Rule Him: A virgin student/teacher forbidden romance (School of Seduction Book 1)

by Gisele St. Claire

  Total and complete consent.

  We insisted that the bidders sit through a seminar on it. They had to prove themselves to us. There were a few men who made it through our vetting process that I still had questions about, but on the whole, I felt good about letting our virgins enter the auction room.

  Our virgins were always selected with care. They came to us voluntarily usually and it was only on a rare occasion that one was approached and that was typical because they had been recommended by a friend who had been on the auction block in the past.

  We had a clinical psychologist on staff that went over everything with the women before they were accepted. Elle, our staffing director, knew the business from the inside out and knew what it took to be on the auction block. She had a way of telling if someone was going to work out from the start and almost everyone she had put her stamp of approval on made it through our final round of vetting.

  Everyone had a different reason for choosing to step up to the auction block. Of course, it usually came down to money and you couldn’t blame the women for being seduced by that, but almost always there was something more. These were women who wanted to have their first sexual experience and for some reason hadn’t lost their virginity up to that point in their life. Our staff made sure they not only understood what they were doing, but that they wanted to do what the auction block required of them. They were compensated handsomely based on the level of intimacy that was required of them. While some were only signing up for one night with a man, many more were agreeing to a week or longer. It could be arduous for a woman having sex for the first time and that was why we took it seriously when we allowed men into the auction room.

  The point in question though, the thing that it really seemed to come down to for law enforcement was the fact that the contract was binding. Once it had been signed there was no getting out of it. I could see why they would be concerned if they didn’t know exactly how far we went to make sure everything was done properly. And the truth was that no one really knew how our business was run. We prided ourselves on our exclusivity and the privacy we provided our clientele. There was no need for us to come out with a tell-all about how we did our business.

  The idea had come to me in college and I knew it was a million dollar business from the first time I thought of it. What I didn’t know was that with the success of the club it would boom into a billion dollar business and that we would be dealing with governors, sheiks, and people from the highest echelons of society.

  Virginity was one of the hottest, most appealing things to some men and they were willing to pay a high price for it, depending on the women in question. I could remember the day it occurred to me as clear as a bell. It was during my junior year of college and I’d seen the girl. She was mousy with frizzy brown hair, a nose slightly too big for her face, glasses that were also a little too oversized, and somehow she was still in braces in her freshman year of college.

  She wasn’t the most attractive woman I had ever seen. Far from it. But I was sure she had something that many women on campus had given up long ago—her virginity. I didn’t set my sights on her, not like that, but I took note of the feelings that grew in me when I thought of her and saw her entering her dorm, usually right after my business calculus class. She was shy and unsure of herself, but I imagined what she would be like if she realized that she had some power. Just a little work on her appearance and guys would be lining up around the block to get a taste of her.

  Things hadn’t gone down as planned with her, but I kept a memory of her in my mind. As long as we kept the business above board, making sure every contract was signed and that everyone involved was a fully consenting adult, I knew that we had a winning formula. After all, who didn’t want to fuck a virgin?

  I leaned against the raw brick of my office wall and stared out into the waning light of the day, glistening darkly through the pouring rain. We were too far ahead for them to ever catch us. We had too many people deep within their organizations who were members with too much to lose. There was no way anyone could infiltrate Club V.

  Chapter 2

  Penny

  The hum of the office equipment whirred around me and I was almost in a daze when Lauren, my editor, stopped by my desk and tapped it softly with the tip of her index finger.

  “My office in ten,” she said with a nod. It wasn’t a question. “I’ve got something for you.”

  She disappeared down the hallway and I watched her go, her hips swaying from side to side. The woman walked with authority, but never let anyone in the office forget that she was attractive and available. At only 10 years my senior, she had achieved quite a bit in her time at Expose, starting as a copywriter for the magazine straight out of college and working her way up to editor-in-chief. Lauren had taken me under her wing after I had shown myself to be an asset to the copyediting pool and she pulled me out of what was likely a dead-end job and put me on track to eventually take over for her someday, if only I would listen to her, jump on every story she threw my way, and basically copy her every career move.

  I looked at the pile of research material on my desk. “Hell’s bells, Penny. You’re so behind.” I tried not to make a habit to talk to myself, but old habits die hard and I couldn’t help rolling my eyes. In college, I had always been able to churn out a great paper in about an hour. It had prepared me for the rigors of working at a magazine, but I was still finding myself buried under pile after pile of research and investigative materials.

  I scooted the stack aside, turned to my computer and checked my email. I had no idea what Lauren might want to speak to me about. Checking my due dates on my calendar I saw that I didn’t have anything due to turn in for another week. That was pretty odd for me as I usually had a deadline for the blog every other day or so. But recently Lauren had asked me to shift my attention to the print mag and I had been working from that angle for a few weeks now. It was more in-depth, less click bait, no more trying to beat the top entertainment channels to a story. While that was still going on with the writers in our online office, my focus was now on the more serious storytelling that took some time.

