Page 6

"What are you talking about?" he asks, amused.

She turns toward the dance floor and wets her lips when she sees Nadia making her way over.

"Yeah. To make sure I stick to my work schedule, they're putting one of the factory employees on me to be my shadow. She'll make sure I'm home when I leave work so I behave the rest of the day."

"And what's she going to do to stop you from going out?" he asks, delighted.

"That's what I'm wondering. But I figure the basic idea is just that she reports everything I do. That's it."

Pol bursts out laughing and she only stretches her lips into a thin smile, then catches her lower lip between her teeth and stays like that until Nadia stops in front of her.

"I was going to ask you to dance, but you've gotten me so turned on I need to fuck you first," Nadia says, putting a hand on her waist and leaning in to give her a soft bite on the neck that Claudia receives with a deep sigh.

"Jesus, I'm right here," Pol protests.

Nadia turns to him and smiles.

"Sorry—hi, Pol. And goodbye. I'm stealing her for ten minutes. Maybe fifteen."

He rolls his eyes, and Claudia abandons her half-finished drink to let herself be pulled toward the bathrooms.

"What do I owe this to? I thought you weren't coming tonight," Nadia says, backing Claudia up against the wall of the stall they've locked themselves into.

Her hands are planted on the tiles on either side of Claudia's head. They love fucking in these bathrooms—they're spotless, pretty roomy, and there are enough of them that they can have a quick fuck without some woman pounding on the door because she needs to get in.

"Here I am," Claudia says, wetting her lips.

"Going mysterious on me?" Nadia takes her hands, pins her arms up above her head with one hand, and with the other starts unhooking her trousers slowly.

"Maybe." Claudia pushes her hips forward, starting to lose patience.

Nadia is forty-two, twice divorced—both times from women—and the owner of the club. Claudia met her two years ago when she came in with Pol for the first time, two months after it opened, and since then she tends to come every Tuesday, and there hasn't been a single one that hasn't ended here, in Claudia's penthouse, or through the private entrance to the office where Nadia handles all her business in the afternoons. But tonight is Wednesday, and Claudia shouldn't be here—as a rule she goes out on Tuesdays and Thursdays, on Thursdays sometimes to private parties held at some club or on rooftops with views of the sea, and if there are no parties, here too—but today she's had to make an exception.

"Rough day?" Nadia guesses, releasing her for a moment to pull down her trousers and underwear to her ankles.

She kisses her pubic bone and straightens back up, taking hold of her again.

"I guess so."

"Want to tell me about it?" Nadia asks while she bites softly up and down her neck.

"No."

The club owner stops and looks at her steadily, because the woman in her arms has always seemed to her like a mystery she can't solve. She's closed off and doesn't usually share much about her life, but Nadia has always had a particular talent for spotting people who are drowning in their own anxiety—people who want to appear like nothing matters or affects them, and who are in fact the most sensitive people on earth, everything hitting them twice as hard as it does anyone else. She sensed that in Claudia the day she met her, and as time has gone on, not only has it stayed the same but she has the feeling it's getting worse.

"I've got more skills than just getting into your pants," she says, very seriously. "I just need you to know that."

Claudia swallows with difficulty and bites hard on her lips in a desperate attempt to keep her eyes from welling up.

"I know," she manages to say.

"Good. I just wanted to make sure. Now—" Nadia speaks very close to her mouth "—since you don't seem to want that kind of release from me, I'm going to give you another kind. I hope it helps."

Nadia lets go of her hands, grips her waist, and drops to her knees. Claudia moans immediately the moment she feels her tongue and presses a hand to the back of her head to make sure she's not going anywhere.

When she comes, she muffles her cries against her fist and feels her thighs and belly burning as though she has liquid fire inside her body. Nadia doesn't stop—she holds her firmly and keeps devouring her until she pulls a second orgasm from her that, when it ends, buckles Claudia's legs all at once, as though every last bit of strength has escaped with her final moan.

She ends up on her knees in front of Nadia, who wraps her arms around her and pulls her body close as though she wants to wring out everything bad that's weighing her down. Claudia lets her, because it works—she always feels a strange relief when she does this to her—and she ends up exhaling a trembling sigh that tells Nadia she's ready.