AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He sat back down. "All right?" he said uncertainly.
"Trust me. I know what looks good on you."
“I know what looks best on me.”
The line broke the spell just a little and Jill laughed. “If you say me, I’m sending you home for being ridiculous.”
“Then I’ll keep my trap shut.”
The rest of dinner was spent in a strained excitement until they were back out in the limo. Jill gave directions to the driver, then put up the privacy window. "Now," she breathed, tilting her head as she looked him over. "Liner."
She pulled the eyeliner from her purse, then slid over to straddle Kline's lap to his surprise. He couldn't breathe, much less speak as she leaned over him. "Look up," she whispered. It was all she could manage, and that move had been quite a lot. She wanted him to feel as undone as she did whenever he showed up. Or at least make him feel like maybe he was missing out on something by missing out on her. “Look up,” she said again when he didn’t release her gaze.
That time he did, and she kohled his lower lashes and the inside of his lower lid, then smudged with the other end of the pencil. She took it between her teeth, then ran her fingers through his hair, tousling it up before sliding from his thighs and back into her seat. She put away the liner, then handed him a mirror and said huskily. "Now you're perfect."
"You prefer the rock star version," he said, giving her a wicked smile. "I may need to keep you with me all the time. You make me look incredible."
She laughed a little. The rest of the ride was silent, until they stopped outside a building and Jill let down the privacy guard. "Go into the parking garage," she told their driver, "and go up to five. We'll get out there. You're welcome to wait or come back at four. As long as you're here by four."
He nodded and followed her instructions. When they reached the fifth floor of the garage, the driver opened the door for them, and Jill swung out, legs first. "I'm going to change clothes," she said to Kline over her shoulder. "I'll meet you by the bar."
"What?" He followed, completely off balance, looking back at the car like it was a last bastion of safety. "What are you changing into?"
"Clothes I have here." She smiled, winked, and disappeared through the door with a word to the bald, tattooed bouncer.
Kline followed her in. The throbbing bass hit him first, then the tangible pulse of bodies as he made his way to the bar. The club was dark and blue lit, full of beautiful men and women in various dress. He'd expected more of an S&M environment from first glance, but it seemed innocuous on second look. Just a lot of people around his age, some maybe older, some maybe younger, who were clubbing to the music that had been popular back in his early twenties. It was strangely comfortable and just strange.
Jill met him in the bar, changed into a wisp of a black slip dress over fishnet stockings and platform heels. She'd done a bit more to smoke out her eyes and felt beautifully dangerous. It was another costume, maybe another character, maybe someone from Cabaret, she didn’t know, but she was sure she couldn’t face the rest of the night as herself. She didn’t want to be Jill. She wanted to be someone who could seduce Kline Scott. "Do you like it?" She asked. "I'm a part owner."
"It's--you are?" he asked, his glass paused in midair.
"Uh-huh," she said, nodding. "I bought into it with Teddy to keep it going and he gave me a piece of the business."
Kline shook his head in amazement. "You're just full of surprises, aren't you?"
She cut off her instinct to demur and let a Kit Kat Girl come forward to purr instead. "Mmm. I have a few."
Kline swallowed hard under her heavy-lidded gaze. "It's great. It looks harder core."
Jill let the Kit Kat Girl laugh. It was throatier than her own. "Parts of it are. We have the whole floor. But what I don't know won't hurt me."
"What you don't know?"
Truthfully, she said, "I've never gone back further than the second room. I stay in the front."
"So, this is an S&M club?" Kline asked, looking around a bit nervously.
"People play in the back rooms, Kline, it's not as though there are live sex shows in the gallery. Why? Is it a problem? Are you afraid someone’s going to see you?”
He considered a moment, then shook his head. "No. It's fine. Would you like to go back past the second room?"
“Would you?”
She had called his bluff and his cheeks pinked. From what she remembered, Kline was better than an average lover, but he had simple tastes. He redirected. “Would you like to dance?”
Jill nodded so they moved out on the floor. If anyone recognized either of them, there was no indication of it. They were simply anonymous members in a crowd of like-minded people, none of whom wanted to be recognized on the street.
An old Nine Inch Nails song started to throb out of the walls and Kline pulled her up close by the waist, just like he used to do when she’d been so shy about him it was almost impossible to breathe, must less make a move. He still had that effect on her. Wanting to touch him, being afraid he would reject her because–look at him.
