CHAPTER 2

THREE WEEKS AGO-

A trace of vanilla and warm, wet sex drifted over Jess's nostrils as she stepped into Elysium, a BDSM sexual club in Ashwood City that catered to the rich. Semi-naked women danced to songs around shiny metal stripper poles, their breasts jiggling every which way. Couples shared an obscene amount of saliva on black suede couches at the back.

Jess glanced nervously about and stepped deeper into the club alone. She knew of few BDSM newcomers such as herself who came here, aside from her best friend, Lylah. But for tonight, she was not here for anything except one thing.

To lose her virginity.

"May I assist you?" a satanic brown-eyed waiter asked to her left. "You appear lost."

Cheeks flushing, Jess snapped back to reality and smiled weakly at him. "I, um … I'm new here."

He chuckled. "It shows. Something I can help you find?"

"The owner."

The waiter's eyes went wide. "The owner?"

"Yes," Jess said, scanning the club. "I have a meeting with him tonight."

"Are you Miss Raquelle Chambers?"

"Yes."

No, that was only the pseudonym she used with the man she had been talking to on the computer for the last couple of weeks. She hadn't mentioned her real name to him, and he hadn't asked. She never knew how many other women he did this with, and she really didn't care. This was a one-shot deal, a one-night stand.

Loss her virginity, thank the man for his time, then get the hell out of here.

"Right this way," said the waiter, depositing a tray of drinks on The Velvet Lounge bar section and leading her towards the back of the club, where there were more secluded booths with CEOs and VIPs, who leered at her.

Jess pulled her dress down as she pushed through lines of individuals standing at the booths and accompanied the waiter up a staircase and to a pair of private rooms. Her stomach was knotted, but she wished to get this over with already. She didn't even bother to make formalities.

They stopped before a large black door with the numeral four in big golden numbers in the center.

The waiter put his ear to the door, leaned forward, and tapped twice until a voice from the other side exclaimed, "Come in."

Having once handed her a faint smile and the room key, the waiter left Jess on the second floor to herself. She gnawed at the inside of her cheek, inching nearer the door as women in their lingerie staggered out of the room next to her.

"Come on, Jess," she muttered to herself, fiddling with the key. "It's one night."

As she jammed the key into the knob, the door opened, and Kai Rylan glared down at her with puffed-out eyes. Kai Rylan was a lot of things—like, it seemed, the owner of the hottest BDSM club in town, the sexiest fifty-six-year-old man she'd ever laid eyes on, a dominant playboy. But worst of all, he was her father's best friend.

And this evening, she'd lose her virginity to him.

"Jess." He paused, his gaze running along her body for a split second too long—from mouth to breasts to waist. He moistened his lips and glanced back up at her. "What are you doing here?"

"You're the owner?" she panted, pounding heart.

"One of them," he said, glancing down the corridor.

The women's group walked past her door, cackling and beckoning to Kai. And as much as she was only here to lose her virginity to him this evening, she couldn't help but feel the jealousy bubble up to the surface. She'd never even had a chance with a man twice her age, but … still …

"You didn't answer my question," he said.

After Jess was finished glaring at the women who were walking away, she snapped her gaze back to him and loosened her tight jaw. This was it. Time to fess up and let him know that she was the girl who had been conversing with him on the computer, that she was the one who … had been such a big, bratty goose to him for three weeks.

God, what had she gotten herself into? Kai was her dad's best friend. He could always see right through her. The second she came into this room, he'd know she'd been pretending online that she had the slightest idea about BDSM.

"What. Are. You. Doing. Here?"

Heart pounding against her ribcage, Jess wrapped her arms around herself and squeezed her thighs together. Was it terrible that she kind of, sort of enjoyed the sound of his voice? The bossy, dominant playboy that he'd always been?

"Nothing," she heard herself reply before she could stop herself.

A puzzled expression washed over his face, and then finally his eyes grew a little darker. "Don't tell me you're the woman I've been conversing with online."

Rather than talking, Jess made the pursed motion with her mouth and tapped from foot to foot in the doorway. He closed in on her and cupped the front of her throat in one huge hand, forcing her to look at him.

"You will tell me, Jess."

"And if I don't?"

She had no clue what she was getting herself into, but she just could not seem to stop. She had come here for a reason, and she was going to see it through. She was not going back. She had waited so long to lose her virginity and did not want to continue waiting. All of her friends only spoke about how it felt, and her vibrator no longer satisfied her.

Kai laughed ominously and ran his hand through his hair. "Fuck, I'm going to get into so much trouble because of you."

Instead of pushing her aside and giving her a kick in the pants, he pushed her into the room, shut the door behind her, then pressed her chest firmly against the door. Jess gasped for breath, her ass cramping beneath the pressure of his dick.

"You shouldn't be at a club like this," he informed her.

"Well, you shouldn't sneak looks at me every chance you get," Jess shot back, allowing whatever the hell to spill from her mouth for the second time that day. But it was the truth. The past few weeks, she had noticed him glancing at her more than once over dinner with her father.

It wasn't one of those "accidental" glances either.

He braced against her, fingers tugging at the column of her throat. "Your father can never find out."

Kai growled into her ear, his hand still clenched around the front of her throat, "Do you understand?"

Her breath snagged. "What if I speak?"

Instead of answering her, he shoved her off the door and pinned her against the giant black bed in the center of the room. Jess slid onto the bed on her back, nipples compressing into her lacy bra.

"Bare yourself," he instructed, unbuckling his belt and advancing on her.