Chapter 2

For as long as Michael had known Melissa, this had been her dream. Not just a night club but a palace, one dedicated to debauchery and sexual excess; a place where people were free to indulge their desires. It was her grand experiment in the realm of the sexual, a fantasy that she had worked hard to make into reality.

Melissa was built for sex, mind and body. It was what she excelled at. It was her craft and her calling and she had spent her life perfecting it. In school she had studied psychology with a focus on human sexuality. She had been a top student and could have gone into researching any aspect of the field she wanted. Instead, she told him that the real truth about humans and sex would only be found by experiencing it first hand.

Since then it had become her religion. She was a priestess of lust and sexuality. This was her temple and the people who came here were her congregation. She was looking for the truth of the universe and the Divine through the pleasures of the flesh.

At least that's how Michael had always thought of it. Melissa might have laughed and said she just enjoyed being able to fuck as many people as she wanted. But it was hard to deny the idea when the evidence was in front of him: a collection of beautiful men and women, stripping and caressing each other, all at her whim.

Even as Melissa and Ms. Silver started to pull apart, his eyes were drawn to the sight of the other people sitting behind them. He had to resist the urge to stroke his cock through his pants as a woman came to kneel next to the two men who continued to kiss each other. She took their cocks in each of her hands and started sucking them while the men touched each other, turning only enough to offer her easier access to their dicks.

He wasn't supposed to be seeing this. He had come to make his last delivery to Melissa and to say goodbye. Melissa knew that and he figured she was taking the opportunity to torment him. It was just like her to play the teasing bitch one last time.

The crowd gathering in the lounge was growing larger, all of them wanting to get a better look at the action. When Melissa realized their audience was getting out of hand she snapped her fingers and pointed towards the "Staff Only" door off to the side of the bar. The gathering made a token effort of breaking up their party only long enough to get to the door. It was a disorderly shuffle of half-naked bodies and stumbling laughter as they disappeared one by one into the club's back room.

Melissa kissed Ms. Silver one last time and whispered something to her. Then she made sure that the other woman's mask was back in place and gently pushed her towards the door. The young woman gave Michael a jealous look as she walked away but went with the others without complaint. The four guards who had been blocking the crowd moved with her, two of them following Ms. Silver inside while the other two took up positions outside the door.

The guards didn't belong to Melissa. They were here with Ms. Silver. That was interesting.

"I appreciate the cookies, even if it wasn't what I ordered." Melissa said.

He turned to Melissa with a smile and offered her his arm. She slid her hand around his elbow and walked with him towards the bar, the crowd giving way and moving to find their own seats now that the show was over.

"The prize is at the bottom of the box, so don't throw it away when you're done."

She laughed and ordered drinks for them, pulling off her mask and setting it down on the bar. While the bartender worked, Melissa set the box of cookies down and pulled out the holding tray. In the last row, stuck between two of the cookies, was a plastic case with a memory card inside.

The bartender, who Michael realized was the blonde waif who had given him his payment, set their drinks down on the bar. When she did, Melissa handed her the memory card.

"Start checking over that, please."

The girl nodded without a word, took the card and slipped through the "Staff Only" door. Melissa took a sip of her drink then looked at Michael, staring into his eyes and saying nothing while the noise of the club and the crowd flowed around them.

After a minute of staring at each other, Michael broke the silence. "So are you going to lecture me about the horrible mistake I'm making?"

She sighed and shook her head. "If I thought it would make a difference I would. But I know you've made up your mind. I just wish getting married didn't mean losing you."

Michael swirled the ice in his glass as he thought of what to say. Melissa has been furious when he had told her that his girlfriend, Amy, didn't want him coming to the club anymore. It didn't matter that he and Melissa hadn't been together romantically or sexually for years. Amy was jealous and she didn't trust Melissa.

He couldn't blame her for that. Melissa was always open about who she was and made no apologies or tried to hide it. That didn't sit well with Amy, who was a more traditional sort of girl. She had tolerated their friendship and the time he spent at the club because it put him in contact with a lot of people who helped him with his work. But more and more lately she had been arguing with him about it.

When he had made the decision to ask her to marry him, he knew it would mean walking away from one of his closest friends. Amy would never agree to be his wife if she was always going to have to wonder if he was sleeping with Melissa every time he went out.

So here he was, saying his last goodbyes before leaving for a week of vacation with Amy to propose to her.

