“Mr. Davidson invited you.” The blatant doubt in the man’s voice made a chill rush down her spine, but she flashed her brightest smile and nodded.
“Of course.”
“What’s your name?” Security guy lifted a tablet and started tapping away at it, and then she heard the door behind her open and shut.
Oh please don’t be the other security –
“Evening, Daniel.” The silken voice was most definitely not the security guy from upstairs, this was someone much higher on the income scale. As she turned to look at him Maddie had to swallow hard, because the newcomer was incredibly good looking. He had the aristocratic smile and tailored suit of someone that came from money, and his warm brown hair was trimmed to perfection.
“It’s Danny, Mr. Hathaway, and good evening.” Desk security guy, Danny, gave a brief smile, momentarily distracted from her trespass. “Get lost? You don’t usually come in from Runway.”
There’s another entrance to this place? As she made a mental note of Mr. Sexy’s last name, the man laughed warmly and gave her a once-over that sent a thrum of heat across her skin. “I had the urge to people watch for a bit tonight, my coat is at the front of the club. Now who’s this?”
“Madeline.” She answered before Danny Security could speak and stepped over to him, only to realize he towered over her by at least six inches. With a kind of old world elegance, he took her hand and leaned down to kiss her knuckles.
“I’m Thomas, and I’m very glad to meet you, Madeline.” His voice did something funny to her insides, and she couldn’t tell if it was the slight growl he seemed to add to her name, or if it was the intensity of his hazel eyes. Either way, for a brief moment the rest of the room seemed to fall away – that is, until security asshole interrupted them again.
“She says she’s a guest, but I don’t have a Madeline on the list.”
There was a spark of something behind Thomas’ gaze when he glanced back at her. “Why do you want to go inside?”
With a delicate shrug, she decided to play flirtatiously coy, which was not difficult as gorgeous as he was in his dark gray suit and pale blue button-down looking like he might be one of Jaxson Davidson’s old modeling friends. “Curiosity.”
“Just curious, or do you want to play?” His lips ticked up at the edge, a slight smile teasing his mouth, and she couldn’t help but grin back.
Play? Holy shit, could it be illegal gambling? Jackpot!
“Oh, I definitely want to play, Thomas.” Keeping the flirty confidence in her voice, she reveled in the brief flash of desire on his face.
He laughed, squeezing her hand before he released it to pull his wallet and phone out of his pocket. “Are you planning to play with someone else, or are you looking to have someone play with you?”
“Are you offering?” For a moment Maddie thought he was going to back down, or that she’d overstepped, and then she’d have no hope of getting inside, but then he shrugged.
“I don’t have any other plans tonight, so I guess I am.”
“She’s not on the list, Mr. Hathaway,” Daniel ‘Danny’ the security asshole chimed in and she wanted to throw something at him.
“That’s fine, I’ll have her as my guest for the night.” Thomas walked the few steps over to the glass partition in the wall and pressed a button that resembled a doorbell beside it.
“Of course, Mr. Hathaway.” The security guy gave her a long look, but she ignored him and stepped up beside her tall, gorgeous savior.
A young woman approached on the other side of the glass and slid the window aside. “Good evening, are you a member?”
“Yes,” Thomas replied and opened his wallet.
Maddie couldn’t stop smiling, because not only had she actually discovered a secret within Runway, she had also managed to get passage inside. The headline floated behind her eyes: Illegal Gambling beneath Runway. Which of the District’s elite would she find caught in the act? The reporter inside her was positively salivating, but as a thank you to her white knight she’d leave him out of the article she’d write – as soon as she found out who exactly Thomas Hathaway was anyway. Trust fund aristo? Politician? Lobbyist?
He handed over a plain white card, and for a moment nothing was visible on it, and then the lighting in the room changed. All of the normal lights went out, and the purple glow was all that was left, revealing a logo and text on the card.
No way.
