Page 98 of Sinful Pleasure

Instead, he looked at the bartender. “Look after her for me.”

The bartender nodded, and Maddox spared me one last glance before turning away. He headed toward one of the sliding doors at the back of the club, two towering guards opening the way for him.

Once he disappeared behind the door with the guards following, I let out a breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding and turned back to the scene around me.

“Would you like something to drink, miss?” the bartender asked, drying a glass with a clean cloth.

“Water,” I started, then immediately changed my mind. “Vodka sounds good.”

His hands froze, and he glanced around nervously. “I don’t think Mr. King—”

“Mr. King isn’t here,” I interrupted with a saccharine smile. “So, just do as I said. Thank you.”

Reluctantly, he complied, placing a glass of vodka in front of me momentslater.

Minutes ticked by as I sipped my drink and watched the show on the main stage. The women up there were mesmerizing, spinning gracefully around poles, their movements both athletic and sensual.

They looked like they were having the time of their lives, and judging by the way the men crowded the stage, tossing bills without hesitation, they were certainly delivering the show of a lifetime.

For a moment, I let myself get lost in the dazzling lights and rhythmic music, the vodka warming me from the inside.

It was easier to focus on the performers than the nagging thoughts swirling in my head.I took my drink in hand and slowly approached the stage, drawn like a moth to a flame. The woman on the pole moved with an effortless grace that held me captive, her every motion commanding attention.

She was beautiful. Seductive. Free.Free to do whatever she desired, and doing it so well that I couldn’t look away.

For a brief, forbidden moment, I imagined myself in her place.

Imagined all those eyes fixed on me, not in judgment but in awe. I pictured the rush of being desired, powerful, untamed. A thrill surged through me—a fleeting taste of rebellion against the life I was trapped in.

“Are you new here, miss?”

A deep voice behind me snapped me out of my daydream.

I turned to see a man, probably in his thirties, standing a little too close. His brown eyes matched his neatly styled hair, and a short beard framed his chiseled jaw. He exuded an easy confidence, the kind that came from knowing he could have whatever—or whoever—he wanted.

“I don’t think I’ve seen you here before,” he continued, his lips curling into a half-smile. “I’d remember you if I had.”

“Oh, no,” I laughed softly, shaking my head. “First—and probably the last—time here.”

“I see,” he said, tilting his head as his eyes lingered on me, perhaps a second longer than polite. “Not your scene?”

“I guess not,” I replied with a polite smile, shifting my attention back to the woman on the stage.

“You’re the first woman to come in here and steal the show from the dancers,” he said, his tone carrying a note of admiration. “You’re definitely something else, miss.”

His words took me by surprise.

“Oh,” I stammered, unsure how to respond. That couldn’t possibly be true.

Yes, I’d noticed a few stares as Maddox and I walked in, but I’d assumed it was because of my dress—a bubblegum-pink sundress in the middle of a strip club. Hardly the attire for this setting.

It never occurred to me that their stares might have been for… me.

“Would you like another drink—?” He paused, waiting for me to offermy name.

“Allyn,” I said, giving him a small nod. “But no, thank you.”

I glanced at my glass. It was only the afternoon, and I was already nearly through my first drink. The last thing I needed was to look like an alcoholic.

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