Exposed - Chapter 35
Friday
Matt
My eyes were glued to Brooklyn as she walked out of the hotel. She looked beautiful. Tanner had somehow found her a dress that looked like the one she’d worn to homecoming. And as bad as homecoming had gone…Brooklyn had looked amazing that night. And she looked even more amazing now.
I’d been nervous all night. But seeing her put my mind at ease. She’d say yes to my proposal. She had to say yes.
“Our girl is back,” Justin said.
I nodded. Justin refused to be paid for tonight. He insisted he just wanted to join in on the fun instead. I would have invited him either way. Brooklyn would want him here for this. I wanted all our friends here for this.
Justin patted my back and climbed into the limo.
I’d proposed to Brooklyn the first time in my bedroom back home. When she’d stumbled upon the ring in my nightstand. It wasn’t grand. It was spur of the moment. And I was pretty sure she’d thought I was joking.
This time I’d do better. The ring was in my jacket pocket. I felt it pressing against my chest. I’d feel a hell of a lot lighter as soon as my ring was back on her finger.
Brooklyn stopped in front of me.
I just stared down at her. I still couldn’t believe she was here.
“Say something, Matt. Do you hate it?”
“What? No. You look amazing. I was just thinking about how damn lucky I am.”
She smiled up at me. “You look amazing too. I like this.” She straightened my bowtie. I knew it was straight. Rob had just adjusted it in the limo. And I was glad that she just wanted an excuse to touch me. I had a hard time keeping my hands to myself around her too.
“I have something for you.” I grabbed her wrist to put her corsage on.
“This is so corny and I’m absolutely obsessed.”
I leaned down and kissed her. “Oh, I’m doing all of it. When we get there we’re doing pictures. The funny posed ones where I’m holding you from behind.”
Brooklyn laughed. “Do you think you’ll get lucky tonight too? Isn’t that a prom thing?”
“That’s definitely a prom thing. And I know I’m getting lucky. I scored us a room at the hotel and everything.” I hadn’t. I was taking her somewhere much better than a hotel room. Not that there was anything wrong with the hotel Club Onyx was in. After all, Mason owned it.
“As long as I end up in a hotel room with you instead of a different Untouchable, I’ll be very happy.”
“I am definitely not sharing you with James tonight.” My hands slipped to her ass. “Did I tell you how sexy you look in this dress?”
“Hey, lovebirds!” Rob said. “Get in the limo!”
Brooklyn grabbed my hand and pulled me into the limo. She sat down in the empty seat next to…James. Damn it. I put my arm around her shoulders. But I knew I didn’t have anything to worry about because James was oblivious to Brooklyn’s presence. Since he was currently making out with Penny.
I heard the laughter all around us. But all I could do was stare at Brooklyn. In just a few hours, she’d be my fiancée again.
“A toast,” Rob said. “To Penny. Happy birthday you sexy MILF.”
Penny stopped kissing James just long enough to laugh.
“And to Sanders. The oldest and newest addition to our family. Let’s party like it’s the early 2000s!”
Everyone cheered.
“Time for shots!” he said.
Yeah…now it felt a lot like our first prom. But I wasn’t planning on getting shit faced tonight. I wanted to remember every second of this.
Brooklyn nestled into my side and looked up at me. “You know, I never really pictured our prom. I was so focused on our wedding. What do you think our prom would have looked like?”
“A lot like this.” I gestured to our friends. “Although, it probably would have been my parents taking pictures of us tonight instead of the photographers I hired.”
She laughed. “Yeah, I can definitely imagine your mom wanting a thousand photos.”
I saw the unasked question in her eyes. Had my mom done that before? When I went to prom without Brooklyn back in high school?
“I barely remember prom,” I said. “I had too many shots in the limo with Rob. And spent part of the night sobbing in the bathroom.”
“No.”
“I wish I was kidding. I had to throw out my tux.”
“What do those things have to do with each other?”
“It was…wet.”
She laughed. “That makes it sound like you pissed yourself.”
“It was a lot of tears.”
“Maybe this one will be a bit better than that,” she said and smiled up at me.
“Just a bit?” I shook my head. “This is going to be a thousand times better than that. A night to remember for sure.”
The limo pulled to a stop in front of the Caldwell hotel.
Brooklyn looked out the window. “Why doesn’t Mason live in this hotel if he owns it?”
“The maids are always way too busy here,” Mason said with a laugh. “They’d never have enough time to clean my apartment too. My wife is filthy.”
“Hey!” Bee said with a laugh.
“What does that mean?” Brooklyn whispered to me. “That the maids are too busy?”