"You're not losing me." He said. "I'll still be in touch."

"It won't be the same. Besides, it will only be a matter of time before she puts a stop to phone calls, e-mails, and carrier pigeons."

"It won't come to that. I promise."

"You know she's hated me forever" she said, "ever since that party last year. How can you be sure that she won't make you stay away for good?"

He reached out and put his hand over hers, squeezing it gently. "Have a little faith in me?"

She smiled and squeezed his hand back. "I always have. It's not you that I'm worried about. I hope that everything works out and that you'll be happy. But..."

Melissa stepped closer to him and kissed him, slow and deep. He returned the kiss but made no move to do anything else. After a moment she pulled away and looked into his eyes.

"You're welcome back anytime. Always."

Then she took her drink and cookies and turned away from him, heading towards the "Staff Only" door to join her other guests. Michael watched her go and laughed, shaking his head and licking his lips to taste the liquor that she had been drinking.

After putting a few dollars in the tip jar, he decided his business here was done. He wouldn't be coming back anytime soon, if ever again. It was sad to be leaving one of his oldest haunts. He thought that once he had time to win her over, Amy would let him come back. Maybe he could even convince her to come with him and give Melissa another chance. Maybe.

He left the way he came, saying his goodbyes to Enrique before he headed out the club's back door. Minutes later he was back to his car and headed for his apartment in the middle of the city.

He drove, listening to the music playing quietly on his radio. His mind was running a mile a minute, with thoughts of the coming weekend when he would ask Amy to marry him. They were going to a resort upstate, a place that was popular for Spring Break but the rest of the time served as a nice, quiet get away. It was going to be a week of surf and sand; seeing the local tourist attractions during the day and making love on the beach at night.

Thinking about proposing to Amy, asking her to spend the rest of her life with him, made him more and more nervous the closer he got to home. What if she said no? After all, it wasn't like they were living in domestic bliss. They had been seeing each other for more than a year but they weren't living together. Michael had asked her to move in with him a few months before, but Amy had said she wanted to have her own space and to maintain her independence.

He had respected that decision and had let it go but now he wondered if it hadn't been a mistake not to argue a little harder for the idea. What if she saw marriage as another thing that might limit her independence? He wasn't the kind of man who would expect her to give up her career and stay at home cleaning house and cooking dinner. She should know that.

It wouldn't be like last time, he decided. He wouldn't let her brush off his proposal as something that would make her life more difficult. He wanted her to be his wife because he loved her.

Despite some of the arguments that they had, especially concerning his relationship with Melissa, when they were together it was always amazing. She was always making him laugh with her jokes and her sarcastic wit. She encouraged him when he was having problems with work or if his week wasn't going as well as he had hoped. Being with her just made him feel better about life in general.

And sex? While he would never admit it, the sex between them wasn't as exciting as it had been when he was with Melissa but it was still damn good. When they had gotten around to talking about their former partners, Amy was upfront about being with several different guys in high school and college. She was no stranger to games in the bedroom and had a few stories that had gotten both of them worked up and ready for a long night of fucking, which was why he had been willing to share his own stories.

At first he was hesitant when Amy had asked him about his experiences. She had promised him that she wouldn't be angry or jealous, so he opened up to her. She had been shocked, to say the least. Her eyebrows were raised when he started telling her about the things he and Melissa had done in their first few weeks of dating. She was more surprised when he told her about the threesomes they had been involved in. Swapping partners with another couple had made her scoff in disbelief then listen with rapt attention.

Then he told her about his experiences with men. He had thought about not telling her about it but she had asked him to be open and honest, so he was. He didn't think that him being bisexual would shock her anymore than some of the other things he had shared, but it did. Not that she wasn't turned on. That night was one of the best nights they had ever had in bed and one of the longest. Amy didn't have any complaints about his skills in the bedroom but after that she didn't ask for anymore of his sex stories. It was probably just as well, since the things he hadn't shared with her would have shocked her even more.

She had known he still saw Melissa and visited her club. He had even invited her out to go see it but she had never been interested in clubs. Then after that last night of story sharing she had started to try and pry him away from Melissa. It was small things at first, asking him to go out with her instead of going to the club to visit. In the last few months, though, she had started telling him outright that he shouldn't be visiting his ex-girlfriend while he was in a serious relationship with her.