CHAPTERONE
HEATHER
A waftof vanilla and hot, sweaty sex drifted through my nose as I took my first step into Radiant, a BDSM sex club in Pittsburgh that catered to the upper class. Half-naked women danced around shiny metal stripper poles, their breasts swaying in every which direction. Couples swapped an outrageous amount of spit on black suede couches in the back.
I glanced around nervously and continued into the club by myself. As far as I knew, not many BDSM newbies like me came here, except my bestie, Sierra. But I was only here for one thing tonight anyway.
To lose my virginity.
“Can I help you?” a waiter with devilish brown eyes said to my left. “You look lost.”
Cheeks flushing, I snapped out of my thoughts and gave him a small smile. “I, um … I’m new here.”
He chuckled. “I can see that. Anything I can help you find?”
“The owner.”
The waiter’s eyes widened. “The owner?”
“Yes,” I said, scanning the club. “I have an arrangement with him tonight.”
“Are you Miss Raquelle Chambers?”
“Yes.”
No, that was just the fake name I had given the man I had been speaking to online for the past few weeks. I hadn’t told him my real name, nor did he want to know it. I didn’t know how many other women he had this kind of arrangement with, and I didn’t care either. This was going to be a onetime thing, a one-night stand.
Lose my virginity, thank the man for his time, then get the hell out of here.
“Right this way,” the waiter said, placing a platter of drinks down on the bar area and leading me toward the back of the club, where there were more private sections filled with CEOs and VIPs, who stared at me hungrily.
I pulled down my skirt as I walked around the booths of people and followed the waiter up a set of stairs and to some private rooms. My stomach was in knots, but I wanted to get this over with already. I didn’t even want to exchange formalities.
We stopped in front of a large black door with the number four in a large golden numeral in the center.
The waiter leaned forward, placed his ear against the door, and knocked twice until someone called from inside, “Come in.”
After giving me a small smile and the key to the room, the waiter left me on the second floor all by myself. I gnawed on the inside of my cheek, stepping closer to the door as a group of women dressed in lingerie stumbled out of the room next to me.
“Come on, Heather,” I whispered to myself, fumbling with the key. “It’s one night.”
Just as I pushed the key into the knob, the door opened, and Hector Patton stared down at me through wide eyes. Hector Patton was a lot of things—like, apparently, the owner of the most popular BDSM club in the city, the sexiest fifty-six-year-old man I had laid my eyes on, a dominant playboy. But worst of all, he was my father’s best friend.
And tonight, I would lose my virginity to him.
“Heather …” He paused, his gaze moving down my body for a moment longer than it should’ve—from my lips to my tits to my hips. He licked his lips and glanced back up at me. “What are you doing here?”
“You’re the owner?” I whispered, heart pounding.
“One of them,” he said, glancing down the hallway.
The group of women walked past my room, giggling and waving to Hector. And while I was just here to lose my virginity to him tonight, I couldn’t help but feel the jealousy bubble up inside me. I’d never had a chance with a man more than twice my age, but … still …
“You didn’t answer my question,” he said.
After I finished glaring at the retreating women, I snapped my gaze back toward him and released my clenched jaw. This was it. Time to come clean and tell him that I was the one who had been chatting with him online, that I was the one who … had put up such a huge, bratty front with him for the past three weeks.
God, what had I gotten myself into? Hector was my father’s best friend. He always saw right through me. As soon as I stepped into this room, he’d know that I had been lying online about knowinganythingabout BDSM.