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We loaded up on appetizers and grabbed drinks from the bar before staking out a space away from everyone else. It was a long hour before the party had begun to dwindle. My parents had been speaking to the dean for at least twenty minutes. Chester had disappeared.
“This is lame,” I said. I stood from where we’d turned into wallflowers and brushed off my dress. “Want to head to another bar? I think I’ve been to one or two down the street.”
Julian shrugged. “Sure. Should we say something to your parents?”
My gaze slipped over to them, and I sighed. “Probably.”
Just as I headed over there, Chester reappeared. His cheeks were flushed. “Leaving already?”
“We were going to go get a drink.”
Chester nodded. “I know just the place.”
“You want us to go with you?” I asked dubiously.
“Why not, little sis?” he asked.
Because he’d been avoiding us since we’d gotten here. Something was up with my brother, but I had no idea what it was. I wanted to ask if Margaret was going to meet us since she’d never arrived at the party, as promised, but I had a feeling I already knew the answer.
It’d be easy to just tell Chester no and walk away. But I couldn’t say no to anyone, let alone a brother who seemed to actually want my attention.
“All right,” I said. I glanced up at Julian.
He shrugged. “Fine by me.”
We said good-bye to our parents and then headed out onto the balmy Austin street. Chester chatted amicably the entire time. I barely heard what he’d said, but thankfully, Julian kept up the conversation easily. This was why I’d brought him anyway, right?
Chester finally stopped in front of a large metal door.
“What’s this?” I asked curiously.
“Our stop,” he said with a wink.
Julian and I exchanged a glance and then both shrugged.
“House party?” I said.
Chester smirked and knocked on the door. A slot opened, and he slipped a small card into it. We waited outside for a few minutes in silence. Then the door creaked open.
“Welcome to the Lounge,” a gravelly voice said.
“Where have you taken us?” I whispered reverently as I looked inside.
Chester grinned. “A secret bar. It used to be a brothel.”
I squeaked.
He just laughed. “Can’t handle it, sis?”
His eyes were a challenge. This wasn’t my scene. Not at all. But I couldn’t back down from that look either. I reached for Julian’s hand for strength and then pulled him across the threshold with me.
12
Jennifer
The former brothel was a cascade of shadows. Reds and grays and blacks decorated the room, shading the black leather booths in darkness and revealing the brown lacquered bar. We passed the booths, only getting eclipsed views of the people within. They could have been as devious or innocuous as possible, but everything felt charged with energy and awareness.
“This is your room,” the attendant said, stopping before a frosted sliding glass door.
He tapped twice, and the door slid open. Inside, there was a floor-level sunken tub and a dozen people that I’d never met. Half of them had dropped down to their unmentionables and were submerged in the bath. The rest were drinking fancy concoctions.
Chester entered first, and everyone cheered at his presence. “I brought my sister and her boyfriend.”
“The more, the merrier,” a guy said, tugging on Chester’s collar and dragging him toward the bar to choose a drink.
“What am I seeing?” I whispered to Julian.
He laughed. “A bar.”
I narrowed my eyes at him.
“A fancy bar, but that’s all,” he added.
“Do you think they clean this place?”
He snorted and covered his mouth as he walked us around the room to look at the drink menu. “I’m sure it’s been scrubbed clean.”
“I’m glad there aren’t black lights.”
He stopped and turned to face me. “What? Prudish?”
“In public? Yes!”
“This is mostly private,” he offered.
I shook my head and then checked out the drink list. There were amazingly bubbly and elaborate concoctions that I’d never heard of before. Most of the ingredients didn’t even look familiar.
I shrugged. “Just pick one out for me.”
Julian nodded and wrote down our orders, stuffing the slip of paper into a slot that must have taken it back to the bar. Only a matter of minutes later, our drinks were rolled in on a gold trolley by a man in the shortest shorts I’d ever seen and nothing else.
I blinked and tried not to stare. Everything about him was exposed. Though not much more than Chester’s friends lounging in the sunken tub with soaked boxers or thin lace panties and bras, revealing practically everything underneath.
I thankfully took my drink and downed most of it in one long gulp. I needed to be drunker for this.
“Whoa there,” Julian said with a laugh.
“It’s delicious. I’ll take another.”
He shrugged. “Okay, but do you normally drink this much?”
“She doesn’t normally drink. Isn’t that right, sis?” Chester asked, appearing at our sides. His shirt had been removed, and he was surprisingly built with long, lean muscles. The last time I’d seen him, he’d still been the scrawny chess player I had known.