“Club Onyx isn’t usually a prom venue,” I said. I didn’t really know how Brooklyn would feel about a sex club. But honestly, there were a few things that had surprised me recently. I pictured her crawling to me in the shower.
She stared at me. “So…what events does it usually host? Like…business events?”
Oh God. That would end in an expensive lawsuit.
“Definitely not. You know what…let’s just go in and see it.
I have no idea what it’s like. I haven’t seen it since it was being constructed.
” Tanner was always trying to get me to go here.
But I’d been a little put off by the weird true love aspect of his sex club.
I didn’t mind going in there now though.
Because I had my one true love on my arm.
And tonight Tanner had promised me it wasn’t going to look like a sex club at all. He’d finally seemed to understand what a prom was after hours of brainstorming ideas. Although, he hadn’t been able to wrap his head around some stuff. Like how there usually weren’t giraffes at proms.
I helped Brooklyn out of the limo and she laughed as the cameras started going off.
We did the classic ridiculous pose with me behind her holding her waist. And then I grabbed Felix and Kennedy for a picture of the four of us. And just like always, Rob photobombed it.
We got several photos of the whole group. And then Brooklyn insisted on one of just the Untouchables.
I smiled at her as Rob jumped on my back, almost knocking me over.
I had a feeling we’d be framing a ton of these. And we needed some more pictures. Because as much as I loved the portrait of Brooklyn in our entranceway, I didn’t love my friends seeing my girl’s naked body.
“Just one more,” I told the photographers and grabbed Brooklyn’s hand. I dipped her low and the camera flashed just as she erupted with laughter.
That was the one I wanted in the entranceway. We’d move her portrait to our bedroom instead.
We were just about to head inside the hotel when a horse drawn carriage arrived.
Nigel leapt out and helped a tall blonde down from the carriage.
She looked eerily like a super tall version of Brooklyn.
A few weeks ago I would have done a double take, wishing it was her.
Why would Tanner bring a girl that looked so similar to Brooklyn as his date?
But then Nigel put his arm around her waist. She leaned down and kissed his cheek right as Nigel grabbed a handful of her butt.
What the…
She laughed but didn’t swat him away.
Was that Nigel’s girlfriend?
Tanner walked out of the carriage with a tan brunette on his arm. Actually I think I recognized her from his binder full of women. I was really glad I hadn’t gone on a date with any of them. I had a feeling they were all women he’d slept with, and this pretty much confirmed it.
“Sorry we’re late,” Tanner said. “I couldn’t forgo the carriages Nigel booked. You know how I hate wasting money. And the horses stopped twice to relieve themselves. How was your mechanical beast?”
“The limo was great,” I said. “Who is Nigel with?”
“His date.”
“Why does she look like me?” Brooklyn asked.
I was glad I wasn’t the only one that saw it. Brooklyn finally seemed slightly creeped out by Nigel.
“Oh, Nigel’s quite fond of you, Brooklyn,” Tanner said. “He dated Cleopatra a few years ago but cut it off when she got a little clingy. Nigel’s not one to settle down. He’s a lad’s lad. A bit of a womanizer, really.”
Brooklyn nodded like that made perfect sense.
It did not. Not at all.
“But he called Cleopatra up a few days ago and they’ve rekindled the spark I believe. Love is in the air.”
Wait…he called her back up because he wanted to fuck someone that looked like Brooklyn? What the hell? I watched as Cleopatra ran her hand down the front of Nigel’s tux in an overtly sexual manner. Her hand paused at the waistband of his tuxedo pants.
“Not right now, Cleopatra. Come meet my friends.” He escorted her over to us. “This is the lovely Brooklyn I was telling you about.” He dropped Cleopatra’s hand and grabbed Brooklyn’s. “Mademoiselle, you look exquisite. Belle femme.”
“Thanks, Nigel.”
And that was the end of that. Apparently Nigel only wanted to introduce his date to Brooklyn. And his date looked equally annoyed by all of it.
“Baby,” Cleopatra said. “Do you want a photo?”
“Great idea,” Nigel said. He pulled Brooklyn in front of the cameras.
“See,” Tanner said. “He’s a lad’s lad.”
“That’s not what a lad’s lad does,” I said. “A lad’s lad means putting your friends first.”
“Yeah, he’s friends with Brooklyn. And he wanted a friendly photo with her.”
Was Nigel touching Brooklyn’s butt? Why did all my friends keep touching her ass? I needed to seal up Nigel’s secret door into my house. And hide all my portraits of Brooklyn immediately. And find the copy he’d made of it for his bathroom and burn it.
“Let’s get inside. The promenade has already begun.”
“Prom,” I corrected.
“Yes, promenade.” Tanner winked at me.
“What did you do?”
