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Ah, the misconceptions.The fantasized, glorified, utter wrongness in the perception of the lifestyle… Luca had hoped a woman of Claire’s status would have been better read than what popular opinion had painted as the BDSM culture. But alas, stereotypes were indeed festering wounds.
Luca curled his index finger around his mouth and tucked the opposite hand under his elbow.
She sat behind her desk, eyes slightly narrowed and waiting, oh so patiently with her hint of challenge, for his response. The blend was intoxicating.
Before the stirrings of his under-thoughts could bubble to the surface, he said, “I’d like to prove you wrong. The best way to do that I think would be to show you.”
Her eyelids fluttered and the rosy flush he’d been trying to deny he craved crept up her neck. Claire swallowed hard.
Sorry, Ms. Favre. Flexing my mental muscle is an unbreakable yet delicious habit.
“Excuse me?” she managed.
Luca cleared his throat. “There are, perhaps, images you have about what goes on in a private setting such as my future club—images that, while they may scratch at the surface of truth, do only that…scratch.”
Her skin returned to its cream natural state and Luca grieved the departure of the pink.
He continued, “Why don’t you visit? Take a tour. I’m sure you’ll find that it’s just as much a legitimate business as the pesticides that kill millions of bees every year. Hopefully, more. I assure you that no one gets hurt unless they want to.” Another man might have winked, but Luca only shifted his jaw instead.
She stiffened her posture. “You want me to come to a club and watch people get spanked and have sex?”
He grinned. “You seem rather fixated on the spanking part.”
She rolled her eyes.
That would never do.
“I’m not fixated on anything. I’m just wondering… If your business is so much on the up and up, why would you want to hide it in my bank, because it doesn’t seem like any of your other sources of income are shifting into my vaults with it? And secondly, why then, would I take a risk on you, a stranger to me, for a venture that you would like to brush under the rug?”
Luca crossed his foot over the opposite knee and adjusted in his chair.
“To answer your questions…” He twisted the platinum watch below his starched cuff. “For starters, perhaps I am interested in having some privacy on this matter and wish to not mix it with the accounts that have been in my family for decades. I am well aware of the labels that accompany my lifestyle. I still have a sweet, aging grandmother, and I have no intention of killing her with rumors of my sex life.”
Claire’s hands folded once again, but this time she rolled her shoulders back and shivered.
“And secondly, I read about you. I know you are a perfect balance of risk-taker and security. Much like anyone, I’d like to see my money grow. As I have no friends who are clients of yours, I feel the risk is mutual.”
She sat back and tapped her delicate thumbs together three times.
Stalemate.
Her gaze ran the length of Luca and when it met his, she gave a slight purse of her mouth. “When?”
He wet his lips.
“Friday or Saturday night. You’ll need to sign a non-disclosure agreement and you won’t be able to visit the higher floors. But you will get a sense that the members are as normal as you and me.” He paused at the brief fantasy of her in his private suite. “And you will see the respect and consent of a tight community.”
Her eyes raked over him again.A good sign?He couldn’t tell.
“I’ll think about it.”
She rose, as did he, and he followed her to the door.
“I’ll see myself out.” Luca nodded. There was no way he could follow that ass down the hall after he’d discovered how her skin could blush with just a few words.
“As you wish,” she said.
Despite the brakes halting in his mind, Luca exited her office.
How had she known? How could she have possibly known the symphony of music those words were to his ears?
