Help Me (3 page)

Not wanting to waste too much time, I hopped in the shower quickly and then put on the nicest thing I had in my suitcase. Something of Kat’s would have been more appropriate, but her tall, willowy frame was the opposite of my short, curvy one.

So, in the dress I’d planned to wear for our planned graduation dinner, I swiped a bit of makeup on my face and twisted my damp hair up into something approximating a chic something or other. I was as ready as I was going to get.

I was downstairs and about to find a cab when I remembered I had no money at all. From the map, the club was too far to walk to, especially in heels and no jacket. I walked a couple of blocks and then hailed down a taxi. I had my “for emergencies only” credit card, and this certainly qualified.

Within minutes I was deposited on a lovely cobblestone street lined with beautiful old-style rowhouses. There was a group of ten or so people heading up the stairs to the door I wanted, and I hurried to join them. They were a strange collection of people, to be sure. Most of the men were pretty old. Gray hair and wrinkles, but clad in beautiful suits even I could tell were expensive. The women were of various ages from mid-twenties to forties, but all of them were beautiful in different ways. I wouldn’t really fit in with them, but I had to try. I wanted to at least get inside to ask about Kat.

A man in a tuxedo opened up and waited expectantly. One of the men in the group showed him a small card that was apparently some kind of invitation, and after the butler or whoever he was muttered something into a headset, we were all ushered inside without any problem. I was careful to not make eye contact with anyone lest they realize I didn’t belong there. Once inside, I almost forgot the reason I came.

The place was stunning. Like something out of an old movie. Marble floors and dark gleaming wood. Chandeliers twinkled and the air smelled like roses.

Most of the people in “my” group scattered quickly, as if they knew the lay of the land. But a few other stood with me in the entranceway, gawking.

A tall man with salt and pepper hair and piercing blue eyes slung his arm around my waist and spoke into my ear so close his breath tickled. “Welcome to paradise, darling.”

I froze at his touch.

He chuckled. “Don’t worry. It just looks fancy. It’s the same as wherever you worked before, just dressed up prettier.”

I smiled weakly, trying to gracefully slide out of range of his grasp. “Thanks. I need to uh, go find someone.”

He laughed again and turned away. “Your loss, darling.”

I muttered, “Gross,” and headed in the opposite direction, into a room full of light and laughter, figuring that would be a good place to stay as invisible as possible while I figured out what to do next.

As I stepped in, once again, I was stopped dead in my tracks by what I saw. The room was a living room like none I’d ever seen before. Probably called a salon or something fancy. There were sofas covered in ornately embroidered fabric on delicately carved wood legs. Every surface gleamed – glass tabletops, marble counters. Candles glowed all around, casting reflections off of the expensive crystal glasses that everyone held.

But it was the people who really shone in the soft light. More men in suits and tuxedos of all ages and sizes. All surrounded by stunningly beautiful women. The majority of them looked like models. Not the high-fashion weird looking ones. Like fancy underwear models. All long limbs, long manes of luscious hair and gently feminine curves.

Everywhere I looked was a vision of loveliness dressed in something amazing. Soft, draping silk. Clingy sequins. Sleek satin. All colors of the rainbow. And they were clearly having a wonderful time. Laughing and tossing their hair. Grazing the lapels of their companion’s jackets with perfectly manicured fingers.

Perhaps pretending to belong here was going to be harder than I thought. Next to these goddesses on Earth, I felt like a troll. Watching them all for a while, I marveled at a world I’d never seen, and probably never would again. I wondered what it would have felt like for Kat to work around people like this all the time. Lonely. Isolating. Like pressing your nose against a window in the snow, watching people hang out by a warm fire inside. So close, but so unreachable.

