I stared at him and wondered what his story was. He was a handsome man, but more in the retired boxer kind of way. He was tall and stocky, with a buzz cut and deep blue eyes. His bulging muscles were filled with tattoos and he stood with a straight and rigid back. He reminded me of some ex-military men I'd met the summer before at the Navy pier.
I then checked out the other two guys. They both looked like boys trying to play men. They were both about my age and had average builds. One of the guys had really bad acne and his eyes looked cold. He looked like the sort of guy that would make you shiver in fear if you saw him on a dark night. I wasn't sure if he was Frank or Bruno, but I knew that I didn't want to spend any one-on-one time with him.
"Any questions?" David continued, and I realized that I had spaced out.
"When are we going to learn what our job descriptions are?" Nancy spoke, and I looked at her in surprise. I hadn’t thought that she’d wanted to draw any attention to herself.
"Not until you pass the first three days," Patsy answered, and I looked around to see if Greyson had come back with her.
"When can we call our friends and family?" another girl asked, and Patsy gave her a hard look.
"So today, you girls will cycle through ten different rooms. Each of you will go in one room at a time. Each room will be testing you for a particular quality or skill. You have to complete the assignment in each room to the best of your ability."
"Oh shit, this isn't going to be some written exam, is it?" Elizabeth moaned. "I'm taking a break from college to get away from that shit."
"Such a vocabulary for a Dartmouth girl." The words were out of my mouth before I could stop myself.
"Did you say something, Grandma?" she shot back at me, and all the other girls, except Nancy, started laughing.
"I’d rather be a grandma than a bimbo," I muttered under my breath, and Nancy squeezed my arm.
"Ladies, let's stop with the name-calling." Patsy sighed. "We are all friends here."
"Until someone becomes more popular," Nancy muttered to herself, and once again I realized that she wasn't as clueless as she had made herself to be yesterday.
***
The first room I entered was bare aside from a black leather couch and a small side table. I looked around, wondering what I was supposed to do. There was no paper, and I couldn’t see any guidebooks. I stood by the door for a few minutes, waiting for someone to walk in, and then I walked over to the couch and sat down. I sat there in silence for a few more minutes, and then a voice spoke into the room. I jumped up in surprise, taken aback by the suddenness of the voice. I looked around the room, and it was then that I saw the speaker in the corner.
"Stand up," the voice commanded me, and I stood up slowly. "Do a jumping jack," it said, and I stood there for a moment feeling foolish.
"A jumping jack?" I spoke back to the voice and waited. The lights went out then and I sat back down on the couch, wondering if I had already failed the test. All of a sudden, I heard some music playing from the speakers. It sounded like some old-school R&B, something I’d listened to in grade school. The sound of the door opening made me jump again and I turned around quickly to see who had joined me in the room.
"You don't like to listen to instructions, do you?" I couldn't mistake Greyson's voice, and I felt my cheeks warming.
"What are you doing here?" I sounded anxious and weak, and I wanted to rewind the clock so I could answer him in a stronger voice.
"I came to see how you were doing." He walked towards me, his voice lower and harder to hear above the men crying out about making love to me.
"I thought you didn't have anything to do with the training." I spoke more firmly this time. I wanted him to know he didn't affect me.
"I don't." He slipped onto the couch next to me. "Not usually."
"So why are you here?" I questioned him, peering up into his face curiously as my heart beat fast. His rock-hard thigh was pressed against my leg, and a warm feeling ran through me as I clenched my legs. I wanted to move farther down the couch and away from him, but I didn't want him to realize how much he affected me.
"I came to give you your first test."
"Oh." I looked up at him then. "I didn't know you were a part of the tests."
"Why would you know?"
"Why did you choose me?" I burst out, unable to stop myself. "I feel out of place. All the other girls are so young."
"How old are you, Meg?"
"I'm twenty-five."
"You're young as well." He gave me a wry smile.
"The other girls all look like they’re under twenty-one."
"Yes." He nodded.
"So why am I here?"
"I'm forty-two." His voice was humorous. "Many would say you're still too young for me."
"Forty-two?" I was surprised. He was older than I’d thought. Older than I’d thought I would be interested in.
"You sound surprised. Brandon is forty-two as well."
"What does that have to do with anything?" I blinked at him and watched as his expression changed.
"You didn't date him, did you?" His eyes narrowed as he surveyed me. "I was taken aback when I met you. You don't seem like his type."
"How rude." I glared at him, feeling rejected.
"Grew up with ‘Full House,’ did you?"
"What?"
"How rude!" he said in a young feminine singsong voice and I laughed in surprise.
"I did watch it when I was younger. I guess I was channeling my inner Stephanie Tanner."
"I guess you were." He moved closer to me and I felt his arm slide around my back. "So if you didn't date Brandon, how do you know him?"
"Why do you care?" I swallowed hard as I felt his hands rest upon my shoulders, and his fingers started kneading into my muscles, massaging my balls of stress and tension.
“I don’t really care,” he murmured, and I felt his breath on the back of my neck.
“Why are you in here with me?” I jumped off of the couch. “What’s the test?”
“You’re eager, aren’t you?”
“No. But I’m here for a job. Nothing else.”
“Tell me about you, Meg.”
“What?” I frowned back at him. “Is that the test?”
“Perhaps.”
“What do you want to know? I was an attorney. I got fired. I applied for a job as a bartender and I ended up here. At this private club. And now I’m in training for a position I know nothing about.”
“How does that make you feel?” He stood up, and I felt his arms on my waist turning me towards him.
