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“What do you do for fun? To blow off steam on the weekend? When you’re not picking up random strays and taking them out on their birthday, that is.”
“I go to my club.”
“Like, your men’s club? Where you play backgammon and smoke cigars?”
I chuckled. “No. My sex club.” I dropped it casually like that to shock her, to get her reaction. I wasn’t disappointed. Her eyes widened and a soft blush stole up her cheeks.
“Your s-sex club?”
“Yeah.”
She stared at me for so long I thought she’d gone catatonic. “Where is it?”
“Here. In Raleigh.”
“What’s it like?”
“In what way?”
“What happens there?”
“Sex, generally.”
“Har har. But what kind of sex? Like, is itEyes Wide Shut,big orgies, people in masks, lots of rituals? People having threesomes, other people watching, stuff like that?”
“Yeah, pretty much. Except no rituals. Masks only on special theme nights.”
“It’s not sleazy?”
“No, far from it. Nothing happens without invitation, and enthusiastic consent is a must.”
More staring, deeper blushing. Then she straightened her shoulders, lifted her chin and said, “Can we go there?”
Okay, that surprised the shit outta me. “To my sex club? You want me to take you to a sex club?”
“Yeah, I do. And it’s my birthday, so you have to say yes. Come on, Wolfe, just go with the flow.”
“Throwing my words back at me. Cute.”
“Yup.” Now the question was out there, she seemed pretty determined. And game. When I thought earlier that she was game for anything, this was the last thing I’d had in mind.
“You want to have sex there?”
“Fuck no!”
“Why do you want to go, then?”
“Because I want to do something wild, crazy and different. Something I’ll never get the chance to do on my own.” No hesitation, there. “And I want to do it with someone I know’ll look after me.”
That sealed it. “Okay.”
Her lips parted and her eyes lit with excitement, and maybe a tiny bit of uncertainty. That was fine. It added an edge to it. The question was, how was I going to deal with it? How was I going to keep my hands off sweet, innocent Esme in my sex club?
CHAPTER10
Esme
Oooooh fuck. What had I just got myself into? My heart was racing, and my hands were sweaty. Of course, I second guessed myself for every moment of the seven-minute drive, from the elegant French restaurant to the warehouse district. Wolfe pulled up at the curb of a three story, red brick building and turned to me. “Last chance. Say the word and I drive you straight home.”