‘BLACK LIGHT’ was written in bold, all caps across the middle of the card, and underneath that was smaller text which simply showed ‘Member ID’ and then a series of numbers that she couldn’t memorize before the lights came back to the normal pale purple. A combination of the black lights tucked around the room with the recessed lighting.
The girl tapped away at the tablet in front of her, and she smiled as she returned the card to him. “Mr. Hathaway, so nice to have you back. I see you have a guest this evening?”
“I do, this is Madeline…”
“O’Neill,” she filled in, and blushed when she heard his quiet laugh.
“A beautiful name for a beautiful girl.” He winked at her and then turned back to the woman inside the window. “A one-night guest pass, please.”
“Of course.” The girl gathered some pages together and attached them to a clipboard before offering them with a pen. “Madeline, please fill this out while I process the payment.”
“Right.” She took it and stared down at the dense legal speak, swallowing as she recognized what seemed to be a pretty serious non-disclosure agreement. The Post would surely defend her if they took the story. That’s what they did when reporters exposed illegal activities, right?
“You’ll just initial each page and sign the last one. Can I have your ID?” The woman was still looking at her, and now Thomas was too. Fumbling with the clasp on her little purse she tried to juggle the pen and clipboard, but he reached over and took them from her with a slight smirk.
“Sorry,” she whispered as she pulled out her license.
“No need to apologize, beautiful.”
The blush further heated her cheeks as she passed the woman her ID, but Thomas just smiled wider as he returned the clipboard to her waiting hands. She’d barely glanced down to start reading it when the woman spoke, “That’s one-hundred and fifty for the pass, Mr. Hathaway.”
“Sure.” He didn’t even bat an eye, but Maddie almost choked on her next breath of air.
Was that the buy-in for the gambling? Shit, that’s a lot.
Quickly, she initialed the three pages and then signed the last one, clapping the pen on top to slide it back across the short counter. Thomas signed his receipt and then the woman handed everything back to them. “Alright, Madeline I’ll just need to give you a stamp.”
Maddie offered her left hand and the woman turned it over and pressed the stamp onto her wrist, where it was almost invisible to the eye. The barest shimmer of it showed, even more black light ink.
This place is bordering ridiculous with their security.
“Danny, can you open locker thirty-four?”
“Got it,” the security guy replied to the girl and she heard the metallic clunk of it popping open behind them.
“Please remember, there is no technology allowed inside. This includes phones, wearable devices, recording devices, and anything mechanical that is not medical in nature.”
Guess they were serious about stopping cheating, which meant there had to be some major money being exchanged behind that door.
Ka-ching, ka-ching!
“Thank you.” Thomas nodded before turning that intense gaze on her again as he tucked his wallet away and pulled out his phone. “So, we’re sharing a locker since you’re my guest, but I want to make it clear that if you want to leave all you have to do is tell me. I’ll bring you back out here to get your things immediately. Alright?”
“That works for me!” She followed him over to the locker that had its door ajar, and pulled her phone out of her purse.
Thomas had already laid his phone inside and was removing an Apple watch while he looked her up and down.
“We’ll talk more once we’re inside and have a seat, but I just don’t want you to feel like you owe me anything. I bought the guest pass because I want to get to know you better, and while I’d love to play with you, it’s not an obligation.”
Maddie rolled her eyes before she thought about it. “I promise, I’m fine.”
Did this guy think she’d never played poker before? Did she really look that sheltered?
Thomas laughed low as his eyes roamed slowly over her curves. “Wonderful. No more technology under that nice dress?”
“No. Why, do you want to check?” Looking up at him she knew her cheeks were burning bright from the situation, the flirtation, and the fact that her offer wasn’t an innocent one. He was hot, and it had been way too long since she’d even had a date. If he wanted to pat her down she’d let him in a heartbeat.
“Maybe in a bit.” He answered softly and then offered her his hand and she took it, the next door popping open as they approached. There was low, wordless music coming from the room beyond, with soft, warm lighting – and then Thomas pulled the door wide and Maddie realized the error she’d made.
