I HAD A VAGUE recollection of a Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman movie Mom refused to let me watch but that I watched anyway during a sleepover at Bethany Grayson’s house (her mother let her watch anything) called Eyes Wide Shut. The movie featured a lavish, hedonistic sex club full of rich, beautiful people dressed in extravagant costumes. Annie’s kink club was a far cry from that.
I should have known it after Emerson’s one visit. Amid laughter, she had shared her experience . . . which had included a man in an anatomically correct squirrel costume. Chippy was in attendance tonight, too, weaving among the rooms and bumping against females. After stepping off the elevator, I stuck close to Annie, letting her guide me. I drove my own car, the memory of Emerson being abandoned by Annie still fresh in my mind.
Tonight’s kink club was being held at a large loft with few rooms. Just a single wide-open space with sparse furniture. Understandably there was little privacy. Not that that stopped people from getting down to business. Several made out. The bedroom consisted of a near-translucent screen that did nothing to shield the orgy happening on the bed.
Couples occupied couches and ottomans. In a corner there was a threesome. They were making out in earnest, but thankfully still in clothes. Their hands were everywhere, diving inside shirts and under dresses. I looked away as I caught sight of panties being slid down one girl’s thighs.
“Want a drink?” Annie asked loudly over the pump of music, stopping before a makeshift bar manned by a guy wearing nothing but a speedo, a Captain America mask, and a Superman cape. He was clearly his own brand of superhero. He danced as he shook, stirred, and poured, doing this crazy pelvic-thrust action that drew my eyes and then made me glance away. Repeatedly.
I shook my head. “I’m fine.”
Not that I was opposed to drinking. I could have used a cocktail to calm my nerves, but I was a little uncomfortable drinking the purple-colored concoctions Captain No Name was making. He nodded at me with a jerk of his chin and sent me a wink. I smiled back lamely. I wanted a drink to relax me . . . not a roofie.
Annie took a drink from him. Bringing it to her lips, she muttered, “You’re a bucket of fun, aren’t you?”
“What’s over there?” I pointed to where a group congregated on one side of the loft.
“Let’s find out.” Annie wove through the crowd, smiling and stopping to greet people she knew. At one point, she halted and engaged in a long, sloppy-wet kiss with a guy. Gag. When they came up for air, a long string of spit connected them before breaking.
He turned his attention on me, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. “Hello, there, I’m Roger.”
He extended a hand and I shook it. Smiling, he bent his head, tugging me closer by the hand, clearly intending to kiss me, too.
I flattened a hand to his chest and pushed him away with a tight smile. Yeah, not happening.
Shrugging, he moved on.
Annie laughed. “Uh, you do know you’re at a kink club, right?”
I nodded and then shrugged. “Yeah. That doesn’t mean I have to be indiscriminating, right? Besides, my tetanus isn’t up-to-date.”
“You’re such a prude.” Laughing, she rolled her eyes and led us to the herd of people. Some stood and a few sat huddled cozily together in plump armchairs, cheering and chanting and holding their drinks aloft in salute.
As we approached, I saw that they surrounded a pool table. I stood on my tiptoes and peered between the bodies, catching a glimpse of some movement on top of the pool table. Bodies. There were bodies on top of the pool table. Instantly, I cringed, hoping they didn’t tear the felt. Then I cringed again, shaking my head that my first concern was for the pool table.
“Oooh, I gotta see this.” Annie squeezed between two bodies. I followed, able to look over her head. I was average height, but in my boots, I was at least six inches taller than her.
My jaw dropped. Two girls were on their backs, shoulders touching, side by side on the pool table. A single guy was poised over them, his knees planted firmly between their thighs. He kissed one of them. Then the other. He took turns, moving back and forth between them. Deep, slow kisses that looked nothing like the kiss I just witnessed between Annie and Roger. He took his time with each girl, taking her face between his hands and holding it in a way that was both tender and firm. Confident and sexy. A man who knew what he was doing.
I couldn’t even see his face, but I thought he was hot. A powerful back flexed beneath the fabric of his shirt. His forearms were strong-looking, too. Corded with tendons. Lightly dusted with hair. Something tugged low in my belly in response to him.
