They spent a few moments circling the room, and Faith tried hard not to study the other members. They’d certainly afforded her the courtesy of not staring. But still, she couldn’t resist quick glances from the corners of her eyes.
There was an interesting mix of people. Some were dressed to the nines while others had adopted a much more casual look. Jeans, T-shirts, tennis shoes. She was glad she’d opted for a compromise between übercasual and very dressy.
Absent, much to her relief, were the leather Klingon costumes she was embarrassed to admit she’d thought she’d see. To her further surprise, the people gathered all looked like normal, average, everyday people.
Maybe she’d expected replicas of the oddities she’d found while scouring the internet, but clearly, those weren’t to be found here.
Damon touched her arm, and she looked up at him.
“Are you ready to move on?” he asked.
She nodded, and he led her out of the room and down the hall to a smaller, more intimate gathering. Here, most people were seated in tight-knit groups. Two men sat on a love seat, and a woman perched on one of their laps conversing with both guys. The second man smoothed his hand up and down her leg while the other man’s hands clasped loosely around her hips.
Faith’s cheeks grew warm again. It was obvious the woman held the attention of both males. A satisfied smile curved the beautiful woman’s lips.
Faith’s gaze was riveted to the scene before her so intently that she had to force herself to drag her stare away to take in the other occupants of the room.
Several feet away, a large man turned around, and when he saw Damon, a wide smile split his face. He waved and motioned them over. Faith panicked a moment as Damon started forward.
Damon looked down at her and smiled reassuringly. “It’s okay,” he murmured.
They walked up to the man, who studied Faith with undisguised interest. He was older. Not old but older than Faith. She put him in his upper thirties.
“Damon, it’s good to see you,” the man said, extending his hand.
Damon smiled broadly and shook his hand. “Tony, good to see you.” He looked back at Faith. “Faith, I want you to meet Tony. Tony, this is Faith. She’s my special guest tonight.”
Faith shivered as Tony’s intent gaze flickered over her. He slowly held his hand out to her. “Very glad to meet you, Faith.”
When she slid her hand into his, instead of shaking it, he pulled it upward to kiss the back of her hand. She blushed madly.
Tony gave a delighted chuckle as he released her hand. “I love a woman who blushes.”
“We won’t keep you,” Damon said to Tony. “I have a tour to give.”
“It was very nice to meet you, Faith. I do hope to see you again,” Tony said in a low voice.
The blatant invitation sent goose bumps over her skin. Her stomach churned with nervous anxiety, and she was grateful that Damon was even now pulling her away.
Her fingers curled just a little tighter around Damon’s arm as he led her toward the stairs. On the way, they passed two other side rooms where people had broken off into smaller groups to talk and socialize.
“Ready?” he asked as they reached the bottom of the stairs.
She took a deep breath and tried to settle all the butterflies doing somersaults in her stomach. “Ready.”
He smiled and started up the stairs. When they reached the top, she was surprised by the closed door. Damon reached for the knob. “The walls up here are soundproof. It’s to keep distractions to a minimum.”
When he opened the door, the murmur of voices reached her ears. She strained to hear more as they eased down the hallway. They passed several closed doors, and Damon made no move to open those. They must be the private accommodations he’d mentioned. What she wouldn’t give to know what was going on behind those doors.
As they ventured farther down the long hallway, other sounds tickled her ears. Curious sounds. Moans, a few gasps, a slapping sound, like the smack of skin on skin. They grew louder until she and Damon paused inside the doorway to a large common room.
Though there was no actual divider, the room was arranged into several sections merely by the arrangement of various furniture. The decor was also different for the segments.
Women, men, some nude, some not, some indulging in passionate embraces, some in positions she couldn’t quite discern the purpose for, dotted the room.
Damon seemed to realize she needed the time to sort through the barrage of images coming too hard and fast for her to digest right away.
“Let’s start to the right,” he murmured to her. “We’ll make the circle.”
Damon drew up short when someone touched him on the arm and leaned in to whisper in his ear. It looked to be one of the people who worked for him, though she couldn’t be sure.
Damon frowned then put a hand to her back. “There’s a phone call I must take. I won’t be but a moment. Joseph will stay here with you until I return.”
He squeezed her hand with his other one before turning away and retreating down the hallway.
Joseph stood attentively by her side as her gaze again wandered over the room. There was so much to take in that she had a hard time processing it all.
To her immediate right, where Damon had intended for them to begin, two men were entangled in a passionate embrace on a pallet that reminded her of something you might find in a Japanese bedroom.
Though their kisses were wild, rushed, heated, they set about removing their clothes in a slow, measured manner. When she realized how hard she was staring, she looked away, embarrassed and ashamed to have ogled them.
“It’s okay,” Joseph whispered close to her ear. “No one in the public areas minds being watched. Many of our regulars routinely observe such displays. Voyeurism is a very legitimate sexual pleasure.”
Her gaze shot to his face, and heat crawled all the way up her neck and burned her ears. Just the word voyeur sounded ugly and more than a little icky.
Joseph smiled patiently at her as if understanding her discomfort.
But even though she was embarrassed by her close scrutiny of the two men, her gaze drifted back. The sight of two men locked in such an erotic embrace fascinated her.
Her eyes widened more when one of the men pulled at the other man’s pants, freeing his turgid erection. Her lips parted, a little in shock, a little because her breaths were coming in short, rapid spurts.