“Where did you hear about this place again?” I ask my best friend as we pull into the parking lot of Club Deep. It doesn’t look like a club. It just looks…like a building. Possibly an abandoned one. But maybe that’s the point? I don’t know.

Cosette shrugs as she puts the car in park. “I just heard some people talking about it the other day.”

“At another club?”

“At another club.”

I stifle the sigh that’s aching to come out of me. Cosette is a party girl. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but I worry when she goes out without me. I’ve had one too many drunken phone calls asking for a rescue. So my expectations for this club are low. It’s probably not even really a club, just some indie place that’s trying to get started and will disappear off the map as quickly as it appeared. But really it doesn’t matter. Cosette isn’t just my best friend, she’s basically all I have left. She’s been family for longer than I can remember, and it’s felt like more than that since my parents died. If she wants me to go with her to a club, I’m going to go.

Cosette is taking her time, fixing her make-up. Even longer than normal. “Are you meeting someone I don’t know about?”

“No,” she says way too quickly.

I fight to keep from rolling my eyes. I love her, and I will go to as many clubs as she wants, but I’m just about over getting there and being dumped for some guy she’s actually meeting.

“I’m really not meeting anyone, Libby. Let’s go.”

Autumn coolness is just now starting to set in, and I rub my arms, wishing I had worn something a little warmer. These pants are skin tight and thin, and the shirt reveals my stomach. I was going for sexy, but I think I should have opted for warmth. I just hope the temperature is better inside.

A security guard checks our IDs, and Cosette hands him a piece of paper. Did we have to have tickets to get in here? “Downstairs at the main bar,” he tells her.

The entrance is dark, but already I can hear thumping bass coming from down the stairs. Swirling lights curl up the steps to meet us, and the sounds of a crowd filter to us through the music. A loud cheer goes up just as I step onto the main floor, and my jaw drops.

The club is way bigger than I thought, multiple levels and balconies obvious as I look up. Three bars circle the main dance floor, which is packed with people. Cages are stationed around and hang just above the dance floor, each with its own sexy dancer. But all of that isn’t what makes my jaw drop. It’s what’s along the outer edges of the club. In areas lit up with spotlights, people are having sex. Like, actual sex. And not just that, kinky sex. The kind you only read about in bed under the covers where absolutely no one can see you. Every pairing that I can think of. A man is kneeling before a woman with her hands bound above her head, and I can see his tongue thrusting into her. A pair of men hold a woman between them and they’re both inside her at the same time. Heat runs through me, and I keep my eyes moving. Things I never thought I’d see in real life are here—someone being flogged and looking like they love it, a screaming woman orgasming as her partner uses a vibrator on her. Blood rushes to my cheeks and I look away from a woman who’s bent over a bench and being pounded into from behind.

Cosette grabs my hand and starts to pull me across the dance floor. I pull her back. “This is a sex club.”

“Good observation, Sherlock,” she smirks at me.

“Did you know?”

She just nods, pulling me along with her again. I’m too stunned to protest.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

We reach the biggest of the three bars and she gives me a look I know all too well. “Because, Libby, if you had known, you wouldn’t have come.”

“I might have,” I say defensively. But we both know she’s right. On any given day I would rather be at home than at a club, and knowing this was a sex club would have given me the perfect ammunition to bow out. I sigh. “Okay, fine. But I’m here now. Even though I don’t understand why.”

Cosette suddenly looks away, fidgeting like she’s nervous. Then she takes a breath and points behind me. At the end of the bar there’s a high stage with dancers, and a sign ‘Dancer auditions here.’

Everything clicks. The paper she handed to the bouncer. Downstairs at the main bar. Cosette is going to audition. I turn back to her. “You’re serious?”

“It’s good money, Libby, and you know I need it. I know it’s a sex club, but I’ll just be dancing. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, but I was too nervous to come by myself.”

