Bonds of Attraction (Full Length Erotic Romance Novel) (4 page)

“I have no problem finding women for my bed,
Miss Facet.” His voice grew harsh at my name. “So I don’t need the services of
a madam.”

I felt anger well up inside me. I’d been
insulted before in this business, but at no point had anybody ever insinuated
that I managed a prostitution ring.

“I run a matchmaking service, Mr. Christensen.
I find other clients who’ve hired me to pair them with—” I began indignantly.
Leon turned and started walking away, waving his arm dismissively.

“Whatever. I don’t need you. You can let
yourself out or hang around until we open. I don’t care,” he said, his voice
trailing off as he walked up a staircase to an office that overlooked the club.

I took a large drink of my martini. I put it
down on a table and turned around to see Stills looking at me, his face bright
red with embarrassment.

“Miss Facet, I’m so sorry, I really—”

“Thank you for the drink, Stills. And thank
you for wasting my time.”

I walked out. The valet quickly brought my
car and I tipped him well.

“Your boss is a true asshole, kid.”

The next day, I sat in my office and sorted
through a file for a wealthy client. My office door was closed. I’d told April
to put on her music again, but I wasn’t in the mood to listen to anything so I
barricaded myself in my office. I told April no calls were to be transferred to
me. No exceptions.

The client I was working on was an heir to a
hotel chain fortune. I read his profile with growing interest as I began to
understand that he was actually a nice guy. Unfortunately, his luck with women
was nonexistent. His fortune attracted bottom feeders and gold diggers.

I really just want a woman who I can spend
my free time with and feel like I’m hanging out with my best friend.

I continued to read more quotes that I’d
transcribed, remembering how sincere he’d been. There had been a sadness to
everything he said, as though he were so jaded that I was his last resort. I
was the last vestige of hope for a man’s dying heart.

I want a partner. I want to be in love and
create a whole life with this person. Marriage, family, the works. I don’t want
some person who only wants me for my money.

I liked this client. I found myself really
hoping that everything would work out for him. I made a decision then that I
was going to make him a special case; there would be no quick fixes or simple
algorithmic connection for him. I’d have to explain to him that it was going to
take longer than usual, but it’d be worth it.

I looked through two female client folders
that I felt could be a match. After scanning through them carefully, I decided
that while they were close, I could do better. Then I heard my office door open.

Stills stood before me, April behind him,
apparently unable to stop his entrance. She was trying to guide him back out of
my office, and I could see a look of fear on her face, not fear of Stills, but
fear of my reaction.

“April, it’s all right. I know you tried to
keep him out, but this one’s persistent,” I said warmly to her, focusing my
eyes on Stills.

“I’m so sorry,” April began explaining.

“Why don’t you go grab some lunch, it’s my
treat today. Take at least an hour. And when you come back, bring me something,
please.”

She breathed a sigh of relief and thanked me
profusely. She looked at Stills with mild anger and then let herself out of my
office. I heard the front door open and close. Stills and I were alone. I eyed
him carefully.

“And how may I help you?” I asked, letting
the annoyance come through my voice.

“I’m sorry to barge in here like this,
really, but your secretary told me you weren’t taking any calls and I needed to
see you. I needed to apologize to you again about last night,” Stills said. He
sounded genuine, and his eyes looked pleadingly at me for my acceptance of his
apology.

“Well, you paid me to meet you there last
night. It only took a half hour of my time, even with the commute, so I suppose
I don’t have much to complain about.”

“I know that Leon was really rude to you, and
it wasn’t sitting right with me.” He paused and turned around to look at
April’s empty desk. “Hey, is your secretary single? She’s real cute.”

“Consider your apology accepted, Stills. I
can’t imagine you barged in here so brazenly just to apologize and find out if
my secretary is available for a date.”

“Uh, no. Not exactly. Look, I wanted to just
tell you a little bit about Leon. He’s not the guy that you talked to last
night. I mean, sure, of course you talked to the guy last night, but I kind of
messed things up with not telling him and trying to maneuver this whole thing.