Suddenly, someone stood in front of me holding a bucketful of raffle tickets. Annie took one and nudged me to do the same. Without tearing my gaze from the debauched scene, I took a ticket.
The other girl waiting for her turn slid her hand under the guy’s black T-shirt and dragged the fabric up so her red fingernails could stroke his bare shoulder. I was right. Holy sexy back. It was broad and muscled. The expanse of smooth, tanned skin made my mouth dry and water alternately. She touched her mouth to his back, her tongue darting out to taste him.
My face flamed and I shifted on my feet self-consciously, horrified that I was getting turned on watching this intimate scene. I was unable to look away. I continued to gawk at the guy. I ignored the girls. I watched him. The way he kissed—like his whole being was focused on the act. The way the bottom of his spine dipped was sexy as hell. His jeans rode low, hugging an ass that looked like it could bounce quarters. Just the sight made my stomach muscles clench and twist. And that was a wholly new experience.
A James Taylor song slid on. A hard and fierce beat. His powerful vocals a demanding, urgent wail that added to the tension swirling in the air.
The guy on the pool table lifted up from the lucky recipient of his attentions then. Still on his knees, straddling the one, he twisted around to face the girl who was kissing his back. He took her face in both his hands and that’s when I spotted the full, rocking, masculine beauty of his features.
And my world stopped.
I sucked in a breath as recognition sliced through me. It was Logan. Logan Mulvaney. Reece’s little brother. Reece, as in Pepper’s boyfriend. Logan as in only eighteen and still in high school. About to graduate but still in high school. And here he was. At a kink club.
The fire in my cheeks intensified. This must be what it felt like a split second before spontaneous combustion. Mortification washed over me as I realized I was getting all hot and bothered over a guy I had no business feeling that way about. Off-limits was putting it mildly. It didn’t matter that the guy had more experience than I did. He had seen and done more sexually than I probably ever would. Rumor was he had already slept his way through the female undergrad population of Dartford and was moving on to grad students now.
I was on the verge of turning and fleeing when his eyes locked on mine.
Hello, awkward.
Now he knew I had seen him. How could I ever act normal when our paths crossed over the course of the next few decades? And yeah, I had no doubt that our paths would cross that long into the future. Pepper and Reece would probably get married and I’d see this guy a couple times a year. First at the requisite wedding events, then the baby baptisms. Birthdays. Holidays. Each time I clapped eyes on him, I would recall this mortifying moment. And I’d know he would be recalling it, too. Damn it, where was the rewind button for tonight?
“Ohmigod! It’s Logan!” Annie gave a little hop beside me the moment she spotted his face.
Of course, she knew who he was. I seemed to recall they had fooled around once. Pepper had mentioned that tidbit. For the first time since knowing this, something ugly spiked inside me. I hated that Annie had gotten to kiss him . . . that they had maybe done more than kiss.
As embarrassing as the whole situation was, I did not spontaneously combust. The earth did not open up to swallow me. Still, I didn’t walk away. My feet were rooted to the spot, pinned by Logan’s dark blue eyes. With his gaze glued to me, he lowered his head to kiss the girl again. Eyes wide open. Trained on me. He didn’t look away from me as he kissed. Not even when the girl on the table brought her hand up and began working him through his jeans. He looked directly at me with a burning-hot stare.
Kissing one girl, his cock being rubbed by another, he stared me down.
I couldn’t look away.
“That’s hot,” Annie breathed near my ear. “He’s looking right at you like it’s you he’s kissing. Or wants to.”
I fought to swallow the golf-ball-sized lump in my throat. “No,” I choked out, not even certain what I was denying. He was looking at me. But he didn’t want to kiss me. That would be . . . weird. I was his older brother’s friend.
Suddenly someone started shouting: “Ten, nine, eight . . .” The crowd joined in, chanting out the rest of the countdown. “Seven, six, five, four, three, two, one!”
A tall, thin guy wearing a Charlie Brown T-shirt held up his phone as the timer started trilling. “Time’s up!”