One man in the room in particular was getting a ton of attention from the women in the room. His back was turned to me so I couldn’t see his face, but his tall, strong body and way of standing told me he was probably pretty cute. He had short dark hair styled – from what I saw – like most of the other men in the room. Appropriately professional and clearly recently trimmed. He stood next to a shining black grand piano. Two young women, close to my age, sat on the bench behind it, looking up at him adoringly as he let out a boisterous laugh that floated around to fill the large space. It was a low, throaty sound that a corpse would have found appealing, which probably helped explain his popularity. Most of the other men in the room seemed to switch between serious and leering without much fun in between.

Just then a waiter passed me and offered a glass of champagne from his tray. I smiled thankfully and grabbed it. Even he was dressed better than me. I downed half of the glass in one graceless gulp. I was going to need the liquid courage, to say the least.

I was starting to finally calm down a little when I noticed a man staring at me. He was in the corner of the room. Dressed in a black suit like most of the others, but something about him was different. Well, he was young, for one thing. And huge. The suit fit well, but didn’t hide the fact that he was all muscle. The serious look on his face didn’t help. He reminded me a bit of the man I’d seen at the airport and I panicked.

Spinning on my heel, I rushed out of the room, not caring how obvious I was being. I just needed to get away from him. Past the entrance hall in the other direction was a hallway. I headed down past a few open doors and barely registered the small groups of partygoers inside each.

There was a noise behind me and I hurried on, hoping to find somewhere quiet to hide for a minute. I hadn’t thought this out well enough. I needed to figure out who to ask about my sister without getting tossed out by security. And it occurred to me that the frowning man had almost certainly been a security guard. It made sense. He was dressed to keep from calling attention to himself, but standing away from everyone, not drinking, and clearly had a good eye for figuring out who didn’t belong. I needed to stay out of his line of sight as long as possible.

So, when I saw an alcove leading to a short set of stairs, that’s the way I went. If the guard was behind me he wouldn’t be able to see if I’d continued down the hall or slipped past a shut door. Hopefully that confusion would buy me a little time to find a kitchen or a waitress who could help me.

Down the stairs I went, and found myself in front of a door. It was open a crack and there was light and noise coming from the other side, so I pushed it open and headed in.

About two and a half steps.

Until I saw the bed. And the couple on it. Naked. Having sex.

I froze, mortified. But luckily –
sort of
– for me, they were too wrapped up in each other to notice I was even there. After a horrible second, I backed out of the room and went back upstairs. Getting thrown out was better than getting arrested for peeping, I figured.

I didn’t see anyone at the top of the stairs so I headed on down the hall, knowing my face was red with embarrassment. It’s not like it was the first time I saw people getting it on at a party. But I expected it in college, not a fancy place like this.

Shaking my head, I kept walking. The house was like a maze, with twisting corridors that all looked the same. The only way I kept my bearings was I could still hear music from the front of the house, muffled, but audible enough for me to have an idea of which direction I was heading.

Eventually I did find a kitchen. But the only person in there was a guy washing dishes. He was listening to music through earbuds and didn’t notice me until I tapped him on the shoulder.

He jumped and I jumped in response. We both laughed uncomfortably. He pulled his headphones out and wiped his hands on his apron. “Can I help you?” he asked in accented English.

“I hope so. I’m looking for someone who works here. Maybe you know her?”

His eyes widened. “No, Miss. I don’t know anything about anyone.”

“What? I didn’t even tell you her name yet. Please…”

He shook his head hard. “No. Sorry, no.” He looked at me for a long time, but didn’t say anything else.

I didn’t have any other ideas at the moment. “Please, I need your help.”

He turned back to his dishes, but didn’t start washing again.

“Don’t just ignore me,” I pleaded.

His whole body tensed up and I thought he might actually say something, but just then the door swung open and a man stumbled into the room. It was the one with the blue eyes I’d encountered earlier.

“Well, well, well. Don’t you know you’re not supposed to touch the merchandise, Juan?”

The dishwasher tensed again but then turned around, smiling broadly. “Mr. Alexander. What a pleasure to see you, Sir.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Save me the bullshit. You know what I want.”

The guy – Juan – glanced over at me.

“Don’t worry about her,” Alexander said. “She’s with my girls.”

