“I’m here for you, huh?” I asked.
Without meeting my gaze, he answered, “It would be a strange coincidence if you weren’t, Ruby.”
A light thrill whispered through me.So Ididleave an impression.He remembered me. I leaned in closer so our arms brushed. “You summoned me. I just answered the call.”
Only he just furrowed his eyebrows at me, confused. “I summoned you?”
I removed the card from my pocket and slid it over the counter. “You gave me your card.”
He stared at the card as though it had insulted him. He twisted it between his finger and his thumb and sighed. “Cortez.”
I pointed to myself, correcting: “Ruby.”
“No…Cortez. My EMT.” He passed the card back to me, snapping it against the counter. “This is her meddling. She thinks I’m lonely.”
Oh. Well, that was disappointing. This wasn’t the flirty, getting-to-know-you I wanted. Instead, I felt like I was being chastised by someone’s dad for not stopping long enough at the stop sign.
I tried another tactic. “Are you?” I asked. “Lonely?”
His eyebrows hiked up his forehead. He gestured to the party. “Do I look lonely?”
But while he was looking at the crowd, I was looking at him. I clocked the darkness around his eyes. The tight lock of his jaw. The guarded way he squared his shoulders.
I answered honestly, “Yes. You do.”
He blinked, surprised. His expression shifted frommildly annoyedtomildly curious.
Before we could continue psychoanalyzing each other, the blonde returned, a clipboard in hand. “Okay,” she smiled, flustered. “Sorry about that. If you can sign here, real quick…”
She set the clipboard on the bar and I examined the pages. “What’s this?”
Casper answered, “Your invite to the playground.”
I flipped through the pages. Non-disclosure agreement, confirmation of date of birth, warnings of nudity, sexual acts?—
It was starting to click together. “This is a sex club,” I announced, triumphant to have solved the mystery. “You run a sex club.”
I looked at Casper, and he confirmed with a small nod. “The Seekers Club is a private, safe space for people in the kink lifestyle. Or, in other words, perverts, degenerates…”
“Lonely people?” I added.
“Yes. Those too.” His eyes flickered over me. “If that bothers you…”
“Do you have a pen?”
He plucked a pen from behind the bar and handed it over. I glanced over the documents and signed my name in the required spots. I could feel Casper’s eyes on me. I was very aware that I was wearing nothing but a skin-tight dress that hugged my form in indecent ways and came to a very quick stop at the top of my thighs. I tilted my hips, pretending to get more comfortable. In my periphery, I could see his head cock with the movement. I bit back a grin.I guess my silver fox has become a wolf.
With a flourish of the pen, I remarked, “Done.”
I pushed the paperwork over. Casper quickly removed his eyes from my ass to take the clipboard. I smiled innocently. “Are you going to give me the tour?”
There was a bowl of fruit at the end of the bar. He picked up a clementine, skinning it. The tiny fruit never stood a chance in his large grip.
He jutted his chin forward. “This way.”
I followed as he led me through the lounge. We skirted around the group from earlier, who were chatting amicably.
“Welcome to the Seekers Club,” Casper said. “Invite only. A haven for kinky and curious people. This space is where peoplemeet. Mingle. A few refreshments here, but…it’s mostly for people to talk and negotiate.”
