Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 87629 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 438(@200wpm)___ 351(@250wpm)___ 292(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87629 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 438(@200wpm)___ 351(@250wpm)___ 292(@300wpm)
Damn.
Damn, damn, damn.
This is what I want. I want experience. I yearn for it. With experience, maybe I can be something more than Mandy Cake to someone. Maybe I can finally get over lusting for my best friend.
Tonight?
I hit Send without thinking about it.
He responds.
Nine p.m.
Where?
An address follows. Oddly, it’s one of the buildings owned by Black Inc., though it’s a residential building, not their office complex.
Just outside the building? I write.
Tell the doorman you’re meeting someone at the bar. It’s on the first floor. Have a seat and ask for Alfred. I’ll take it from there.
Apprehension surges through me. Fear…but also excitement.
Tonight.
Tonight I will begin my education in the art of sex and seduction.
Chapter Eight
Jackson
“Found her,” Ben says to me.
“How did she look?” I ask.
“She seemed shy. And then, when I had to leave the restaurant to take a quick phone call, she disappeared.”
Icicles poke the back of my neck. “What do you mean, she disappeared?”
“I mean, when I got back to my spot at the bar, she was gone.”
“That doesn’t sound like Amanda. She’s never rude.”
“I think she was just shy. I mean, here I am, coming up to her in a tiny little sushi bar. She just freaked out a little.”
“Amanda doesn’t freak out.”
“I’m a strange man—a famous, strange man—coming up to her and starting a conversation. Of course she freaked out.”
“Well, thanks for checking on her. I hated having to blow her off at the last minute. She’s a special woman.”
“She seems special. Very pretty but definitely an introvert.”
“She is.”
“And you haven’t…” Ben raises his eyebrows.
“No, I haven’t. We’re friends. Just friends.”
“And you think you can always be just friends?”
“Sure. Why not?”
“Because, Jack, she probably already has feelings for you.”
“No. She doesn’t.”
I’ve wondered from time to time whether Mandy thinks of me in that way, but I’ve always concluded that she doesn’t. She hasn’t given me any hint that she does. Besides, we’re just too different. I don’t want a relationship—I’m clearly not capable of it—and she wants a white picket fence and 2.4 kids.
But then I wonder…
Does she?
Mandy and I have never really talked about it.
Or rather…she doesn’t talk about what she ultimately wants. She knows damned well I’m not looking for a relationship—I make no secret of it—but she doesn’t know the kind of sex I like.
The kind of sex she could never go for.
The club I frequent is called Black Rose Underground. It’s owned by Braden Black, and membership is by invitation only.
When I first started working for Black Inc., the leather club I had been a member of for several years closed.
Braden Black, it turned out, owned a small piece of the club, and he invited a few of the former members to Black Rose. I was one of them. The dues are expensive, but the club is elegant and mysterious. Full confidentiality and elite clientele. As a gold member, I can invite guests, though only one at a time.
I’ve only exercised that privilege a few times. Normally I play in scenes with members who are already there and available. Sometimes it leads to a date or two after that. Sometimes three months of dating.
The club will scare the pants off Amanda Thomas.
Which is what I’m counting on.
After reading her profile, I decided someone had to scare her off that app. I don’t want to keep her from dating, just trying to hook up with random strangers. It’s not safe.
Besides, despite what her profile says, she told me she’s looking for someone who wants a long-term relationship. She’s being very naive if she thinks a date with anyone on Lustr is going to lead to anything remotely resembling forever.
So really, I’m doing her a favor. She’ll take one look at Black Rose—and the kind of dark and kinky sex within its walls—and go running back to wanting a sweet man to settle down with and not someone interested in educating her.
I swallow hard.
Tonight, Amanda is going to get a very different kind of education.
Chapter Nine
Amanda
After putting on and taking off several outfits, I finally decide on simple skinny jeans, black pumps, and a tight black T-shirt. And of course, the contact lenses. I’ve been wearing them all day. This morning, it only took me ten minutes to get up the courage to touch my eyeball. Last night it took a half hour.
The bar is on the first floor of the Manhattan building. That’s where I’m meeting Mr. Dark and Sexy. He gave me no guidance as to what I should wear, but I know how to dress for a bar.
I go all out on my makeup. Even false eyelashes, which I don’t normally wear, but they really make my eyes pop. Red lips, too. I’m normally a dusty rose kind of girl, but red?
This seems like a red night.
Mr. Dark and Sexy likes red.