I tried to smile, hoping I wasn’t being terribly obvious.

“Darling, you should head back up front. The show’s going to start in a little while.”

Not having a good reason to argue, I went, casting one last look at Juan. He wouldn’t meet my gaze, and as soon as I opened the door he went back to talking to Alexander the creep.

But instead of following his directions, I made my way up to the second floor of the house, having located the back stairs next to the kitchen.

Upstairs I made sure to only check rooms with wide open doors. I heard what sounded like a television somewhere and headed in that direction. There were live voices too, laughing and talking. More casual than the party downstairs, I wondered if it was more members of the staff, and hoped they might be a little more open to conversation than Juan.

I turned a corner and found myself in a small theater or media room. The people in it were definitely partygoers, but they weren’t watching television. At least, nothing you could get without Pay-Per-View. The screen flashed with scenes of sex. I didn’t see enough to get a good sense, but it seemed like a lot of naked people.

“My god, what kind of party is this,” I muttered before turning to run away. Again.

But this time I collided with a tall, muscular body. My heart leapt into my throat.

Strong hands gripped my shoulders, but I shoved blindly, averting my face. The man, clearly surprised, stumbled, and I shot past him at full speed, not looking back to see if he was following me.

My brain was screaming, “Get out, get out,” and I listened. I pelted down the stairs and around corners, rushing back to the sounds of the party, back to the front door that would lead me out of there.

Kat would get a kick out of this story, for sure. How I went to find her and ended up being chased by security at a private sex pervert party.

Kat.

Thinking of her strengthened my resolve. I needed to get out of there and get to the police station. Make someone there listen to me. Believe that I needed help. I’d been stupid to try and do this alone.

I was halfway to the door when a hand grabbed mine and tugged me into a room. I looked up, holding my breath. But it wasn’t the security guard. It was Alexander. I wasn’t sure if I should be relieved or not.

“What?”

“There you are,” he drawled. “Been looking for you. Show’s starting and I saved you a seat right next to me.”

“Oh. I…uh…”

He chuckled. “Not the most eloquent little thing are you?” He leaned over close and I could smell the strong stench of hard liquor on his breath. “But I guess with a pair of tits like that you don’t need to talk, do you?”

I gasped.

From behind me there was a laugh that was familiar. The popular man from earlier. “Can’t you play dirty old man somewhere else, Alexander?”

I turned around, happy for the momentary distraction.

In movies when a beautiful woman enters the room everything goes into slow-motion and her hair is ruffled by a gentle breeze as a halo of light surrounds her and music swells. Watching him walk towards me was pretty much exactly like that except there was no slow-motion so he was standing right in front of me while my mouth was still hanging open and my brain was too busy staring at all the amazingly perfect and sexy parts of his face and body to realize I looked like a total idiot.

I should have been ashamed that all thoughts of looking for my sister or suspicion about the club disappeared in the deep dark pools of his eyes, but there was no room for shame or memories or thoughts. Just a lusty beast uncoiling deep within me for what seemed like the first time, searching for its only possible meal: the over six feet of tanned, muscular awesomeness currently smirking at me.

“Are you going to introduce me?”

I was still standing there unable to speak.

“Not at all. Get your own,” Alexander said, wrapping an arm around my waist.

That was enough to reboot my brain. I stepped away.

The new man grinned broadly. “Don’t think she’s yours, my friend.”

“I’m not!” I blurted thoughtlessly. My ears burned and I knew I had to be bright red.

The new man laughed again. “Good. Then you won’t mind joining me for a drink. You ran away so fast upstairs I didn’t get a chance to ask you.”

I blinked quickly a few times. It was him upstairs, not the guard. That was excellent news. Kind of. I eyed him again, this time able to keep my libido under control. Mostly.

He was tall and broad, with a sculpted face and body, from what the perfectly tailored suit revealed. Handsome in a classic way, but with a hint of something…different that I found incredibly appealing. Danger or humor, or something there wasn’t even a word for. Whatever it was, I craved it in a way I’d never experienced before.