Saturday night, Arabia stepped from the town car in front of Club Seduction—a trendy Philadelphia nightclub on Sansom Street, and for a moment she stood there at the curb taking in her surroundings, while allowing onlookers to take in her.
Swathed in red—the color of seduction and sin. The fabric of her slinky dress clung dangerously to her body, outlining every single curve and dip of her voluptuous five-nine frame, cinching at the waist, then flaring out. Its hem fell a few inches from her ass cheeks, showcasing her long, sultry legs while leaving very little to the imagination. Beneath it, she wore a red lace thong.
It was nights like this—nights of prowling—when she was most bold, daring. And it showed in her dress, in her walk. It oozed from her pores. It swirled around her. Heat and passion and animalistic need hummed through her body.
A sensual club beat pulsed, spilling out into the night air every time the door opened, as partygoers eager to get inside stood in a line that extended down the sidewalk and wrapped around almost two blocks. Arabia was damned if she’d be standing in that. She waited on nothing, or no one.
She hadn’t known of the club until two hours ago, when she’d asked the six-foot, twenty-something-year-old man/child behind the Marriott’s concierge desk for a list of clubs in the City of Brotherly Love. He’d eyed her slowly, before licking his lips, then ticking off a list of hotspots. Nothing had stuck out until he rattled off this one. Club Seduction. Mmm—yes. How apropos, considering she was feeling seductive tonight. And she wanted something hot and dirty.
Hell, after the bomb Eric had dropped on her yesterday—what an inconsiderate asshole—she really did need a night out to let her hair down and do a little finger popping, after all. Still, Philadelphia was the last place she expected to come for her great escape when she’d gassed up her Benz and driven the Interstate, heading out of the Big Apple.
Yet, here she was.
Maybe, if the night heated up, like she hoped, and someone caught her eye and made her pussy tingle, she’d bend over and pull her thong to the side. Maybe.
Her cell phone buzzed, and she fished it out of her clutch. It was from a blocked caller. She swiped a fingertip over the screen and answered. “Hello?”
“I’ve been trying to reach you all day,” said the gruff voice on the other end. “We need to talk, baby.”
Arabia frowned. “Eric, I told you I’d be out of town. And why are you calling me from a blocked number?”
“Where are you?” he asked, ignoring her question. He had been trying to reach her all day and she hadn’t answered any of his calls, or replied to any of his text messages. But, surprisingly, she answered a blocked call. He had to wonder had she been avoiding him.
Irritation scorched her veins. “Away,” she said impatiently.
“Yeah, I know all that. Where?”
“Why, Eric? I told you I’d be with my sisters.”
He scoffed. “No actually you didn’t. And you never called me back after you ended our call. Nor did you respond to my text messages.”
“I got sidetracked,” she quickly said. Yeah, trying to get the hell out of town.
“Wel,l when will you be back?”
“Tuesday,” she lied. She didn’t need to have her weekend disrupted by his “I’m Leaving My Wife” news.
Eric snorted. “Ugh. Tuesday, huh? Just yesterday you said you’d be back Sunday. Now it’s Tuesday? Yeah, right.”
Oops. She’d forgotten that she’d told him that. See. This was why she didn’t lie. She could never keep up with its deceitful trail. Lying was too much damn work trying to remember every minu-scule detail. She simply wasn’t cut out for it.
“Well, what’s the urgency, Eric?” she said sharply.
“There’s no urgency. Last night I told Gwen about us.”
She shook her head. Sadly, there had still been a part of her that had hoped he wouldn’t have done so. “And why would you do that?”
He sighed. “We already discussed this. I told you I was telling her.”
Held tilted, hand on hip, she scowled. “No we didn’t discuss anything, Eric. I told you we should talk about it before you did such a silly thing.”
“Silly?” he scoffed. “What’s so silly about wanting to be with the woman I love?”
Arabia blinked. Love? The only thing this asshole loved was access to stress-free pussy. He didn’t love her. Hell, he didn’t even know her. Because had he known her, he would have known that she would never commit to a cheating-ass man. Ever.
“It’s me and you now, baby,” he said smoothly. “Now we can finally have the life we’ve dreamed of having.”
Her stomach lurched. She’d already been down this road twice with two previous lovers, and she’d broken it off with the both of them right on the spot. Now it looked like she’d have to do the same thing again. End it. She paced the sidewalk. How dare he try to ruin her goddamn night with this shit!
Arabia shook her head in disbelief. “And what kind of life do you think we’d have now that you’ve left Gwen. And now that she knows there’s another woman you’re leaving her for, do you actually think this is going to unfold smoothly? No, boo-boo. She’s going to make your life a living hell. Drag you for everything you’re worth. Tell me, Eric. What kind of life is that, huh?”
“Baby, she can have the house, and half my pension if that’ll make her feel better. As long as I have you—that’s all I need, baby; I can rebuild. I don’t care about any of that.”
Well, I care about it. She sighed. This man was clueless. And there was simply no time like the present to be done with him. Her heart panged in her chest. This was so disappointing. And here she thought she’d be able to get at least another year or more with him.
She glanced down the sidewalk. “Look, Eric. I don’t think this is going to work,” she said bluntly.
“Excuse me?” he said, baffled. “You don’t think what isn’t going to work? Us?”
Arabia stopped pacing, and glanced at the line in front of her, then at the time. It was already going on eleven. She needed to get inside to get her drop and pop on before the place got too packed. Besides, she needed a damn drink, and a hard body to grind up on.
“Yes. Us.”
“And why not? I left my wife to be with you.”
