Page 24 of Indulgence
She grumbled the entire way to the car.
“Some women would kill for surprises and date nights, you know?” I reminded her as I pressed the unlock button on the key fob.
She sighed as she sat inside and closed the door. “You’re right. It’s just you know how impatient I am.”
“Trust me,” I told her, starting the car. “You’ll see in fifteen minutes.”
Immersion was a private club a few blocks over from the city’s sports complex. I called every reference the owner gave me. I asked Derek to have his firm look over the NDA with a fine-tooth comb. He also was able to get his PI to dig into it to see if there were any legal issues, police reports, or complaints. Their record was clean, and the NDA was the real deal and enforceable by law.
That was what I wanted to know most of all. I wanted to make sure that no one would be able to reveal any personal information about the members. If I was going to take my wife to a fetish club, I wanted to make sure that if we saw anyone there, they couldn’t tell everyone about it without risking a lawsuit.
Immersion wasn’t a publicly known club. There was no listing for it in the yellow pages. There was no website. No Facebook or Instagram page. It was strictly a word-of-mouth club. I only learned of it because it came across my desk as part of a client’s portfolio. One of the owners was a client of my firm and I was the one who ran the numbers for adding it to his insurance policy.
The building was nondescript and looked like a regular factory on the outside. It was a production plant back in the day, but it had been renovated into a sex club.
“Is the surprise an empty building?” Natalie chuckled. “Where are you taking me?”
You couldn’t tell it was a club from the front. In the back of the building, there was an underground parking deck where the valet parked members’ cars. It helped keep identities more secure. Since members of the upper echelon of society came here and their cars were easy to tie to them, it was an extra layer of security.
“Ready to keep that open mind?” I asked pulling the car to a stop in front of the door as directed in my membership contract.
She nodded.
“The name of the place is Immersion,” I started, wanting to see if it rang any bells.
Natalie wasn’t familiar with it. “Okay, what is it?”
“A sex club,” I confessed. “Or a fetish club—I mean . . . I guess it’s the same thing either way. But this is a place where people come to explore their sexual fantasies and desires.”
It was a risk to have done this as a surprise, but I was anxious to see her reaction. Nataliecouldfreak out, but I didn’t think she would.
If she didn’t want to do this, I would be totally okay with it.
“Wow, really?” Natalie asked, gazing up at the average, red-bricked building with amazement. “I didn’t even know we had one of these close by.”
“That’s the idea.” I smiled. “I’m pretty sure they’re all over, but in order to know where, you have to know the right people.”
She quirked a brow. “And how do we know the right people?”
I laughed. “It was chance.” I explained how I came to know about this place. “But don’t worry, I had Derek look over the paperwork and check to see if there was anything nefarious attached to the club .”
She gasped. “Derek knows?”
“He’s a prominent criminal defense attorney, love. Do you really think this is going to skew his view of us? People he’s known for a decade? Besides, I’m sure Norah has told him some of whatever you’ve told her.”
She nibbled on the corner of her thumbnail. “True.”
“Are you ready to go in?” I asked. “We are supposed to have our tour tonight.”
As we exited the car and waited at the door, I took Natalie’s hand and explained what we were doing for the evening. “One of the owners will give us a tour of the facilities and explain how the club operates.”
Immersion was owned by three men. Cole Masterson, Leo Hughes, and Max de La Cruz. Part of the membership process was meeting with each man. Cole Masterson called me after vetting my application. He asked a few questions including if I was planning to bring any guests, and then after adding Natalie’s information to the guest list, said I’d hear from one of his associates. Leo Hughes called to inform me my application was approved for probationary membership. I was assuming I’d be meeting Mr. de La Cruz today for the tour. He would go over how things operated, explain the rules, and so on.
The door opened and a large man in a black suit greeted us. “Mr. and Mrs. Collins, welcome. Mr. de La Cruz is expecting you.”
My assumptions were correct.
Nat gripped my hand as we went inside. The entryway was dark, but I saw the blinking red light of a camera in the corner by the ceiling. The large entry space housed three doors, and the man directed us to the one off to the left. “The door ahead is the exit. The door the right is the security room. Please follow me this way.”
