by Jordan Bell
The waitresses wore costumes that crossed demure Victorian with Old West whores. A woman wearing a ruffled Victorian gown with the front cut open and pulled back like curtains to reveal tiny purple bloomers leaned over the laps of several older men and refilled their drinks from a bottle of chilled wine. Another waitress wore a black leather bra with gun hostlers and riding chaps. Everywhere were corsets and garters, gloves and flowers tucked into elaborate hairstyles. They were costumed and theatrical in a classy, executive gentlemen’s atmosphere, though beyond the lounge I could see bodies grinding and throbbing in time to the deep, gut vibrating bass.
“Oh Mia!” Cassandra gasped and took my hands and gazed around like she’d just nose-dived down the rabbit hole. “I can’t believe you got us in, but oh I could kiss that boss of yours.”
I laughed and felt deeply impressed myself. “I’ll pass on the compliment.”
We were led to a private alcove and my sister’s friends crowded her and gushed and fawned over men who passed and gazed desperately at them. Honestly, I was a bit of a tag-along. My sister was my only companion here, and it was clear she needed her horde of friends just a fraction more than her sister that night.
I felt strange here, when there were so many women more beautiful than me within arm’s reach, not exactly the powerful seductress I’d set myself out to be that night. I honestly didn’t want to return to my room alone that night. Excusing myself, I slipped out of the booth and went to the bar alone.
A runner of black lights along the bar top made my dress glow in a way that made me feel otherworldly. I leaned into the bar just enough that the back of my garter belt would show and waved for the bartender. The man beside me turned his head, grazed my body with a hungry, satisfied gaze, and smiled cat-like into my eyes. He turned fully into me and boy was he handsome, all broody and dark lidded with eyeliner and neat, white teeth. He wore an old-fashioned bowler hat in an ironic, hipster way and I thought, I could so do worse. Sexy eyes drove me wild.
“Hi,” he murmured and grew bold enough to scrape the back of my bare arm with his fingertips.
“Hi,” I answered, and bat-batted my eyelashes at him.
“Two house specials,” he told the bartender and in a second we were poured the glowing drinks that smelled like plum and wine and tasted a little like sangria. A black light embedded in the little V beneath the chalice gave the drink its hypnotic light effect. We clinked rims and sipped and I couldn’t help myself because it was this club and my clothes and this man who couldn’t stop sneaking touches of my bare skin. I leaned on my tip-toes and gave him a fluttery, flirty look. A touch me more look.
“I have been waiting for you all night,” he confessed.
“Tell me,” I purred.
“Jesus, you’re sexy as hell. Your name. Please.”
“My name is Mia,” I told him honestly, though sometimes I wasn’t as honest. It depended on the night, but tonight I was searching for Mia, the gorgeous girl who desperately wanted to be pursued.
“My name is Mark and I would very much like to continue buying you drinks tonight. Do you dance?”
“Cheers,” I threw back the rest of my drink in three, small gulps and the alcohol flooded my thoughts with a warm, tingling feeling. “I love to dance.”
“Perfect. Stay here, have another drink, and I’ll be right back. I need to go blow off my friends and then I’ll drag you onto the dance floor. Sound good?”
“Sounds great.”
I turned back to the counter and I motioned the bartender for another house special and watched Mark disappear into the crowd. The warm sangria feeling slid down my body and my hips swayed prettily to the haunting melody, ready to be whisked into the dark, smoky dance floor.
A hand slid around my waist and leaned in so very close and whispered against my ear. “Sychophantic whore.”
Every nerve in my body lit up like an atom bomb, sizzling deliciously into a core fire between my legs. I tensed and stretched back against the body without considering the consequences of my actions. The breath against my ear inhaled sharply and held me still with both hands.
There it was, that feeling of violent gorgeousness I sought so desperately.
“No one can take their eyes from you, Mia. You hypnotize them all.” He breathed long and deep, his chest rising and falling against my back. I turned my chin just a little toward his face and he pressed his nose to my temple to stop me from turning further.