“When I was sixteen, Leon saved my life. A
bookie took a baseball bat and knocked the living shit out of me. I mean, I
know I’m not a small guy right now, but when I was sixteen, I was six inches
shorter and a hundred pounds lighter. I was a little kid who didn’t stand a
chance against a wise guy with a bat and a bad attitude. It wasn’t even close
to a fair fight. The bookie was sending a message to my dad,” Stills said. His
voice lowered when he said the part about his dad, as if he was ashamed.

“Anyway, Leon found me. He brought me to the
hospital, got me cleaned up, and took me home. He gave me and my pops a safe
place to stay and even gave me a job. The guy cleared my dad’s debts and even
got the old man a job. I mean, the old man screwed that up eventually, but
still, he saved our lives man. That bookie took a bat to a sixteen year old kid
to send a message to an old man, who knows what would’ve happened next.”

I listened to the story, amazed at his
sincerity. As he told me his tale, it was as though the sixteen-year old Stills
was in front of me, holding his hat and pleading a case for a friend. I felt my
heart warm slightly towards Leon. He had still been an asshole to me the
previous night, but there was obviously something deep inside a guy who had
saved a random kid from a brutal fate.

“He’s that kind of guy. The kind of guy who
would save some deadbeat stranger and his kid. I owe the guy everything,” Stills
said, pausing. “Look, he needs a good woman. I’m worried about him and you’re
the best. I’ve already done all the research. Just meet him one more time.”

I paused and considered this. Leon
Christensen was already a problem case of the worst kind. Yet while it seemed
impossible, I couldn’t help my desire to take it on. If I could fix up this
client, then I really was the best. I could prove to myself just how successful
and competent I was at selling fantasies. What was better than selling a
fantasy to a nonbeliever?

“People say it’s impossible for that guy to
love, but I don’t believe that. My friend deserves love.”

“I’ll meet with him one more time,” I said.
“On one condition.”

“Of course, you name it.”

“Leon has to be aware of our meeting and he
has to agree to it. If he agrees to meet with me and is capable of being
professional, I’ll agree to the meeting. You get him to call my secretary and
set up a meeting.”

