The Virgin Dating Game

by Sky Corgan

  “Being on time is just polite.” I knit my brows at her.

  “Trust me, okay. Just trust me.”

  I don't want to show up late. Hell, I don't want to show up at all. Who am I to know what guys like though? I haven't been with that many of them. Janice has had at least twenty boyfriends to every one that I've had.

  “How about I pour us a glass of wine while you finish up your makeup?” Janice jumps off of the counter.

  “Sounds good,” I grumble.

  Wine might still my nerves a bit.

  Maybe, if we show up late, Lucian will already have a few drinks in him as well. He won't care that I look like a cow who trampled through a sex store. And the later we get there, the sooner we can leave. Perhaps showing up late isn't such a bad idea after all.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  The parking lot is absolutely packed. People are coming and going, dressed in vinyl and latex and leather. Some are even dressed in street clothes, but those are few and far between.

  My heart is pounding in my chest as Janice kills the engine and steps out of the car. Now, more than ever, I wish my skirt was longer, or that I was skinnier, or that I could just disappear on the spot. I've never felt more out of place in my entire life, and we're not even inside yet.

  “Are you ready?” Janice asks. There's a confident smile plastered across her face. If only I could have an ounce of her excitement. All I feel is dread. I don't even want to see Lucian anymore. This just isn't worth it.

  I nod, because I have no other choice. If I said no, Janice would just coerce me to go inside anyway. Now that we're here, there's no turning back.

  Briefly, I think about sending Lucian a text to let him know we've arrived. Even though we're late, he hasn't texted me. I'm not sure if that means he's pissed off, or that he's already forgotten about me.

  We make our way to the door. There's a line going in, but it's short. Once we get to the doorman, he asks for twenty dollars a piece as an entry fee. My hands are shaking as I pull the money from my purse, and he gives me a curious grin, like he can tell I'm completely inexperienced and have no idea what I'm getting myself into.

  “Go on in, girls. Have a good time,” he tells us, and we step into a world of flashing lights and music.

  As soon as we've gone a few feet inside, I stop to get my bearings. The place is huge. There's a stage with a DJ and dancers. Scantily clad girls sway to the music in the middle of the dance floor with their partners. On one side of the dance floor is booths and exhibits. On the other side is two levels of seating. There appears to be a VIP area of sorts on the top floor, and a bunch of chairs and benches set up on the bottom floor for everyone else. My eyes briefly dart up to the top floor, but if Lucian is there, I can't see him.

  “Let's go look.” Janice grabs my hand and pulls me over toward the booths.

  “I need to find Lucian,” I tell her over the music. It's dubstep. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but definitely not dubstep.

  “We can find him later. Make him wait, remember. Besides, if he spots you, he'll have to come get you. That's what you want.”

  It's not what I want. None of this is what I want. I don't even want to be here. I thought that once we got inside, I'd feel better. Seeing all the gorgeous half-naked women walking around me though only makes me feel worse. I'm like a whale in a sea of Janices. These women are so beautiful it makes me sick. And I'm just...meh.

  I try not to focus on it too much as I allow Janice to drag me from booth to booth. Some of them have sex toys. Others have fetish wear. Others have specific BDSM gear, like paddles or restraints. One booth is giving away free condoms, and Janice takes a fistful of them like a teenager who has never had access to them before. I don't even bother taking one, partly because she grabbed enough for both of us and also because Lucian refuses to wear them. I wonder where he is right now. I wonder if he sees me. I wonder if he's waiting for me to come to him.

  My eyes wander to the VIP area again. I can't see up there very well through all the fog and the lasers that are dancing across it. Somehow, I know he's up there. He has to be. That's where all the wealthy lifestylers are.

  “I don't think he can see me,” I say to Janice as she shops for nipple tassels.

  “We'll go after I'm done here.” She doesn't even look at me.

  “What do you need those for anyway?” I cock an eyebrow. She doesn't have a boyfriend right now.

