Chapter 1 #2
"Listen to me, Ilona. No one gets to decide who you give your virginity to.
Not your father. Not those brute fucking guards who need their hands and dicks chopped off.
Not anyone. Tonight, you're going to walk into that club, you're going to find the hottest guy you can, and if it feels right…
" Her smile turns wicked, her eyes dancing with mischief. "You go for it."
My heart hammers against my ribs. This is insane. This is reckless. This is exactly what I need.
Luna helps me slip into a pair of golden stilettos, fastening the clasp on each before she helps me into my long coat that caresses my calves.
She takes her time buttoning it up to my throat.
The wool feels suffocating after the freedom of bare skin, heavy and scratchy where the paint has left me sensitive.
But it's necessary. I can't exactly walk past my father's men wearing nothing but flowers.
I grab my clutch from the coffee table, the beaded fabric cool against my palm.
Inside I have cash, lipstick, my phone, and the membership card Luna helped me secretly obtain for Scarlet Thorn.
I ditched all the credit cards my father monitors.
I have no ID that can be traced, either. Tonight, I'm no one. Tonight, I'm free.
"You think they'll recognize me the second I step out of that door?
" I glance toward the window where the Chicago skyline glitters like scattered diamonds against the churning gray sky.
Three floors down, a black sedan idles at the curb, exhaust rising into the humid air.
Gino and his boys, watching. Always fucking watching.
"Your bodyguards are not the sharpest thugs in your father's arsenal.
" Luna moves toward the floor-to-ceiling windows in my living room, her silk robe swishing against her thighs.
The blinds are open, the way I always leave them because the guards like to see movement inside, proof that I'm being a good girl.
"Keep your chin up and walk out the front door like you own the world. I'll distract them."
I watch as she flicks off the main light, leaving only the soft glow of the corner lamp.
The effect casts her silhouette in gold against the window.
I know for a fact her feminine curves and the playful deep shadows will draw the guards' attention like moths to flame.
I realize what she's planning and a nervous laugh catches in my throat.
"You're a terrible tease."
Her smile is pure sin, all curved lips and knowing eyes. "Jasper tells me that all the time." She begins loosening the tie of her robe, letting the silk slip just enough to hint at what's beneath. "Now go. Have fun. And for the love of God, get some good dick. Or three. No judgment."
I press my hand over my mouth to stifle the laugh that wants to escape.
Luna is married to, dating, involved with.
.. honestly, I don't know the mechanics of her relationship with Jasper, Voss, and Shayne.
Some kind of reverse harem situation that seems to work beautifully for all four of them.
I've met her men twice, and each time I walked away wondering what it would feel like to be loved so completely by not one but three people.
The way they looked at her, like she hung the moon and stars, made something ache deep in my chest.
I'd settle for one person caring about me at all.
"Thank you," I whisper, and the words carry the weight of everything I can't say. Thank you for seeing me. Thank you for helping me. Thank you for being the one person in my life who isn't trying to use me.
Luna crosses to me and pulls me into a hug, careful not to smudge my paint beneath the coat.
She smells like the paints she's been using all evening, earthy pigments mixed with something floral that's entirely her own.
"You deserve this," she murmurs against my hair.
"You deserve everything. Now go take it. "
I slip out the front door and pull it shut behind me, schooling my features into the vacant expression I've perfected over twenty-four years of surveillance.
Pleasant. Empty. Unthreatening. The hallway stretches before me, beige carpet and bland walls and the elevator at the end that leads to freedom.
Don't run. Don't look back. Don't give them any reason to suspect.
My dark hair curls around my face and I keep my chin lifted.
My heels click against the tile of the lobby, each step measured and calm despite the thundering of my pulse.
The doorman nods at me without really seeing me, same as always.
His eyes slide right past, finding nothing worth noting.
I'm wallpaper to these people. Invisible. Exactly the way my father wants it.
And for the first time I’m happy no one makes eye contact with me.
The revolving door spits me out onto the sidewalk, and the late summer air hits my face like a shimmering kiss.
It's warm and humid, heavy with the promise of rain, carrying the scent of wet pavement and city heat and something electric that prickles along my skin.
Above me the sky churns with clouds that glow amber from the city lights, promising a storm before dawn.
I don't look at the black sedan. I can feel their eyes on me, the weight of surveillance that has followed me my entire life.
But I keep my chin up and my stride confident as I walk to where Luna's car is parked at the curb.
A sleek little sports car her men gifted her, racing green with leather seats that smell like money and freedom.