  “We want a Pulitzer? It’s going to be from the print edition,” Lauren had said when we had the conversation about shifting my focus.

  I knew she was right. If we wanted more recognition our focus was going to have to be on what we were sending to print. It didn’t matter that it all went online the same day. And I had to admit to myself that I was looking forward to seeing my byline in a glossy.

  I didn’t have high hopes for a Pulitzer. Expose was prestigious, but it was still a gossip magazine. We had been responsible for breaking several major stories over the years, however, there was still a bit of a reputation with the magazine. We were hard-hitting. We would get in wherever we had to in order to get the story we were looking for.

  I waited nine minutes instead of ten before I walked down the hall to knock on Lauren’s door.

  “Come in,” she said. I could tell she was still on the phone by the way she answered, but she hung up almost as soon as I opened the door. It was a flip phone, one I had never seen her use before, and it was noticeably ancient compared to the phones most people were using these days.

  “New phone?” I asked as I took a seat opposite her.

  “Burner,” she said with a half-smile.

  That caught my attention. “You must have something then.”

  Lauren leaned forward and rested her chin in her palm. “I most definitely do.”

  She pushed a file toward me and I could feel my eyes widen before I had the wherewithal to stop myself. I had so much on my plate already, what on earth could this be about. I opened up the folder and was greeted with the logo for an exclusive gentlemen’s club—Club V.

  “I want you to find out why I can’t get in,” Lauren said with a laugh.

  I glanced up at her. “I’m going to guess it’s because you aren’t a gentleman.”

  She tucked a strand of her blonde b
ob behind her ear. “You’re right about that. But also you should know it’s not just an exclusive gentlemen’s club, nor is it a match-making service, or any of the other fresh coats of paint they might try to put on the place. Nope, that’s not what Club V is about.”

  I thumbed through the pages in the folder and looked for anything eye-catching that might tell me what was really going on there.

  “Drug front? Money laundering? Embezzlement?” I had no clue based on what I was looking at.

  “You can’t tell me you haven’t heard of it? I’m surprised. You’re exactly the sort of woman they might approach.”

  I looked at her, bewildered. “What is this place?”

  Lauren leaned in closer with a grin. “It is the most exclusive sex club in the U.S. They have locations in almost every major city. It’s open sex, BDSM, swapping…you name it, Club V caters to it. They have got a billion dollar business on their hands and the client list is impossible to get your hands on, though there are rumors floating around about who has been seen entering and leaving the building. They value the privacy of their members above all else—well, aside from possibly saving their own skin when the feds finally come around to stop what they’re doing.”

  I frowned as I stopped going through the pages, looking up to meet Lauren’s eyes. “What are they doing that the feds would get involved with? Consenting adults can do whatever they want. I mean, as long as it isn’t prostitution in a place where it’s illegal.”

  “Bingo!” Lauren cackled. “There’s a rumor going around that these fellows have an auction block where—you will not believe it—they auction off virgins to the highest bidder. I’m not certain if it’s true like I said it’s a rumor that is floating around and I want to know what’s behind it. Where there is smoke there is fire and I have a feeling things are pretty hot inside of Club V.”

  My eyes went wide again. I had heard of a lot in my time at the magazine. The rich and famous were always into weird stuff and often it was borderline illegal, but outside of really terrifying kidnapping films, I had never heard of anyone actually auctioning virgins.

  “You can’t be serious?”

  Lauren nodded. “I am. And I was also serious about saying they won’t let me in. I’ve applied for a membership half a dozen times. They know where I work and they do an extensive background check on all their members. I’ve made it so far to an office in Manhattan where I had a meeting with someone who vets prospective members, but nothing further than that. There’s a location here in New York, their first, and people are aware of that, but you can’t even try to get close enough to photograph the entrance. It’s deliberately darkened around the club and you would have to know where it was located exactly to ever make your way inside. Security is all around and they make sure to scare off anyone who tries to take photos. I suspect they’ve got an in with the local police as well because they keep the place pretty clear of anyone who isn’t supposed to be there.”

  “Jesus,” I uttered under my breath. “So where do I come in on all of this?”

  “Well, I considered getting you to apply as a member, but I realized it would take far too long from application to approval for this story to get to press. That and they would do a check on your salary and I’m afraid what we pay you here isn’t enough to get your foot in the door, not unless you plan to go work there.”

  I shook my head. “That’s not happening.”

  “Indeed not. So, I called in a few favors and got you some credentials from a magazine that they will be happy to allow access. You see, they’re trying to do a little housekeeping right now. They want all the right words making their way into the public about them. Rumors about the auctioning have been swirling around the place for some time now and it’s looking like there is a little federal heat on the place. They want to double-down on the gentlemen’s club angle. These credentials will get you in without a problem and we’ve already set up the interview with the founder of the club.”

