“Since we came, yes. I have always played here, which is good because I have…other business here.”
“You own other businesses?” I ask.
“No, I…well, yes. I own businesses. But I also manage some things for my adoptive father.”
“He has businesses here?”
“Yes.”
He’s being so evasive that it’s almost comical, especially because I have already figured out that there must be some sort of Russian mafia connection to this club. If I had to guess, he’s the son of someone in the Russian Bratva, here to do low-level crime with the alibi of being a professional athlete.
Well, maybe not low level. He seems powerful, though I suppose the power may be connected to his confidence as a player.
He is interesting.
I want to keep talking and learning more about him, but I’ve asked all the questions I can think of.
“Do you want to know more about me?” I ask.
“Yes. Very much.”
I wait, but he doesn’t ask anything, doesn’t say anything. I sigh. “You’re a tough crowd.”
“I am…not used to this.”
This makes me laugh. “No,” I say, looking around this red velvet sex room. “I supposegetting to know youisn’t usually on the menu here.”
“It is not,” Nik answers, a shadow of a grin on his beautiful lips.
I contemplate kissing him. We don’t kiss often, not on the lips, but I wish we did. I dream of those lips. I hold myself back, though, because it gives me anxiety to think about my panic, my crying, my talking, having ruined this.
Pushing myself up to standing, I say, “I should go, probably?”
“Why?” he asks, and he sounds genuinely perplexed. “Our time is not yet up. Not even the first hour, and you said you would stay longer tonight.”
In that moment, he sounds young, even a little boyish. It makes me smile.
“Oh, and you still want me to stay? After I used the safe word? After…all this?”
“I do.”
I inhale slowly, exhale slowly. “Well, then, you have to tell me why.”
“Why?”
“Why did you want me to stay longer in the first place?”
16
NIK
WhydidI want her to stay longer?
Cruelty would be an easy route here.
I could tell her I am wondering that myself, because why would I want to spend more time with a woman who cries while my fingers are inside of her?
Why would I want to prolong this situation, which has so obviously crossed a line?