  “I want to wear them for Sir next time I see him. It will be a surprise,” she chirps as she picks out a pair with tiny red rhinestone hearts hanging off of them and takes them up to the vendor.

  I watch people playing with glow sticks on the dance floor while Janice completes her transaction. Fleshfest isn't what I expected at all, to be honest. It reminds me more of a club than anything else. A club with a different dress code. Aside from the vendors and the outfits that everyone is wearing, it would be hard to tell that this is a kink festival. Then again, we haven't gone to the dungeon yet. I'm honestly not sure if I want to see it.

  Janice steps up next to me with a small bag in her hand. “Are you ready?”

  “Ready as I'm going to be.” I look down the line of vendors that we missed before taking a deep breath and walking across the room towards the stairs.

  Janice's energy is almost annoying. She skips and dances when we pass through the dance floor. I'm starting to get the feeling that she'd much rather be wandering around on her own than tagging along with me. I'm being such an uptight buzzkill.

  Maybe that will change when I get to Lucian. Probably not, though. This is all so alien to me, and even though I feel a lot more relaxed now that I know it's not just wall to wall submissives being teased by their Masters, I still feel out of place. This isn't my scene.

  We reach the bottom of the stairs and are met by a scary looking guard. He seems even less happy to be here than I am, wearing what appears to be a permanent scowl along with his skin-tight shirt and pants.

  “I'm looking for Lucian Reddick,” I say timidly.

  He looks me up and down, but his expression doesn't change. “Name?”

  “Amy Underwood. This is my friend Janice Elledge.” I'm not sure why I even bother telling him Janice's name. It's not like Lucian knows it.

  “Go up.” The guard steps aside. He's so broad he reminds me of a door. There's no doubt in my mind that no one is going up these steps without his permission.

  I lower my gaze as we walk past him and start up the stairs. By the time we reach the top, I'm breathless. I feel so out of shape. That's not the only reason my heart is speeding up though. I'm about to see Lucian in his element—in his world, as he called it, and I'm honestly not sure what to expect.

  “We're looking for a guy with really blue eyes, right?” Janice steps up beside me and asks.

  The top floor has better lighting than the bottom floor. Despite the fog floating around, visibility is pretty good.

  For a second, I worry that Lucian got bored and left. Last time I checked my watch, it was a little past nine. I wouldn't blame him if he got fed up of waiting.

  That's not the case though. It takes me a moment to pick him out of the sparse crowd upstairs, but when I do, it feels like my heart instantly turns to stone. He's sitting on a long sofa at the back of the room, and there's a girl on his lap.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  “I just want to go.” My gaze falls to the floor as my heart sinks to the pit of my stomach.

  I listened to Janice and made Lucian wait on me, and this is my reward. There's a woman sitting on his lap, and she's absolutely stunning. Long black hair, big tits pushed together in a tight leather corset, and a smile that probably has his dick stiff. She's perfect, and I'm already forgotten.

  “What do you mean? Aren't we looking for your boy?” Janice sways slightly to the music. I feel like we're polar opposites right now. She's having the time of her life, and I just want mine to be over. Who was I to hope that a guy like Lucian would really want to be with a girl lik
e me? Derrick was right. Chasing after him is only going to make me wind up getting hurt time and time again.

  “He's in the back.” I gesture absentmindedly.

  “Which one?”

  “The one with the dark-haired girl on his lap.”

  “Oh wow.” Her head cocks back in surprise. “He's gorgeous.” Then she realizes why I'm so upset. “Oh wow. Amy, I'm sorry. I really thought—”

  “It's okay.” I place a hand on her arm. “I just want to go home now. If you want to stay, that's fine. I can come back and pick you up later.”

  She takes a deep breath, looking contemplative. I can tell she really wants to stay but is thinking that leaving with me would be the better move to make.

  “Hey, I want you to have a good time.” I stoop a bit to catch her gaze. “I'm not going to be mad if you want to stay. I know this is like...your dream come true.” My eyes dance across the fog and lasers before finally landing on the entrance to the dungeon. Janice is my best friend, and I refuse to stand in the way of her happiness. This is nothing that a pint of ice cream and a good cry won't fix.