  It didn’t surprise me that Lauren had been able to work her magic on what sounded like a very extensive operation, but I still had a hard time believing that she was picking me to go in for what was bound to be a very difficult assignment, especially when she knew the pile of things that were on my desk and how much I had to turn in within the next month.

  I flipped through the pages again, checking out the list of contacts for the New York location. For some reason, one of them stood out to me, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.

  “You’re perfect for this assignment, Penny. You’re young, beautiful, and exactly the kind of woman these guys go for. I wouldn’t be surprised if he made a pass or told you more than he intended in the interview.”

  I sighed absently. “So who is it I’m going to be interviewing?”

  “The founder, who is also one of the three owners—Pete Wilson.”

  It hit me like a bolt of lightning then. Pete Wilson. We had gone to college together and…I wished I could say that I hadn’t thought of him or pictured his face a thousand times since then, but it wasn’t true. Pete Wilson had stayed in my mind all of these years, a very painful reminder of what my life used to be like. I found myself gripping the folder with some force.

  “Is everything okay?” Lauren asked: a look of some concern on her face.

  I looked up, smiling. “Fine, absolutely fine.” Fucking fine as hell. This was like the universe dumping an amazing opportunity in my lap. Finally, I was going to be able to pay Pete back for what he’d done to me. “When would you like me to get started?”

  “Do a little research on him today, see what you might be able to find online. I know he’s single and very eligible, which you might be able to use or you might not. I’m not telling you what to do about that or suggesting anything. It’s just…up to you. We’ve got the initial interview set up for two days from now. I think it’s enough time to get prepared. Keep in mind there will be a series of interviews since we’re doing a ‘profile piece’ on the business.” She slid the credentials for the other well-known men’s magazine across the desk to me. “And don’t worry: they’ve already created a dummy account for you over there with a few articles to your credit. If he does any searching for you online he’ll see that you’ve been working there for a short while and have some stories under your belt, but not many.”

  I nodded and took the materials and started to stand. “What about everything else I have currently?”

  “This takes priority over everything.”

  Lauren dismissed me and I turned, hardly believing what I was about to do. Finally, I was going to be able to get Pete Wilson back for all the hurt he had caused me in college.

  Back at home in my apartment that evening, I looked through the folder for the dozenth time. Pete Wilson, of all the people in the world, was involved in something borderline illegal and I was going to get to be the one to bust him for it. At least I was going to get to be some part of whatever brought him down. It was going to be sweet to watch and for a moment I chose to forget about what kind of karma I might be inviting by delighting in this schadenfreude. It would serve him right for what he had done to me.

  Ten years earlier, I stood looking at myself in the mirror, hardly believing what was about to happen. I, Penny Saxs, was going on a date with a gorgeous guy at my university. Pete Wilson wasn’t just any good looking guy either. He was one of the smartest, coolest guys at school, a popular athlete, and he was so successful already. He was basically everything anyone could dream of being and had his eyes on the prize of starting a business straight out of college. He was going places and he knew it. So did everyone around him.

  We had been in a chem lab together, but he never noticed me then. Since I was just a freshman and he was already a junior, I was bound to get ignored by someone like Pete. I had taken a lot of advanced placement courses in high school and landed myself in several upper level classes at the university. It wasn’t really the sort of thing I thought would catch Pete’s eye, but something about me d
id because he had asked me out on a date toward the end of my freshman year and I found myself standing in front of the full length mirror in my dorm room, attempting to make myself look presentable for a date.

  I hadn’t been on any dates the entire year. In fact, my last date of any kind had been to my senior prom and that was a bust as well. But when Pete asked me out it was like something out of a movie and I couldn’t believe my luck.

  Everything about the date was perfect to start. He took me out for dinner at a nice restaurant, he asked me all kinds of questions about myself, we took a walk in one of the parks by the university and he walked me back to my dorm just in time for us to step in out of the rain. Pete had offered to see me to my door and there was no way I was going to turn that down, so we hopped in the elevator and headed up to the seventh floor.

  We had only made it up a floor or two when the elevator stopped and everything went black. The lights came back on after a second or two, but we were still there, stuck in the elevator. Pete pushed the emergency call button a few times, but there was no luck. We were stuck somewhere between the 2nd and 3rd floors.

  Pete said something about it maybe being fate. He started telling me how he felt about me, how he had been admiring me for so long and felt so lucky that I had agreed to go out on a date with him.

  Then he moved in to kiss me and it quickly turned into something more. I was lost in the passion of the moment, hardly believing that this was happening to me. I was making out with Pete Wilson in the elevator, we were stuck and it didn’t look like help was coming, and for all, I knew I was about to lose my virginity right there on the floor.