A couple of hours later Flick was still there, with Whyte, still enjoying the music and the dancing. Here she felt like Alice must have in Wonderland. The place was so bizarre, so at odds with everything she had experienced in her upbringing. Never in her life had she been anywhere like this, it was enlivening. The experience wasn’t so much sexual as it was enthralling. These peculiar creatures in this alien environment captivated her.
Rushe hadn’t been back to their table. Flick knew he’d be watching her, probably while getting a private dance on the other side of the bar.
‘So, how do you feel?’
Whyte took Flick’s hand under the table, and the contact startled her. Fuzz hung in her head from the couple of vodkas she’d consumed, but she imagined she was on an adrenaline high too.
‘I feel good,’ Flick said.
‘You like the dancers?’ he asked, sweeping her hair away from her shoulder.
‘They’re very talented, there’s energy about this place, it’s so alive.’
‘Yeah,’ Whyte grinned. ‘Do you want to try it?’
‘The dancing? Oh no, I couldn’t possibly—‘
‘Don’t worry, everyone here had to start out somewhere. Don’t think about them... think about me.’
Whyte leaned in and brushed her cheek. ‘You want me to dance?’ Flick asked. ‘You want me to dance, out here in public, for you?’
‘We could go back to my suite, if you want privacy.’
‘I’m not ready for that yet,’ Flick said, and tried to withdraw her hand from his, but Whyte held on.
‘Ok, it’s ok, we’re going slow,’ Whyte said. ‘Why don’t we go and sit on the couch, just over there.’ He nodded past her to the seating area. ‘We’re just going to sit there, quiet, private, but still here with everyone, ok? There’s no pressure, Flick.’
Indecision swirled, because technically there was nothing wrong with his suggestion. They were on a date, thinking about a relationship, so it made sense for him to want to spend time alone with her. If Flick pushed away from that too much, he would know things weren’t as they seemed. Therefore, she bobbed her head in assent.
Whyte kept her hand and his smile glowed as he towed her from their table in the lit area. She followed on but felt unbalanced by the move and tried to think of what would come next, would Whyte kiss her? Would he touch her?
Flick craved Rushe’s forethought now more than ever. As she tried to reach for it, they crossed into the darkened area. Her eyes adjusted to the illumination, and the first thing they fixed on was Rushe, in an armchair, a brooding professional, and no female in sight. Still Whyte guided her on. Rushe was ready to explode. Flick needed a way out of this, and so she went with her instinct.
As they were about to pass Rushe, she deliberately twisted her foot from her heel. Flick stumbled forward and landed on Rushe, sending his drink spilling over both of them. His arm came around her in a stabilising manoeuvre, and she gasped out.
‘Oh, oh, I’m so sorry!’ she yelped, and pawed at Rushe’s chest. ‘You’re all wet.’
‘Don’t you worry yourself about that, Sweetheart,’ Rushe said.
In her mock sorrow, she glanced up to see Rushe ogling her cleavage. Her fury remained, but when she realised how proud he was of her for the tactic, the anger subsided a little. At that same moment, she realised his erection was digging into her hip too. Some things, it seemed, were automatic where they were concerned.
‘Did you trip?’
Whyte’s voice reminded Flick of the executive’s presence, and just in the nick of time too. Her vodka-drenched senses were only a few seconds away from seeking out Rushe’s mouth with her own.
‘No, I don’t think so,’ Flick said, and managed a giggle, which she thought would be in character of the naive woman Whyte assumed her to be. She also batted her eyelashes, which caused Rushe to peer closer.
‘You got something in your eye?’ he asked, tilting her head, but Whyte took hold of her waist and lifted her back to her feet.
When he released her, Flick dropped onto Rushe’s knee. ‘Oh, I think I hurt my foot,’ she said, bending to rub her ankle.
Sitting on Rushe was a perfectly natural thing for her, but she realised it didn’t look very good from Whyte’s position. ‘Is this gonna be added to my room tab?’ Rushe asked Whyte, but Flick laughed aloud.
‘You’re funny?’
‘Am I?’ Rushe asked, without moving his lips, but Flick knew from his relaxed expression that it wasn’t anger he hid. ‘Are you staying in the hotel?’
