“Easily,” one of the men said, taking a step forward.
I balked at them. There were people here who could just throw around a million dollars on a whim? I couldn’t imagine money meaning so little to me. What must that kind of power do to a man’s brain?
I didn’t want to find out.
“I’ll think about it,” I lied.
I wasn’t stupid enough to think that just because I’dascended, I was automatically in the clear. Until I found Lorelei, I was going to have to perform for these kinky gatekeepers.
Jayne smiled, pleased.
I quickly grew bored of watching Archer fucking Maisy. In fact, it seemed rather vanilla—and I thought these people looked down on vanilla activities with pitying disdain.
I snuck away from Jayne and the old men leering at me, feeling lighter the moment I did. Vastly more interesting to me was a woman in a gas mask and open-breast straitjacket laying on a medical examination table.
A man dressed like a doctor—true credentials uncertain—held a strange device that sort of looked like an electric toothbrush. Attached to the black handle was a glass rod that glowed faintly purple. Over the steady pulse of ambient music, I could make out a lightzapthe moment the tip of the rod touched her pebbled nipple.
Her yelp was heavily muffled by the gas mask.
“It’s a violet wand,” a woman whispered from my left.
I glanced at her pink latex outfit and impressively high heels. “It’s shocking her?”
“Very lightly,” she explained. “At the lower levels, it’s more of a light sensation. But the higher the voltage, the higher the zap.”
“And that’s safe?”
She smiled. “Yes. Though I wouldn’t do any electro over someone’s heart.”
I shuddered. Silly me—even with all my shameful erotica reading, I thought kink was basically restraints, gags, floggers, and being told what to do.
The woman writhed in her straitjacket as a tiny purple spark met her nipples over and over again. Apparently, the possibilities for sin were more endless than I ever could’ve imagined.
“I’m Capricorn,” the woman said.
“Nova,” I said, though I was guessing she knew that from my sermon.
“I was raised religious too. Evangelical. Got my ass sent to gay conversion camp. It didn’t work, obviously,” she said with a bitter smile. “It’s not easy deprogramming yourself, and only people who’ve gone through it will ever understand. It’s slow, and it’s not linear. Be gentle with yourself, yeah?”
I wasn’t sure why now—why with this stranger—but my lip trembled, overcome by her kind words. “Thank you,” I whispered.
Maybe Wes was right, and I was too hard on myself, because I wasn’t even sure whatbeing gentle with myselfmeant. I released a long breath.
That wasn’t something that had ever been taught to me. But I thought I could start with an Irish goodbye, a milkshake, and slice of pizza on my way home.
“If you’re ever in need of a friendly face at the party, please don’t hesitate to find me,” Capricorn said.
My eyes were blurry as I thanked her again and headed toward the door.
“Wait, Nova,” a voice called.
I sighed and faced a nude Maisy. Her perky tits bounced with her quick stride.
“Here’s my number, just in case we lose track of each other again,” she said, handing me a piece of paper. “Are you having fun?”
“It’s been a mix, but overall, yeah, I think I am,” I said and meant it. This was all new and overwhelming, and yet, I was high off the openness I’d long coveted, the bravery I never thought would belong to me. The attitude shift was shocking, unexpected.
I wanted to see more, do more,tastemore.
