Dirty Little Secret: A Billionaire Romance Duet - Mika Lane Page 0,15

ass?

At the top of the stairs, where there was even less light than the first floor, I was offered a glass of champagne, which I reminded myself to drink slowly. I needed to keep my wits about me. A woman wearing a red dress and high heels sat on a cushy sofa. I made a beeline for her.

Maybe she’d be friendly.

“May I sit here?”

“Of course.” She patted the seat next to her as she looked up at me. “You’re new here.”

She was stunning. Black bobbed hair, green eyes, her full lips smeared with nothing more than a neutral gloss.

“Yup. It’s my first time.”

The woman extended her hand. “I’m P.” She held up her champagne glass for a toast.

“I’m B. I’m never gonna keep these one-letter names straight.”

P laughed. “Don’t worry. No one does.” She took a long draw on the last of her champagne and looked around for the server.

“What brought you here?” P asked.

“Oh, I was just curious I guess,” I said.

“So you came by yourself? For your first time?” Her eyebrows rose.

Hmmm. Was that why people were staring?

“Sure,” I told her. “Why? Is that strange?”

She pursed her lips thoughtfully, and smiled. “I guess it’s not strange. It’s just that most women are brought here for the first time by a man.” She waved over the server for two fresh glasses of champagne.

“Cheers. You’ve got some balls,” P said, holding her glass up.

I laughed, hoping my mirth didn’t sound as fake as it felt. But the champagne was helping take the edge off.

“Thank you. Thank you very much.”

I spotted another dance floor in the distance, a couple smaller rooms I couldn’t quite see into, and a bunch of seating areas like the one P and I were occupying. Beyond that, there was another staircase leading to a higher level.

“Where’s that go?” I pointed.

“There are a couple play rooms on the third floor for the super high rollers. Very exclusive. I’ve been in them a couple times.”

“Why do they need their own rooms?”

P tilted her head and made an I can’t believe you asked that question face. “Wow. You are really green aren’t you?”

“So what if I am?”

P sighed. “Some have their own rooms because they have some pretty intense kinks. And some just want an extra layer of privacy. A couple years ago, a guy sneaked some photos with his iPhone and then threatened certain members with blackmail. People fucking freaked out. They stopped coming for a while. I thought the club was gonna close.”

“Whoa. What came of it?” My shaking hands sent a splash of champagne onto the sofa. Dammit.

“People gradually came back after Miss M stepped up security. And the guy? Rumor has it he disappeared.”

“What? What do you mean, disappeared?”

Jesus, what have I gotten myself in to?

“Well, he never showed his face at the club again. But a couple folks knew him from around town. They said they never saw him again out and about either. His phone was disconnected, his apartment abandoned.”

My eyes grew wide with horror. What the fuck?

P smiled, shrugging. “But like I said, that’s just a rumor. Probably not even true.”

Holy shit.

Chapter 9

Varden

It was a relief to get out of the house after bailing out Beau.

The poor bastard had had nothing but a dark cloud hanging over his head since he was a kid. It was one of the reasons I didn’t get upset with him when things did implode for him. Maybe I was an enabler, but I really believed he was doing the best he could.

Given the circumstances.

Like always, club ritual of pulling my mask on transformed me into a different person—one without a care in the world. I said my customary hellos on the first floor and spent my usual five minutes flirting with Miss M, then wandered up to the mezzanine.

It was early yet.

I inhaled the wood scent of my mask, further chasing away concerns of the day and erasing, at least for a time, both the past and future. Wearing it, I existed only in the moment. And I desperately needed it on a night like tonight, when the past threatened to catch up and take me down.

No one could see my face, no one knew who I was, and no one knew anything about me. I was nobody but G, and that was just how I planned to keep it.

In the dimly lighting, two women perched on the sofa where X, Y, and Z had been the evening before. I passed them on my way to