It was most definitely, unequivocally not gambling hiding underneath Runway.
What the fuck had she just gotten herself into?
Chapter Four
Thomas squeezed her hand and pulled her forward with him into a scene out of the darkest recesses of her imagination. Leather, and chains, and the sounds of what could only be sex. The sudden snap of something striking skin, and the yelp of pain after, made her jump. Thomas turned to look at her and Maddie instantly summoned an easy, relaxed smile.
He leaned towards her with a hungry look, his voice meant just for her, “Let’s go sit and talk.”
“That sounds good.” She nodded, trying to talk herself down into a calm state, while he walked forward confidently, obviously because he’d been here many times before. Hell, Daniel ‘Danny’ the security asshat had known him by name, and that meant Thomas Hathaway liked this stuff – and, more importantly, he wanted to play with her. Here.
Maddie, what have you done?
The sights and sounds were overwhelming, and her heart was pounding so hard she wondered if he could feel her pulse where their palms were pressed together. She wasn’t ignorant, she knew she was in some kind of BDSM sex club, complete with everything she’d heard of and a lot more she had not. There were couches scattered across the dark carpet, most of them facing various raised platforms where women were strapped onto furniture.
This was beyond her imaginings, or at least out of some of the more secret fantasies she’d harbored growing up. A fucking sex club? Under the hottest new dance club in DC? How the hell had this happened?
It was started by Jaxson Davidson and Chase Cartwright – that’s how.
Forcing a steadying breath, she tried to focus, but it was difficult. As they walked through the middle of the room she looked one way and saw a man draw back a thing with a lot of leather strips, landing them across a woman’s ass and thighs. She jumped, and then squirmed, before he did it again. Looking another way she saw a woman ass up over a man’s lap as he stroked her and then spanked her. From the cry she released, it did not seem to be the playful kind of spanking Maddie had tried experimentally in the past, but the guttural moan that followed spoke of anything but agony.
There were about a thousand warring thoughts inside her head, pinging between panic and interest, fear and arousal. A warm flutter in her lower belly was only amplified when Thomas stopped them for a moment and leaned close enough that she felt his breath against the shell of her ear, “See anything you like?”
She had to swallow past a dry mouth before she tried to speak, but all she managed was a crimson-cheeked nod. Fortunately, that seemed to be enough, and he continued to move towards the bar tucked in the far corner.
You’ve got an opportunity here, Maddie. A way to substantiate your reasons for being here, to give you an excuse to look for the people on your list, and most importantly… Thomas Hathaway is not bad to look at.
“Thomas!” A man called out and waved at him, and he raised his free hand in response, but she barely had the chance to see who it was before she was distracted by the mostly naked man wearing a ball gag, on his knees beside a high-top table. A leash was latched to a collar around his neck and tied off to a ring embedded on the stand. A woman in a beautiful dress was sitting in the tall chair next to him, chatting with a man in a long-sleeved shirt, casually running her fingers through the man’s hair that knelt at her side.
Was she a dominatrix? Maddie knew that term, and it took a mental shake to make herself stop staring before they noticed.
Get it together. You need to be focused, memorizing everything, not gawking like a damn tourist.
Observe. Evaluate. Remember.
They stopped at a table, farthest from the action of the main floor, near what looked like a small shop that stocked everything from condoms to toys. A handsome man with long hair, wearing an elaborate leather harness, was sitting behind the counter reading a book, and Maddie had to steady herself to ease into the chair that Thomas pulled out for her.
He slid into the seat beside her, both of them facing out to the floor, and she noticed that now he carefully rested his hands on his lap, no longer touching her. “So, is it your first time at Black Light?”
Speak, Maddie.
“Is it that obvious?” She laughed, trying to summon back the flirtatious tone she’d held so well upstairs.
