Unravel (Club V Book 1)

by Gisele St. Claire

  “Nineteen,” I answered, not missing a beat.

  “Wow…I guess I just assumed you were a little older than that. Oh well, still legal.”

  The phrase jarred me and I was sure my eyes went wide.

  “I mean…legal to bartend in both New Jersey and New York,” he added with a laugh. “But seriously, did you ever want to move beyond that here?”

  It was dawning on me what Jake, one of the co-owners of Club V, was asking me. This guy not only owned this club, he was part owner in all the clubs across the United States and now there was one in every state.

  Calm yourself, Samara. He asks every single woman who darkens this door the same question. Now answer him.

  “You mean…am I interested in working the floor?”

  Working the floor. It was what we called it. It was what the women who did it called it, rather than being too blunt about it. ‘I work the floor at Club V’ was something you could say in public and sound respectable, when the truth was that working the floor meant that you were paid for sex with one or many men, with varying degrees of BDSM and other acts mixed in.

  “That’s what I’m asking you, yes.”

  I would be lying if I said that I hadn’t considered working the floor before. I knew the kind of money the girls made and it was so tempting. While they had contracts with the club, they were also allowed to carry on ‘professional relationships’ with the most elite club members outside of the club, with Club V acting as a sort of intermediary or broker in the dealings. That part was all hush-hush. What went on in the club was private and everyone knew it. No one spoke of it outside of the club. Members paid high prices to keep this out of the news.

  What all the employees knew was that it was something skirting several different legal lines and that all it would take was one single bust and the wrong thing on the books and the entire thing would be up in smoke. It was organized prostitution on a massive scale, or at least that was how law enforcement and the government would see it if they ever decided to dive deep enough. My guess had always been that Club V had its hooks deep enough in some big fish and that was what prevented any of the locations from being raided.

  But was I interested in doing that sort of work myself? I knew we were allowed to set our own comfort levels. I could have been out there on the floor doing nothing but sitting on laps, a few kisses here and there, maybe a hand job from time to time. But I knew that the women who got into it planning only to go so far rarely maintained their boundaries. It was tempting once you got out there, especially when you were being wined and dined by one of the finest men you had ever laid eyes on. When he was telling you over and over again how much he wanted you. That he wanted to take you back to one of the rooms, spread your legs, and dive head first into your pussy. It made me tingle just thinking about it.

  Of course I had considered it. And I might have done it if I wasn’t still a virgin. For me that had been the linchpin. I wasn’t going to give myself up just for that. The money was good, but it wasn’t that good. I didn’t need that cash that badly.

  I shook my head at Jake. “No, I’m not interested in working the floor right now.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “Not right now, so perhaps in the future?”

  I smiled and lowered my eyes slightly. “There are a few things in my personal life I’d like to get sorted before I consider something like that.”

  Jake nodded and regarded me thoughtfully, moving closer to me. I breathed in sharply, realizing we were only inches apart. I wasn’t sure if it was the effect of the club or if I was truly attracted to this man or some combination of the two. He reached out a hand and brushed my hair away from my face.

  “Well, keep it in mind if you are ever interested. As far as I’m concerned, there is a standing offer here for you.”

  “I appreciate that.” His hand rested lightly on my shoulder and I could feel my heart racing.

  “There’s only one thing,” he said, frowning and looking down at my blouse. “Your buttons. Do you mind?”

  Oh god, had I forgotten to button one of the buttons on my shirt? Was that why I had been getting all the attention on the train? Maybe I had been putting on a peep show for all the riders.

  “N-no…” I stammered.

  Deftly, Jake unbuttoned two of the buttons on my blouse, opening it up to reveal an ample amount of cleavage and a hint of the scarlet lace of my bra. Then he removed his hand and backed away politely.

  “Club V NYC standards—top four buttons must be unbuttoned. You can head back down the hall and to your right. Celeste will be there to show you around the bar and get you settled.”

  I left Jake’s office stunned. I wasn’t sure what I had thought was going to happen, but him unbuttoning my blouse hadn’t been it. I didn’t think there had been anything truly sexual or inappropriate about it. Honestly, brushing my hair back away from my face was probably worse than the unbuttoning itself. The guy had given me no indication he was attracted to me. The more I thought about it as I walked back down the dimly lit hallway, the more I started to believe that this was probably the line that every girl who walked through the doors of this club to work was fed. Of course they would rather have a young woman on the floor rather than behind the bar.

  And my age. That was the kicker. I looked older, so I would not have pulled in the crowd that are looking for the younger ones, but knowing that I was only 19 would really do it for some of these guys. Plus the virgin thing…I made a mental note to keep that to myself. Suzy knew, but Suzy was my best friend and she was back home. There was no need for anyone at this particular establishment to know that small detail about my personal life.

  The bar was right where Jake said it would be and I found Celeste standing there looking over an inventory sheet.

  “Hi, Celeste?”

  She looked up from her clipboard and appeared only slightly annoyed to have been interrupted. I was quickly able to verify that 4 buttons unbuttoned was indeed the Club V NYC standard.