‘Uh, yes,’ Flick said to him, then glanced at Whyte and back at Rushe. ‘Yes, I am.’
‘You are?’ Whyte asked.
‘I’ll take you to your room,’ Rushe said. As he stood up and discarded his glass, he took Flick under his arm and held her weight.
‘You will not,’ Whyte said.
‘I’m wet,’ Rushe said. ‘And she’s wasted.’
‘Which is why I think you’re the last person she should be alone with,’ Whyte asserted.
‘You think I’m gonna fuck her?’
Flick laughed again; this act was much easier to pull off when Rushe was beside her. ‘I’m a virgin.’
‘Sure you are, Sweetheart,’ Rushe said, with the twist of amusement in his voice.
‘I will accompany her.’
Whyte was annoyed, Rushe was as aloof as ever, and Flick laughed in her supposed drunken state. ‘I’ll be fine,’ Flick said, patting Whyte’s arm. ‘I had a great time, thank you. I’ll be here at work tomorrow.’
Rushe didn’t wait for anything else, he just started to move. Flick was still connected to him, so she went along as well. Eventually they were out the hotel access door and in the elevator going up.
‘What’s your room number?’
‘Six something,’ she said, leaning on him as she took her key card from her clutch.
‘Six what?’
‘I don’t know,’ she said, and laughed again.
‘You’re not that drunk,’ Rushe said.
‘I might be.’
‘You’re not.’
‘How do you know?’
‘You snort when you’re drunk,’ he said.
Flick’s chin fell as she gasped in air and glared up at him. ‘I do not!’
‘You do.’
‘I don’t,’ she said, but Rushe just watched the numbers. ‘Six twelve.’ Flick slapped the card on his chest forcing him to take it. ‘Here.’
‘You should be pissed at me,’ he said. The pair of them stood, side by side, watching the floor numbers illuminate.
‘I am pissed at you.’
‘More pissed. Why aren’t you more pissed?’
‘I trust you,’ Flick said, and took his arm around her waist to lean on him as they traversed out the elevator and down the hallway to her room. ‘We’ll fight about it later, and I’ll make you grovel, but not here like this...’ They stopped at her door, and Flick rested against it to look up at him. ‘I panicked, downstairs, I’m sorry. Whyte wanted to move seats, and I thought he might try to kiss me, and—‘
‘You did the right thing,’ Rushe said, taking her chin into his grasp. ‘You hear me? You did the right thing and I’m proud of you for thinking fast like that. I’m only happy I was there to—‘
‘I’d have fallen over another man if I’d needed to.’ Flick smiled, but Rushe’s expression had settled into something peculiar that enticed her. ‘Usually when they’re around, you look at me... like you don’t know me. I don’t like it when you look at me that way.’ Rushe didn’t respond, but that look of interest travelled to her lips. ‘Whyte will be suspicious, if he thinks you’re interested—‘
‘I want him to think I’m interested.’
‘What?’
Rushe leaned closer, like a man ready to swoop in for the goodnight kiss. ‘Whyte has a fetish.’
‘A fetish? I don’t understand what...’ Rushe’s fingertips sailed up her arm, with a touch that was so gentle it was barely
there, and he’d never touched her like that before.
‘He likes to watch.’
‘Watch what?’ Flick asked. ‘I know he likes the dancers—‘
‘Sex, Kitten, he likes to watch other men having sex with his women.’
Rushe’s palm slithered over her shoulder to her cheek, and he tipped her head back for better access. ‘Don’t you kiss me, don’t you dare kiss me for them,’ she murmured. ‘How do you know about that?’
‘Lisa told me.’
‘When?’
‘On Monday night, after you left.’
‘You went to the Lounge?’ Flick asked, and Rushe nodded once. ‘Did you have sex with her?’
‘Kitten,’ he groaned.
‘Ok, I know, I’m sorry.’ Flick took her hands to his still damp chest.
‘Whyte can’t get it up on his own; it’s how she and Joey got involved. Lisa was dating Whyte and things heated up, Galante Senior stepped up first, but then one night he was busy so Joey did the honours. It’s not a new thing. They do it regularly.’
