Page 3 of Velvet Secrets

He nodded. “Aight bet, I’ll take this with me and handle everything for you.”

“Appreciate you.” I dapped him up then motioned for my brother to get up. “Come on, let me get you straight.”

He did what I asked and started for the door then asked, “you ain’t staying?”

“Naw, I have something I need to handle.”

I could tell by the look on his face that he was disappointed but all would be well after he saw that I had him set up nice. PlusI’d make it up to him later. Tonight I needed to go see about the new business that I’d inherited.

CHAPTER 2

You ever had a feeling that someone was watching you?

Not in that cold, prickling way that makes the hairs on your neck stand up, but in a way that makes your pussy purr and your skin hum.

Like someone’s gaze knows more about you than it should?

Like it’s peeling back your layers, not to expose, but to understand?

I knew that feeling all too well. Velvet Secrets was built on it. People came to my club to be seen. To be admired. To invite curiosity.

But this was different.

There was no heat behind this stare. No hunger. Just presence and intent.

I lifted my glass to my lips as I allowed my eyes to drift over the room.

Who are you?

My gaze skimmed the crowd of usual suspects—familiar faces standing out here and there, but none with their focus on me. I continued to look, not allowing my eyes to linger too long because I was desperate to find the eyes that were watching me.

Until I did.

There you are.

The eyes belonged to a face, an extremely handsome one at first glance, that I’d never seen in here and that alone told me that he wasn’t on the guest list.

He couldn’t have been.

He wasn’t wearing a mask like everyone else in the room, which was required for the night, and anyone that stepped past my threshold knew there were three rules: consent was non-negotiable, mask were mandatory, and I was off limits.

Mixing business with pleasure was a recipe for disaster because this wasn’t a place for blurred lines. I’d successfully built something rooted in respect, self-control and safety, and I promised myself at the very start of my business that I would never allow temptation to get in the way of that.

No matter how tempting something, or in this case, someone was.

But still…

He didn’t flinch or look away like most men when they were caught staring. He just continued to hold my gaze almost like he was waiting on me to find him.

He sat alone, one arm thrown across the back of the chair next to him, while his other hand nursed a crystal glass that I hadn’t seen him take a drink from yet. Like the only thing worth drinking in… was me.

I hadn’t ever seen this man a day in my life, but something about the way he watched me and looked at me felt intimate. Familiar in a way that made no sense. It wasn’t lust. It wasn’t admiration. It was…interest.

I tilted my head to test him, to see if I could get him to react to being caught in the act of staring and when he didn’t, my feet began to move in his direction without permission. My steps weren’t rushed or rehearsed, just… inevitable it felt like.

Each step was a question that I didn’t ask out loud—Who are you? Why me?But for some reason, I felt like he already knew the answers to those questions, I just needed them.

The crowd shifted as I made my way through. Eyes followed me, like they always did when I was making my rounds, but this time I didn’t feel their weight. I only felt his.

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