  “You must be Samara. Welcome to my bar.” She waved her hand in a sweeping motion. “It is my bar. You’ll need to remember that. I know you’re up to your own standard back home and I’m sure that’s a high one and that’s fine. But keep in mind that this is my place, I rule the roost, and while I’m happy to help you out at first, you are here to assist me. It’s not the other way around.”

  I nodded. “Got it.”

  She gave me a once over. “I see you’ve met with Jake and he’s apprised you of our button policy.” She rolled her eyes. “He’s harmless for the most part. I’m starting to wonder if it’s an inside joke between him and the other owners. Anyway, as long as you aren’t ready to run right out of the place and file a sexual harassment law suit, I’m going to assume you’re ready to start?”

  “Yup, ready to go.”

  Celeste put the clipboard down. She had a short and serious looking bob and I could tell that everything about this woman was no nonsense.

  “So, our setup is pretty standard. I don’t think you’ll have any trouble behind the bar. We get really busy on Saturday nights and with the ad campaign we’re expecting about twice the usual number. I’m not entirely sure that they thought this all the way through, but we’re going to have to manage.”

  Celeste sounded exasperated. “Along with all of this, we’ve also had a few of our girls move up to floor work here on the main floor as well as upstairs. Do you work the second floor at your club?”

  I shook my head. “Not anymore. I used to work it a little off and on when I first started.”

  “Same sort of setup here, if you do end up going up there. Main open air lounge, a few private spaces, and the sky bar.”

  The sky bar was one of the few things that drew attention to Club V. I wasn’t sure how it would be set up at this location with the kind of architecture the building had going on, but back home the sky bar was a bar that opened up onto a balcony. Plenty of people came to the front door requesting admittance, thinking they could
just pop up and have a drink. It seemed to be good advertising and members were far enough away from street level that they were still able to maintain some privacy.

  “Overall we have the same basic setup across our various locations, only New York is the biggest. You’ll find it may be a little wilder here than you are used to and I don’t know if you’ve been told to be on your guard, but you should. I wouldn’t say people here are aggressive, but sometimes they get into a state and aren’t paying attention to who is bar staff and who is working the floor, although it should be pretty clear.”

  I knew what she meant by that. There were floor workers back home, but it wasn’t the bulk of the business. It would be too risky to make Club V what boiled down to a brothel. Most people met there for sex. It was more about being in the open with it and finding people who wanted to engage in the same activity as you did. The floor workers were just a perk and part of what kept the place entertaining.

  A crowd of businessmen approached the bar then and Celeste’s entire demeanor changed. “Gentlemen! What can we get you guys this evening?” Her smile was coy and she gave one of the guys a wink as they all sidled up to the bar. Taking their orders we both began mixing drinks and she turned to me to speak softly.

  “You’re going to do fine. This place is bigger, the people are more important, but you’re here to do the same thing.” She looked out over the crowd. “But brace yourself. I think it’s going to be a bumpy night.”

  **

  “Cece? We’re out of vermouth.” One of the bartenders from the other end of the bar called out and it took me a minute to realize he was speaking to Celeste. It had been a very busy night with lots of martini orders and now at midnight it looked like we were out of a crucial component.

  “Check the stock room,” she replied, trying to keep a smiling face for the patrons in front of her. She was a wiz at the bar and it was no wonder that the men liked to get as close to her as they could. She had the sort of sassy wit that challenged them in conversation, but she was completely out of reach. I found out over the course of the evening that Celeste was happily married to her wife and they had two beautiful children.

  “Nope, that’s where I got this bottle.” The bartender held up and waved around an empty vermouth bottle. “It was the last one.”

  “Goddammit,” Celeste cursed under her breath. “Make sure we order more on Monday. Samara…” she turned to me and narrowed her eyes. “I think I know where we have some extra stock, but it’ll be in one of the storage rooms on the second floor. I would call up there and have one of them run it down, but they never answer the phone at the sky bar. Go back to the storage area, take the freight elevator up to the second floor, and it’ll deposit you in a hallway. Go right and then left and then right again and there will be a door on your left. Check there for the vermouth. And if there isn’t any there just go steal a bottle or two from the sky bar.”

  “Got it,” I said as I squeezed past the rest of the bar staff and headed back to the storage area. The freight elevator was easy enough to find and fired up when I pressed the buttons. It let me out just where Celeste said it would, but by the time the thing reached the landing I had already forgotten the exact directions that Celeste had given me. There was a right and then a left and a door on the left?

  I made my way down the hall, turned left, headed down that hallway and instead of coming to any doors I came to a hall on the right and one on the left. Ahead of me I could keep going and I would be on the main part of the second floor. I took a left down the hall, away from the pulsing beats the DJ was churning out, and eventually came to a door. It wasn’t on the left though, which confused me, but I opened it and stepped into darkness. It sure looked like a supply room.

  I felt along the wall for a light switch, but found nothing. I had my phone in my pocket which I could use as a flashlight if I needed to, but I felt out in front of me to see what exactly I was facing.

  My hands touched velvet and went right through the curtain. Suddenly I realized that wherever I was, it was much more spacious than a supply room. When I pushed past the curtain and into a dimly lit area, I could tell that I had definitely taken a wrong turn, but I was too shocked by what I saw to turn around and run.

