Page 104 of Sweet Temptation

“Like grandma’s sweater again, huh?”

“Yeah,” I muttered. “Like that.”

She grinned.

I walked her out to the club, which was up the hallway and through a door that was guarded by a bouncer. It opened into the VIP area, which was down to one side of the stage. From there, a half-flight of steps led up to the stage.

The house DJ was playing, drawing people onto the dance floor as the nightclub filled up. It was probably close to capacity already. We were approaching ten-thirty and Summer would be playing soon.

She greeted a bunch of people in the VIP area, seeming totally calm about her impending performance. She’d told me she liked to arrive a bit early for most shows, to absorb the vibe of the club and the crowd before she went on.

If she was worried about Sanchuk showing up, she didn’t show it.

She was very cool about everything, smiling at everyone and taking her time doing her rounds. I watched her accept the cocktail the manager brought for her and sipped, chatting with him, while other people hovered, hoping to talk to her.

I recognized her friends Wendy and Jewel. Elle Delacroix was here with Flynn. I said hello and talked to him for a bit, casually, while I kept an eye on Summer.

Andre was hanging out at the other end of the stage, halfway up the big staircase that led to the upper level, where there were more tables, the second bar, and people lined the railing, watching the club floor below.

I’d stay at this end while Summer played, on the steps up to the stage, so I’d have a good vantage point of her and the stage, the VIP area, the crowd, and a direct line of sight to Andre.

By the time the house DJ introduced her, Summer had already slipped up onto the back corner of the stage to watch him and the crowd.

I stood next to her.

When she finally took over, the crowd exploded with noise and excitement. Bodies pushed in around the stage. The volume on the music went way up as Summer dropped some insanely heavy beat. The music was loud, thumping, grinding… and definitely heavier than I’d expected.

The crowd was all over it.

As Summer played, I surveyed the room. Watching for any early signs of trouble. A disruption in the flow of bodies around the dance floor, any sign of tension or a fight breaking out, or the club going over capacity.

I didn’t see anything of concern.

I kept an eye on the bouncers, too. They kept to their positions, sometimes swapping stations, and doing rounds. The security in the club seemed on the ball, well-trained and attentive.

They weren’t always that good.

I scoped out the guests in the VIP area. And the people pressing in around the stage while Summer played her set. There were a lot of them, and they were vastly men.

Call me a fucking idiot, but I hadn’t expected that.

I knew DJ Summer’s thing was dance music, but I really didn’t know much about dance music and this particular scene. I hadn’t had much experience with it, personally, until now. My guys worked live music events all the time, but I hadn’t worked event security myself in many years, and I’d never had a DJ as a client.

I’d pretty much assumed there would be more women than men at these events, and that the men who came would mainly be here to scope out the women on the dance floor, like a spectator sport.

Not so.

The closer to Summer people got, the more the ratio of men-to-women increased. There were almost as many men as women on the dance floor, the VIP area was probably seventy-five-percent men, and the people on and around the stage were almost entirely men.

There was Sledge, of course. And the DJ who’d be playing after Summer’s set, who showed up early, lingering by her deck and talking her ear off every chance he got. The manager, who hovered for half her show. Bouncers. Random staff poking around.

And fucking fanboys.

I definitely didn’t expect so damn many of those.

Didn’t much like them, either.

It was incredibly obvious which ones they were. They hung on every note Summer played, but they also watched her play. At a glance, I would’ve dismissed a hell of a lot of them as gay.

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