I jump back, screaming when I flip on the light and find Jasmine in the bathtub. She and I are sharing a suite. Bones got his own.
“Come on in.” She waves a bubble-covered hand. “Can’t see anything. Even if you could, I wouldn’t care.” She winks at me. “It’s all the same.”
I laugh and enter because I really have to pee. “Why are you in the dark?” I ask, noticing that she has candles lit all over the room. The black shades above the large jacuzzi bathtub are pulled closed, hiding her from the city.
“I prefer candles over bright lights.”
I notice one sitting by the sink and pick it up. It’s a dark purple candle in the shape of a … “Are these dicks?”
“Yes.” She smiles, rubbing bubbles on her upper chest and up her neck. “I find it very therapeutic to set a dick on fire. Not as much as a real one”—she shrugs—“but it still makes me feel good.”
I laugh, shaking my head, and make my way to the toilet. “I’ll have to try that,” I mumble. The fake ones, of course.
_______________
THREE HOURS LATER, Bones pulls up to the back of a red brick building. Exiting the car, I can hear music pounding from inside the club. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but this is not it.
I start to walk to the right, but Bones goes left. Jasmine takes my hand and pulls me after him. A black door opens, and a man dressed in a three-piece suit steps out, holding it open. He lifts his right hand to his ear. “They’re here, boss,” he speaks. Then smiles. “Bones!” He shakes his hand and pulls him in for a man shake/hug. “How’re you doing, man? It’s been a while.”
“Busy. As usual,” Bones answers.
I frown, and Jasmine leans into my ear, whispering, “Bones is a member.”
My lips make an O shape. My eyes drop to his shiny Hermes shoes and run up over his black dress slacks and his dark gray button-up. He’s got the sleeves rolled up his tatted forearms. His shoulders are pulled back, and his hands are tucked into his pockets. I can see Bones demanding total submission from a woman. He just seems like someone who has to be in charge all the time, of every aspect of his life.
“Well, he’s inside waiting for you.” The man steps to the side, keeping the door open for us.
Bones grabs Jasmine’s hand, and she continues to hold on to mine. Bright, flashing lights momentarily blind me. I reach out my right hand and find a wall. It vibrates from the bass of “Buttons” by The Pussycat Dolls. Bones continues to pull us down a long hallway until we enter an opening. Looking up, I see the crowd of people. I’m not surprised to see it’s packed. But it looks like any other club. Nothing special or kinky to it. We walk past the bar and a dance floor to the other side of the club, down another long hallway. A man stands guard of a door at the end.
Bones reaches into his back pocket and pulls out his wallet. He holds up a card, and the guy looks it over, then to us. His eyes sweep over Jasmine and me in a way that makes me question why I even agreed to do this. But then he steps to the side and opens the door.
It’s a dimly lit staircase. We follow Bones down it, and he opens the door at the bottom. Fuck, it’s a maze. Is this the only way to enter? Or is this the only way they are allowing us to get in? We walk through the door, and my mouth drops while my eyes widen.
The lights remain dimmer down here than the flashing neon lights upstairs. Soft music plays, unlike the blaring noise above us.
Men and women are in the center of the room on a dance floor. Most are dressed in leather outfits. One man is crawling on his hands and knees while another leads him around by a leash. A guy walks by us dressed in what looks like a red latex one-piece.
Kink—makes total sense to me now. It’s like night and day compared to what I just saw upstairs. This place is hidden? But why?
“Bones!” A man dressed in a white three-piece suit approaches us, and Bones releases Jasmine’s hand to shake the guy who said his name. “Ladies.” He nods to us, placing his hands behind his back. And I wonder why he didn’t shake ours.
Jasmine pulls her shoulders back, obviously noticing it too. “Hooke,” she acknowledges him.
His name is Hooke? That’s gotta be a fake name, right? Maybe a last name? He looks young. Maybe not my age, but late twenties, early thirties at the oldest.
“Bones, you’ve been here enough to know how it all works. But let me show you ladies around.” He turns, giving us his back.