Page 1 of Mahogany 1

PROLOGUE

MAHOGANY

F I V E Y E A R S A G O

Nervously,I tapped my almond-shaped nails against the steering wheel, with my eyes centered on the gray building in front of me. Glancing over at the passenger seat, I looked at the gold envelope one of my clients gave me about a month ago, when the assignment came to an end. She invited me to the grand reopening of her nightclub, the one I’d been helping her with. As an interior decorator, invitations came like clockwork. My first thought when Emerald gave me the invitation was to decline. I didn’t like to mix business with leisure. However, there was something about the elegance of the invitation that pulled me in. Although she gave it to me personally,Mahoganywas etched into the front side of it in an elegant script-style font. I didn’t open it until the end of the day, when I got into the car.

Pandora’s sat boldly at the top of the shimmery gold card stock, and I wascordiallyinvited. More like formally. Immediately, I was enthralled. I liked all things beautifully aesthetically pleasing and whatever Pandora’s was gave thatwith just a few words. As I continued down the card, it became very clear to me what Pandora’s, the nightclub I’d worked on with her, was. A place people went to, to make their wildest fantasies come alive. I was of course, caught off guard. However, I wasn’t surprised. In my field, I came across a lot of different personalities and Emerald’s ended up being my favorite. Confidence and sex oozed from her pores, but she did not give me underground, secret society, sex club. Just sexually liberated. Still, I wasn’t surprised by anything but her inviting me. As confused as I was about it, I didn’t call her. Was too uncomfortable to do that.

Regardless of how uncomfortable I was with it, for some reason I kept it. Shouldn’t have since I was a wife and mother of three. But I literally could not bring myself to throw it in the trash. I looked at it every day, tempted to call the number at the bottom of it. Could’ve been hard for me to throw it away because my husband was a serial cheater and I was unhappy. Felt like it might’ve been a good thing to hold on to just in case one day I had the guts to finally cheat back. I mean, it did say a mask was optional, and that there was an option to go in under an alias. It would be a secret. I thought about that a lot. Going back and forth between morals, and not giving a fuck because hello… My husband cheated most of our relationship. And I was tired. Tired of giving him chance after chance with no repercussions.

Then one day last week, he pissed me off so bad I said fuck it and called. Well, I wouldn’t say he pissed me off—he triggered me. Did something that reminded me of the first time he cheated. Played a song.Anythingby Jahiem. Sent me right back to the day I found out he was cheating. He was with the bitch and pocket dialed me and I sat there crying, listening to him have sex with another woman. He didn’t know it was triggering… didn’t even know I heard him. That caused a domino effect. Thinkingabout the first time made me think about the second, and the third, the fourth….andthen the fifth.

That gave me the umph I needed to finally call in. I did it with confidence and a smile on my tear-drenched face. I was tired of waiting for fate to handle him. Tired of being nice and naïve. Tired of being a version of myself I had grown to hate. So, I called. Gave them my information and sent over my medical record right after. Once I was registered, I could use the one night only pass whenever I was ready to. And well, I chose tonight, a week before my birthday.

With my nerves on ten, I watched as people headed up to the building. Some were couples, somethrouples. Some hand in hand. A few staggering, laughing, and half naked. Men too. Crowd watching made me uneasy. I’d noticed transgenders, studs, groups of men, and groups of women. Nobody was alone. Everysomeonehadsomebody. But there I was, about to walk in vulnerably alone. I’d stick out like a sore thumb. I didn’t want to. Wanted to blend in. Wanted to be… invisible. Despite how fed up I was, I wasn’t really ready to cheat. The idea of it was appealing. The possibility, thrilling. But I’d probably end up watching, since the thought of actually having sex with someone other than the only man I’d been with, was scary.

My phone rang, pulling me out of my thoughts and I quickly grabbed my purse to check and see who it was. Everything in me said it was Duke, checking in since he’d gone over his brother’s house after work. But I was wrong. It was my mother, Eve. She had the kids.

“Where is Teddy the Bear, Mahogany?” she asked, the minute I said hello.

Shit. Shit.Shit!

Honesty, my baby girl, was three and chronically attached to the teddy bear she’d had since she was born. She couldn’t sleep without it, and I fucked around and forgot to pack it. Forgot itbecause my mind was on Pandora’s. It had been since I’d made the call.

“Ma, please don’t kill me?—”

“What’s the code to the door, NeNe?” My momma interrupted. “You know she can’t sleep without it. That should’ve been the first thing you packed. Got my grandbaby over here fussy because you so in a rush, you forgot the most important thing.”

Taking a deep breath, I ran my fingers through my curls. “8192.”

After I thanked her for keeping the kids again, I quickly got off the phone before she could get to lecturing me or worst, put Honesty on. That was the last thing I needed. That would do nothing but make me feel guiltier than I already did. Shit, it was the guilt that had kept me stuck in the car for fifteen minutes.

