1. Lucy #2
He laughs lightly. “I take it you’re not usually a bourbon drinker?”
“I stick to wine,” I admit, blushing harder.
He steers me over to the couch, and we sit together.
“Some people think it’s an acquired taste, but I think they’ve just never had the right blend.
” He looks at me carefully. I sit rigid and straight with my legs crossed, aware that my dress is basically showing off every inch of my body.
I really wish I had on something different right about now.
“I hope you don’t find this rude, Lucy, but how did you end up here? ”
“A friend invited me,” I tell him, which is my cover story. “She ditched me, though.”
“An unfortunate inevitability at an orgy.”
“What about you? I mean, what are you doing up here and not out there?”
“Probably for the same reason you’re here.” He glances away from me toward the door. “I’m not very interested in anything out there.”
That makes me pause. There’s a strange melancholy to the way he says it, almost like he finds the whole party distasteful.
But from what I understand, Adriano’s been throwing this orgy every month for a couple of years.
It’s one of the most popular and least talked about activities in the whole city.
I’m willing to bet mayoral candidates, local news anchors, and prominent business owners are out there humping away and getting humped right now.
So why does this guy seem like he wishes it weren’t happening at all?
“I shouldn’t have dropped in on you like this.” I take another sip of the good bourbon and put the cut crystal glass down on his fancy coffee table. I realize it’s a very expensive piece by an important interior designer. “I’ll leave you alone.”
“I don’t mind.” He looks toward his desk. “I’ve been working too much lately. Maybe I could use a distraction.”
“What kind of distraction?”
“I don’t know yet.” His gaze moves up my thigh.
“I’m trying to figure that out.” I shiver slightly, a thrill running into my stomach.
Adriano has a good voice. It’s low and sexy, and I like the way he stares at me.
There’s no shame in his gaze. He doesn’t turn away when I catch him.
If anything, he likes that I notice him staring at my body.
Like he wants me to notice him looking.
“Well, what do you normally do during these things?”
“Paperwork.”
I laugh, unable to help myself. “Seriously? Paperwork?”
“You’d be surprised how much of running a club is paperwork. Food and drink orders, cleaning bills, utility repairs, staffing issues. A million different problems.”
“Sounds stressful.”
“It’s a good kind of stress.”
“I didn’t know that was a thing.”
He leans closer, his voice softening. “Then you’ve never had something you wanted more than anything in the world.”
I stare at him, my mouth open slightly. I lick my lips, and he’s sitting very close to me now. He’s not touching me, but he might as well be. My chest is rising and falling, and I can’t believe how nervous and excited I am.
Downstairs was a buffet of sex and vice. I could’ve gotten any kind of dick I wanted. But none of it seemed remotely interesting. If anything, the orgy turned me off even more than I thought it would.
But sitting up here with the man I’m supposed to marry?
I’m more excited than I’ve been in years.
“You care about this nightclub that much?”
He shakes his head. “It’s what the club represents.”
“And what’s that?”
“Home. Power. Money.” His lips press together again. I like that smile. It’s reserved but expressive. “And sex.”
My heart skips a beat. “I thought you weren’t into the orgy?”
“Oh, I’m not, but I like controlling it. I like that it happens in my space, at my whim, by my grace.” He puts a hand on my knee. “Is there anything in the world you’d happily stress for?”
That one touch sends my heart into convulsions. My stomach is a twisted mess of excitement, and I try to think clearly. What do I want most in the world? Right now, I want Adriano to keep moving his hand up my thigh. But beyond that? If I could have anything?
It’s hard to say. I’m a Willing-Morris. My family name is very, very old.
We have money, though that’s running out.
We have social status and connections, though those are mostly drying up.
We’re an elite institution, though we’re also tainted and ruined from years of bad financial decisions and various scandals.
I’ve never wanted for anything. But I’ve always never had what I really needed.
“I really don’t know,” I admit, and it’s the truth. I’ve never known what I really want. I’ve always drifted, doing what Grandmother tells me to do, because that’s all I’ve ever known.
“What if I could give you something?” He moves closer.
His hand shifts higher. Fuck, I’m more turned on than I’ve ever been.
It’s not just that Adriano is extremely attractive, because he’s definitely that, but it’s also the situation.
I’m here to spy on him. I’m here to find out information I can use against him when we’re married.
And he doesn’t seem to realize who I actually am yet.
It’s terrifying and intoxicating.
I doubt Grandmother imagined I’d be doing this when she sent me here.
But actually, knowing her, this is exactly what she wanted.
God, even with a sexy man’s hand on my naked skin, I still can’t get that old woman out of my head.
“You know what I want?” I say without thinking and just let the words spill out. “I want a half hour of quiet. I want to stop thinking for ten seconds. I want my brain to just be right here in this moment. No worries, no regrets, no desires. Just nothing.”
My grandmother’s voice, silenced. The pressure of my dying family, totally gone. All the stress, the shoulder-hunching, jaw-clenching, tooth-grinding stress I hate so much, evaporated .
That’s what I really want.
“I can do that,” he says, leaning forward. His thumb slides along the lower edge of my mask.
I quickly put my hand on his. “Leave it,” I whisper, my lips parting.
He cups my chin and leaves the mask in place. “Alright then, Lucy. You want quiet? I’ll give you as much as I can for as long as you want it.”
Then he tilts my face toward his and presses his lips against mine.