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I run my fingers over my upper thigh, missing the safety of the knife I usually keep strapped there. I’ll be defenseless the minute I leave that stage and wind my way through the patrons, doing my best to sell them a high-priced fantasy.
Silas appears behind me, silent as the brilliant snake he is, slithering through his jungle. His hands settle on my shoulders, and I fight the urge to shake him off. In another time, another place, he’d pay for touching me… my Konstantin would take his hands and wear his blood as a badge of honor for protecting his goddaughter.
“You’re up next, Nikoletta.” His eyes look almost friendly, but then he bends down, stopping with his mouth just an inch from my ear, his serious gaze locked on mine in the mirror. His fingers bite into my shoulders with silent warning. “Do not make me regret this. Understood?”
I don’t blink. Determination swells within me until a slow smile forms on my crimson lips. “I’ll make the sale.”
He tilts his nose into my hair and sucks in a long, deep breath. His eyes drift shut and his body shifts closer, his growing erection pressing against me. “You better.” He strums my throat with his thumb, and I barely resist giving him the pleasure of feeling me swallow hard. “Because if you don’t, I won’t hesitate to put you on clearance.”
My smile slips as his grows.
Failure is not an option.
He disappears with the same eerie silence, and I blow out a trembling breath.
A three-song mashup over the course of six minutes. That’s all I have to sell my innocence. I wobble slightly on my stilettos as I make my way to my fate. Hovering in the darkness, I watch as Silas takes the microphone and addresses his treasured patrons. He schmoozes with banter designed to make every customer feel like he’s talking to them, and only them.
I close my eyes and clear my mind. It’s a performance. Nothing more, nothing less. The consequences—well, I’ll deal with those later.
All too soon, he’s wrapping up his calculated flattery and sliding into my intro.
“Tonight we have a rare treat for you… a precious gem, the single most exquisite virgin in the history of Illusions. She’s cultured, educated, and a stunning masterpiece among young women. But most importantly, she’s certified, and for a cool half million she can be yours… and only yours.”
For one night only, you bastard.
“Without further ado… gentlemen, meet our most-prized jewel, Bee.”
The spotlight bathes the stage and the single pole dead-center in a dizzying glow.
With my shoulders pulled back, I put one foot in front of the other and saunter out of the shadows and onto the empty stage, my every step in tune with the heavy sultry beat.
It’s just a performance. I’m conveying a feeling, evoking emotion with the music, with my movements. It’s like every other dance performance I’ve done. Jazz, lyrical, tap—performing is a part of me. This is no different.
Conveying innocence and shyness, I eye the pole curiously. Between the glow from the wall behind me framed with retro bulbs and the spotlight on the pole, the audience is swallowed by almost complete darkness. They’re nothing more than flickering tea lights in the inky depths of the crowd.
I’m all careful movements as I sell the tantalizing image of a sheltered young woman in a risqué place, drawn to scandalous things. I use the picture of naivety to tap into their primal urges, their ego, and taste for control.
Curling my fingers around the cool metal, I tug as though I’m testing its durability in this new playground I’ve stumbled upon. I carefully swing in a circle, letting a discreet giggle break free when I come to a stop with my back to the crowd. My curtain of waves swish over my shoulder to settle to one side, over my breast. Peeking over my bare shoulder, I dart my tongue over my bottom lip and tug it into my mouth carefully, and let it slowly slide back out.
These women think selling sex is how much skin you show. How dirty you’re willing to get. They’re in your face and brash in a cutthroat world where everyone wants their due, with only so much to go around. Brazenness to the point of recklessness is a short game with high stakes.
It’s not where the promise of monumental reward is found.
Whetting their appetite and tapping into their hidden desires starts with deliberate, accentuated moves. My body merging with the sultry beat until they’re one. A virgin discovering her power to entice.
Someone covers their grunt with a cough and that’s when I know I’m on the right track.
One finger at a time, I tug at my gloves, slash them through the air, and snap them down along my hip before letting them drop to my stilettoed feet. I let my mind slip away into another time, another life, to a forbidden fantasy—of him. The only man who has ever evoked lustful cravings inside me.
No crushes.
No other desires.
All I wanted then, all I want now, is him.
What if this was all for him? What if it were just the two of us here and every fantasy I scrawled in my journal late at night had the chance to come to life? If I could just tell him here and now with every movement of my body?
I drop low and swing my bent knees out, leaving me wide open. I sensually roll my hips, giving the crowd a seductive glimpse of my legs as the slits of my dress give way and reveal skin clean to the tops of my thighs.