The key fob is in my pocket. I press the button, the car chirps, and I slide behind the wheel. The leather is butter-soft beneath my thighs, warming instantly against my skin.
Only then do I let myself look back.
Three floors up, silhouetted against the golden glow of my apartment, Luna moves slowly past the window.
Her robe slips from one shoulder, then the other, and she stretches her arms above her head in a movement that's pure sensual invitation.
Even from here, I can imagine the guards in the sedan shifting in their seats, eyes locked on what they think is their charge giving them a private show.
The creeps deserve the frustration of wanting something they'll never have.
A laugh bubbles up my throat, bright and reckless and terrified.
I start the engine, and the car purrs to life beneath me with a power I've never been allowed to wield.
The dashboard lights glow like promises in the dark, illuminating my hands on the wheel, my painted flowers peeking from beneath the coat's collar.
Twenty minutes. That's all it takes to drive from my gilded cage on the Gold Coast to the tower that houses Scarlet Thorn.
Twenty minutes of freedom, of singing along to music my father would never approve of, of feeling the engine respond to my foot on the gas like it's asking how fast I want to go.
I want to go fast. I want to go so fast I leave my whole life behind.
The Redthorne building rises against the stormy sky, all glass and steel and secrets.
Lightning flickers in the clouds above it, turning the windows to mirrors for one brilliant instant.
I've heard whispers about what happens in the floors above the legitimate business offices.
A club where wishes come true. A place where the most powerful men in Chicago play games with the desperate and the wanting.
Tonight, I'm both.
I pull into the private parking entrance and a valet appears before I've even turned off the engine. Young, handsome, eager, with a professional smile that falters slightly when he sees the car. He looks at it with obvious appreciation, probably calculating its worth.
"Welcome to Scarlet Thorn," he says, opening my door. "May I take your keys?"
I step out into the warm air, thick with the scent of expensive cologne and perfume from the guests who passed through before me. And there's something sweeter drifting through the air.
It's bravery.
My fingers find the buttons of my coat. They tremble, but I don't let myself hesitate. One button. Two. Three. The wool falls open, and I shrug it off my shoulders and hand it to him along with my keys.
“Toss that inside, sweetie. I won’t be needing it for the rest of the night.”
The young man's eyes go wide. His jaw actually drops, lips parting around a sound that never quite becomes words.
For a moment he just stares at me, at the flowers blooming across my breasts, the vines curling down my torso, the leaves that make me look like Eve before her orchestrated and unfair fall from grace.
A flush creeps up his neck and spreads across his cheeks.
I smile at his shock. It feels powerful. It feels like being someone else entirely.
"Keep it safe for me?" I lean in and press a kiss to his cheek, leaving a faint smudge of slutty red lipstick against his flushed skin. He smells as young as he looks…like cologne applied too heavily and nervous sweat. “The car, I mean.”
"Y-yes, ma'am." He clutches my coat to his chest like a lifeline, knuckles white against the dark wool. "Of course. Absolutely."
I turn and walk toward the elevator, hyper-aware of every eye that follows me.
Men in expensive suits pause their conversations.
Women in scraps of silk and leather track my progress with expressions ranging from appreciation to envy.
Everyone watching the painted goddess cross the marble floor like she belongs here.
I don't belong here. I'm a fraud. A virgin playing dress-up in a world of sin.
But they don't know that. And tonight, neither will I.
The elevator doors open with a soft chime, releasing a breath of air that smells like orchids and expensive perfume.
Inside, the walls are mirrored, multiplying my reflection into infinity.
A thousand Ilonas look back at me, all of them terrified, all of them exhilarated, all of them finally, finally free.
The blue tips of my hair catch the soft lighting, electric against all that black, my one visible rebellion on display for the first time in months.
I step inside and press the button for the club level. The doors begin to close, and my heart pounds so hard I can feel it in my throat, my fingertips, the pulse point between my thighs.
Tonight I belong to no one but myself.
I have no idea that somewhere above me, a man with dark eyes and dangerous hands has already seen me enter the building.
That he's studying the security feed with a smile playing at the corner of his mouth, his long dark hair pushed back from his face and his trimmed beard doing nothing to soften the sharp edge of his jaw.
That he knows exactly who I am, what I'm worth, and how he's going to use me.
I have no idea that the stranger I'm about to meet isn't a stranger at all.
The elevator rises, carrying me toward a fate I can't imagine.
And the storm outside finally breaks.