2. Violet #2
Hayden noticed and winced at them. “Shit, sorry. Grayson told me what happened at the Murder Squad meeting. I didn’t even think these might be triggering for you.
Rebel gave me grief over them as well. They had some written threats a few years back as well.
I’ve promised all future correspondence will be on colored paper. Or by email.”
I reached for the envelopes. “Don’t be silly. It’s crazy to be triggered by plain paper. What are these?”
Hayden grinned. “They’re your roles for the night. You have one each.”
I shuffled through them and found mine, then passed the stack to Levi so he could take his.
Hayden explained the rules. “So each of you has a character to play, and you have information cards inside your envelope about the person you’re portraying.
There are some props over by the bar you can add to help get in the mood.
There’s one victim and the rest of us are suspects.
The aim of the game is to get around the room, question everyone, and then at the end of the night, we’ll all submit our guesses and the murderer will be revealed. ”
“I’ve got this in the bag,” X declared, ripping open his envelope. He gasped at whatever was written inside, then looked up at us and grinned. “The body bag! I’m the victim! I’m dead!”
Whip patted him on the back. “You know that means you can’t speak all night?”
X stopped laughing. “Wait, what?”
Whip just chuckled, and I hid a laugh at X’s dismay over a whole evening of keeping his mouth shut.
Hayden shook each of the guys’ hands. “I really appreciate this. We’re wanting to start these murder mystery nights here at the club, but I had to test it first to make sure it was actually fun.”
Whip ran his fingers along the edge of his envelope. “You’re holding it at a restaurant with a sex maze out back. Unless you’re locking the door and saying we can’t go out there, I doubt anyone is not going to have a good time.”
Hayden laughed. “My sex maze is at your disposal. We might have actually hidden some clues out there, so it’s recommended that you all wander around to find those. Whatever else you get up to out there is your business.”
A little shiver of anticipation skated down my spine.
I’d been working shifts at Psychos, so I was no longer a complete novice in the world of sex clubs.
But I definitely hadn’t explored Sinners.
Whip had brought me here on our first date, and that was when I’d learned what this place really was.
We’d been interrupted before anything could happen, but I would be lying if I said I hadn’t thought about it since.
A sex club was one thing.
A sex maze was something different altogether.
X waved his card in the air. “I need to go take my position. I’ll see you guys later.”
“Your position is dead on the floor,” I called after him.
If he heard me, he didn’t respond.
Levi wrapped his arm around me more tightly, pulling me back to him. “Who’s your character?”
I pulled the card out of my envelope and read it out loud. “Welcome to the Midnight Masquerade Murder Mystery Party at Sinners. Tonight, your role is Seraphina, the club’s most elusive and desired performer.” I laughed. “Well, these were obviously a random draw.”
Whip and Levi both frowned at me. I realized instantly why. I had definitely become a lot more comfortable in my skin since meeting the three of them. It would have been impossible not to, with the way they worshipped every inch of me.
But I was human. And I’d had a lifetime of people making me feel uncomfortable just for existing in a plus size body.
I would fight every day to make sure Ari never felt the same way, but it didn’t mean I was perfect.
And sometimes, old insecurities popped out of my mouth before I even thought about them.
Undoing a lifetime of poor body image wasn’t something I could fix overnight, but day by day, I would get there.
“Scratch that,” I corrected, winking at them and tossing my hair over my shoulder like I was Seraphina, the most wanted woman in the room. I stuck my hand out to Levi. “Seraphina Spindleman. Lovely to meet you…” I raised an eyebrow at him.
Levi’s gaze wandered over my cleavage before he realized I was waiting for him to introduce his character.
He tore open his envelope, his gaze flickering over it for a moment and then he slid his hand against mine.
“Roman ‘Reign’ Kade. I’m a….” He looked down at his card again and frowned.
“Recently returned outlaw with unfinished business.”
“Sounds familiar,” Whip said wryly. He opened his own card and then snorted on a laugh.
“I’m Dominic Rourke. Silver fox, elite club patron, known in some circles as Daddy.
” He looked at me. “Not sure your theory on these characters being a random draw is actually true. Seems to be some similarities here. Apart from the daddy thing.”
As if no one had ever called him Daddy. And I didn’t mean in the way Will and Ari did.
