••AURELIA POV••
"You better be joking," Cecile stops abruptly on her way to guiding me into the hallway that opens into the club. She faces me.
"He's gay Cecile," I bite out.
She quickly retorts. "Yeah I heard you the first time, I just thought," she pauses mid sentence.
The bass from the club bounces across the walls like a second heartbeat under my skin. Colored lights flash across her face, but I can still see the way her expression twists from shock first, then into anger.
"I'm not joking," I say louder. "I saw him!"
Her grip tightens around my wrist. She continues to pull me further into the crowded bar.
"With Derek?" she asks sharply.
I nod once.
"Oh, that cunt" she cuts herself off, dragging a hand through her hair. "That absolute idiotic cunt! I knew something was off about him, I just didn't think he was so cheap and disgusting."
A humorless smile touches my lips. "Disgusting?" I scoff out loud. "Oliver's the disgusting one here using me all my life for goddess knows what!"
We might have been dating for four years but we grew up together since that horrible accident when I was seven. His comforting presence led to the feelings that made me confess Junior year in high school.
Oliver said yes and he looked so excited. To make things more beautiful, we successfully established a fated mate bond that's very sacred. It says we're destined to be together yet here I am mourning the reality that Oliver can never love me or any Woman in the way I thought he did.
The mate bond called us soulmates. While Oliver's mouth on another man made it feel like a curse.
It's so humiliating. Not only did he not love me, he didn't care about me at all despite being my best friend too.
Cecile turns to me fully now and her eyes scan my face like she's trying to measure how much damage has actually been done. "And what did you hear them say?" she inquires gently.
I hesitate a little because saying it out loud makes it real in a way I'm not sure I can undo. "...that I'm convenient," I confess anyway. "That all I'm good for is my father's connections."
"I get he's the Prince and all but no way can he get away with saying that." Then to my confusion, she veers around, grabs two glasses from a passing tray and shoves one into my hand. "Drink Now."
This time unlike before when I try to maintain my reputation as a good girl, I see no reason to refuse a drink so I pour the entire shot down my throat. The alcohol burns and it settles in my chest to spread a comforting warmth through the numbing pain.
"Again," Cecile says and so we drink again and again until the fabric of the world softens around the edges and the music drowns out my thoughts.
At some point, her provocative friends join us. Their clothes range from too much leather to too much skin. They laugh loudly and dance freely. Meanwhile, I feel out of place in my short floral dress and jacket.
"Is she roleplaying an innocent sub or something?" I hear someone tease about me. "kinda cute," a beautiful girl with a full cleavage winks at me.
My cheeks flush with embarrassment so I let down my ponytail for my curly hair to cover my face.
Despite the teasing, the entire scene is tempting given I've never felt like I could be as free and reckless without my controlling father breathing down my neck and my condescending boyfriend talking me out of anything fun in the name of our reputation.
The deeper we move into the club, the more the appeal grows. We enter a more private section where it's pretty obvious the sex part happens. I catch a couple of makeouts, grinding, and odd displays of bondage and strippers of every gender serving people they call Masters.
"This is?" I let my curiosity get the best of me.
"A sex dungeon, At least that's what it's called." Cecile murmurs near my ear. Her voice is warm with alcohol and mischief. "No one here cares who you are. It's just all about what you want, Aurelia."
That should terrify me instead it sparks up my initial idea to a huge flame. If Oliver won't fuck me, someone else will and no ounce of guilt will come out of it.
"Wait here, I need to go find someone," Cecile rushes to a man by a lounge with two girls rubbing on his chest.
My gaze drifts around, unsure where to look. Everything my eyes land on only leaves me flustered and my thighs tingling deliciously.
But then a flash of silver hair catches my attention. He walks in, tall and alluring and instantly stands apart from the other strippers despite wearing similar attire.
He's wearing a mask that barely covers his face yet it shadows his features into something intriguing. He's very handsome, way more so than Oliver. His chest on display shimmers with sweat that rolls down to his defined torso. Sexy is an understatement.
He's perfect.
I step toward him before I can think better of it. Cecile calls out to me but it fades into the noise. I've made up my mind already. I want him. Not sure why but I do.
When I stop in front of him, he doesn't move. His eyes are an icy grey that reflects the lights that pass through them like a kaleidoscope. He stares at me as I stare at him.
The way he doesn't rush to fill the silence makes my pulse spike harder with excitement. Perhaps he can tell already what I want.
I reach into my Jacket and pull out a few folded bills with my black card. I hold them out to him. "...strip for me."