‘And you want to do the honours with me?’ she asked. ‘Rushe, I wouldn’t be comfortable having an audience when we—‘
‘I’m not gonna share you,’ Rushe said. ‘He doesn’t know me very well; right now he’ll feel threatened. I’m on your doorstep, which is further than he’s got.’
‘But it would arouse him to see this, to see you with me?’
‘Yeah. Trouble with Whyte’s fetish is that the couple having sex figure out they don’t actually need him, so Whyte is shut out.’
Flick wanted to question Rushe about the apartment; she wanted to know why he’d misled her. Instead, she stroked his chest, just happy to have her lover within reach.
‘We’ve never...’
‘No one watches me fuck you, not with a gun to my head. You’re mine.’
‘No, I was going to say,’ she said, pressing her palms to his pecs. ‘We’ve never... there’s a bed right through this door behind me.’
‘You want me to fuck you?’
‘I’m saying it’s odd that we’re not just going for it.’
‘You’re a virgin,’ he said.
‘I know,’ Flick sighed.
‘Best cover ever.’
‘Not from where I’m standing.’
‘It’s a turn on,’ Rushe said.
‘You’re always turned on... I want to go home,’ she confessed, then shrugged. ‘I don’t know where that is anymore.’
‘It’s here. I told you we could live wherever you wanted.’
‘You set up a false home under a false name,’ she said. ‘Why did you do that?’
‘Go to bed,’ Rushe said, and the look of desire on his face vanished. Just like that, he’d put up the walls again.
‘That’s your explanation for everything, to walk away,’ she said. ‘You can’t just shut me up because I’m inconvenient for you.’
‘We can’t argue here,’ he said through gritted teeth. ‘The cameras have eyes but no ears. They’ll notice if we’re fighting.’
‘Oh, whatever,’ she said, snatching her room key and spinning around to dig it into the lock.
Rushe snatched her arm and whirled her around. ‘I’m trying to protect you.’
‘From what?’ she asked, but received no reply. ‘Why can’t you tell me the truth?’ Still, he said nothing. ‘Don’t you trust me?’
‘Not to screw around on me, sure.’
‘No qualifier, do you trust me?’
‘You're reckless and—‘
‘Rushe!’
‘What the fuck do you want me to say?’ he snapped.
‘I want you to answer the question, Rushe. Do you trust me?’
Out of other options, honesty was all that remained for him. ‘No.’
Pushing for the answer might have been ill advised, but if Flick was honest with herself, she’d expected exactly that response from him. Hearing him say it aloud was a step forward, but it wasn’t one she savoured. So with nothing more to say in this moment, Flick went into her room and left Rushe standing in the corridor alone.
Chapter Sixteen
Flick got a new uniform before starting her shift, and Rosa didn’t ask questions. Two hours later the room had quietened to less than a dozen patrons. Rosa approached, and Flick knew her supervisor had something to say.
‘I want to talk to you.’
‘Ok,’ Flick said, following Rosa to one of the couches where the women sat together. ‘Are you firing me?’
‘No. Last night, with Evan, was everything ok?’
‘Sure.’
‘It’s just, I saw you leave with that Rushe guy, and—‘
‘I fell. It was embarrassing, but he only walked me to my room because I’d soaked him with alcohol.’
‘Evan brought you down here to see what you thought of the X-Lounge. You asked for the shift change, and... Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday are different here. They tend to be quieter in the casino and in the hotel, so we have to offer something special, something extra, something exclusive.’
‘I understand,’ Flick said. ‘I had a lot of fun last night.’
‘Are you still interested in the change?’
‘Of shifts?’
Rosa nodded. ‘We always start women on the Thursday to Sunday shift, to see if they have what it takes. Obviously, Evan thinks you do or he wouldn’t have brought you down here. I wasn’t so sure of you myself, to be honest.’
‘Is that why he asked me out? Why he dated me? To groom me for—‘
‘Oh no,’ Rosa said. ‘No, he likes you. It’s a compliment actually, when he and Lisa started...’ Rosa trailed off and a few shades of colour left her face.