I could definitely see the parallels between Whip, Levi, and their characters.
And when we wandered into the maze, and immediately found X sprawled out in a rather uncomfortable looking position on the floor but accessorized with a white apron and silver tray filled with little ice cream cups, my suspicion rose again.
These characters definitely seemed based on real life…except for mine.
I stared down at X. “Uh, do we get to question the dead body?”
His eyes sprang open and he grinned at me like he hadn’t just seen me moments before. “Do you like my costume? What about my pose? Am I dead enough?” He closed his eyes and stuck his tongue out, letting it loll to one side.
“You look like you’re going to pull a hamstring if you stay in that position much longer.” Whip cocked his head to one side, studying the way X had his leg bent at a very unnatural looking angle. “Does your insurance cover ACL surgery? My knee hurts just looking at you.”
X came alive again, clearly in his element with all attention on him. “Insurance is unimportant to Silas Vane. Since he’s dead.” He paused for a second, and then his eyes widened. “Unless, he was murdered for his life insurance! Hey, Whip, write that down as a clue.”
Whip scrunched up his face. “Probably not going to do that, since you just randomly picked that idea out of your brain rather than going off any sort of evidence.”
X made a face at him, but it was clear he knew Whip’s deadpan teasing was friendly. They were like apples and oranges, but when it came down to it, they had become family and they had always cared about each other.
Even if X did drive Whip a little mad sometimes.
Whip patted him on the chest. “Come find us when you’ve given out all your clues. We’re going to take a look around. Seraphina here is the most wanted woman in the club, so we may need you to keep all her fans away.”
I bit my lip.
Whip noticed immediately, and took my hand, pulling me aside out of the way of new guests entering the maze, who all wanted to inspect the dead body and study X’s clues. Levi followed us, and I found myself in a darkened corner with two of the men I loved so much.
Whip put two fingers beneath my chin and lifted it. “What happened just then?”
I smiled at him brightly. “Nothing. I’m fine.”
Levi shook his head. “We know you better than that. Your character is bothering you. Why?”
I sighed, vaguely frustrated I could never hide anything from them. With three men, I had learned there was little point trying to keep secrets. Maybe I could have from one man, but with three, someone always noticed.
“I just feel a bit stupid,” I confessed, clutching my character card. “You all have characters who are pretty close to your real personalities. While I’m supposed to be some seductress…”
Whip rubbed his thumb over my bottom lip.
“If you could see yourself the way we see you, you’d understand why you fit that role perfectly.
We’ve been here five minutes, and you’ve already got Levi hard, and all I want to do is find the kinkiest corner of this maze and do really bad things to you… Game be damned.”
I stared up at him, knowing he meant every word. It was written right there in his gaze, in his possessive touch, in the way his body shielded me from everyone but Levi.
To them, I was Seraphina. I was their ideal woman, and they were the only fan club I wanted.
Suddenly I felt entirely different about the character.
I doubted I would ever feel like some sexy siren for the entire world. But I didn’t need to. Because Whip and Levi and X were the only men whose opinions I cared about.
And there was no doubt in my mind they thought I was beautiful.
When I looked at them, I saw it so much I believed it as well.
I smoothed my dress down. “A kinky corner, huh? Well, we should definitely look for one, just in case there’s a clue—”
I didn’t even get to finish the thought because Whip leaned in and put his mouth on mine, shutting me up completely. I kissed him back, sinking into it instantly, his familiar scent a comfort, even though the setting around us was dark and foreign.
Levi leaned in, kissing us both for a moment, the three of our mouths all touching at once in a way that always flipped my stomach, until Whip leaned back, watching while Levi took over.
“I’m so fucking hard for you,” he murmured over my mouth.
I loved when he talked like that. Loved that his body always responded so eagerly to mine. Loved that he still wanted me bad enough he got hard whenever I was around and had to use me as a shield to cover it up.
Loved that all of this had started because he and I had gotten to know each other through our letters, long before it had ever become physical. I knew this man loved my heart as much as my body.
I smiled against his mouth and pushed him gently away. “Down boy.” I looked at Whip. “Both of you. Let’s at least do a lap and say hello to people before we get too carried away.”
Whip groaned. “Do we really need to be that polite?”