Page 120 of Exposed

“Baby,” Cleopatra said. “Do you want a photo?”

“Great idea,” Nigel said. He pulled Brooklyn in front of the cameras.

“See,” Tanner said. “He’s a lad’s lad.”

“That’s not what a lad’s lad does,” I said. “A lad’s lad means putting your friends first.”

“Yeah, he’s friends with Brooklyn. And he wanted a friendly photo with her.”

Was Nigel touching Brooklyn’s butt? Why did all my friends keep touching her ass? I needed to seal up Nigel’s secret door into my house. And hide all my portraits of Brooklyn immediately. And find the copy he’d made of it for his bathroom and burn it.

“Let’s get inside. The promenade has already begun.”

“Prom,” I corrected.

“Yes, promenade.” Tanner winked at me.

“What did you do?”

“Nothing. It’s a normal, basic ass prom like you requested. Nigel, stop fondling your friends and let’s go inside.”

It looked like Cleopatra’s head was about to explode. Maybe she’d kill Nigel and I wouldn’t have to.

I grabbed Brooklyn’s arm. “Sorry about him.”

She laughed. “Sorry about what? Nigel really is so charming. And so thoughtful. I had a piece of lint on my dress and he got it off for me.”

Is that what he’d told her so he could touch her ass? I took a deep breath. I was not going to get in a fistfight at this dance. Tonight was going to be perfect.

We walked into the hotel. There was only one elevator that had access to Club Onyx. So it was just Tanner, Mason, Bee, Brooklyn, and I on the first trip up.

We were greeted by the coat check guy. Even though none of us were wearing jackets.

“May I check your dress?” he asked and put his hand out. There was already a sparkly dress draped over his arm.

“Check mywhat?” Brooklyn asked.

Bee shrugged and started to pull off her dress.

“No,” Tanner said. “Ignore him. Trent, cut it out.”

The guy looked very confused.

“We talked about this. Clothing is required tonight.”

“But it’s Friday night, which means…”

“No it’spromnight. Which means it’sprom. So shoo. And go find whoever gave you her dress and give it back!”

He walked away still looking confused.

“Sorry about that,” Tanner said. “We have a pretty good routine and you know how hard those are to break.”

Brooklyn stared at him. “I’m so confused. What usually happens on Fridays? Do people run around without clothes?”

Tanner turned to me, like he wanted my permission to tell her we were standing in the middle of a sex club.

“Don’t look at me,” I said. “I’ve never been here.”

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