“Mr. Vaughn,” I murmured and he tightened his fingers into my hips in response. “I didn’t know you’d be here tonight.”
“I couldn’t resist the pull to watch you ply drinks from bewitched men. There’s even a woman at the end of the bar whose eyes grew big as saucers and her whole body opened itself to you when you passed her. You didn’t notice. The way you look tonight, it’s destructive.” He teased.
He let go of me with one hand to wave to the bartender. He flashed his platinum and the bartender didn’t even ask for his order. A bottle of something dark and sweet and foreign was set on a tray and arranged with four glasses.
“Turn,” he ordered and pulled me in a half circle so my back was against the bar and he towered over me. This was the most casual I’d ever seen him in an expensive button down shirt, the top button undone, dark slacks. His wrist cuffs were folded halfway up his forearm, flashing his ridiculously expensive watch to the envy of everyone.
“You are awfully bossy,” I murmured.
He smirked, amused. He reached for my neck, cupped it in his hand and ran his thumb across the white satin collar. “This needs diamonds.”
I relaxed, but only a little, and pressed my lips to keep from grinning. “When I get that raise, it’ll be my first purchase. A collar of diamonds.”
Damian sucked air between his teeth. His eyes widened a fraction. “It would suit you.”
His hand tightened against the back of my neck and I swear, I swear he was half a second from dragging me to his body and kissing me. And it was a terrible idea, I mean, a really terrible kind of idea that struck a match between my legs. I crossed my ankles and squeezed my body tight to restrain it, to keep the alcohol drugging my better self from burning us both to cinders.
“You should go away now. There’s a boy coming back here who wants to dance with me and you’ll scare him away.”
The hammering in my chest begged him to get the hell out of here. I didn’t know how long I could behave. Not long. Not with the wolfish savagery in his eyes that practically ripped my clothes off with each stroke down my body. He let go of my neck, skimmed his eyes down my bare shoulder to my left wrist where the other satin ribbon clung. He picked it up and turned it over, admired the bow but frowned at the fake jewels.
“He’s not coming back,” he said so matter-of-factly it seemed absurd I’d ever thought he would. “I paid him to leave the club.”
“Of course you did. Stalker.”
“I was doing you a favor. He wouldn’t have known what to do with an untamed creature like you. You would have eviscerated him.”
“Yes, maybe, but I would have been very enthusiastic about it.”
He paused, regret chasing his eyes to my throat. Maybe lower. “Also, I am here on a business meeting and there is someone I want you to meet.”
I sighed and turned out of his view back to the bar and waved for another cocktail. “You always know how to ruin a girl’s night. Mia, you’re having too much fun and I need you to drop everything and serve my every beck and call.”
He grabbed me then, his hands wrapping around my arms just above my elbows. He snapped me back against him and growled flirtatiously against my hair, his mouth open but only barely grazing my skin. “Obstinate little girl, do as you are told for once. I’ve got Todd McKinley here who would love to gaze at you and I’d love to watch him want you. If he agrees tonight to let us represent him, I will cut you a check for one hundred thousand dollars for your trouble.”
The match between my legs went up in flames and sea
red me all the way to my heart. I could barely pant for breath as it suffocated me and the little sounds I made only urged him to tighten his hold and crush himself against me and me against the bar. I would have given up the hundred thousand dollars for him to bend me over the bar and take me in front of God and everyone. This was madness, pure madness, and if he didn’t let me go I might beg for it.
“Shit,” I gulped. “Todd McKinley. Yes. For that much money I’ll sit on his lap if it would please you.”
He must have sensed the line he’d nearly shoved me across and released his hold on me, straightened and turned away, and we both took the separation to get control of our bodies. I finished my drink, gulped it greedily to quench the blaze to a smolder of embers, but couldn’t mask the knowledge that my thighs felt moist and quivery.
“Where are you sitting? I need to go to the lady’s room, then I’ll come to your table.”
