Page 53 of Taming Scarlet

“What is this?” I asked Mae as we moved into a front room much like the one at the sex club SVNT.

“It’s burlesque,” Mae said. “Kind of. We have to leave our phones. You know the deal.”

I chanced another look back at Julian who was handing over his phone to the attendant, but there was a tension in his jaw that hadn’t been there a moment before.

Was he going to be mad about this?

Would he punish me for it later?

And why did the thought of that make my sex clench hard?

I didn’t get a chance to say anything to him, though, as Mae and Leah linked their arms through mine and led me into the back of the club.

Sure enough, there was a main stage. And a pretty blonde was doing a peek-a-boo dance with big feather fans.

There were several smaller stages, too, though. And on each stage were men and women, most of whom were almost entirely undressed, save for some fancy leather things some wore that didn’t actually cover any significant amount of skin.

That wasn’t the shocking part, though. Lord knew I’d been exposed to more in the world than men and women performing nude.

But they were more than just… performers.

When the women bent over or spread their legs, people gathered around the stage were not only touching—teasing their nipples, massaging their asses—but penetrating them with their fingers, in both holes.

The male dancers would stroke their own cocks, or allow the men and women standing around to do so. One even leaned over and sucked him into her mouth.

This just felt… different than the sex club. Where the patrons were the ones getting it on. Which felt a little more, I don’t know, consensual, to me.

These people were getting paid to be stroked and fingered by literally anyone standing near them.

Sure, sex workers did that all the time. But they could say no, right? This didn’t seem to give the performers that option.

“Wait till you see the back room,” Mae called over the music.

I wasn’t sure I was prepared for the back room.

“I need a drink first,” I admitted.

They didn’t push, just plied me with drinks before gently leading me toward various stages. They kept their hands to themselves, but dropped cash on the stages as one of the men stroked himself to completion, coming on the face of a woman who was begging for it.

At some point, though, while I’d been watching the actual burlesque, Mae disappeared, and Leah walked over to another stage, watching a woman get fingered by three sets of different men’s fingers.

“She’s beautiful,” a smooth voice said, speaking directly behind my shoulder, making me jolt and turn just as he moved in at my side instead.

“Ah, yes,” I agreed.

He was handsome. Tall, dirty blond hair, an expensive suit, with light green eyes.

“You’re more beautiful,” he said. Very matter-of-fact.

“Well, don’t be expecting me to get up on that stage,” I said, shooting him a smile.

And it was almost that exact second that my panties buzzed hard, making my knees buckle slightly. I threw out a hand to steady myself, managing only to press said hand into the stranger in the process.

“Whoa,” he said, reaching for me. “Maybe we should sit,” he suggested, then immediately pushed me toward a chair at a two-seat table near the stage.

I glanced around, but didn’t see Julian.

Had the buzz been an accident? Had he hit it when reaching into his pocket for his wallet or something?

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