Page 3 of Deceit
Pushing Papa out of my head, I let Kat lead me out of the voyeur room and back into the heart of the main club.
Exotiquewas a beautiful, classyclub, nothing like the seedy, grimy place I’dimagined. We reached themainatrium, where men and women dressed up to the nines gathered, talking over expensivechampagnewhile classical music played in the background. In the middle of the atrium stood a circularbarwhere barmen in crisp white shirts, black braces, and bow ties raced up and down, pouring drinks for waiting customers.
On the outskirts of the room were several hallways leading to differentrooms. Rooms that catered to a variety of kinks.Voyeur, BDSM, women’s only room, men’s only room.Hell, there was even a dark roomwhere you had no clue who was doing things to you or whoyouwere doing thingsto.
Mygazedarted around theclub, a streak of concern flowing through mybody at the worry that someone would recognize me, something that would cause a whole heap of trouble if it happened.
It had taken some persuasion on Kat’s part to get me to agree to her plan, not because we would be sneaking into a sex club, but because ofwherethe club was situated.
Hollows Bay.
I knew I was taking a risk by crossing into the city; if anyonerecognizedmeto be the daughter of Georgio Bianchi, all hell would break free.
See, my ancestors had been at war with the family who ownedHollowsBay:the Wolfes. Lives were lost, millions of pounds of damage was caused to both cities, and peace was only found when both families signed atreatyagreeing that we wouldn’tsetfootin their city, and they wouldn’tsetfootin ours.
It was an agreement that had remained in place for decades, and one mypapa—the current mafia don who ruled our city of Forest Point—had drilled intoRafeand me as we weregrowingup.
So it was fair to say that if anyonerecognizedme, not only wouldI have some explaining to do as to why I was in asexclub, but I was risking a war breaking out between my family and the Wolfes.
And yet, here I was. At aclub, in a city I was categoricallynotsupposedtobe in.
“Hey, can you grab us some drinks while I run to the bathroom?”Katsaid,spinning to face me.
“Um, shouldn’t we stay together?”
Tension gathered in myshouldersas mygazecontinuedto shift hesitantlyaround. I was certain that any second, someone was going to recognize me.
“Babe, relax,” Kat said, grabbing my arms and smirking at my paranoia. “We got in, no one is going to check our IDs now. Just relax and enjoy the night.”
I let my eyesclosefor a brief second.Katdidn’t know about thetreaty. Ishould have told her, but the truth was, I didn’t want to miss this opportunity.Instead, I’d let her think my anxiety was out of fear of being caught for attempting to get into theclubwith ourfakeIDs.
To help allay my concerns, she’d spent hours beforehand doing my hair and makeup to make it look like I was older than I was. By the time she was finished, I barelyrecognizedmyself.
When the time came to show our IDs at the door, the security guardchecked our ages, noted thatKatwas a member and I was her guest for the evening, and let us through into theclub without so much as a blink of an eye.
“You’re right,”Ireplied, trying myhardesttorelax. No one was going torecognize me. I’d been out of the country for the past two years, and even before then,Papararely let me go out.“What do you want todrink?”
Katbeamed at me.“Get us somechampagne. I’ll be right back.”
As she headed to the bathroom, I made my way to thebar, mygazedrifting over to the hallway leading back to thevoyeurroom. My mind conjured up theimageof the man. The way his biceps had bulged from how hard he was gripping the woman. The ripples of his abs as he thrust into her.
The way his dark eyes had bore into me.
Questions churned in my head. Had they finished theiractby now? Whatwould they do after? Were they a couple or did they just dothattogether?
Would I see him again?
I hoped so.
Even if nothing couldhappenbetween us, I wanted to talk to him; somethingabout him had sparked my curiosity.
Lost in thought, I didn’t see the man in front of me until it was too late.Knocking my shoulder against him, wine sloshed from his glass, spilling down my bare arm and over his hand.
“Oh god. I’m so sorry.”I spun to face him, only for mycheekstoheat, andnot just from embarrassment at my clumsiness, but from how handsome he was.
He kinda looked like the man on thestage, only his hair was slightlyshorter, and he was maybe a couple of inches taller. Oh, and he was fully clothed, but the strain of the material against his frame told me he was of a similar build to the man onstage.
“No damage done,”hereplied, his voicedeepand alluring. Hereached into a pocket on the inside of his suit jacket and pulled out a handkerchief before handing it to me.“Here.”
