escorts us right inside, past the two large and hunky men at the front door.
Suit-clad men, yum! One of them has gorgeous blue eyes a different shade than Taylor’s. He’s also taller, with dark hair, and I feel drawn to him. When I start to take a closer look, Taylor uses a finger to touch my chin and swivel my head so I’m looking into his gorgeously sea blue eyes, and…
Hi.
He smiles. “There you are, my sweet treat.” The world starts and ends with him, and I can’t even begin to explain why.
I follow Taylor and savor this unfamiliar feeling of owning the whole world as I realize people were jealously watching me and the woman, whose name I’ve already forgotten, with blatant longing in their eyes as Taylor escorted us through the club’s front door.
As I start to really study my surroundings, I realize I don’t know what I thought I’d find inside the club, except this isn’t it.
Keep in mind, I grew up without a television or the Internet. I still don’t have a television, although I’ve been catching up on TV shows and movies via streaming services on my phone. My building comes with free Wi-Fi, and my cellphone was one of the first things I purchased for myself when I decided to settle in Tucson. I knew I’d need one for finding a job, for starters. It’s not an expensive model, just a budget smartphone, but it does what I need it to do and has literally opened an entire world to me.
Not that I can communicate with my family. I’m reasonably certain I’m dead to them, and most everyone doesn’t even have a cellphone. My father has one, because of work, but no one else in our immediate family is allowed to have one. A couple of my uncles also have phones for work.
I realize now that’s probably a way they keep tight control over everyone beneath them.
And calling my father isn’t an option.
Then again, I guess I am hoping I’m dead to them. If I’m not, and they come looking for me, that could very likely be a worse scenario for me. The longer I’ve been away from that situation, the more I realize how dangerously toxic it was. I can’t even save my mother, I’m sure. Or any of my other siblings.
My father’s other wives…
Unlike some of my other brothers and sisters, I never could get comfortable thinking about my father’s other wives as my “mothers.” My mom is my father’s first wife, and his other three wives are younger than her. I have older and younger half-siblings, but I am the youngest of eight kids my mom had.
There’s no way I’d ever go back and live like that, either. Not after everything I’ve learned about myself and the world over the past ten months.
In retrospect, I also realize several of my older brothers and male cousins who left and never returned probably went through a similar culture shock I did. I’m saddened that I literally have no way of contacting them now to see if we could at least band together or something.
Oh, right. The club.
I’m having trouble focusing while Taylor’s holding on to my hand. Every time my brain starts to take in my surroundings, he turns to me with that smile on his face and those gorgeous blue eyes of his, and I completely lose my train of thought.
Wasn’t I going to look for… someone?
Who was that?
I guess it really doesn’t matter, does it? I’m here with Taylor and…
Does the woman’s name even matter? Something tells me it doesn’t.
The point is that I don’t feel alone anymore. I feel like I belong.
Isn’t that stupid and dangerous?
I don’t know. All I can think about is Taylor’s smile, and the blue of his eyes.
And when I glance back toward the front door, I spot the one bouncer watching me with his mysterious blue gaze, which is a darker shade of blue than Taylor’s. He’s wearing a gorgeous suit, and it’s almost like I can hear his voice inside my head.
Taylor squeezes my hand and leads us out of the foyer and toward a group of tables near one corner. Meaning we have to pass the dance floor.
Inside the club, it’s dark and warm, and the beat of the music throbs through my body. There are lights on the dance floor and lights all around, but it still feels dark and sweetly seductive. People are dancing and writhing against each other, but they