After putting my gold diamond encrusted masquerade mask on, I put my phone on silent, grabbed my things and got out of the car. The cool spring breeze beat against my bare legs the minute my Chanel heels hit the gravelly sidewalk. I was wearing a strapless red dress with a deep V-neck that stopped mid-thigh, and a pair of gold Tom Ford padlock heeled sandals. Everything about me said I was ready to fuck. Right on down to the bodacious wand curls in my hair. Nothing said I wanted to just watch. Nothing said I wanted to blend in. That was because I wasn’t the timid, nervous Mahogany when I got dressed. I was fiery. Wanted to do everythingbutblend in. But as I struggled on the rocks, treading towards the building, I regretted wearing such a short dress, and the waist length moto-jacket that did nothing to hide how phat my ass was. I looked ready. Like a high-priced escort, to be honest. I would’ve felt over the top had I not noticed the outfits of the women heading inside. Although I might’ve stood out, as a loner, I was going to blend right in with the rest of the freaks.

And I wasn’t that. I mean… I did a couple of things here and there for myhusbandof course but that was it. I didn’t even dress provocatively. The dress I wore was something I bought a couple of years ago and had never had the gull to wear. I didn’t wear a dress unless it was right above my knees. If my husband saw me tonight, he wouldn’t even recognize me.

Upon crossing the threshold into the club, I was greeted by the sultry voice of the singer Elaine, crooning over herRiskytrack. A light smile caressed my face as I took the entryway in. It was just as lavish and luxurious as I remembered. I didn’t assist with that part of the club, but I could remember being enthralled by it the first time I was at the building. Its dark, luxurious, mysterious ambiance made decorating a breeze since it fit the description Emerald gave me. Exclusive, high scale, luxury, inviting and sexy. One of one. Not once did I think her nightclub was a sex club. Pandora’s gave exactly what it was meant to give. The décor was strikingly fitting. The aesthetic fit underground sex club perfectly.

“Good evening,” greeted the door lady once I passed security, Yes, doorlady. Before getting too far into the building, there was a check-in desk where we had to give our names and personal items. I was taken aback when I was asked for my phone. So much so that I was tempted to leave. I was a mother. I needed my phone. But then I quickly remembered; I didn’t have to be a “mother” tonight. I could be whoever I wanted to be. And who I wanted to be was Mahogany. Truly. The one without the constraints of worrying about kids, the husband or work. I wanted to be free. So, despite how scary it was to give my phone up, I did, with a nervous swallow.

“Enjoy your night,” she told me after giving me a short briefing on what to expect.

I was given paperwork to sign, told the rules and given details about the different areas of the club. The main floor was for openfun and voyeurism. The VIP suites were designed for guests who wanted privacy, and then there was The Palace, a part of the club that catered to BDSM. The briefing was short but thorough, piquing my interest further. Emerald had a very fascinating thing going on. I wanted to explore the entire building, but I knew better. Damn near everyone was naked and there was sex happening at every turn. The people were so interesting that I paid very, very little to the designing I had done. Couldn’t really focus on anything but the excitement going on around me.

It was Friday night, and the club was as crowded as any club on a Friday night would be. Except there was something vaguely different about Pandora’s in comparison to the others I’d been to. The exclusivity was obvious. Not just because of the invitation, and the registration process but because of the people. There was a strict non-disclosure agreement in the packet, and I understood why. On my way to the bar, I recognized a few notable faces that I’d not only seen on social media, but TV as well. They were bold as hell, without masks, free, doing what they wanted to do, with the security of that NDA. Community activist, rappers, and social media influencers too just to name a few. And not one of them were hugging the wall or sitting at the bar. Everybody had somebody, or somebodies. Sitting in the middle of the floor was a huge custom-made bed that wasn’t here when I visited. In it was a blond, white woman sprawled out on it, having the time of her life as two men, a woman and a transgender ravished damn near every inch of her.

Shit.

Reluctantly, I tore my eyes away from them, to continue to the bar. It was fairly empty, with the exception of one guy, sitting, laughing with the bartender. I had half a mind to turn around and just leave, since to me, the bar was too occupied, although it was only one person there. In reality, my nerveswere getting the best of me, and I was looking for any reason to leave. But the minute I turned away, I got a glimpse of all of the excitement happening around me again and changed my mind. I needed this. This was the most excitement I’d gotten in my life. Definitely beat sitting at home, nursing a bottle of wine, by myself.

Because I was nervous and didn’t want to give the guy the wrong impression, I took a seat three stools down away from where he sat, nicely dressed in what I could recognize as an Armani suit. The bartender noticed me almost immediately and approached wearing a smile.

“Wassup gorgeous; what can I get you?” He asked, resting his elbows on the bar top.

“Surprise me,” I responded, feeling a little risqué since tonight, I didn’t want to be ‘that’ Mahogany. You know… the one I mentioned earlier. The one who’d kept me in the car fifteen minutes too long. The one that worried about a husband and kids. The one that almost ran out of the building a second ago. Yeah, her.

He stood up, nodded, and said, “Alright then. Be careful what you ask for.”

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