Page 55 of The Broker

But there was a large chrome E that was backlit, glowing in the night beside the unremarkable front door.

My pulse hurried along as I traveled the pathway and up the two porch steps with Noah at my side. He reached the door first and pulled it open for me.

The entry room was small, only large enough to hold a few people. The walls and ceiling were painted black, and the lighting in the room was low, nearly matching the darkness outside. There was a security guard waiting beside the door that led deeper into the club, and along the side wall was an elegant, shaded lamp and a tall desk. A woman was seated behind it,and she gave us a once-over, followed by a friendly smile. “IDs, please.”

“I need my phone,” I said to Noah. “My license is in the case.”

He handed it to me, and while I fished my driver’s license out of the slot on my case, he extracted his from his wallet and passed it to the woman. Once she’d finished scanning our licenses, she gave me a clipboard and pen.

“Membership form is the first sheet, the waiver is beneath.”

She didn’t have one for him, though.

Because he’s already a member.

While I filled the forms out, Noah paid, and then the woman gave us a quick rundown of the rules. No phones, no going in the bathrooms opposite of our gender identities, and no harassment of any kind. If there were problems, staff wore gold nametags and were always nearby.

When we were all set, she nodded to the security guard, gave us a smile, and pushed a button beneath the desk. “Have fun.”

The door buzzed and the security guard pulled it open for us. I kind of expected it to be like the scene inThe Wizard of Ozwhere Dorothy is in black and white and when she opens the front door, everything changes to vibrant color.

It wasn’t like that at all.

The inside of Club Eros looked... like any other club. There was a bar and a dance floor, and the lighting was dark and moody. A DJ booth was in the far corner, playing music with heavy bass and spinning a disco ball that cast glittering reflections everywhere.

There were more people than I expected, but hardly any on the dance floor. Most of them sat at the bar or the low tables scattered around the room, sipping drinks and holding conversations over the loud music. There were only a few couches and zero beds.

I put a hand on Noah’s shoulder and rose on my tiptoes to speak into his ear. “It’s just a bar?”

I hadn’t meant to sound disappointed, but he’d picked up on it. He looked sort of amused and devious. “This room is, yeah.” He motioned toward the bartender. “You want something to drink?”

“Sure. I’ll have a cosmo.”

I stuck close by his side as we strolled to the bar, but my gaze wandered around the room while he ordered for us. The outfits people wore were... diverse. At one table it’d be nice dresses and suits, and at the next it’d be pleather and latex. And it was odd how the tables were exclusively couples or groups, yet the bar was only men.

I kept my voice as low as possible over the music. “Are dudes only allowed to sit at the bar?”

He nodded. “Single men have to be invited anywhere else inside the club.”

Oh, wow. “So, if I wasn’t here, you’d...”

“Be sitting on one of those bar stools? Yup.” Our drinks arrived, he tossed down his credit card, and then passed the martini glass to me. A smirk teased his lips. “Turns out your favor is doing me a favor.”

I returned his smug smile. “Happy to help you out.”

After he settled up, he pointed to the door on the far side of the room. “Ready to see the rest of this place?”

I took a sip of my drink so it wasn’t so full, and nodded. “Lead the way.”

We weaved through the tables, passed by the dance floor, and strode through the open doorway. It was quieter here and more elegant too. The first room was a nightclub, but this one was a swanky lounge. There were velvet couches and oversized leather chairs, with low tables between them.

I only made it a few steps past the threshold before jerking to a stop. My drink sloshed over the rim of the glass, and the icy liquid dripped down my fingers.

An older man sat in one of the chairs, with his pants down around his ankles and a fistful of hair of the woman who was on her knees, currently blowing him. She bobbed her head, coating his dick with her saliva.

I blinked rapidly, maybe trying to clear the vision from my eyes. It wasn’t that I was turned off by what I saw—it was just so shocking. Blood rushed through me, heating my body, filling it with a sensation that felt oddly like secondhand shame. Because it was sopublic, and I’d spent a long time believing that sort of thing should only happen behind closed doors.

At first, I couldn’t look away. I stood utterly still, locked on to the woman’s every movement. It was almost mesmerizing how she surged up and down and let his hold on her hair guide her pace. I felt the man staring at me, and I held my breath tensely in my lungs.

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