He nodded his head. “Very good. What do you think of the New York club? How does it stack up to Jersey?” He seemed to be trying to put on a Jersey accent and it didn’t impress me at all. In fact, it was one of my least favorite things in the world whenever I felt like someone was joking about or criticizing the place that I called home. It was hard enough to overcome the kind of anti-Jersey sentiment that you often found in New York, but seriously to have this guy throwing it in my face was too much.
“Honestly? I prefer Jersey.”
He laughed. “Jersey’s a great place. I happen to like it a lot myself. I have some family there. So, you want to tell me how you managed to find your way into our most exclusive, private event?”
I shrugged. “It was an accident. We ran out of vermouth and Celeste sent me up to the second floor supply room to find some. I took a wrong turn…probably several wrong turns, and ended up in there.”
“And what did you see?”
I let out a long exhale. “I saw a lot. A lot more than I wanted to see.”
“Yes, but…” he paused and gave me a long look. “Do you understand what you saw in there?”
When did this guy think I was born? Yesterday? How could a person witness that and not understand?
“I saw a girl named Clara selling her virginity to the highest bidder,” I said, my tone clearly indicating what I thought about the way he was questioning me.
Mr. Vance nodded. It was sinking in that I hadn’t just arrived on planet earth and knew a little about the world and what was going on.
“Ah yes, Clara. I interviewed her. Sweet girl, she’s going to go places.” He looked at me with a devilish grin. “Happen to see who got her?”
“I didn’t stick around to find out,” I answered curtly.
“Probably the prince. He loves his ballerinas. Typically we don’t let our bidders return more than a few times each year, but he is so consistent and doesn’t mind paying our prices, so how I can say no?” He said as his long think finger lightly tapped his lips as if he was contemplating his own question.
My jaw was hanging wide open and I closed it, not wanting to give away exactly what I thought about this whole arrangement. I believed that women had the right to do whatever they wanted with their bodies, but I had a difficult time believing that any woman would give up her virginity to a total stranger. Except for in this case there was a shit ton of money involved and I knew how tempting something like that could be. Hadn’t I been there myself? I certainly wouldn’t have walked through the doors of Club V for the first time if it hadn’t been for Suzy encouraging me and the fact that I was so desperate for a paycheck.
“Do you have any questions, Samara?” He asked as he steepled his fingers under his chin hold my stare.
“About what?”
“About how we operate, what we’re doing here, or how it all works upstairs. And by the way, I’m Neil. You can call me that if you like.”
I chewed my lip silently and then spoke. “I have a hard time believing that any young woman would truly want to give herself over to a man like that unless there was a lot of money involved. It feels like coercion.”
“I can understand why you might think that,” he replied. “The truth is that all of the bidders are thoroughly vetted and so are the women who present themselves for the auction block. No one is being coerced. Everyone is there because they want to be. And I would like to think that everyone leaves the room pleased. Hopefully they’re pleased more a little later on.” Neil grinned slyly.
“I know there are things that drive people to make those kinds of decisions, it was just…something else to see it so up close and personal. I don’t know what I expected, but it wasn’t that.”
Neil nodded. “Then I would advise you to forget everything you saw. Pretend it never happened. Pretend you never left the bar tonight. I’ll get someone to fetch the vermouth for you and you can tell Celeste you were with me. That should keep you out of trouble…well, most of the trouble you could get into with her. I have to be honest with you, Celeste runs her own show around here.” He laughed. “Seriously though, forget what you saw. Unless…”
“Unless what?” I frowned.
He lowered his tone and I could swear that his already sexy voice got even huskier. “Unless you liked what you saw.”
“Ha! As if.” I retorted.
Almost on cue, and completely out of nowhere, a woman walked through the door. And just like the women upstairs on the auction block, she was stark naked except for a collar. Hers was diamond, whereas Clara’s had been emerald. But the collar was hardly the thing that would have caught someone’s attention. As she entered Neil’s office carrying a tray with a drink on it, her breasts bounced, the dark pink tips pointing out and up and completely at attention. She was perfection and her smooth skin was completely hairless. Her lips the same deep dark red that covered most of the surfaces of Club V, she had very little makeup on and her long blond hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail.
“Mr. Vance,” she said as she approached his desk and set the drink down.
“Thank you, dear. Samara, this is Asia. She works the second floor and on occasion she likes to bring me a drink. When I tell her to.” Neil smacked Asia on the ass and she giggled, then bit her lip as if thinking better of it.
I nodded politely toward Asia, but kept my eyes trained on Neil. The woman was incredibly attractive and it was difficult not to stare at her nude form, but I didn’t want Neil to think he had any kind of control over me.
“Back to our discussion—are you sure you didn’t like a little of what you saw, Samara? Are you sure none of it was interesting to you in the least?”
I shook my head feeling the wetness of my panties. I wasn’t going to admit that for a brief moment while I watched Clara presenting herself before those bidders that I had considered what it would feel like if I were up there, spreading my legs in front of the men and women who were watching. What would it be like to be so on display, listening to people bid and fight over who got to have me for the first time?