What We Do in the Night (Day to Night #1) - Stylo Fantome Page 0,20
without having to do any work herself.
But as her gaze skated up and down Ari's body, she didn't think that plan of action was going to work this time around.
“Whatever you're thinking,” he started, “had better involve the word 'no'.”
Charice and Valentine both laughed out loud.
“He's a scared little boy!” Charice slapped him again before stepping away. “Sorry, sugar, I'm not into pussies. At least not this time of night. Scamper away and find someone else to play with.”
Ari turned and walked out of the room, not bothering to look behind him as he went. Valentine shook her head, chuckling to herself as she slowly moved to follow him.
“I love you, Charice. Sometimes I think you're the only thing that makes this job fun,” she snickered. Before she could leave, though, the other woman grabbed her arm and pulled her to a stop.
“Keep that in mind tonight.”
Val was shocked. Charice was always loud. Always. “Inside voice” was a foreign phrase to her. If she was talking, she was projecting, and usually to the back of the building. But now she was speaking softly, and seriously, all while staring at Valentine very hard.
“What's wrong?”
“You like that guy,” she said simply.
“That guy? No. No, I do not. I kind of think he's a dick,” she assured her co-worker.
“Oh, honey, all the best ones are,” Charice sighed, and she finally let her go. “Do what you're going to do, and just know that Mama Charice will be here to pick up the pieces.”
Valentine wanted to ask where all this was coming from, but right then several men and two women fell into the room. Literally. They laid on the floor in a giggling, writhing, mass. Charice gasped, then let out a loud cheer.
“Lord, jesus, thank you for answering my prayers!”
And with that, she laid on top of them all.
Valentine stepped out into the hallway, but Ari wasn't waiting there. He was in the room across the hall. It was empty that evening, with just a human-sized gilded cage hanging from the ceiling.
“People go in for that?” he asked, glancing back at the room they'd just left. She sat their bottle of vodka down near the door, then went to join him in the center of the room.
“People go in for anything you can think of,” she assured him. “And 'that' is probably the most popular room in this house.”
“I'm not impressed with this tour thus far,” he warned her, giving her a glare. She beamed back at him, then reached up to grab the bars on the bottom of the cage.
“No returns, no refunds,” she warned him, lifting her feet off the ground and twisting her arms, spinning the cage in a slow circle.
“And if I want one?” he asked from behind her. She shrugged.
“You can ask. It'll be highly entertaining. Serge has been bored lately, he'd love to have that discussion.”
His hands were suddenly on her hips, stopping her for a moment. Then he spun her around to face him again. Once she was, his hands smoothed down over her butt and he pulled her close.
“Impress me,” he whispered, staring down the length of his nose at her. She stared right back for a second, then she put her feet on the ground.
“It's entirely possible that Caché isn't your kind of place,” she offered. “Maybe you'd feel more at home in a winery, or in a golf club. A local chapter of the Elks Lodge.”
His smirk was back in place – she'd almost begun to miss it – and then his lips were against her ear, his teeth scraping against her skin.
“Maybe I'd feel more at home in you.”
She shivered once before leaning into the contact, pressing her cheek bone to his jawline.
“You couldn't afford the rent.”
“Try me.”
Valentine let go of the cage and pulled him backwards out of the room, making sure to grab the vodka before they left.
She could already tell he wouldn't be interested in any of the other party rooms – a science fiction theatre was happening in one of the front rooms, and a masquerade party was happening in another.
So she took him to a secret room that was completely blacked out, except for a strobe light that only flickered every ten seconds. It was standing room only, wall to wall people, men and women. Some fully clothed, some in their underwear, some completely naked. Ambient house music played through speakers. Hands were everywhere, massaging and caressing and squeezing and pulling.