Page 6 of Shameful Addictions

She narrowed her eyes, held her tongue.

“Yeah, I thought so.” He acted like she’d spoken anyway. “Listen, this stage? This front area? It’s all a cover. The good stuff happens in the back.”

She paused. “What do you mean, the good stuff?”

“How about you find out for yourself?” The man reached inside his vest. Charlotte tensed, but all he pulled out was a card. He held it out to her.

Charlotte took the card and looked at it. About the size and shape of a credit card, it was silver and had the letters V.I.P. on it. She turned it over and found the same on the other side. “What is this?”

“Take it. See that door back there?” The man nodded at the door Kat had gone through before. “Hold up the card in the air before you go through and the bouncer won’t stop you.”

Charlotte nibbled her lip. “Don’t you need this?”

“I was going to hand it in, anyway. They hand them out to regulars. But,” he shrugged, “my favorite girl is moving on to a new club after tonight and I got no more use for it. Might as well give it to you so you can get those answers you want.”

This is a trap. Or it’s not a trap and it’s simply something I don’t want to get caught up in.

Charlotte tried to give the card back. “I can’t accept this.”

The man put his hands in his pockets. “Then just drop it on a table or something. Geez. Just wanted to do a beautiful woman a favor.”

He turned and sat back down in his seat. The lights started pulsing again, signaling the start of another routine.

Charlotte turned the card over and over in her hand. Here was her ticket to discovery. The question was if she wanted to board this particular train or not.

She knew what she had been asked to do. With the rug pulled out from underneath her, her expectations upended, she had only that to rely on.

Gripping the card, Charlotte went up to the unmarked, inconspicuous door. She held the card up over her head. The shiny plastic caught the light, reflected it. The bouncer must have seen, because he made no move to stop her.

Charlotte grabbed the doorknob and twisted, pushed inward. The door opened without a sound on greased hinges. The hallway in front of her was dark, impossibly dark. A smell wafted out of the black tunnel, steamy and thick and not unpleasant. She was unable to place the aroma. Drawn by curiosity, she stepped into the hall and shut the door behind her.

Lights snapped on at her approach, dull red, but startlingly bright in the void. A row of them led to a second door, which she opened and went through the same as the first.

The room before her was circular, with semicircular rows of chairs all facing several oversized pink couches. Sitting on those couches were naked girls, moaning and writhing in ecstasy as they used vibrators on themselves and each other. Their faces flushed red. Sweat covered their limbs, dripped between perky, heaving titties. Each girl with their legs spread wide to show off their wet, slippery folds, blossoming like wildflowers in exotic shades of coral and peach and rose.

As her eyes adjusted, Charlotte saw the chairs were occupied by men, sipping their drinks, talking among each other, and enjoying the crass display the girls were putting on for them.

She backed up, hit the closed door. Horror swelled inside her.

Now she recognized that smell.

It was the smell of immorality.

Chapter three

Enough is enough

Amanturnedtolook in her direction. “Hey, pretty lady.”

If someone called her that another time, she was going to scream.

“You here to join in the fun?”

Another man turned around, draped his arm over the back of the chair. “She’s no dancer. You want a taste of the wild side, honey? Someone give this girl a turn on a controller.”

“Controller?” Charlotte mouthed.

The first man tossed something at her. She flinched, throwing her arms in front of herself to catch the lobbed object. A slick device with two buttons. The On-button was obvious, while the other served to deepen her confusion. Something to do with speed?

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