Page 1 of Lessons in Sin

Chapter 1

It felt as though I were swimming through the crowd of dancers in The Vixen, the air a thick blanket of alcohol and sweat. It isn’t exactly a seedy club, but let’s just say it’s one of the only clubs in LA that I can get into without a fake ID and since I lost mine a week ago - when freshers week was in full swing - The Vixen has been my saving grace.

I maneuver myself around a drunk couple, their bodies moving against one another, gyrating their hips in a seductive, drunken haze, and head to the bar in search of another drink.

It’s eleven pm which means the club is at capacity now even though it won’t close for another three hours. This also means that the five bartenders currently working are stretched thinly trying their best to juggle the eager drunks shouting for their drinks.

Luckily, I have a talent for getting what I want.

Flicking my curtain of ginger hair over my shoulder, I send a flirty smile to the bartender - my go-to method of getting their attention. He smirks back, the grin wolfish and arrogant, and saunters over to me, ignoring the countless other customers shouting out orders.

‘Hey there baby, what can I get you?’

Ignoring the shiver of revolution that wants to crawl down my spine, I lean forward, making sure he gets a full glimpse of my cleavage. ‘Vodka coke please.’

He sends me a nod and another smirk and gets to work. I roll my eyes - It works every time.

Waiting for my drink, I hear someone call my name. ‘Scarlett!’

Turning, I see Katie - a girl I met at LAU’s dance club introductory meet - who also happens to be my missing dormmate (I haven’t seen her since moving in) - wading through the crowd, her small frame crowned by a large wall of muscle.

She comes to a stop in front of me, her eyes are glossed over by drink and a giggle escapes her lips. ‘Hi.’

I grin back, amused at her drunken antics. ‘Hi.’

I feel a tap on my shoulder - the bartender with my drink. I take it from him almost spilling it as Katie grabs my arm. ‘Jesus Katie be careful!’

She giggles some more and then leans up to shout in my ear. ‘Soooooo, Doug,’ She nods behind her to the wall of muscle, ‘Wants me to come chill at his. Are you okay if I head?’

Doug nods his head at me before taking a swig of his beer. He’s hot but in a meat-head kind of way with his tousled black hair messed up in that I just fucked a girl kind of way, his tree-trunk arms on full display.

I haven’t known Katie long but already I have the sense that she isn’t a girl’s girl, and this just confirms it. I’d never leave Ruby - my best friend of God knows how many years - in a club by herself to go to some guy’s house.

Ignoring the niggle of annoyance, I take a gulp of the drink in my hand. ‘Sure, go ahead. I’ll see you back at our dorm … well that’s if you come back.’ I wink at her teasingly, but she barely lets the words pass my lips before she’s spinning around and following the drunk jock through the crowd.

At least she told me, I guess.

Downing the rest of my drink, I abandon it at the bar and move further into the crowd. Raising my hands in the air, I let go of everything, letting the music take me. My hips follow the beat of the music, rolling in sync with the thumping bass vibrating through the club. The emerald silk of my dress, a dress short enough to show half my ass, glimmers under the neon lights above.

Now this, this is what I live for.

There is nothing in this world that could beat the feeling of utter ecstasy I get whenever I donned a pair of heels and a dress that screamed indecency and danced the night away.

It was like magic.

Whatever worries I have, whatever thoughts were plaguing my mind; they would disappear in this moment of euphoria.

God, I just fucking love it.

I let a breath loose, laughing up at the roof, my body spinning with the agility only a ballet dancer could possess.

The DJ whooped from his stand as he changed the tune to a song with a more seductive beat.

And that’s when I see him.

He’s tall - at least six foot three - and the entire length of him is leant against a column near the bar. He’s clutching a whisky in one hand while the other lounges in the pocket of his dress pants, and his sultry stare is aimed right at me. Dark hair falls into his eyes, the colour of them masked by the distance between us, and yet I can feel the desire radiating from them.

Holy shit.

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