Damian said nothing but returned his hand to my body, the small of my back, and led me across the room. He pointed out the private booth three other men were sitting at and I escaped to the bathroom so I could clean myself up and gain some control on my sanity. I texted my sister, apologized, told her I’d find her soon and then went to give Mr. McKinley something nice to look at.
Fortunately, Todd McKinley gave me something nice to look at, too. He was young, maybe Damian’s age, with honey blond hair a little too long to be neatly groomed, and tan. Clearly he didn’t live on the East coast. He was hard cut and very masculine and when I stepped up to the table he stopped in midsentence to stare at me. Yes, I felt like maybe Damian was right, that I had the power to bewitch. The conversation was abandoned when Todd McKinley rose slowly to his feet, like a gentleman, to greet me. The other two men stood as well, but Damian didn’t bother. He stretched out, relaxed, a glass of wine in one hand and his elbow on the back of the booth. His legs were stretched out straight from him and he watched Mr. McKinley’s reaction to me with keen, smothered interest.
“God, I hope you’re not lost,” he said and reached for my hand. I gave it to him and he squeezed warmly.
“I hope you’re Mr. McKinley. My name is Mia Waters. I am Mr. Vaughn’s assistant.”
“No shit?” He pulled me gently into the booth beside him, across from Damian. His dark, brooding eyes settled on the two of us. He acknowledged me with a nod. “I’ll double whatever he’s paying you if you come work for me. I’ll triple it.” The other two men laughed and I laughed with him.
“You’re very generous, Mr. McKinley. I hope I’m not interrupting. I wanted to come introduce myself and give my condolences to you personally. You’re all I’ve read about in the papers this week, and I know that couldn’t have been easy. I hope tonight is finding you in better spirits.”
Todd McKinely didn’t look like a grieving grandson, and when he slid his arm around my shoulders then down to my waist, he didn’t feel like a grieving grandson either, but I made my voice sincere and emotional and Damian was right. He couldn’t look away from me. Or away from the top of my dress.
“It has been a very trying week and I am glad to be here in such beautiful company.”
I smiled, crossed my legs, and settled my hands in my lap. Damian sat up and stretched like a fox, then waved our waitress over. She was one of the corseted Goddesses with breasts like melons that I honestly wouldn’t have thought I could compete with, but at this table, I felt like the fucking sun the way these men were spellbound.
Damian ordered more drinks, and introduced one of the two men, Henry Clavox, a friend of Todd’s, and reintroduced Edward Boro, one of the lawyers at Vaughn & Marley who was vying desperately for the McKinley account. It was clear why The Dragon wasn’t here. She’d make an excellent representative for Todd McKinley, but would have put a damper on the sex they begged for with their eyes.
“You look very different outside the office, Mia. It’s a pleasure to see you like this,” Edward confided, but Todd kept a shoulder between us. Twice he reached for my thigh and placed his hand there, quickly worried about my reaction and pulled away. I didn’t encourage or discourage him. I liked his touches, as unsure as they were, and the burn between my legs grew increasingly more intense beneath Damian’s gaze which never, ever wavered from us.
There was probably something morally questionable about all of our behaviors, but at the moment I was obsessed with the feeling of want and need being showered upon me. It was quickly addicting and I was thick on the power of it. Every girl in the world should feel just like this, just once.
The conversation moved smoothly from business to politics and sometimes back to pleasure. The alcohol made us all quickly bolder and soon Todd was kissing my shoulder when he thought no one was looking, stroking the inside of my elbow down to my wrist. Once he slid his hand up my stocking from my knee to my garter belt and his hold on me tightened and he buried himself into my body before controlling his outburst and apologizing profusely. Despite his gentle manhandling, he turned out to be quite brilliant and sweet, too awkward to be charming but funny in a way he didn’t always mean and he blushed whenever that happened.