Stills assured me he’d have everything taken
care of. He let himself out quietly, thanking me as he left. I sat back down at
my desk and returned to the hotel chain heir’s folder.

~~~

A few days passed before Leon called the
office. When April asked me if I’d be available to meet with him the following
night, I was mildly surprised. While I had thought of Stills and Leon a few
times since Stills had barged into my office, I hadn’t expected Leon to
actually call and set up our meeting.

I was to meet him at another club of his, The
Poisoned Lily, at ten the following night. I marked it in my calendar. I
thought about meeting Leon again and I wondered idly just how it would go.
Well, it couldn’t be much worse than our first meeting.

The night of our meeting came. I dressed
myself in a black business suit that made me look both professional and sexy.
If this meeting with Leon didn’t go well, I could at least salvage the night
and maybe enjoy myself at an upscale lounge where I might meet a nice
gentleman. I wasn’t in the habit of going to bars to pick up men, but I felt
like having some company for the night and didn’t want to make picking up guys
at the gym a regular thing.

I pulled up to The Poisoned Lily. It wasn’t a
club that I was familiar with, but I could tell that it was upscale. I wasn’t
surprised since his other club had been elegant and classy. Also, Leon came from
old money. Old money didn’t translate to tacky establishments.

I pulled up to the valet and stepped out of
my car. There were groups of people standing outside, enjoying the warmth of
the night as they smoked cigarettes and talked to one another. I handed my keys
to the young man with dark bags under his eyes as if he had stayed up all night
playing video games, and surveyed the crowd. As I approached the club, my
intentions to go inside were very clear to anybody paying attention, and I
noticed that many of the groups seemed to be giving me looks that I couldn’t
decipher. A pang of uneasiness struck me and I felt like I was on a stage in my
underwear giving a speech to an auditorium of silent, judging faces.

I adjusted my suit coat slightly, becoming
ever more aware of my attire. Had I dressed just a tad too provocative? No,
that was impossible. While my business suit was form fitting and showed off my
curves, there’d be no way anyone would think it made me look slutty. The groups
of people all wore long coats and jackets that covered them down to their
knees. Maybe I was getting odd looks because I wasn’t following the dress code
on mandatory trench coat night.

I walked through a cloud of cigarette smoke
hanging around the entrance and pushed my way inside past a group of people who
barely acknowledged my existence. When my eyes finally adjusted to the darkness
of the, shock stabbed my heart.

It was a cataclysm of lights and people.
Bodies moved in and out of each other through the dance floor. There was a heartbeat
thumping through the sound system that vibrated through every fiber of my
bones, rattling my chest. A man clad in a leather thong and a dog collar walked
by me, no, he
was walked
by me, along a leash held by a woman who wore
an entire suit of leather and a hat that looked like she could’ve been a
general in the dominatrix army. My mouth hung ajar.

Another woman walked by in nothing more than
a thong and nipple tassels. She carried a whip that dragged on the floor behind
her. When she passed, she licked her lips as she looked me up and down. I saw
that her ass cheeks were bright red before she disappeared into the crowd.

Stills appeared from behind a man who had two
girls on either side of him in chains and leather that barely covered their
breasts. Stills didn’t seem to notice them and waved as he hurried over to me.
He was wearing a suit again and I breathed a sigh of relief. If he had walked
up to me with a ball gag and a leather thong on, I woud’ve turned and walked
out immediately.

“Hey, thanks for coming. I know this place is
a little,” he said, pausing to find the right word. “Um, eccentric. But Leon
would only agree to meet you if it was here, so once again, thank you for
coming. You must feel pretty weird here.”

“I’m fine,” I contested. “Can I meet with
Leon now?”

Stills led me through the crowd towards the bar.
Amazed by the unique activity all around, my legs moved me forward through the
crowd to the bar. A woman was seated at the bar when I noticed that she had her
legs propped up on a young girl who was on all fours, a ball-gag in her mouth
and a horse tail strapped to her. Distracted, I walked right into the bar and
let out a gasp of pain and surprise.

Leon Christensen was behind the bar, tossing
up bottles over his head and catching them mid-air before pouring drinks for
the leather-clad patrons. He was wearing a tight black dress shirt and skinny
black pants. The sloppy hair that had been so carefully messy was now slicked
back against his head, giving him a sharp, predatory look every time he smiled.

A martini glass appeared in front of me. I
looked up to see Leon leaning on the bar before me.

“Gin martini, extra dirty,” Leon said loudly
over the music.

I lifted the glass and nodded politely to him
as I took a drink. It went down smoothly and I felt a wave of gratitude towards
the existence of alcohol.

Leon waved a hand to Stills and Stills walked
over to him, leaning in closely to hear him. He nodded quickly and then ran off
through the crowd. I followed Stills with my eyes and then turned back to Leon.

“Shall we begin? I’m billing you by the hour,
but if you want to pay me to drink I’m perfectly fine with that.”

Leon smiled and walked out from behind the
bar. He motioned for me to follow him. The leather army that infested the club
paid us no mind, their eyes all focused on something else. We walked the same
way that Stills had disappeared to and soon enough we were at a part of the
club where there were numerous tables placed before a large stage. This is what
everyone was staring at.

There was a man on stage, wearing leather
chaps and no shirt. Taut muscles stood rigid on every inch of his skin. His
arms hung like tree trunks against his side before he lifted them and crossed
them against his chest, the biceps bulging out with big, pulsing veins. He
looked as though he had been oiled and greased before he had taken the stage.

Before him, on her knees, was a woman who was
completely naked except for a thick leather collar that looked as though it had
been torn from a straight jacket and strapped to her neck. She was lifting her
ass in the air towards the crowd, and when I saw her stark nakedness, I felt a
pang in my heart. She was bending down, kissing the muscular man’s feet,
rubbing her face against them and running her hands up and down his calves
under the pants. The guy looked down at her with a mix of satisfaction and
disapproval.