“I don’t know.” I shrugged and looked up at him. “I don’t know anything anymore.”
“You’re not the sort of girl we usually have coming through the doors.”
“I suppose I’m not the sort of girl you hire either.”
“No, you’re not.” His eyes bored into mine seriously. “You’re older than the girls we normally take in.”
I glared at him. “Well, no need to spare my feelings.”
“Brandon and I started this club in college.” His voice was soft. “We were best friends and roommates, and I convinced him to start it with me.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“I’m not sure. Maybe so you’ll trust me.”
“Why do you want me to trust you? You don’t even know me.” I stared at him for a second and saw his expression go from light to hard again.
“Your assignment is to give me a lap dance.” His tone changed and he sat back down on the couch.
“A lap dance?” My voice cracked. “Are you joking?”
“What were you expecting?” He leaned back in the chair. “A spelling bee?”
“I’m not giving you a lap dance.” I shook my head.
“How badly do you want to know about Brandon’s involvement with the club?”
“I don’t care.” Katie’s face flashed in my mind and I sighed. “Why would you tell me if it’s bad? Wouldn’t that incriminate you as well?”
He chuckled. “Spoken like a lawyer.”
“Don’t you care?”
“Are you going to report me to the police?” He raised an eyebrow at me and my breath caught. He looked like the devil incarnate as he sat there with his legs spread open and his arms stretched out. His eyes sparkled in the darkness of the room, and his face looked dark and ominous. Greyson Twining wasn’t a man to play games with. I was positive of that fact.
“I have nothing to report to the police,” I said and then gasped as his fingers grabbed my wrists. “What are you doing?”
“I don’t want you to fail your first test.”
“So this is a strip club? Or should I say ‘a private strip club.’”
“Is that what you think it is?”
“Yes.” I nodded and stepped towards him. I wanted to see the look in his eyes up close.
“And you’re okay with taking a job as a stripper?”
“I’m a lawyer,” I muttered defensively.
“So that means you’re not okay working as a stripper?”
“I’m an unemployed lawyer.” I fell against him as I lost my footing when his hands started caressing my ass. “What are you doing?”
“You work out, huh?”
“What are you talking about?” I muttered, shifting my footing to get away from him but somehow ending up closer to him.
“Your ass cheeks are tight.” He laughed and squeezed. “I can feel your muscles clenching beneath my fingers.”
“Get your hands off of my ass.”
“Okay.” And just like that, his fingers were gone. My fingers fell to his shoulders, and I grasped them as I stood up again. “So, Meg, tell me why you really came to get a job here.”
“I told you. I need to make some money and I thought that bartending would be a way to earn a lot of money fast.”
“Yet you have to know that this isn’t just a bartending job. Why are you still here?”
“Why do you care?” I stood in front of him, looking down into his eyes. I was so close to him that I could see his chest rising beneath his shirt. If I reached my hands out, I could be touching his warmth against my palms.
“I care about everyone who works here, especially those who aren’t here for the right reasons.”
“Brandon Hastings is my best friend’s boyfriend.” I sighed. “Or ex-boyfriend or whatever. I’m not really sure what they are right now.”
“Oh.” His voice sounded surprised, but he gave me a dazzling smile. “So you’re telling me that Brandon wouldn’t care if I f**ked you?”
“I don’t know why he would care.”
“Interesting.” He looked at me thoughtfully. “Then his phone call was more about me than you.”
“So I guess you don’t want to sleep with me, now that you know.” I sounded disappointed, and I couldn’t stop myself. I didn’t know why I cared. It wasn’t like I was going to sleep with him anyway.
“I never said that.” His voice was a growl, and his arms grasped my waist and pulled me onto his lap. “In fact, I want to f**k you even more now.”
“I said sleep with, not fuck,” I whispered as I shifted on his lap. I could feel his hard erection beneath me and it felt like it was growing every time it shifted. I enjoyed the feeling of him gently teasing me, and I made sure to keep up my soft movements in hopes of teasing him as well.
“I don’t sleep, Meg. I only fuck.” His voice was no-nonsense as he whispered in my ear. “I f**k hard and deep, and when I’m done, I’m gone.”
“Romantic,” I whispered into the air and he chuckled.
“I take it that doesn’t impress you?”
“Who would that impress?” I tried to jump up, but his hands were firmly planted around my waist and he wasn’t letting me go anywhere.
“Most women are happy when they hear how deep I can go.”
“I’m not most women.” A surge of jealousy ran through me as I thought about him with other women. Get a grip, Meg. He’s not yours.
“I think I realize that.” His lips nestled into my neck and he kissed me softly, gently biting the skin before licking it. “But I think you’d still be happy to feel how deep I can go.”
“You’re crude.”
“No, I’m just honest. I thought women appreciated honesty.”
“I do,” I moaned as his teeth bit my neck harder. I wiggled in his lap, and his right hand used that as an excuse to grasp my right breast. “Greyson,” I moaned, wanting him to stop but not wanting to say the words that might make him actually stop.
“Meg.” He said my name with a throaty voice, and his fingers gently squeezed my nipple.
“Is this part of the training?” I mumbled after a few seconds. I was finding it very hard to speak coherently.
“No.” His left hand reached up to my other breast now and he shifted underneath me. I felt his hardness between my legs, and I sighed as both of his hands fondled me. I closed my eyes to enjoy the feeling of excitement that had sprung up in my body. I ignored the voice yelling at me to get up and slap the living daylights out of him. It just felt so good.