I exhaled, so relieved to know there was an end to this. That Logan wasn’t about to engage in a full-scale threesome in front of this mob. In front of me. Because as much as I disliked the idea, I knew I wouldn’t have been able to look away. I would have watched it all.
Which made me wonder who in the hell I even was anymore?
People clapped and hooted as Logan hopped down from the table in one smooth move, landing lightly on his feet. Turning, he assisted the other two girls off the table. One clung to him, clearly eager to continue what they’d started on the table.
“Number 364 . . . 364!”
Logan’s gaze found me. Not difficult. I still hadn’t moved from where I was rooted.
“All right! Who’s got 364? C’mon now!”
“Georgia, did you check your ticket?” Annie grabbed my hand. I’d forgotten about the ticket I’d grabbed from the bucket. I didn’t even know what it was for, but I’d hung on to it, clutched it between my fingers as I’d watched Logan’s little exhibition. “Ohmigod! That’s you!” Annie jerked my hand high into the air. “Right here . . . 364!”
The skinny guy pulled me forward. “Here’s 364! Annnnnd.” He made a show of tossing the tickets in the bucket. He selected another ticket and brandished it in the air. “The lucky number is 349! Where is 349?”
Another guy emerged from the crowd. This guy was big. Like lineman big. And tall. My head fell back to assess him. He grinned. “Hey, sweet thing.”
Before I could even speak, his hands dropped on my waist and lifted me up on the table. I winced a little as I came down hard. My legs dangled over the side of the table. “Ready for two minutes on the table?”
I opened my mouth, but no words came. For a split second, I tried to convince myself I could do this. Make out with a stranger in front of a group of strangers. I could be that bold. I could let go of my inhibitions for a few minutes and do something just that wild.
He leaned close to whisper in my ear, his fingers tucking the hair back from my face. “You’re a pretty piece. If you’re shy, we don’t have to do this here at all. Would you like to go somewhere else? Take more than two minutes?”
The words finally came. A big fat no materialized on my tongue. I opened my mouth to object, but someone else was suddenly speaking.
“Sorry. This one’s mine.” Logan reached for my arm, fingers closing around my wrist as he guided me down from the table. Relief coursed through me. Until I remembered that I was a big girl who didn’t need rescuing.
Lineman scowled at him. I added my own scowl. I wasn’t his or anyone’s.
Lineman stepped between us, blocking me from total retreat. Logan still held my wrist. “You already had your fun.” He nodded at the pool table. “Now it’s my turn.”
Logan grinned like he wasn’t challenging the thick-necked guy who probably added steroids to his Chex Mix. “Sorry, man, but she’s not playing the game.” Logan clapped a hand on his muscle-sloped shoulder like they were old friends.
Lineman looked down at Logan’s hand on his shoulder and then back to him. “She took a ticket.” He sounded like a petulant child now.
“I—I’m sorry.” I finally found my voice. Stammer and all. “I didn’t know what the ticket was for.”
Lineman grunted and stepped out of the way. He held up a finger in my face. “You should always know the rules before you play.”
I nodded, feeling like an idiot. Like a child being scolded for not following the instructions so clearly written on top of the paper.
Logan pulled me through the crowd and out into the more open space of the loft. Only he didn’t stop there. He didn’t release me.
His long strides moved swiftly, leading us through the press of bodies. As if it was his right to touch me. As if his brother dating my best friend gave him the right to interfere in my life.
His grip shifted to hold my hand. I tried not to think about his hand. About how warm and firm and large it felt wrapped around mine. Harris wasn’t big for holding hands, but when he had it had never felt like this. For a guy, Harris’s hands just weren’t that large. Our hands were about the same size.
I shook my head slightly. I had to stop doing that. Stop comparing every guy out there to Harris. It wasn’t healthy.
“Where are you taking me?” I demanded.
“Out of here,” he said over his shoulder, his voice deep enough that he didn’t even have to lift it over the thumping bass for me to hear. I didn’t protest. Didn’t stop him. Eyes followed us as we moved across the room, and I just wanted to get away from the stares. At least I told myself it was that. I told myself it had nothing to do with the way my hand felt in Logan Mulvaney’s. Or that I couldn’t get the image of him and the way he had looked at me as he kissed those girls out of my head.