  Chapter 4

  Part of me wondered what the fuck I was looking at, while another part knew exactly what it was.

  At the back of this large room was a stage and on this stage stood five completely naked women, each of whom were collared. There was an auctioneer taking bids on one of the women in the middle of the stage. It all looked very civilized as I saw the gentlemen in the room seated in round booths, some on their own, some with other women, some with what I assumed were business associated.

  “This is Clara,” the auctioneer read from a leather-bound journal on a podium. “She is 22, a senior at NYU, and has studied ballet for the past 17 years. Turn around for us please, Clara.”

  I watched as Clara did what she was told, totally mesmerized and aghast at what I was seeing and hearing. They truly were auctioning off women here on the second floor of Club V.

  “Clara, like all of our lovely young ladies here this evening, meets all the standard requirements. She is a virgin and as you can tell by the emerald collar, she is willing to engage in sex, a little bondage, and…anal? Do you do anal, Clara?”

  Clara turned and smiled coyly at the auctioneer and the crowd and nodded.

  “Ah, very good. Why don’t you bend over for our bidders.”

  I watched, transfixed as Clara bent over and spread her cheeks, showing the potential bidders in the audience her ass and pussy. I could hardly believe what I was seeing. I wanted to run, to get out of the room without anyone noticing me, but there was something about it that was so…shocking and scintillating, I almost wanted to see things through to the end.

  “Very nice, Clara. You can turn back around now. You’ll see Clara has smaller breasts, 30A. She watches her figure for ballet and there’s a note here that the bondage must be performed pretty carefully so as not to leave bruises because she has a performance coming up in less than a month.” The auctioneer looked out into the crowd. “That means you’d better stay away from this one, Mr. Delaney.”

  A few members of the crowd of bidders laughed at this and then the auctioneer began asking for bids.

  At that point I had had enough. I could not believe what I was seeing, that all the rumors were true, and that they were auctioning off virgins up here on the second level of Club V. I needed to get out of there and fast before someone noticed me standing there watching the borderline illegal proceedings.

  I turned and ran smack dab into a brick wall I didn’t remember being there before and then realized it wasn’t a brick wall, but one of the largest men I had ever seen and in the low light I could read that his name tag said “Carl.”

  “How did you get in here?” he whispered gruffly as he grabbed me by the elbow and steered me back out past the velvet curtain, through the door and out into the hallway.

  “I was looking for—”

  “Did you find what you were looking for? What do you think you’re doing nosing around up here? You know you aren’t supposed to be in this part of the club. I don’t know who the fuck you think you are, but I’m taking you down to Vance’s office right now.”

  My heart raced as the bouncer led me back down the hall and to a different elevator, one that took us down to the hallway that housed the offices. Carl wasn’t taking any of my explanation.

  “You can talk to Vance about it. You know you aren’t supposed to be up there. It’s a private area. You’ll lose your job over this.”

  Furious and almost in tears, I crossed my arms across my chest and realized I must look like a sullen child, but I wasn’t going to take this treatment from a bouncer. I would explain myself to this Vance guy or Jake, if I could locate him. I’d get Celeste to come in and back me up. I had only been looking for vermouth!

  The door to one of the offices stood slightly
ajar and Carl knocked on it before leading me inside.

  “Mr. Vance, this one was in the auction room.”

  “Oh really?” The man looked up from the work on his desk, somewhat amused at the sight of me next to massive Carl. “I wonder how the little mouse managed to make her way in there. Were you trying to crawl up on the auction block yourself?”

  “I can explain—” I started to say but was cut off.

  “I’m sure you can. Carl, thanks for bringing her down. You can head back up in case there are any other infiltrators trying to make their way into the auction.”

  “Yes sir,” Carl said as he turned and left me there in the office with Vance.

  “Come in, have a seat. We’ll chat.”

  I followed his instructions, really wanting to do what I could to keep my job. It was clearly going to take a moment to explain, but I knew that once I had Celeste come in to back me up everything would be fine.

  I took a seat across from him and now, closer, I could see what a handsome figure this man, who I assumed must be a manager or one of the other owners, really was. He had dark hair and a little stubble on his chin. Just enough to make him look sexy and sort of disheveled. His eyes were a striking deep blue and the rest of him looked like he was a Greek statue that had come to life. At least one with the clothes on. Fuck he was hot!

  He caught me staring at him and smiled. “What’s your name?”

  “Samara Tanza.”

  “And what are you doing here tonight, Samara Tanza? God, that name just rolls right off the tongue.”

  I crossed my arms and tried to remain as composed as possible. “I’m here bartending. I’m from the New Jersey location and I was brought in as backup for your bartending staff.”

  He nodded his head. “Very good. What do you think of the New York club? How does it stack up to Jersey?” He seemed to be trying to put on a Jersey accent and it didn’t impress me at all. In fact, it was one of my least favorite things in the world whenever I felt like someone was joking about or criticizing the place that I called home. It was hard enough to overcome the kind of anti-Jersey sentiment that you often found in New York, but seriously to have this guy throwing it in my face was too much.