I bite my lip. I can’t argue with the fact that she needs the money. We both do. I have a job, but Libby has been struggling to find work, and neither of us have ever been able to find jobs as dancers, despite trying. Not a lot of those available in Phoenix. My parents weren’t rich, and they didn’t leave me much. Most of that is gone from just trying to survive. Taking a deep breath, I push down my embarrassment about the whole sex thing. It’s my deal. “Well, then, you better do a damn good audition.”

The relief on her face is almost painful. Did she really think I’d stop her from getting a job? Or not be supportive of her? After everything we’ve been through together, she should know better than that.

She heads over to where the sign is posted, where a man with a clipboard is standing. He takes her paper and smiles, the kind of generic smile you give someone when you’ve smiled too much for one day and are exhausted. I can only imagine what it would be like to run auditions in a club like this. I move down to the end of the bar so I can watch her. This isn’t exactly our kind of dancing—Cosette and I met in ballet classes when we were really young. But this can’t be that hard, the music has a beat so strong that it practically does all of the work for you.

Cosette replaces a dancer on the stage as the song changes, and she starts to move. Her movements are smooth and sexy. A little slower than the tempo of the song, but she looks good. That’s when I hear it. The man with the clipboard is yelling, “That’s not enough if you want the job.”

I see Cosette falter for a second, but she gets it back, until the asshole opens his mouth again. “You’re the last dancer of the day, sweetheart. You need to show me something amazing for me to want you.”

Are you serious? Who does this guy think he is? All he’s doing is getting in her head, and I can see it. Her movements are becoming more awkward. She’s second guessing herself. Well fuck that. We’ve been dancing together almost since we could walk, and she’s going to remember that. I stride past the clipboard asshole and lift myself onto the stage. Cosette opens her mouth, and I know that she’s going to ask me what I’m doing, but I don’t give her the chance. “Let’s dance. Show that asshole what we’ve got.”

I throw myself into the dance without hesitation, letting the music move me with it, just like Cosette and I used to do when we would take over the dance studio we attended and just dance for fun. Dance like it doesn’t matter, like there’s nothing but you and the music. We dance separately and then we dance together before moving apart again, and for a moment it’s just this. It’s like nothing bad has ever happened and we’re two girls in a basement choreographing dances to our favorite songs. But when I look out into the club, I can’t pretend that there’s nobody watching. Actually, a lot of people are watching.

Something old and buried comes roaring to the surface, and I stop dancing and start performing. A small cheer goes up from the people watching, and I glance over at Cosette to find her smiling, dancing better than ever. Who would have thought that I would have this kind of fun at a sex club? But it is fun. More fun than I’ve had in a long time. I’ve always loved having an audience, and now is no exception.

I feel eyes on me, and this is different than the crowd. A man is standing in crowd, towering over the people around him, and our eyes lock. They’re a pale crystal blue that I can see even from here, and they make me shiver. Totally in contrast with the way that smirk on his face makes me feel like I’m on fire. His eyes roam down my body and I let mine do the same: Button down shirt, sleeves rolled up to his elbows, and forearms that are rock hard. His shirt is tight, and it doesn’t do anything to hide the fact that he’s built. He has a face that’s all angles, gorgeous in a severe way, like almost too perfect to be believed. My body heats up again, and my dancing changes with it, becoming slower, more sensual.

Guys who are that good looking aren’t usually my thing. In the past I’ve gone for guys who look a little more rough around the edges and seemed like they’ve lived some life. But damn, for this man I’ll make an exception. He makes his way through the crowd, never taking his eyes off me. He stops next to clip board guy—who’s stopped his yelling at the both of us—and speaks to him quietly. Clipboard guy simply writes down something on the clipboard, nodding. Then the hot guy disappears into the crowd, one second there and the next, gone. I can’t believe I lost him, considering how tall he is. Damn. Oh well, that was never going to happen anyway. Story of my life.

I let the music filter back into my ears, grabbing Cosette’s hand again and letting myself be free.