The entire day I’ve had pretty much only one thought in my head: I can’t believe I did that. I had sex with a total stranger. A stranger who is my boss. And I didn’t just have sex, I let him take me like I was given to him. What is with me?

I keep wondering if they put something in the air in there that makes people go wild. And every time I think it, I know in my gut that it wasn’t the club that made me do it. It was Cole. Sexy, gorgeous, perfect Cole. I find myself wondering what he’s like when he’s not pretending to be a king. What’s he like in the morning when he first wakes up? How did he actually come to own a sex club? What’s his favorite color?

He’s a mystery, and in spite of myself, I want to know more. The rational, logical, part of me says that I shouldn’t go back. I should find a job that’s less…I don’t know. Less controversial? I should get out before I get in too deep. No pun intended. But I don’t want to do that. I want to dive head first into whatever this is. I want to find out what part of me was missing before I discovered there was so much like this.

Plus, I need the money. I really need the money.

The bell over the door to the vet’s office rings softly as I open it, and the receptionist smiles at me. “Hey, Andrea.”

“Hey. Can I see him?”

“Sure thing. You know your way back.”

She knows me because I’ve been here every day for the last five days in a row. My golden lab—ironically named Brownie—has been here for those five days, prepping for, having, and recovering from a heart surgery. And surgery for any species is expensive. I thought I was going to be fine. I had savings. But layoffs never come when you expect them to.

Which is why I really need the job at the club. I can’t quit, even if I could convince myself that I shouldn’t be there.

I enter the back of the vet’s office, where there’s an open area for dogs to play, and Brownie spots me immediately. She’s not quick on her feet just yet, but her tail is wagging and she comes over to me as quickly as she can. “Hey girl,” I say, sitting on the floor. Brownie curls up on my lap. It’s something she’s done since she was a puppy, and even though she’s way too big to fit in my lap now, it doesn’t stop her from trying. I scratch behind her ears, and her tail goes crazy. Man I love this dog, and having her here makes me anxious. I miss the way she follows me around my apartment, bumping into the back of my legs when I stop too quickly.

One of the vet assistants pops his head into the room. “She’ll be ready to go home in just a couple days. Doc wants to make sure the healing is going well and that her rhythm is all set before he lets her go.”

I nod. “Thanks.”

Another two days of boarding here. Yeah, there’s no way I can quit this job. There’s a glimmer of excitement that races through me. Will I see Cole tonight at the club? What will I do? What will we do? Am I crazy?

Probably. But there’s nothing I can do about that now. Instead, I pet my dog, spending as much time as I can with her before I have to start my shift.

* * *

I don’t see Cole that night. In fact, I don’t see him at the club for three days. But that doesn’t stop me from looking for him. From thinking about him. From going home and writhing in my sheets with my fingers between my legs pretending that he’s the one there instead. I’m beginning to think that I imagined him completely. But then, as I’m clocking out Thursday night, he appears next to me like a magician. He was nowhere and then standing next to me. “Hello.”

“Where did you come from?” I ask him, trying to calm my heart that’s now pounding both from surprise and the fact that he’s here.

“The elevator.”

I shake my head. “No, I mean you just popped up.”

“I’m stealthy,” he says, smirking.

“Yeah.” I lean my hip against the bar. “Very. So stealthy I haven’t seen you in a few days.”

“I’m sorry about that, I had to go out of town suddenly. I didn’t have your phone number, and I thought that getting it from the employee records would be a breach of privacy.”

“Oh.” It takes me a second to realize what he’s saying. “You want my number?”

“I do.”

I suppress a grin. “Okay.”

He puts it into his phone before extending his hand to me. “Are you free?”

“For what?” I put my hand in his.

“I’ll show you.”

Cole pulls me across the club, towards the side closer to the kitchen. Under the overhang of the second floor balcony is a large seating area with a large glass box in the center. I’ve never seen it used until now. A couple is inside, and she’s pressed up against the glass while he fucks her from behind. The chairs around the stage are filled, and I see moving hands and kissing and hear soft moaning. Cole sits on a couch towards the back of the seating area and pulls me down onto his lap. “The exhibition box,” he says. “It works for people who want to watch and people who want to be watched.”

I haven’t looked away from that couple. I can’t hear anything from the box, but it’s obvious she’s about to come. Her head is thrown back, eyes closed in pleasure. I imagine that she’s screaming, her cries echoing around the box and spurring her lover on. Cole’s fingers are at my waist, unbuttoning my pants, and I glance at him. “No. Watch them.”

I do. The man is fucking her so hard that I can see the walls of the box shake. Her knees buckle, and she’s being held up by nothing but the glass wall and his cock. It’s hot.

Cole’s fingers slide into my pants, stroking my clit gently. My hips jerk against his hand, and he chuckles softly, pressing his lips to my ear. “Sensitive?”

“Someone left me alone too long.”

“I’ll remember that,” he says, stroking me. He keeps his thumb on my clit while sliding a finger inside me. “What do you think of them?”

I can’t think when his hands are on me. “Who?”

“Them.” He nods his head towards the fucking couple.

“It’s hot,” I say, squirming as he starts to move his finger steadily in and out, stroking his finger against my G-spot. How he found it so quickly I can only assume is the same kind of magic that made him appear out of seemingly thin air.

