Page 7 of Burn With Me

Now, the deeper into medical school he gets, the less I see him around the SoHo apartment his parents bought for him. He’s in his second year of residency, and I’ve graduated with my sociology major.

Chris thinks I have a job as a counselor at a clinic uptown, not far from Decadence. He doesn’t know I work at the restaurant–or myotherjob that I start tonight.

This is as close to freedom as I can get right now. Though not for any reason other than my own damn self. When I tried to leave years ago, after barely living in New York for a few months, my feet wouldn’t move.

Door open, bags packed and waiting to be rolled down the hall to the elevator, I froze. Aside from the shit with Chris, my life was comfortable, and though I knew what he was doing to me was wrong, I realized I was afraid to be on my own.

Here I am, six years later, and the only thing I can bring myself to do is lie to him about where I work.

Which is why tonight, I’ll be starting at the club that Carmela and Mr. Tailor own.

A sex-positive club where people can explore all of their dreams and desires.

It’s high-end, invite-only, and extremely exclusive. The people who work there get to call all the shots, so I figure it’s a way for me to take back my power. Or try to find it, anyway.

If Chris ever finds out, he’ll probably lock me up.

Or kill me.

Jackson

“Asex-positive club? What the fuck is that?” No wonder my uncle didn’t want this meeting at the office. When the fuck did he invest in a sex club?

And why the fuck wasn’t I invited before?

“Désirer is about people being able to explore who they really are inside. Safely and without judgment. The masks are required to protect the identity of the people who work there and the patrons,” Carmela answers, still annoyed at me for “harassing”Ginny.

“Why French?”

“Because English is ugly,” she snaps back.

“So let me get this straight, Uncle Scott. You’ve been attending a sex club for over a year now, and you haven’t thought to invite meonce?” Sitting back in my chair, I kick my ankle up on my knee and fold my hands over my stomach.

He’s standing on the opposite side of Carmela’s office, hands in his pockets as he gazes out a window that overlooks a small courtyard. It’s getting dark, and there are lights strung up in the trees that give off an orange glow, illuminating his face. “It’s business, Jackson. Not pleasure. I want you to learn the ropes so that when the time comes, you can take over my share of it.”

Carmelarolls her eyes and sighs dramatically as I get to my feet to pour myself a glass of scotch from the minibar in the corner of the room. “You act like you’re dying, old man,” she grumbles.

“I just want you to start learning the way we run things. Is that gonna be a problem, Jackson? Do you think you can act like an adult for once and just do as I ask?” He turns from the window and fixes me with a hard stare.

Shaking my head, I shrug and wave him off. “Keep calling me a child, and I’ll keep acting like one.”

“Youbothsound like children right now. Jackson, this is serious. This ismyclub, and it has run smoothly thus far. Can I trust you to treat this as ajoband not a playground? Because if you can’t behave yourself, I don’t want you there.” Her arms are crossed, and there’s a stern look on her face.

Briefly, I imagine what she’d look like in leather with a whip.

As if she can read my thoughts, her eyes narrow, and she shakes her head. “Scott, I don’t like this.”

“Relax. What time should I be there? And where is it?” Like, I’m going to pass up an opportunity to go to a sex club. I’ll bet there are tons of women there who like it rough.

Maybe being around a large group of people who like the same things is just what I need.

“I’ll pick you up at midnight. You’ll be blindfolded until we get there, and you won’t complain or say a word about it. If anyone asks who your sponsor is, you’ll tell them the owner. Don’t tell anyone your name. And, Jackson, the girls areoff-limits,” my uncle demands.

Oh, come on!

“The blindfold is a bit much, don’t you think?”

My uncle lets out a sharp laugh but doesn’t respond as heguides me into a building. Or what I assume is a building. As soon as I got in the car, he put the blindfold on and instructed me not to remove it until he said so.

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