“I didn’t ask you to. You left her because that’s what you wanted to do. You did that with no regard for what I might have wanted. I need me a man who is going to stay with his wife, not leave her. What kind of life do you think we’d really have with me knowing you cheated on her to be with me? Leaving her gives me no guarantees that you wouldn’t turn around and cheat on me too. Sorry, boo. I’ve never been a woman to be cheated on. And I’m not about to sign up for that now. I don’t need that kind of stress in my life.”
“Say what? Are you fucking out of your mind!” he yelled in her ear. He was irate. “Bitch, I fucking gave up everything to be with you!” Arabia pulled the phone away from her ear, surprised by his sudden outburst. Eric was shouting so loud she envisioned his veins popping out of his neck. In all the time they’d been screwing, he’d never once raised his voice to her, let alone called her out her name. “Why didn’t you open your fucking mouth and tell me this shit before I fucking told my wife about you?”
She pushed out a frustrated breath. “Well, had you waited like I told you to, you would have known. And we wouldn’t be having this conversation right now.”
“I don’t believe this shit! You’ve just fucked up everything.”
Arabia frowned. “No, Eric. You fucked up everything by leaving your damn wife. You had a good thing. And now you’ve lost it. Go crawl back to your baldheaded wife and tell her you made a mistake. Beg her forgiveness. I’m sure she’ll take your lying, cheating ass back.”
“You fucking bitch! Gold-digging whore!”
“I’ve been called worse. Have a good life, Eric.”
“I want my fucking ring back,” he spat.
Arabia laughed. “Good luck with that.”
Stupid-ass men, she thought ending the call, then turning her cell off before tossing it back into her purse. She couldn’t believe this. She’d gone from having three lovers to one in less than a few weeks. Whatever. Good bye. Good riddance.
At this moment, she had her sights on having a good damn night. Tomorrow she’d worry about whatever would come. But, for now, it was time to let her hair down, and—hopefully, her red thong.
Arabia brought her attention back to the front of the club. Just outside the doorway was a dark-skinned bouncer—tall, bald, and bulky—who stood in front of a roped-off area, dressed in all black and wearing an earpiece that keyed him into all the activity going on inside the club.
It didn’t take long before he caught sight of her and clearly saw what everyone else did. A woman bold enough to take what she wanted. A woman able to get any man she wanted without saying a word. Her body and presence said it all.
He gave her a head nod, and motioned her to him.
Arabia smiled, then glanced down the sidewalk, her eyes slowly traveling down the length of the ridiculously long line. A mix of beautiful—and, well, not so beautiful—people waited to get inside. Some of the females were glammed up in their most sultry outfits, donned in good heels and jewels, and hair that probably cost a small fortune. Others—wearing pixie-cut and bobbed wigs, multicolored weaves, and obnoxiously long ponytails—stood there in their clunky platform heels and peep-toe pumps, looking like they were waiting to audition for the circus in their cheetah, leopard, and other animal prints—from leggings and cat suits to skintight dresses, they simple looked a hot mess from Arabia’s assessment.
Still, some of the women in the line were stunning. Some alone, probably on the prowl—like her, using the club as a hunting ground for some drunk, horny dick. Others were there with their arms securely looped through the arm of a date, or perhaps a lover. Territorially. Staking their claims to their men—or someone else’s.
Yes, yes, yes. The men.
Handsome, buffed, hard-bodied men with either fresh-shaved faces or well-manicured beards with spinning waves, dreads, or low-top fades—all donned in expensive hard-bottomed shoes and designer digs. Gold and platinum chains hung from thick necks with diamond medallions sweeping across muscled chests.
There were also the ones in the suits and ties and Florsheim loafers and tie-ups, looking stiff and terribly out of place, there for the stray pussy that would probably cost them multiple rounds of drinks to even sniff.
And then there were the ones barely over twenty-one in their khaki pants and thin pullover V-necks and pierced ears, looking preppy and rich, out to get white-boy drunk with hopes of scoring some late-night pussy.
Arabia slid her tongue over her red-painted lips and tossed her hair. Dramatic she knew, but necessary. She hadn’t even been out there for more than a second and she already felt the eyes on her. But it was okay. She welcomed the stares, as she always did; even the glares from the hating-ass, jealous hoes. They had cause to be alarmed.
The night air, cool and light, licked over her skin causing her nipples to tighten. The bouncer regarded her intently, his smoldering dark orbs raking over her, before fastening his gaze on her breasts, on the imprint of her nipples, on their puckered ridges, through her dress.
With the toss of her hair, Arabia tucked her clutch beneath her arm and sauntered toward him, one heeled foot in front of the other, her pelvis thrusting with each step. Subconsciously, the bouncer licked his lips and swept his gaze over her body again as she made her way to the door.
Eyes zoomed in on her, and those women at the front of the line sneered, practically gnashing their teeth, as the bouncer leaned in and whispered something in her ear before he reached down and unlatched the red velvet rope that was strung between two metal poles, welcoming her in.
“You hot, baby,” the broad-shouldered bouncer said, his eyes appraising her in pure male appreciation as he motioned her by.
Arabia smiled. Yeah, them bitches still standing in that long-ass line didn’t hold a candle to her kind of hotness, and they hated her for it.
Oh, yes. She was hot. Hot like fire. She was a woman who knew how to make a man’s dick roar to life by just the lick of her lips, or the sway of her hips. A woman who tugged at a man’s libido and inspired him to want to fuck her on the spot, fast and hard until he burned in wet heat and sin. And she knew it. She was a temptress on a mission. She was on the hunt for a scandalous night filled with dancing, hard dick, and dirty deeds.
So they had all better beware.
Because, tonight . . . somebody was going up in flames.