Edward slid out of the booth at some point and when he came back he had the girl from the bar that Damian had pointed out to me in tow. When he saw her his eyes grew and he shifted to make room so they would sit next to me and I gave him a pointed dirty old man look and he threw back a see how crazy you make everyone glance.
The booth was scrunched in close though, and Todd took this as an opportunity to grab me under the knees and pull me into his lap. Everyone but Damian laughed, though the intensity of his gaze made it impossible to know if he was angry, and oh God, jealous, or if he was thrown over the edge with lust. Could a person be both?
The girl’s name was Anna and she was tiny and pale. Her hair was cut in a neat little blonde bob and she had a couple of prominent freckles on her cheeks. She was adorable and sexy and I was pleased to have some of the attention I was drowning beneath shifted. Todd’s hand stayed cupped over my thigh and once he lost his head and slid it up just high enough to expose the straps of my garter belt and the whole of Damian changed, momentarily possessed, he slammed his drink like it was a tequila shot and excused himself from the table.
“Come back to my hotel room,” Todd begged into my ear and I shivered when he nipped my earlobe.
“I don’t know if that would be appropriate, Mr. McKinley,” I answered sincerely, because I wasn’t sure I was willing to go that far. Maybe. Todd McKinley was a very handsome man and I found him to be especially honest in a way I didn’t find most wealthy, powerful men to be. And yet, something held me back from going all the way.
He sighed and nodded and while he seemed disappointed, it wasn’t in any way angry. “Of course, I know. I know how it must look. You’re just so beautiful.”
“He’s right, you are very beautiful, Mia,” Anna confided, much to the delight of the three men that surrounded us. I searched the crowd for Damian, but smiled appreciatively despite not finding him in the dark club beyond our hidden corner. “I noticed you right away. You’ve got the most amazing body. Do you work out?”
“Yes. I hate it, but if I didn’t I wouldn’t get to wear these awesome dresses.”
Anna gave a little giggle and scooted closer to Todd and me. She was shameless, this girl who liked the attention of these wealthy men maybe even more than I did. She put her hand on my waist and made a show of stroking my dress as if the dress was what she liked best about me. I’ve never been sexual with a woman before, though I’d kissed a few times, especially in college, and once spent a somewhat drunk but delicious evening learning to love breasts with a college roommate and her hot boyfriend. I was not at all turned off by Anna’s touch and my relaxed stillness seemed to thrill her.
“This is a great dress. I would love to have one for myself. Do you mind?” she asked and I shook my head.
“Not at all.”
Damian decided that was the time to return as Anna climbed to her knees in the
booth and explored my dress with her soft, small hands. She had red nails and a one shouldered red cocktail dress that looked great with her fair skin and light hair.
If Damian was upset by what he saw, he didn’t show it. They all watched Anna discover me with eyes as big as the moon. Henry physically adjusted himself and Todd…I’d felt his erection since being pulled into his lap, but he gripped my hips and ground gently up into me so as not to let anyone know he was doing it and I’ve never, not ever felt so attractive as I did just then. I wished I could have bottled it up and kept it for a rainy day.
“Mia,” Anna said quietly. “Would it be very bad if I kissed you? Just a little? Just once?”
I looked to Damian then. I don’t know why, but it was his permission I knew I needed. He was breathing like a runner, his eyes heavy and drugged and deliberately slowly, he nodded his wish.
“You flatter me, Anna. Yes. Please. A kiss.”
Anna settled her hand in the crook of my neck and leaned in. She didn’t make me work for it at all, and her mouth was wonderfully soft, soft in a way only girl’s mouths can be. She tasted like the sangria drinks they’d been intoxicating us with, and a little bit like her lip gloss. I opened my mouth first and she leaned up straighter on her knees and reached for me. Her tongue was gorgeous and tiny and not like a man’s at all. I licked her tongue and felt like some kind of predator the way I controlled her panting, begging mouth. I wrapped my fingers around the back of her thigh and gave her skin a gentle stroke and tugged her closer. She moaned prettily and around us the men made their lusts known audibly.