  “I'll walk you back to the car.” She nods finally.

  “Alright, let's go.”

  I turn to start back down the stairs, but then I hear my name over the sound of the music. The voice it's coming from makes the hair stick up on the back of my neck. We've been spotted. I don't care though. I'm over Lucian. I'm over all of this.

  Janice and I are about halfway down the stairs before Lucian catches up to us. He grabs my arm, nearly causing me to trip.

  “Amy, where are you going?”

  I bite back my anger as I turn to him. “I'm going home, Lucian. You said that if I came here and didn't like what I saw, then I didn't have to stay. Well, I definitely don't like what I saw.”

  “Is this about that girl?” He points back up to the VIP area.

  “What girl?” I pretend to play oblivious.

  He rolls his eyes at me. “Don't do this. She's just a friend. We've known each other for a long time.”

  “She doesn't look like just a friend.” I can't even meet his gaze. I hate how jealous I sound. I am jealous though. Why would he even want me when he can have someone like her?

  “Come back upstairs and I'll introduce you.” He lets me go and takes a few steps upstairs. When he realizes I'm not going to follow him, he stops.

  “I'd rather not.” I cross my arms over my chest.

  “Alright,” he hesitates. “Then I'll come downstairs with you.” Lucian walks back down the stairs until he's by my side. It's at that point that he notices Janice.

  “Hi there.” She waves at him awkwardly.

  “And who might this lovely creature be?” He takes her hand in his, flashing her that smile that I naively thought was only for me.

  Just looking at Janice, I can tell that her hormones are going into overdrive. Lucian could have her in the blink of an eye if he wanted her. I just hope he doesn't want her. That would be the toothpick in my shit sandwich for the night, my best friend hooking up with the guy I've been secretly pining over.

  “I'm Janice,” she replies, all googly-eyed. What a pal.

  “Janice.” He smirks knowingly. I used her name when I first met Lucian at Flesh. Thank God, he doesn't bring it up. That would be horrifically embarrassing.

  “She's my best friend,” I say almost accusingly, hoping it will snap them both out of whatever is going on between them.

  While there's no change in Lucian's lecherous expression, Janice instantly catches the hint that I think she's encroaching on my territory. She breaks Lucian's gaze and looks at me, pointing downstairs and stuttering. “I think I'm going to go take a look at those booths we missed and give you guys some time alone.”

  It's not what I'd hoped she'd say. She was supposed to stand by my side and insist that we were leaving, not abandon me with my demons. Before I have a chance to argue though, she continues down the stairs, taking them two at a time as if she can't wait to be away from us. Perhaps she's afraid of the chemistry she was feeling with Lucian. I certainly was.

  I sigh as I watch her go, realizing that she has the car keys, and that I'm now stuck with Lucian.

  “You look nice,” he tells me, drawing my attention back to him.

  It's the first time since seeing him that I allow myself to appreciate what he's wearing, tight leather pants and a mesh shirt. You can see his broad chest and chiseled abs perfectly under the flimsy fabric. No wonder Janice was nearly wetting herself over him. If I wasn't so put off by the way that they acted together, I'd be turned on too. As it is, being with him here like this is just awkward.

  “No, I don't,” I insist.

  I don't look as nice as the girl who was on his lap, and I definitely don't look as nice as Janice. If anything, I look like a complete amateur who picked up a quick costume from a sex shop. And that's exactly what I am and what I did.

  “You're always so hard on yourself.” He presses his hand against the small of my back and urges me down the stairs the rest of the way.

  I think about telling him that I know what looks good and what doesn't, but I don't. I'm being bitchy enough as it is.

  “How long have you been here?” he asks once we reach the bottom of the stairs.

  “Long enough to see things I wish I hadn't.”

  “Amy, stop it.” Discontent is etched across his perfect face. “You're not even giving this a chance.”

