she was sexy and she flirted. She fetched drinks and she told jokes and she gave tours.
But she also kept Ari's rules in the back of her head, and she didn't accept any invitations to do anything more with the guests.
She didn't get to meet the big celebrity, though she did get to see him – he and some of his entourage posted up in the booth near the entrance to the Club Room. She did get introduced to the groom-to-be, and she gave him a hug and made sure to keep him supplied with a constant stream of alcohol in his mouth, and pretty girls in front of his eyes.
Still, though, she kept her own eyes on the entrance for most of the night. It was crowded in the Club Room – Friday nights were one of their busiest nights of the week. But she'd been doing this long enough to know how to spot someone in a crowd, and she hadn't spotted Ari all evening.
Maybe he's not coming.
It was probably because she'd refused to have sex with him in his apartment. Of course he'd been right in his assumptions about her – of course Valentine was going to sleep with him again. If it was at least half as good as it had been in the Moon Room, then it would still rank as some of the best sex she'd ever had; she was definitely going to be having sex with Ari again.
But she couldn't let him know that, she didn't want him to have all the power in the relationship. She didn't want him thinking that just because she got in the car with him and just because she went somewhere with him didn't mean she was obligated to fuck him. She was in charge, really, not him. So after making out on his sofa for a bit, she'd pushed him off her and claimed that she'd needed to get home.
Her little power trip may have worked too well, though. Maybe it had turned him off to the point he wasn't interested at all.
“You're a great dancer!”
Val spun around to find a young man bopping around close behind her. She laughed at him. There was no way he was twenty-one. She was guessing eighteen, maybe nineteen, at most. He wore a large gold chain around his neck, and an absolutely huge platinum watch around his wrist. She kept smiling and danced up close to him.
“Thank you! Are you having a good time?” she asked, shouting to be heard over the music.
“Fuck yeah! This place is insane! Have you been here before?” he asked, and she laughed again.
“Baby, I'm a regular,” she informed him. “The things I could show you.”
“Really?” he said, then he swallowed nervously. “Uh, maybe you could me them. Show things to me. Fuck, I mean, maybe you could show me those things.”
It was second nature to amp up the conversation. She ran her teeth over her lower lip and saw how he watched the movement. Rubbed her hands down her body as she moved to the beat, and saw how he watched that, as well. It would be so easy this time. He was young, he was eager, and he was clearly rich. She could take him to Charice and he'd probably sleep like a baby after she was done with him.
Just before she could really start flirting with him, though, she remembered the rules again. She was exclusively Ari's while she was at the club. She didn't have to convince guys to pay her for her company, not for the next two weeks. She was so startled at the realization, she stopped dancing and just stared at him.
Then, suddenly, she felt someone at her back. A tall presence looming over her. The kid glanced over her shoulder, then looked again and lost his smile. At the same time, an arm slowly wrapped around her waist and pulled her back into a very firm chest.
“Sorry,” Ari's voice said from close to her ear. “She's only allowed to show those things to me.”
The kid swallowed nervously two more times before dancing off into the crowd.
Valentine turned her head to the side, her forehead brushing a stubbly jaw. She closed her eyes and breathed in his scent; a woody, spicy cologne. Then she began swaying to the beat, forcing Ari to move with her.
“I didn't think you were coming,” she said as his other arm circled her waist.
“Impatient little girl,” he teased. “It's just barely after