By the time I finish the story, I’m laughing so hard I can barely talk. I remember the angry, dedicated look on her face as she’d forced herself to piss in her pants. I couldn’t believe she’d actually done it. I still can’t.
Jamie carefully wipes a tear away from laughing so hard and smacks my arm. “That’s real friendship, and don’t you forget it.”
“I never will. It was totally worth being called the pee-pee twins for the entire year.”
“Damn straight.”
The light turns green, and it isn’t long at all before we’re pulling into a parking garage across the street from the club. The Red Wolf is connected to the Arctic Fox, looking for all the world as if it’s closed for the night. It’s dark windows and vacant look are in sharp contrast to the loud bustling coming from right next door.
We leave the parking garage, and by the time we make it back to the street, I don’t really care how good these heels are making my legs look. These fuckers hurt! I try to look graceful as I follow after Jamie, I really, really do, but judging by the amused grin on her face, I’m failing. Miserably failing.
There’s already a long line of people waiting to get in, and I wonder how in the hell we’re going to manage it when Jamie walks right up to one of the men at the door. He’s tall with dirty blonde hair and incredibly good looking. He smiles when he sees Jamie, and when she slips in closer, he drops a hand to possessively grab her ass. So this must be Aleksei.
Jamie laughs and swats his hand playfully before waving me over, and I can’t help but notice how familiar they seem with one another.
“This is my friend Gina, the one I was telling you about,” she tells him with a wink.
He looks to me and gives me a smile, but I can tell he’d rather be groping Jamie than making pleasantries with me.
“Nice to meet you,” he says in a light Russian accent.
I would shake his hand, but it’s still firmly planted on Jamie’s ass.
She looks up at him and gives him a big smile, and it’s the genuine one, not the one she sometimes breaks out to get her way.
“Are you sure about getting us in?”
“Anything for you, babe,” he says, pulling her in for a kiss.
I stand there awkwardly while theirhellokiss turns into awe need a bed right this secondkind of kiss. I’m just about to slink away when Aleksei pulls back and gives Jamie a hard smack on the ass that makes her let out a squeal, and it’s not an angry one. I’m in awe of how confident she is. I’d give just about anything to be able to approach Dmitri with such boldness, and the level of intimacy they seem to share has my heart aching for something like that in my own life.
Aleksei flashes a huge grin and grabs her hand. Looking over at the other bouncer, he lets loose a stream of Russian that has the other man staring at us with a leering sort of smile on his face that instantly makes me wish I had on a bit more clothes.
When Aleksei pulls Jamie into the club, I hurry my ass up so I’m not left outside with the one who’s still ogling me. The loud thumping bass of the dance music hits me like a punch as we walk deeper into the club. The lights are low, and it’s packed with scantily clad bodies and men hoping to get laid, all letting loose on the dance floor or lining up at the bar.
I’ve never been inside. I’ve always been way too scared to come, and my eyes try to take everything in while not losing track of Jamie. There’s a large VIP section along the back of one wall, and I can just make out large booths and the outlines of several people laughing and holding up shots.
The waitresses are all gorgeous and leggy, and they maneuver through the crowd and tables with an impressive ease and grace. Their uniforms are the shortest black shorts I’ve ever seen and white tank tops with Arctic Fox written across their chests. Most of them are stretched across very, very ample chests, I can’t help but notice.
I suddenly feel very out of place. This is Dmitri’s club. These are the women he’s surrounded by all day long. Why on earth would he even give me a second look? I tell myself to snap out of it as I follow Jamie through a black door that I never would have known existed. It blends perfectly with the black wall, and with the dark lighting, it’s damn near invisible.
There’s another bouncer on the other side, but as soon as he sees Aleksei, he steps aside and lets us through. My eyes blink, adjusting to the brighter lights as the door shuts and the pounding bass becomes more of a dull thud. This room is crowded, but not anything like what we just walked through. This feels more like a very select group of people, and I feel even more on display as a large group of men in expensive looking suits turn to look at us when they hear us come in. There are a few women, all gorgeous and all on the arms of a suit, but when they see that we’re not after the men they’re with, they look away, uninterested and bored.
The Red Wolf is impressive and huge. I don’t know much about boxing, but it seems to have everything a boxer could ever want. There are several boxing rings, but everyone is gathered around the biggest, and that’s exactly where Aleksei leads us.
I can’t help but feel intimidated when we’re standing right next to the ring. My eyes scan the crowd and warnings start to go off in my head. There have always been rumors that Dmitri is connected to the Russian mafia, but I’ve always blown it off as just nonsense. A bunch of closeminded people who make assumptions because he’s a strong, successful Russian man. But looking around at this select group of people, I have to admit it’s making me wonder. It’s like a whole other secret world back here.
A side door slams open making me jump, and the whole room falls silent except for a few low whispers. Yet another good-looking man in a suit steps into the ring and looks down at us, scanning the crowd for what, I don’t know. Seeming satisfied by what he sees, he grips the rope in front of him and stares down at us.
“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Red Wolf.” He doesn’t yell, but his deep voice and Russian accent easily carries to the entire room. “Before the fight begins, I want to remind you of the house rules. If I see a cell phone, you will wish I hadn’t. Understood?”
His dark eyes slowly rake the crowd, and I have to force myself to not look away as if I’m guilty of something when his eyes meet mine. He holds my gaze for a moment before continuing.
“Once I step out of this ring, all bets are final. And the last rule, the most important rule,” he says, tightening his grip on the rope, “this is only a friendly sparring match between two fighters. I better not hear it being called anything other than that.”
He smiles, but it doesn’t quite reach his eyes. “Only three rules. Not so very difficult to follow.”
I pity the idiot who breaks one of these rules. The hands gripping the rope look big enough to squash my damn head, and there’s a hardness to his eyes that’s downright unsettling. I’m thrilled I left my cell phone in the car. Knowing my luck, it would have fallen out right as he was giving his speech and I’d have been hauled to the back for God knows what. The thought of being alone in a room with this guy does not make me feel all warm and tingly.