“Can we look?” I asked, then immediately felt embarrassed. “Sorry, that’s probably?—”
“It’s natural to be curious,” he grinned. “But we have to respect boundaries. The curtains are there for a reason. If someone wanted you to see they’d be out here.”
I nodded, trying to absorb everything. The energy in the room was electric, charged with desire and possibility. I could feel it humming through my body, making my skin hypersensitive and my breathing shallow.
“Come on,” Syx said. “Let me show you the rest.”
He led me through the space, pointing out different areas. There was a bar where people could get drinks, a lounge area with plush seating, a dance floor where bodies moved together in ways that were more sex than dancing. He was careful to keep us in public areas, never venturing too close to private spaces, but as we passed one of the curtained doorways, I heard a sound that made me freeze. It was a low, masculine groan that was achingly familiar.
Without thinking, I stepped closer and peeked through a small gap in the curtain. My entire world tilted. Malcolm was on a leather chair, his head thrown back and his face contorted in pleasure and on his on knees in front of him was a man, bobbing his head up and down his dick, while jacking off his own.
A gasp escaped my mouth before I could stop it. It was a small shocked sound that cut through the loud music. Malcolm’s eyes flew open and his head jerked up. My eyes met his and for a split second, we just stared at each other. His face went from a euphoric pleasure to shock then to something like fear. I saw his mouth form my name.
“Nyne—”
But I was already moving. Blindly my hand reached for Syx. I found his arm, though he only let go for a millisecond. My fingers dung in his skin.
“We have to go,” I said, my voice shaking. “Please. We need to leave.”
Syx didn’t ask any questions. He just wrapped his arm around me and guided me quickly through the club, past the writhing bodies and red lights, out into the cool night air.
My heart was pounding so hard I thought it might burst through my chest. My hands were shaking trying to process what I’d just seen.
Malcolm was getting his dick sucked by a man.
A motherfucking man!
Did that make him gay? Had he been gay the whole time we were married? Is that why he’d cheated and decided to divorce me? Is that why our sex life had been so…dull? Did it make him gay if he was getting his dick sucked by a man? Or was it just experimentation? Most importantly, why was he here, on this island, at this club? One question after the other, they kept tumbling over and over in my mind until I felt dizzy.
“Hey,” Syx said gently, his hand caressed my shoulders. “You good Nyne? You need to sit down?”
I realized were back outside the club, standing in the garden area. I was breathing too fast, so fast that my chest had tightened.
“I’m fine,” I lied. “I just needed some air.”
He studied my face, his expression concerned. “You want a shot? There’s a bar inside or you can get something from my office.”
“Your office?”
“Yeah,” he said. “I own part of this place. I have an office upstairs where I can oversee everything in the main room. It’s only to make sure every one is safe and following the rules.”
“You own this?” I asked, momentarily distracted from my spiral.
“Part of it,” he confirmed. “Me and two other investors. It’s been running for about three years now. Come on, let me get you that drink.”
He led me back inside, but this time we went up a winding staircase I hadn’t noticed before. His office was on the second floor, behind a locked door. When he opened it, I was surprised by how normal it looked. There was a desk, a black leather couch, bookshelves, and one entire wall of windows that looked down onto the club floor below.
From up here, I could see everything. It was like watching a living, breathing work of art, shockingly.
“Sit,” Syx demanded, gesturing to the couch. He moved to a small bar cart in the corner and poured two shots of something amber. “Drink this.”
I took the glass and downed it in one gulp. The liquor burned going down, but it helped steady my nerves.
Syx sat beside me, close enough that I could feel his warmth. “You want to talk about what happened down there? You started acting funny when your nosy ass peeked behind that curtain. What you see? Shit, their ain’t no tellin’ what you saw.”
“No,” I uttered quickly.
He didn’t push to reveal what had me crushed. Instead he nodded and gulped a shot of his own.
