Chapter One
Claudia Vaughn sighed as she stepped out of her outfit for the night. She undid the straps of her shoes, kicked them off and sighed as she rubbed the soles of her feet. She felt like her feet might just burst because of how much they hurt, but she knew that was just part of the job. No pain, no gain as their boss would say.
Claudia reached behind her back and undid the zipper a little to feel like she was able to breathe because these outfits were just getting tighter, and tighter, and it was getting harder and harder to breathe in them. She supposed she shouldn’t complain. She was after all Madame Sauri’s right hand woman.
Madame Sauri was formidable despite her small stature. She was a Chinese woman who had fled to America to evade her abusive husband, and managed to start a successful business as the owner of one of the finest establishments in China Town. La Chambre de Plaisir.
La Chambre de Plaisir was well known all over the district because of how high end it actually was. It catered to those with very specific needs, and Madame Sauri with her hazel eyes, dark hair pulled into a no nonsense bun, and her ability to haggle like a true New Yorker was legendary in many circles. It was why Claudia had showed up at her doorstep one day, soaked to the bone with little more than the clothes on her back, and a point to prove.
Madame Sauri had eyed her suspiciously before she let her in and listened to her proposal. After Claudia was done, Madame Sauri walked up to her, looked her up and down then smiled.
From then on, they were partners. It was Madame Sauri who started the establishment, but Claudia helped her build it from the ground up. Once upon a time, she had gone to a business school, so she had a keen eye for specific details, and she was able to use what she learned in business school to help the place become successful.
Men came here from all over the world with very specific tastes, and in most cases, they were able to find someone to satisfy him. It wasn’t a whore house as many people thought, rather it was a gentleman’s club that was home to a very specific kind of pleasure.
Before arriving here, Claudia had no idea just how many men were into BDSM, but now that she was right in the middle of it all, she was still surprised every single time. Not that she thought there was anything wrong with it, she just always thought they were much a smaller group.
When she came to Madame Sauri, they agreed that Claudia would handle the clientele and occasionally perform on the stage, but she was not for sale. Claudia was a virgin, and she was part French on her mothers’ side, so that made her very sought after, but she was adamant that she stay behind the scenes, and far away from the greedy eyes of men who devoured her with their eyes. She knew that she could never put herself in that position because of her past, and the way things turned out for her.
Claudia breathed deeply as she began to massage her neck and make her way down the hall to her room. She ran into Madame Sauri on her way down the hall, and they detoured to their office where they shared a drink.
Madame Sauri lifted her leg up on one of the chairs and began to rub them. “Is good night for us, tonight.”
“Yeah, Chastity did really well. I told you she had massive potential.”
“So you did.” Madame Sauri tilted her head and acknowledged her. “She seem like silly girl when she come, can you blame me?”
Claudia gave her a rueful smile. “No, I can’t say that I can. I think she more than proved that she is worth it. I saw one or two men with their jaws on the floor, and one of them took out his check book, so they’ll probably be making an offer very soon.”
Madame Sauri knocked back her drink and smacked her lips. “Sooner than you think. They come by today. Very good sum, but I think we wait for a few more days, they become desperate, they offer more money, and Chastity has chance to make up mind.”
Claudia tipped her glass. “I agree completely. We shouldn’t rush into it. What about Lacey? How is she doing?”
Madame Sauri looked like she ate something sour. “Lacey not doing so well today. She look sick this morning, but I think is just nerves. She threw up before show and insisted she go on though I tell her to rest. She not do so well on stage, but you know Lacey. They love her.”
Claudia nodded as she leaned back in her chair and took a huge gulp of her coke and rum. “I’ll check on her on my way out. I’ll see if she needs a doctor as well.”
Madame Sauri clasped her hands in her lap. “Why we get into this business Clo?”
Claudia shrugged as she sloshed the drink around the cup. “I don’t know, Sauri. I guess we each have our reasons. Whether it’s us or one of the other girls. They may not make sense, and if they do, maybe we shouldn’t be here, yet here we are.”
Madame Sauri nodded thoughtfully. “Is true. You wise girl, Clo. Should consider accepting offer for your virginity someday. Is good money. Could get you out of here.”
Claudia laughed. “Why would I want to get out of here, Sauri? I came to you, remember? I sought you out, and I want to be here.”
Madame Sauri cocked her head to the side and examined her as if she were some type of rare bird. “So you say. I no get you, Clo. You are strange girl, but you are hard worker.”
Claudia raised her glass. “I’ll drink to that.”