“And can you imagine yourself in her place? Can you imagine my cock filling you up while I press you against the glass, the whole club watching me fuck you?” Cole punctuates his words with his fingers, and my body responds. I think about him filling me up the way he did before, I think about being trapped against the glass, nothing holding me up but his cock. Yes.

He slides another finger inside me, and I moan. I keep the image in my mind going, adding in the club, the people watching, the music, and I freeze. Everything goes from hot to cold, and I know it’s not right. “No,” I say.

Cole stops. “No what?”

“No people,” I say, my face flaming at the thought of someone watching me have sex. Real, sickening anxiety invades my stomach at the thought. “I don’t mind watching, but I don’t want people to see me.” I push the last words out, nervous that he’s going to change his mind suddenly. That now that I’m saying no to something, he won’t be interested in exploring the rest of the club with me. He won’t be interested in me.

But he doesn’t do that. He just takes me in and smiles a little. “Fair enough. It’s not for everyone.”

My body relaxes, and he starts to tease me again, more softly than before. “What about the possibility of someone watching? Sometimes people like the thrill of being caught, but not having a direct audience.”

I nod. “That’s fine.”

“I’ll just have to find something different to do with you,” Cole says, pressing his lips against my neck at the same time he presses on my clit. The result is that it feels like he’s kissing me there, just like he wanted. He chuckles against my skin. “So many possibilities.”

“Like what?” My voice is breathless and I close my eyes, trying to block out everything else but his fingers.

“I have an idea. You tell me if you like it.”

“Okay.”

He pushes his fingers in deep, putting pressure on my clit from inside, and I gasp. “I want to take you upstairs to the Victorian room,” he says softly. “Then I’ll strip you naked. There’s a giant bed in that room—I know you’ve seen it. I want to tie you down so you can’t move and fuck you till you scream. I’ll be able to take you as many times as I want and you won’t be able to stop me.” My pussy clamps down on his fingers so hard I’m surprised they don’t break, and he laughs. “I thought you might like that idea.”

“Who says I like it?”

“Your pussy,” he whispers as he thrusts into me harder to make his point, and white fire explodes behind my eyes.

I bite my lips to keep my moan from escaping. “How did you know? How can you know that’s what I like? We barely know each other.”

“I know a little bit about you,” he says. “I know you live alone and are single, and that you’re trying to make your way on your own.”

Turning to face him more fully, I raise an eyebrow. “You looked me up?”

“I may have,” he says.

“I’ll remind myself to Google you when I get home.”

Cole adds a third finger and I groan, feeling suddenly full and stretched. “My point was simply this: You liked playing a slave to a king. Your body responds when I talk about tying you down. Many people, women especially, have fantasies like that. Not because they want to be a slave or tied up, but because it means you’ll be able to let go. You won’t have to make the decisions for a little while and someone else will take care of you.”

His words strike home like they’re resounding in my gut and in my skull. It’s true. When we were playing, I didn’t have to think. I didn’t have to worry, and it was perfect. How strange. And as if he’s reading my thoughts, Cole presses a kiss just below my ear. “It’s not weird.”

“It is. A little.”

“Even if it is,” he says, flexing his fingers against my G-spot, “I promise that once I show you how good it can be that you won’t care.”

“So you’re into that? Tying people up?”

He grins, stopping his teasing and starting to thrust into me in earnest. All the thoughts I was trying to process fly right out of my head with the way he’s rocking into me, hitting exactly where I need him. “I’m into many things. Variety is the spice of life, you know.”

“I think I did know that,” I say, my fingers digging into his shoulder and the couch as he continues fucking me with his hand. “What’s your favorite color?”

“What?”

A groan escapes me, and I know that he’s going to make me come right here on this couch, but I need to know something about him. Anything. It takes me a second to realize that I said it out loud. “Blue,” he says, “but not any blue. Blue so dark it’s almost black, like the color of the night sky in summer.”

He curls his fingers into my G-spot, and I break open. It’s a quiet, shaking orgasm that ripples through me, and I have to hold onto him. I’m holding my breath, and he keeps pushing me, drawing out those quaking waves of pleasure as I shake on his lap. Then it’s gone, and I heave in a breath, sagging against him. Cole kisses me, and I can feel his erection growing beneath my ass. “I love watching you come.”

He kisses me again, scooping his arm under my legs and standing. His lips cover my squeak in surprise, but I push at him. “Put me down.”

He doesn’t. “We’re going to the Victorian room. What kind of gentleman would I be if I let you walk there by yourself?” Then, softer, “The same rules apply. Safe sex and safe word any time you want.”

“Okay.”

“Let me take care of you tonight.”

I’m worried that he’s going to stumble and fall, drop me, but even as we climb the stairs he’s perfectly steady. I lean my head on his shoulder. “What does that mean?”

He chuckles, and the deep vibrations in his chest are soothing. “Like I said before, we don’t play any games here. I mean what I say. I want to take care of you. That means you don’t have to make any more decisions tonight. All you have to do is say yes and feel. And come,” he adds. “A lot.”

I feel the tension drain out of my body, and I relax into his hold. “Okay.”