  I wrap my arms around myself. It feels like nothing has gone right since I got here. I don't want to give it a chance anymore.

  “Come here. I'm going to show you around.” He hooks his arm in mine and starts leading me across the dance floor.

  Tension mounts in my chest as I fear that he's actually going to want to stop and dance with me. Thankfully, he doesn't though. We continue through the crowd of happy participants and make our way to the vendors.

  Lucian leads me past most of the vendors and heads straight back to a far corner of the room where there's a man suspended by hooks swinging around on a small stage. We stop in front of it, and I cringe slightly as I see how stretched the man's skin looks. That can't possibly be comfortable.

  “Have you ever seen anything like this before?” Lucian glances down at me. His blue eyes are bright with amusement from my reaction.

  “This isn't really my thing.” I gesture to the scene in front of us, shying away from it a bit.

  “I didn't think so, but I wanted you to see it anyway.” He wrinkles his nose. “That's Armand Fiqueroa. He looks kind of intimidating, but he's a really nice guy.”

  Intimidating is an understatement. The guy is covered in tattoos and piercings from head to toe. He's bald and lanky with a menacing-looking face. I'd probably be afraid of him in broad daylight.

  “Come on.” Lucian nods for me to follow him.

  We walk past the crowd watching the suspension act and find a small booth in the corner where people are painting each other with liquid latex. Lucian pulls his wallet out of his pocket and hands the girl manning the booth some money.

  “Two please,” he tells her.

  She gives him two small bottles of liquid latex and two little paintbrushes and ushers us back into an unoccupied corner of the booth. I watch as Lucian twists the top off of one of the bottles and dips his brush in it.

  “No.” I hold out my hand to him when he approaches me with the brush.

  Even though my outfit is cheap, I don't want to ruin it by getting liquid latex all over it. Who knows if I'd be able to get the stuff off. The liquid latex is glow in the dark, so it would probably stain or discolor the material.

  Lucian cocks his head to the side as if to say, “Really?”

  “I don't want to ruin this outfit.” I cross my arms over my chest.

  “Fine. Then you can paint me.” He shoves both bottles of paint into my hands and the brushes and begins to strip off his shirt.

  It feels like all the oxygen in the room is sucked up as I watch him peel the
shirt off. Good God, he's beautiful. I'm not the only one who notices, either. The other girls in the area all seem to pause to look at him. Instantly, I feel a pang of jealousy, almost equal to seeing that girl sitting on his lap. It makes me want to tell him to put his shirt back on, but I do kind of want to paint on him, and I like that he's here with me and not someone else.

  “I'm ready.” He tosses his shirt a safe distance away and then holds his arms out to his sides.

  My cheeks begin to heat up as I step up to him. In truth, I'm absolutely clueless about what he expects from me. More than anything, I just want to touch him. I wish we were at his house instead of at this crowded, miserable place.

  I bite back my feelings and lift up the brush, painting a line of green down the middle of his chest and stomach. The brush bristles dip into the groves of his muscles, and my clit throbs from the strange intimacy of touching him like this. It's the first time I've actually been able to explore his body the way I want—and I'm not even doing it with my hands.

  He stands like a statue, gazing down at me as I switch out the paints and stripe him. I have no idea what I'm doing, but I am starting to have fun. This kind of feels like a date. We're around a bunch of people, and he's only paying attention to me. I like it.

  When I finally look up at him, he's smiling.

  “What?” I wrinkle my nose and turn away from him shyly.

  “You're adorable.”

  “Am not,” I huff.

  “You're also a brat.”

  I gasp in mock shock and slap his chest with one of the brushes, splattering liquid latex on his neck and chin.

  “See. Bratty.” He snatches one of the bottles away from me and takes a brush from my hand. “Do you know what I do to brats?”

  A knot builds in my chest from the dark sound of his voice. Maybe I pissed him off by getting the liquid latex on his face.

  He opens up the bottle and dips the brush in. It's at that moment I realize what he's going to do.

  “Lucian, no.” I hold my hand up to stop him.