Madame Sauri eyed her speculatively before she clinked her glass against hers and gulped the whole drink in one swallow.
***
Tw0 hours later, Claudia wandered down the barely lit hallway that smelled strongly of heavy perfume and kept one hand on the walls to keep from toppling over. She was sure she shouldn’t have had so much to drink, but as always with Sauri she couldn’t help herself. The two women had next to nothing common, but somehow they bonded over the fact that life had handed them both a crappy pair of cards.
Sauri with her abusive husband, and his incessant blows that eventually made her unable to carry any children which was the final nail in the coffin that was their marriage, and Claudia because of a past she couldn’t seem to escape, no matter how far she ran.
She had shed her skin so many times, changed locations, she even tried changing her appearance from blonde to brunette, but nothing she did was ever enough to bury the hole inside her heart. A hole that at times felt big enough to house the Titanic.
She knew she wouldn’t be able to outrun her past forever, but for now, she was as far away from it, in theory, as she possibly could be. She was still in her hometown, but she was doing the last thing anybody would ever expect her to be doing. She was sure they wouldn’t come looking for her here, in a gentleman’s club of all places.
With her business degree, and her eloquent French, this was the last place anybody would think to look, and that’s exactly why Claudia picked it. She stumbled towards her room and began snickering to herself at the thought of what 16 year old her would say if she could her right now.
Working at a gentleman’s club, and as co-owner, no less. The idea may not have been hers, but when she showed Madame Sauri all the things she needed to do to attract more customers, and stay within the confines of the law, business took off so fast, Sauri insisted on making her a partner. She was genuinely touched by that.
It wasn’t why she had come here in the first place, but she figured it couldn't hurt. The more distance she put between her and her past self, the better. She groped around for the light switch and flinched as it danced across her field of vision.
With that warm, fuzzy feeling in her stomach, Claudia clumsily lurched forward and began to curse her inability to get the zipper down. Sometimes, she wished she had a roommate, but Sauri insisted that she deserved her own room with a private bathroom, and her own sweet set up.
It was fun at first having all of this to herself, but soon the glitz and the glamor wore off, and all she was left with was the deafening silence of a room that never truly felt like hers because of the over top décor, and the colors that bled into each other causing an angry clash of bright purple and red. Personally, she would’ve preferred softer colors, something that brought out the peaceful energy within her.
“Bloody zipper.” She squinted her eyes and bit down hard on her bottom lip in concentration until she finally heard the tell-tale swoosh of the zipper being pulled down. She grinned triumphantly as the dress fell into a heap on the floor. She stepped out of the dress and sighed as she touched her lip and saw a smear of red splattered across her finger.
She made her way to the bureau and grabbed a tissue and pressed it hard to her lips. The unexpectedly mundane gesture reminded her of her father. An English doctor who had a love for classic novels, cigars and old black and white movies. At first glance, he seemed oddly mismatched with her mum who was a designer in Paris and kept up with all the latest movies. Their eyes met across the room at a party one day, and somehow it didn’t seem to matter that they came from two totally different worlds.
Growing up, Claudia believed in their love, and her little sister used to make fun of her whenever she would say that she wanted a marriage like that. She supposed that at her age, Elizabeth was too young to understand, but she still tried to teach her. That a love like theirs was rare, that them meeting each other like that was meant to happen.
Claudia frowned as she stared at herself in the mirror and watched as she touched her honey blonde hair. She had her mother’s hair, defined cheekbones, and her shapely thighs, but she had dad’s caramel colored eyes, lips, and his forehead. Whenever she looked at herself in the mirror, she was reminded of them in a way that was almost too painful to contemplate.
She shook her head as she turned away from the mirror and headed towards her closet. She smiled for no particular reason thinking that she really did quite enjoy the buzz that came after enjoying one too many drinks. She put her shoes back where they belonged, and managed to fumble into a pair of sweatpants and a shirt.
She huffed as she tried to pull the shirt down only to realize that she was trying to put it on upside down. She began to giggle hysterically, the sounds of her laughter echoing in her empty chambers until her laughter died down, and she seemed to sober up almost instantly.
“I miss you, all of you,” she said under her breath. “It’s not fair what happened, I know, and I know I could’ve dealt with things a lot better, but I can’t change that now. All I know is, I can’t go back. I hope you understand.”
She flopped onto the bed without bothering to fix her shirt, and with one hand splayed across the bed, and the other across her face, she drifted off into a deep nostalgic sleep.