he says it, with such confidence, it eases my mind. He’s right. Normal is what we make it. “I can live with that.”
We collect our costumes for the laundry, and when we exit the room, I feel like I’m walking back into a different world. But I know that the thing that changed was me. Cole pulls me to him a final time, kissing me softly and running a hand through my hair. “I hope you have a good night. I’ll see you soon.”
“Yes, you will.”
I make my way to the locker room feeling like I’m floating on a cloud. Even though I look like a mess, my hair tangled and make-up smudged, I don’t think I’ve ever felt better.
There’s a dancer taking a break in the room, and she takes one look at me and smiles. “You jumped in with both feet.”
I smirk at her. “Why waste time?”
“Fair point.”
I change into my regular clothes and gather my things. Can I really just go home after this like everything is the same? It feels like tonight lasted ten years and returning to the real world will somehow shatter this amazing illusion. I guess I don’t have a choice. I just hope that when I come back, when I see Cole again, that the illusion is still there. And maybe it’s not an illusion after all.
7
The entire day I’ve had pretty much only one thought in my head: I can’t believe I did that. I had sex with a total stranger. A stranger who is my boss. And I didn’t just have sex, I let him take me like I was given to him. What is with me?
I keep wondering if they put something in the air in there that makes people go wild. And every time I think it, I know in my gut that it wasn’t the club that made me do it. It was Cole. Sexy, gorgeous, perfect Cole. I find myself wondering what he’s like when he’s not pretending to be a king. What’s he like in the morning when he first wakes up? How did he actually come to own a sex club? What’s his favorite color?
He’s a mystery, and in spite of myself, I want to know more. The rational, logical, part of me says that I shouldn’t go back. I should find a job that’s less…I don’t know. Less controversial? I should get out before I get in too deep. No pun intended. But I don’t want to do that. I want to dive head first into whatever this is. I want to find out what part of me was missing before I discovered there was so much like this.
Plus, I need the money. I really need the money.
The bell over the door to the vet’s office rings softly as I open it, and the receptionist smiles at me. “Hey, Andrea.”
“Hey. Can I see him?”
“Sure thing. You know your way back.”
She knows me because I’ve been here every day for the last five days in a row. My golden lab—ironically named Brownie—has been here for those five days, prepping for, having, and recovering from a heart surgery. And surgery for any species is expensive. I thought I was going to be fine. I had savings. But layoffs never come when you expect them to.