Page 50 of Beneath the Blindfold

When it was done, I trudged over to the chair and put my earpiece back in.

She ran her fingers through her hair, trying to straighten it and maybe make it so it looked like we hadn’t been fucking around in the room. Not that anyone would care. Most of my employees would probably tell me it was about damn time I hooked up.

“When are you going to collect on your end of the deal?” Her eyes were bright and sexy.

“I want to tonight, but I gotta work. Tomorrow night too.” The club wasn’t open during the week unless I made special arrangements. “Sunday.” I unrolled my sleeves and buttoned the cuffs. “You don’t have an early class on Monday, right?”

She was going back to school to earn her masters in finance. On top of all the other awesome things about her, Court was book smart.

“No class on Monday at all,” she said.

Good. We’d stay in bed all day, wearing each other out.

I radioed to Deiondre I was back online and to send the cleaning crew through room two.

His laugh sounded dumb through the electronics. “Audition went that good, huh?”

“Shut the fuck up, man,” I snapped. “Wasn’t an audition, her and me, we’re—” Courtney paused. Hearing only my side of the conversation, she knew what I was about to say, and seemed real fucking interested in the label I was going to put on us. I shot her a grin, challenging her to say otherwise. “We’re together.”

How could she say it wasn’t true? Her perfume was on my clothes and the taste of her was still in my mouth. No argument from her. Her pink, full lips turned up into that smile I loved.

We went out the door and into the hallway, and something small and soft wrapped around my hand. It was her hand, and her fingers moved until they were linked with mine. Fuck, this simple gesture was going to make me stumble. I was high off of her, like nothing could fucking stop me.

“Through that door,” I pointed to the black one at the end of the hallway, “that’s the payment room. It’s boring in there, so we’ll skip it.”

I didn’t take her there for a whole bunch of reasons, and one of them was I didn’t want her seeing that side of this place. Joseph, the guy who’d built the club, said the magic stopped in that room. Reality set in for the clients that the fantasy was over, and it was stupid, but no way in fucking hell did I want my fantasy with Courtney to end. Ever.

We went up the narrow stairs to the second floor, her leading the way. I wanted her to go as far as she liked, rather than me in front, feeling like I was dragging her deeper into my club. I’d been in charge in the room when she was on the table, but now the roles were reversed.

“Left is my office,” I said.

She dropped my hand, turned left to go in, and I watched her look around. There wasn’t much to this room. A small couch faced my desk in the center, and the bank of screens the cameras fed into, was on the wall behind it. My office was windowless. Joseph had made it look elegant to match the rest of the place, but it didn’t feel sexy.

It felt like business.

“This is where I run things. When we get busy,” I said, being a shitty tour guide, “someone else helps watch the feeds.”

She turned to face me and licked her lips. She was nervous?

“What?” I asked.

“Can I, uh . . .help?”

“Stay and watch?” Jesus, she wanted to sit beside me while this place was operating? I pictured it. It turned me on all over again, and I’d just gotten my dick to cooperate. “You wanna?”

Her shoulders lifted. “I’m . . . interested in seeing it.”

“Never done that before,” I said. “But I can swing it. I know the owner.”

Her small laugh sounded so good. She walked to the desk, trailed her fingers over the wood, and turned away to look at the bank of screens. In room two, a woman rolled a cleaning cart up to the table.

Court’s shoulders tightened and her voice was hesitant. “Why didn’t you tell me about this place? Are you . . . embarrassed?”

Oh, fuck. I swallowed hard. “Nah, it’s not that.”

“Because I’m not going to judge you, Julius.”

She’d given me back my watch, and if I’d still had the app running, the screen would be red. My pulse kicked hard. “I know you wouldn’t.”

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