‘It’s ok,’ Flick said, covering Rosa’s hand. ‘I know he saw other women before he saw me. It must be problematic for him to see Lisa with Joey. Do you know what happened?’
‘Joey likes to invite other women into his bed,’ Rosa said. ‘I suppose Lisa was one of those women.’
Flick couldn’t tell if Rosa believed that to be true, or if she was covering up the truth. ‘Wow... Lisa said you used to date her brother.’
‘Date is a bit far, we had a fling, turned out he was totally nuts though, so...’
‘I’m sorry, it must be difficult for you,’ Flick said. ‘Your feelings for Joey’s father and—‘
‘You been asking about me?’ Rosa scowled.
‘No, no, it was just what Joey said that day here in the Lounge.’
‘Joey doesn’t know what he’s talking about. You should stop talking too.’
‘I’m sorry, I just hoped we could be friends,’ Flick said, but the hostess was unimpressed.
‘If you want to change shifts you can, that’s all I wanted to tell you.’
Flick knew to drop the issue. ‘I just want to be sure that... would I be expected to... sleep with anyone? I couldn’t—’
Rosa looked from left to right, and relaxed. ‘No, you’re a server. But if a guy asks for a dance, our servers would usually do that. There are women who are provided for sex, but... if a guy is really adamant we would...’
‘What?’
Rosa sighed out, resigned to the truth. ‘Some of the men like to... we don’t report drug use. Sometimes if a guy needs a little something to loosen him up, we might slip something into his drink, take him upstairs to the hotel, then let him pass out in bed before... you know... let him sleep it off.’
‘So the hotel gets his money?’ Flick’s assumptions hadn’t been far off.
‘If you want to empty his wallet before you leave his room, we won’t ask questions,’ Rosa said with a laugh, but Flick wasn’t convinced that she was joking.
‘I’ve never danced for a man... like that.’
‘There’s nothing to it,’ Rosa said. ‘Shake your ass, lean forward so he can see your breasts, he doesn’t really care about the rest. You’ve got the body for it. Kimberly will show you.’
‘Kimberly?’
‘She used to work th
at shift, switched back a couple of years ago when she had her kid.’
‘Kimberly has a kid?’
‘Sure.’ Rosa stood up, so Flick followed. ‘We’ll get you a new uniform. You can finish out tonight, and then we’ll see you here on Monday midnight to three. We work half shifts those days... It’s a lot of extra work!’
With another laugh, Rosa left Flick alone. Terrified didn’t begin to describe her mood. She had a fake relationship with Whyte that may or may not be depraved, and it turned out that the man she loved wasn’t as invested in her as she thought. Flick could feel the wheels coming off the wagon, but she was already going too fast down this steep hill to stop. All she could hope for was a soft landing.
Persistent knocking rudely awakened her from her slumber. On coming back from her shift at the Lounge the night before, Flick had deliberately hung the do not disturb sign. Yet, her visitor persevered. So as much as she didn’t feel like being social, and she wasn’t ready to receive visitors, she rolled out of the crisp white sheets and stuck her arms in the fluffy hotel-monogrammed bathrobe.
The basic room hadn’t come with extras, at least not until yesterday. Strange that she should benefit from this special treatment only after Whyte knew she was staying in the hotel. Flick slogged toward the door, aware that Whyte and Rushe, and possibly Rosa, were the only people who knew she was here.
Sure enough, when she peeked through the spy hole she saw Whyte. With a yawn, Flick unfastened the door lock and opened it with a smile.
Whyte was poised to speak but paused when he took in her features. Flick hadn’t slept well, she hadn’t been up for a shower let alone pulled a brush through her hair, and clearly, this bemused the businessman.
‘Sorry, did I wake you?’
‘No,’ Flick said on another yawn. ‘I was awake, I just wasn’t up yet.’
‘Can I come in?’
Flick didn’t have a suite, only a room with a bed and an en-suite. She didn’t know where they’d sit, but there was no reason to object. Stepping aside, Flick held open the door to allow him past. Whyte came in and handed Flick a rolled up newspaper that she hadn’t seen initially.
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