“You do have a charming blush on your cheeks and a bit of that wide-eyed wonder.” Thomas smiled at her and gave a slight shrug. “I’m pretty sure I was a little wide-eyed when I first got here. There’s really nowhere else like it.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, everything here is the best of the best, and they cater to pretty much any kink you could think of. Also, as I’m sure you noticed, you can’t really beat the security here.” Thomas leveled his gaze at her, a more serious tone taking over. “So, whose guest were you supposed to be tonight, Madeline? I’m very glad you agreed to come in with me, but I’m not looking to step on anyone’s toes if you already have –”
“I’m not meeting anyone.” Maddie shook her head and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “I mean, I was invited, but we didn’t have plans or anything.”
“Who invited you, Madeline?” There was a definite edge to his voice now, one that made her feel like she was the one being interviewed when it needed to be the other way around.
Summoning a wicked grin she leaned back, resting her arms on the sides of the chair, trying to display a casual comfort with her surroundings. “I’m not really sure I should name names, Thomas.”
He leaned back as well. “Ah, I see. Well, that’s probably a good idea considering that talking about this place is sort of against the rules unless you’re bringing a play partner.”
“Security is important,” she answered, logging that bit of information away.
“It is. May I ask if it was a man or a woman that invited you?”
“You may, but I don’t have to answer.” The flirtation was finally back in her voice, and she bit her lip as he smiled slowly.
“What if I wanted to spank that bit of information out of you?” Those dangerously attractive eyes were on hers, and she tried to stifle the sudden intake of breath his words brought on.
Be calm. Be confident. Act like you belong.
“You could try, Thomas.”
“Feisty girl.” Chuckling, he broke their gaze to let his eyes wander the room. The sounds of sex were coming from somewhere, the slap of skin accompanied by moans and groans, combined with a chorus of leather cracking, the clatter of chains, and the buzz of conversation – all overlaid atop that low thrumming music that seemed to call to all the basest needs of humanity. Hedonism at its finest. “So, before we get started we can ha
ve one drink to relax and get to know each other a bit. What would you like?”
Before we get started… right.
Maddie shifted in her seat, turning to look back at the incredibly well-stocked bar. “One drink?”
“Just one, you need to be clear headed and so do I.”
“Of course.” She smiled and blew out a breath, going for an old favorite. “I’d love a cape cod, it’s vodka and cranberry and –”
“Lime. I know the drink.” Thomas pushed up from his seat. “Just a moment, I’ll be right back. Why don’t you think of some of your favorite kinks so we can discuss them when I return?”
“Sure.” Maddie answered confidently, but internally she was a ball of knots and anxiety. Kinks? What the fuck was she supposed to say to him? Looking around she wished she had her phone so she could quickly Google some BDSM terms, because relying on what she’d heard in movies, and read in a few naughty books, was probably not going to get her very far – and it may not even be accurate.
Shit.
Looking across the room, she left behind all her nerves and shifted into reporter mode. What could she see, and what did she already know?
To her right was a tiled area with a huge hot tub, but there were only two people soaking in it, and from the lack of straps it seemed the woman in it was topless. Beyond that was an open door to some showers, but getting completely nude in here was not on her to-do list. Swinging her eyes back to the middle of the room, she wasn’t turned off by the idea of a spanking. Although she’d prefer being on one of the chairs or couches instead of the raised wooden platforms like some kind of showpiece.
There were various things in use among the thirty or so people inside, but since Black Light looked to be roughly the size of Runway above she knew it could hold a lot more. Maybe it had been wise to come on a Sunday after all?
“One cape cod for you, and a scotch for me.” Setting the drinks down he took his seat and then lifted his glass. “To meeting new people.”
“Thank you.” Lifting hers she tapped it against his, and then took a larger sip than she probably should have. It was a cool, clean burn all the way down. Sitting up a little more she smiled at him. “So, do you meet new people here a lot?”
Black Light: Exposed (Black Light Series Book 2) Page 3