How much fun could wereallyhave?
A beat of silence.
Then from behind me, DJ mumbles with a mouth full of food?—
“Oh, and this chili is amazing.”
6
FAITH
“It’s okay, Faith,” Maya says soothingly as DJ drives. “What Daddy doesn’t know won’t hurt him. This is, like, the textbook definition of that. It’s not like you’re stealing. You’re just… expanding your horizons a little. And your dad gets to sleep easy thinking you’re square dancing in Van Buren County. Win-win.”
“I know, I know.” I blow out a loud breath, pressing my palm against my chest.
We wind up a hill toward the entrance of what can only be described as amansion. The gate is ten feet tall, black wrought iron, and guarded by an actual human being in a suit.
DJ rolls down the window and whispers a password I can’t hear. The gate clicks open slowly, like something out of a Bond movie.
My stomach somersaults. What in theactual hellgoes on behind these walls?
“I feel like I’m about to enter a lair,” I mumble.
Maya laughs. “You are.”
“No, seriously. Daddy would have abreakdownif he knew I was headed into one of these clubs.”
“Don’t be so dramatic,” Maya says, stretching her legs out on the dash. “It’s sex. Every species does it. Didn’t you ever watch the Discovery Channel growing up?”
“No, I didn’t. We were one of those no-cable families.”
Maya gasps. “That explains so much.”
“Did youseehow he reacted when you even said the wordsexiled? He looked like someone had just blasphemed in front of the Pope. If he knew where I was going right now, he’d disown me. He’d turn me into a cautionary tale in next week’s sermon.”
Grant leans over from the backseat, grinning. “You’re not evena littlecurious what goes on in there?”
“Sure,” I admit. “Somewhere in the back of my mind.”
Because the truth is… Ihavewondered.
Not in a real way, more in acoffee comes from beans, right?kind of way.
I’ve known sex clubs exist. But visit one?No thanks.
I’m a normal, red-blooded, hormone-carrying young woman. Of course I’m curious about sex. But aclubwhere people just… do that stuff in masks? It sounds downright intimidating to me.
“I just—what kind of guys go to a place like this? Probably the kind who can’t get laid anywhere else.”
Alex and Maya both burst out laughing.
“You’d be surprised,” Alex says. “It’s all kinds of people. You never know who you’ll meet.”
“Wait, how do you guys evenknowabout this place?” I ask. “It seems… oddly exclusive.”
Alex nods at DJ. “He did some training camp thing and met an NFL player who had the hookup.”
I raise my eyebrows. “And y’all just… talked about sex clubs? Casually?”
