Lila’s POV “Excuse me, is this the entrance for the private mixer?”The woman at the velvet rope barely looked up from her tablet. Her voice was low and bored. “Name?”“Lila Voss. I have a reservation under the company event for Meridian Media. It should be listed as the after-hours networking thing.”She scrolled, then smirked. “You’re in the right place, sweetheart. Go ahead.”I stepped past her in my soft blue dress that still smelled like the dry cleaner, heels clicking on dark marble. The air changed the second the heavy door shut behind me. Warm. Heavy with perfume, sweat, and something sharper, like melted wax and sex. Music pulsed low, more heartbeat than melody. Soft lights glowed red along the walls.I thought it was a mistake at first. Some upscale lounge for the media launch. My boss had said “exclusive after-party, dress nice, make connections.” I had spent the last three years in a small Midwestern town, raised by a strict grandmother who kept Bibles on every surface an
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