Page 7 of All Of My Firsts

“Uh, yeah. Of course, if that’s what you both want. We’ll do it together,” she answers robotically.

“This is going to be so much fun,” I say, rubbing my hands together. In my head, I’m thinking strippers, cigars, booze…

“You look like you’ve just been given the keys to Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. I’m scared.” Nora raises an eyebrow, sensing my scheming plans.

I wink at her. “You have no idea baby.”

“Well, I’m good with whatever, so long as I get to take you home at the end of the night,” Liam murmurs, pulling Jess closer to him. Glancing over at Nora, I find her watching them with a longing expression on her face. But when she catches me looking, it disappears.

“Okay, so Grayson and I will get planning then,” she says with a grimace.

This is going to be fun.

Chapter 3

Grayson

“Well?”Herbrowneyesare wide and furious with me, for fuck knows what. It’s like I’m supposed to read her mind or pay attention, neither of which I’ve ever claimed to be good at. Plus, I’ve been here for maybe fifteen minutes, four of which she’s rambled on and on about something I definitely wasn’t listening to. I might’ve been too distracted by her lips, and it freaked me out that I was imagining heragain. I’ve never slept with any woman twice, and the more time I spend with Nora, the more I think about sleeping with her for a second time… and maybe a third and it’s messing with my concentration.

“Well what, shorty?” That gets me a serious scowl. With a look like that, I feel like I’ve accomplished everything I needed to for the whole day just by pissing her off. If I can’t sleep with her again, I may as well settle on getting a rise out of her any way I can.

“Don’t call me that, it’s awful,” she glares at me with the fire of a thousand suns. I grin and resist the urge to bop her nose, like she did to me the other day. “I’m serious. Cut it out. We have work to do here.”

She’s serious? Newsflash, she always is. There is a fun version of Nora that I’ve seen a few times. My favourite was when she let loose at a Christmas Eve party last year. She was absolutely hammered and dancing around like she was auditioning for a strip club; it was highly amusing and hot as fuck.

My head shakes away the memory before it travels down to my over-eager dick. “Let’s just get on with this for the lovebird’s sake, yeah?”

Nora’s eyes roll. “I’ve only been saying that for the past twenty minutes,” she mumbles as she opens her huge planner that’s already full and we’re only in January.

“So, I already have a spa planned for the morning and then a pamper session at Jess’ favourite salon. She’s agreed to spend that amount of time away from Liam, at least. So, the area I’m not very experienced in is clubs.” Her eyes land on mine at me as she taps her pen on her planner, obviously expecting me to carry on the conversation.

“I know a few places where we can hire a VIP area. They have stripper packages for events.”

Her gaze narrows as she leans her elbows onto the kitchen island and I resist the urge to try and look down her blouse, when it’s all Iwantto do. “Do I want to know how you know that? Also, do we want strippers?”

“I think the answer is yes, we want strippers. It’s a stag party.”

“And a hen party. Maybe we don’t want to be around a bunch of men getting lap dances.”

“I’ve got friends who like to go to these clubs. There are male and female dancers. They’re not sex clubs but they’re also not-not sex clubs, if you get me.”

Her eyes narrow even further as her anger towards me intensifies. “I do not get you at all. What about me screams ‘I’ve been to a strip club’?”

I laugh. “There are female and male dancers, strippers if you want to call them that, but also, some of those strippers can be uhhh.” I suddenly feel hot all over trying to explain to Nora what this place is. “They can be other entertainment for the evening. For a price.”

“It’s a brothel, then?” Her nose scrunches up. “Grayson, that’s illegal. Wait.” Her face falls. “Haveyouslept with the girls at this club?”

I scratch the back of my neck where I now seem to be sweating too. “I mean…”

“Actually, I don’t want to know.” She closes her eyes tightly and turns away from me for a second.

Fuck, I’ve made this so much worse.

“Nora…” She doesn’t turn straight away, not until I see her shoulders deflate and she spins around to face me again. I instinctively reach for her hand and a zap of electricity travels through our connected hands, making us both flinch and her pull back. Her eyes widen as she looks at me, but I go for her hand again. “I’ve gone about this all wrong. The girls offer private dances. They don’t include sex. But maybe they include heavy petting. That’s all. It’s not seedy. Most of the girls there are actually just there to earn money for university or whatever.”

“And you’d know this because…” Her voice is quiet and unsure, I open my mouth to speak, but she stops me. “No, wait, don’t answer that. If you say it’s fine, then just book it. I’m moving into my ‘ask fewer questions era’ with you.” Her hand moves from mine as she sighs, looking deflated. “If Jess hates it, it’ll be on your head.”

“I’ll call now.” I stand, ignoring the need to reassure her and reach for my phone in my pocket to make the call.

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