“Nothing. It’s a normal, basic ass prom like you requested. Nigel, stop fondling your friends and let’s go inside.”
It looked like Cleopatra’s head was about to explode. Maybe she’d kill Nigel and I wouldn’t have to.
I grabbed Brooklyn’s arm. “Sorry about him.”
She laughed. “Sorry about what? Nigel really is so charming. And so thoughtful. I had a piece of lint on my dress and he got it off for me.”
Is that what he’d told her so he could touch her ass? I took a deep breath. I was not going to get in a fistfight at this dance. Tonight was going to be perfect.
We walked into the hotel. There was only one elevator that had access to Club Onyx. So it was just Tanner, Mason, Bee, Brooklyn, and I on the first trip up.
We were greeted by the coat check guy. Even though none of us were wearing jackets.
“May I check your dress?” he asked and put his hand out. There was already a sparkly dress draped over his arm.
“Check my what ?” Brooklyn asked.
Bee shrugged and started to pull off her dress.
“No,” Tanner said. “Ignore him. Trent, cut it out.”
The guy looked very confused.
“We talked about this. Clothing is required tonight.”
“But it’s Friday night, which means…”
“No it’s prom night. Which means it’s prom . So shoo. And go find whoever gave you her dress and give it back!”
He walked away still looking confused.
“Sorry about that,” Tanner said. “We have a pretty good routine and you know how hard those are to break.”
Brooklyn stared at him. “I’m so confused. What usually happens on Fridays? Do people run around without clothes?”
Tanner turned to me, like he wanted my permission to tell her we were standing in the middle of a sex club.
“Don’t look at me,” I said. “I’ve never been here.”
Bee laughed. “It’s no secret that Club Onyx is a sex club. I mean, the club itself is a secret.” She tilted her head to the side. “So, I guess maybe that is a secret then. Huh.”
I was staring at Brooklyn to see her reaction. She remained completely composed, except for the fact that her cheeks grew a little rosier. I wasn’t sure if that meant she was embarrassed by the idea of being in a sex club. Or embarrassed by the idea that she liked being in a sex club.
“It’s not a sex club,” Tanner said. “It’s a club to find true love. We’ve been over this. You signed off on the business proposal.”
“That was just clever wording for legal purposes,” Mason said. “This is definitely a sex club. You have dozens of rooms specifically designed for different…”
Tanner laughed. “I’m not having this discussion again.”
Someone walked by pushing an ice sculpture of a woman on her knees giving head to a very well-endowed ice sculptured male.
“If you’ll excuse me for one moment.” Tanner ran over to the ice sculpture and pushed it onto the floor. It fell and shattered into a million pieces. He cleared his throat and turned around. “Now, where were we? Right this way.” He gestured toward the staircase.
I kind of couldn’t wait to see what was up there.
But before we took another step, the elevator doors opened again behind us.
Penny and James walked out first, and the attendant immediately asked for Penny’s dress.
James took a step forward. “What did you just say to my wife ?” He looked like he was about to murder him.
“Trent! What did I just tell you?” Tanner stepped in front of him. “Sorry, James. Sorry, Penny. Please go up the stairs and have fun at prom .” He emphasized prom and turned to glare at Trent.
“But…” Trent started “…it’s Friday…”
“Son of a bitch. Where is Nigel when I need him?”
Nigel stepped off the elevator just as Tanner called for him. “Yes, Master Tanner?” he asked. “What do you need?”
“Take care of this please.”
“I’ll collect the dresses, yes.”
“No. What? No, Nigel. Never mind. Everyone please just go up the stairs.” I was pretty sure Tanner was close to losing it. I’d never really seen him so agitated, unless he was talking about Rob.
“I’m sure everything up there is great,” I said and slapped him on the back. I knew he was just nervous about tonight going well. Because he cared about me. “Show us the way, Tanner.”
Tanner leaned closer to me so he could whisper. “I should probably stay here to make sure no one goes to prom naked. I’ll be up in a bit.”
“It’s fine. Really. Come on. Trent can handle it, right Trent?” I had no idea if that was true. He seemed pretty adamant about checking dresses at the entrance.
But Trent nodded.
“If you’re sure,” Tanner said. “I did want to see your reaction to everything. And if you happen to change your mind about how you want the night to go, just let me know. I can turn it back into a normal Friday night here like that.” He snapped his fingers and all the lights went out.
“Sorry”, he said with a laugh. “Nothing makes hearts race more than being scared in a dark room. And racing hearts means true love is near.”
There was a loud roaring noise and Brooklyn clung to me.
“Oh and that helps too,” Tanner said.
Damn it, he brought animals. But he did kind of have a point about the darkness thing. I held Brooklyn a little tighter.