Chapter 1: Losing My Virginity To The Wrong Man

Harlow's POV

The vanilla and leather hit my nose the second I stepped through the black glass doors of Ember. Pittsburgh’s most exclusive BDSM club hummed around me, all red velvet and dim light and bodies pressed together in ways that made my cheeks burn. Half naked women twisted around silver poles near the back. A couple on a black suede couch traded spit like it was going out of style.

I pulled down my skirt and kept walking.

Not many newbies like me came here. Except my best friend Sage, who was probably already upstairs with her professor. But I was only here for one thing tonight anyway.

To lose my virginity.

“Can I help you?” A waiter with honey brown eyes appeared at my elbow. “You look lost.”

My face went hot. “I’m new here.”

He chuckled. “I can see that. Anything I can help you find?”

“The owner.”

His eyes went wide. “The owner?”

“Yes.” I scanned the crowd, heart hammering. “I have an arrangement with him tonight.”

“Are you Miss Raquelle Chambers?”

“Yes.”

No. That was just the fake name I had been using for weeks with the man on the other end of those messages. The one who called me a brat and made me press my thighs together at three in the morning. I had not told him my real name. He had not asked. This was a one time thing.

Lose my virginity. Thank the man for his time. Get the hell out.

“Right this way.” The waiter set down his tray and led me past the bar, past the VIP sections where men in suits watched me with hungry eyes. I pulled my skirt down again. Up a set of stairs, past private rooms with numbers in gold, until we stopped in front of a large black door with the number four in the center.

The waiter knocked twice.

“Come in,” a voice called from inside.

He gave me a small smile and the key, then disappeared down the hall. I gnawed on my cheek and stepped closer to the door. A group of women in lace stumbled out of the room next to me, giggling.

“Come on, Harlow,” I whispered. “One night.”

I pushed the key into the knob.

The door swung open before I could turn it.

Kael Hawthorne stared down at me through wide eyes. Kael Hawthorne was a lot of things. The owner of the most popular BDSM club in the city. The sexiest fifty six year old man I had ever laid eyes on. A dominant playboy who made women beg. And worst of all, my father’s best friend.

Tonight I was supposed to lose my virginity to him.

“Harlow.” His voice was low, rough. His gaze moved down my body. From my lips to my chest to my hips. He stayed there a moment too long, then dragged his eyes back to my face. “What are you doing here?”

“You’re the owner?” My heart pounded so hard I thought he could hear it.

“One of them.” He glanced down the hall. The women from earlier waved at him. I glared at their retreating backs, jealousy burning in my chest like a stupid child.

He looked back at me. “You did not answer my question.”

This was it. Time to come clean. Tell him I was the one who had been chatting with him online. The one who had put up such a bratty front for three weeks. The one who had lied about knowing anything about BDSM.

“Nothing,” I said instead.

Confusion washed over his face. Then his eyes turned dark. “Do not tell me you are the woman I have been speaking with online.”

I pursed my lips and shifted from foot to foot.

He stepped closer. Wrapped one large hand around the front of my throat. Not tight, just there. A warning. “You will answer me, Harlow.”

“And if I do not?”

I did not know what I was getting myself into. But I had come here for a reason. I was not backing away. My friends always talked about how good it felt. My vibrator was not doing it for me anymore.

Kael chuckled darkly and shook his head. “Fuck. I am going to get myself into so much trouble because of you.”

Instead of pushing me away, he pulled me into the room, shut the door, and pressed my chest flush against it. I inhaled sharply. His body pressed against my back. His belt buckle dug into my lower spine.

“You should not be in a club like this,” he said.

“You should not stare at me every chance you get.”

He tensed behind me. His fingers strummed against my throat.

It was true. The past few weeks, I had caught him looking at me during dinner with my father. It was not one of those innocent looks either. It was the kind of look that said he knew exactly what he wanted to do to me.

“Your father can never know,” he growled into my ear.

My breath hitched. “What happens if I tell him?”

Instead of answering, he pulled me off the door and thrust me onto the large black bed in the center of the room. I landed on my back, nipples pressing hard against my lace bra. He stalked toward me, pulling off his belt.

“Take off your clothes.”

I pressed my thighs together. This was it. Tonight I would lose my virginity to my father’s best friend.

“Take them off,” he said, voice harsher. “Now.”

---

Kael

I watched her scramble to obey.

Harlow pulled off her shirt, shimmied out of her skirt, until she sat in nothing but a skimpy lingerie set. Her curves spilled over the lace. Her fair skin looked almost translucent under the dim light. Freckles scattered across her chest like someone had painted them there on purpose.

I had wanted her for years.

Every Christmas party. Every family dinner. Every time she walked into a room wearing something that made my mouth water. I had looked. I had imagined. I had fucked other women while pretending they were her.

And now she was here. In my club. On my bed. Looking up at me with those big eyes that said she had no idea what she had walked into.

I let my shirt fall off my shoulders. Then my pants. My briefs. My hard cock hung between my legs, and I watched her eyes go wide. Good. She should be nervous. She should be terrified.

Because I was not going to let her leave.

“You have no idea what you have done,” I said, crawling onto the bed and pushing her back against the mattress. “Coming here. Lying to me. Pretending to be someone you are not.”

She opened her mouth to speak. I shoved two fingers between her lips.

“Shut up.” I pushed my fingers deeper, watching spit roll down her chin. “You wanted to play games with me. Fine. We will play.”

Her pussy was already wet. I could smell it. I could feel it through her thin thong. I pulled my fingers out of her mouth and shoved them between her legs, rubbing her through the lace.

She whimpered.

“You are going to regret every bratty message you sent me,” I said, pushing her underwear aside and sinking one finger inside her. She was tight. So tight. “By the time I am done with you, you will be begging me to stop. And I will not.”

“I do not beg,” she gasped.

I pushed another finger inside her. “We will see about that.”

Her legs spread wider. Her hips lifted off the bed. She was already close, already trembling, already falling apart on my fingers. A virgin. I could feel it in the way her body clenched around me, uncertain and desperate all at once.

I did not know yet. But I would.

And when I did, everything would change.