Page 2 of Velvet Sin
It was a big city.There was practically no chance at all of me ever seeing her again.No, I was more concerned that the proximity would drive me out of my skull, and I would have no choice but to find her.Just to take a look, to hear her voice again.
Lenny.The thought of her stirred something in my chest that had been dark and cold since the day she walked out of my life.The day I forced her out.It hadn’t been a mistake, not really.I couldn’t have risen as high as I had with a woman tied to me, adding extra weight.
It was a practiced technique, pushing thoughts of her aside, locking them behind a heavy door once again, where they belonged.Sometimes, they slipped out when I wasn’t careful.When someone or something reminded me of her, I’d scour the internet in those moments, searching for Lenny, following her perfect, beautiful life.
She was still there.Unlike me, she had stayed, tied down in marriage to the safe choice.The easy choice who would give her the easy life she wanted.Even now, more than a decade later, there was enough bitterness behind the memories to damn near choke me.I swallowed the lump in my throat and squared my shoulders, determined to leave it all behind.That was the past.It had nothing to do with me now.So what if I went back?She was living in a three thousand square-foot home provided by her accountant husband.From what I remembered of him, he was about as exciting as overcooked oatmeal.I doubted time had changed him very much.
We’d both made our choices.In my case, those choices had led me here, seated atop my empire and looking to grow.I couldn’t pretend I would’ve done anything differently if given the chance, including breaking Lenny’s heart since everything had worked out for the best.She had her security, country club membership, and a vacation home in Aspen.If anything, she should’ve thanked me for breaking us up.
The blonde wandered the floor while I continued watching, a lost lamb in a room full of wolves, who were being observed closely, not only by me but by bouncers whose sole job was to keep rulebreakers from ruining anyone else’s night.There was no room for second chances in a business like this.One strike and the person responsible wasn’t welcome in any of my clubs ever again.My clients trusted me to keep both their bodies and their reputations safe.
At that moment, the guy she’d turned down was watching her as I did, following her, waiting for his opportunity to strike again.He would only spook her if he came on too strongly.
It was none of my business.I paid people to take care of shit like this for me.Yet something compelled me to grab a mask from my desk drawer and tie it in place over my eyes and nose on my way out of the office.For some reason, this was not the sort of job I wanted to leave up to my staff.
Perhaps because it would mean not getting the chance to protect that beautiful blonde lamb myself.Perhaps because I needed the distraction badly enough to break one of my cardinal rules and head downstairs to handle things myself.
My suit wouldn’t set me apart.While many of my patrons chose to wear fetish gear after changing out of their street clothes in our highly supervised locker rooms, there were plenty who preferred suits and ties, cocktail dresses, the sort of thing they might have worn to a business dinner earlier in the evening.After descending the staircase leading to the rear of the main floor downstairs, I checked the mask over my eyes, ensuring the silk strips were securely at the back of my head before running a hand over my dark hair to make sure it was in place.I then opened the door to the party taking place.
Immediately, a familiar smell washed over me.I had come to associate it with sex, money, and power.It pulsed in the air to the rhythm of the music pumping from the speakers, something bass-heavy with a driving beat that left the bodies on the central dance floor writhing in response.Drinks flowed, and sins were committed.It was something out of ancient history, an orgy thrown by a king.
I was that king, and this was my kingdom.Yet, rather than demand fealty from my subjects, I blended into the crowd, staying close to the wall, searching for my little lamb.Taking advantage of the shadows meant to conceal all manner of activities.
The blonde was only feet in front of me, hesitating in the presence of a couple going at it on a small sofa.They were still fully clothed, but the intensity of their sensuous stroking and kissing told me they wouldn’t be for long.No one would stop them if they stripped down and fucked each other senselessly in front of everyone.
I wasn’t interested in them.It was the blonde I watched, the way her throat worked when she gulped.A full bottom lip vanished under her teeth.She was fighting with herself, probably caught in the middle while the angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other fought it out.
If she asked, I would tell her a secret I’d learned long ago—better to let the devil have his way.He always did, eventually.
Movement behind her caught my eye.The tall, thick-necked prick stared at her with his lips parted, his body tensed, waiting to strike.He was probably hoping the action in front of her would turn her on so that she’d change her mind once he offered to show her one of the private rooms.
A growl stirred in my throat when I imagined it.No fucking way.
Tonight, this little lamb was mine.
2
ELEANOR
“Ifeel like this might’ve been a mistake!”I shouted over the pulsing music, but my voice barely carried.Around me, Megan and the rest of our crew were laughing, already swept up in the club’s atmosphere.
Megan caught my eye and shook her head, pointing to her ears to signal she couldn’t hear me.Then she laughed, clearly unconcerned.
Of course, she didn’t know what was rattling around inside my brain.None of them did.They were here for a good time.Meanwhile, I was drowning in second thoughts and wishing I’d stayed home.
I’m not afraid.I belong here.Right.I didn’t even believe myself.I had never felt so out of place in all my life, which was saying something after spending ten years with a man whose world I had never quite felt a part of.Always on the outside, looking in, even when I was the one planning the dinners and the parties, hosting them in the house I had so painstakingly and lovingly put together.The house that was supposed to be our future.I’d worked my ass off, but I never felt like I was a part of things.Never part of him.
It was way past time for me to let loose and shed all that shit, yet I still wanted to run like a scared rabbit from the dark, intimidating club.I had never been anywhere like this, a place people went to hook up, wear kinky clothes, and fuck or watch others fuck, depending on their personal preferences.This was me, timid little Eleanor Nichols.The girl who would happily blend in with the wallpaper if it meant not being perceived by the people around her because people judged as soon as they saw something.At least, that had always been my experience.
But my friends didn’t know that about me.They knew Eleanor, who, until just recently, had been an energetic, devoted, loving stay-at-home wife with my Pilates, Target runs, and mornings with the girls over coffee while my husband went out and provided.Happy to stand at his side and ever so slightly behind him.Maybe not enough for the rest of the world to notice, but enough that I always felt it.Even in the beginning, when we were first together, I saw my entire future in his eyes.I was always half a step behind.It always nagged at me, like a piece of popcorn stuck between my teeth.
“Come on!Have a drink.It will loosen you up.”Izzy frowned at me even though I accepted the martini with a smile.“This is your weekend, remember?We came out here for you.It’s a new beginning,” she declared.
A new beginning.The martini didn’t taste like a new beginning.If anything, it reminded me of the drinks Cameron would mix up when he’d get home from work at night.We would enjoy a martini together before dinner, like some couple fromMad Men.Just the two of us in our big house full of furniture and not much else.The house I worked like hell to make comfortable, warm, inviting.And it still never quite felt like mine.
Now, it wasn’t mine, officially, with the ink barely dry on the divorce papers.I was glad to let him have it after what I’d walked in on that terrible afternoon six months ago.There wasn’t a chance in hell I could ever live there and be happy after witnessing my husband slamming his dick into his assistant in our marital bed.He didn’t have the decency to limit them to the office, like any normal cheating husband.
"What the hell are you doing?"My voice cut through the room like a blade, sharp and trembling.
