Page 121 of Exposed

Bee laughed. “It’s no secret that Club Onyx is a sex club. I mean, the club itself is a secret.” She tilted her head to the side. “So, I guess maybe that is a secret then. Huh.”

I was staring at Brooklyn to see her reaction. She remained completely composed, except for the fact that her cheeks grew a little rosier. I wasn’t sure if that meant she was embarrassed by the idea of being in a sex club. Or embarrassed by the idea that shelikedbeing in a sex club.

“It’s not a sex club,” Tanner said. “It’s a club to find true love. We’ve been over this. You signed off on the business proposal.”

“That was just clever wording for legal purposes,” Mason said. “This is definitely a sex club. You have dozens of rooms specifically designed for different…”

Tanner laughed. “I’m not having this discussion again.”

Someone walked by pushing an ice sculpture of a woman on her knees giving head to a very well-endowed ice sculptured male.

“If you’ll excuse me for one moment.” Tanner ran over to the ice sculpture and pushed it onto the floor. It fell and shattered into a million pieces. He cleared his throat and turned around. “Now, where were we? Right this way.” He gestured toward the staircase.

I kind of couldn’t wait to see what was up there.

But before we took another step, the elevator doors opened again behind us.

Penny and James walked out first, and the attendant immediately asked for Penny’s dress.

James took a step forward. “What did you just say tomy wife?” He looked like he was about to murder him.

“Trent! What did I just tell you?” Tanner stepped in front of him. “Sorry, James. Sorry, Penny. Please go up the stairs and have fun atprom.” He emphasized prom and turned to glare at Trent.

“But…” Trent started “…it’s Friday…”

“Son of a bitch. Where is Nigel when I need him?”

Nigel stepped off the elevator just as Tanner called for him. “Yes, Master Tanner?” he asked. “What do you need?”

“Take care of this please.”

“I’ll collect the dresses, yes.”

“No. What? No, Nigel. Never mind. Everyone please just go up the stairs.” I was pretty sure Tanner was close to losing it. I’d never really seen him so agitated, unless he was talking about Rob.

“I’m sure everything up there is great,” I said and slapped him on the back. I knew he was just nervous about tonight going well. Because he cared about me. “Show us the way, Tanner.”

Tanner leaned closer to me so he could whisper. “I should probably stay here to make sure no one goes to prom naked. I’ll be up in a bit.”

“It’s fine. Really. Come on. Trent can handle it, right Trent?” I had no idea if that was true. He seemed pretty adamant about checking dresses at the entrance.

But Trent nodded.

“If you’re sure,” Tanner said. “I did want to see your reaction to everything. And if you happen to change your mind about how you want the night to go, just let me know. I can turn it back into a normal Friday night here like that.” He snapped his fingers and all the lights went out. “Sorry”, he said with a laugh. “Nothing makes hearts race more than being scared in a dark room. And racing hearts means true love is near.”

There was a loud roaring noise and Brooklyn clung to me.

“Oh and that helps too,” Tanner said.

Damn it, he brought animals.But he did kind of have a point about the darkness thing. I held Brooklyn a little tighter.

Chapter 36

Friday

Brooklyn

Tanner snapped his fingers again and the lights came back on. But I still stayed tucked into Matt’s side. Because it wasn’t just the lights going out that had scared me.

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