Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 90075 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 450(@200wpm)___ 360(@250wpm)___ 300(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90075 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 450(@200wpm)___ 360(@250wpm)___ 300(@300wpm)
“So...Hypatia. That’s your name?”
“Tia.” I smiled. “Let’s go with that.”
“Fabulous.” She gave me her champagne. “Have a sip of that to celebrate your new identity.”
“Thanks.” Taking a dainty mouthful, I passed it back and gasped as she captured my hand.
“Now, Tia...you said you were a little scholar? Well, I happen to know a teacher who very much enjoys punishing students who deserve it.”
My stomach tightened. “Y-You do?”
Pulling me into the crowd, she grinned. “It’s your first night, so no one will bite. We all remember the nervousness of our first time. You’ve come to the right place. The Black Peacock is a small but loyal club. Some of us are in 24/7 relationships. Others share. Others met and got married here but still do the occasional scene. Whatever you’re into, you’re welcome. Whatever you’re looking for, someone will be able to provide. You’re safe with us.”
My knees turned shaky with another gush of gratitude. “I-I can’t thank you enough.”
I’d come here with my head swimming of Nick and my heart screaming for him to stop me.
But now...now I might just be brave enough to survive even if he never came for me. If he truly wasn’t strong enough to claim me, then...I would accept it. It would hurt. I would grieve. I might always fear he was the one who got away. But...I didn’t need him to exist. And that tiny coil of power siphoned through my blood, pushing my shoulders back and granting enough courage to follow Ella across the decadent space.
Just like the black bedroom in the big top where Hunter woke me to what I was missing, this club favoured midnight shades. Black-dyed peacock feathers covered an entire wall. Plumes of feathers framed the impressive bar, and black suede love seats and low-slung tables invited drinks and mingling.
I caught a few people leaving the club through doors camouflaged in the feathered wall. A man leading a woman with a golden leash. A woman hurrying a man along with a whip.
No one stared. No one cared.
The level of acceptance and freedom was breathtaking.
After a lifetime of trying to fit in, of doing my best to be the best...I felt my tightly gripped control unravelling, trailing behind me like bondage I’d worn for far too long, trading it in for a very different kind.
Stopping before a man with glossy black hair and silvered temples, Ella coughed demurely until the gentleman turned from the bar and smiled. Dark-brown eyes, tanned European skin, and hands that ought to be illegal with how perfectly formed they were. How his tendons flexed over his knuckles. How his fingers fondled his glass as if it was a breast instead of an object. “Ella. What a pleasure.” He smiled, crinkling the skin around his piercing eyes as he kissed my new friend’s cheek.
I guessed he was late forties, but the way he wore his charcoal suit hinted he had no middle age spread beneath it.
My pulse picked up as his gaze landed on me.
His smiled turned darker. “Hello.”
His presence was so intense, so sharp, so headily masculine, I dipped my chin on instinct.
His eyes flared as his tongue ran over his bottom lip. “A natural.” Sighing dreamily, he glanced at other Ella. “You know I’m restraining myself, Ella dear, yet you bring me the most delectable sub I’ve ever seen.”
Ella laughed like a matchmaking siren. “I thought you’d like her.” Looping a slim arm around my waist, she murmured, “Tia...allow me to introduce you to Rhodes.”
“Tia?” Rhodes bowed, sweeping, dashing, delicious. “What a beautiful name for a beautiful woman.”
“It’s actually Hypatia,” Ella said with a wink, obviously having insider knowledge about why she’d made this introduction and why she watched Rhodes like a cat with her teeth punctured into a very unlucky canary.
Oh lord, I’m the canary.
“Hypatia?” Rhodes straightened with a snap. “Named after the most learned woman in Alexandria, I suppose. A woman who read the stars and overcame the profound sexism of her time, only to be branded a witch by the Parabalani and torn limb from limb, signalling an end of pagans and the rise of Christianity.” He sighed heavily. “A dark day indeed for mankind. The day when faith was used against us and those who stayed loyal to spirituality—true spirituality governed by nature and frequencies we cannot see—was the day we were all enslaved by the church.”
My mouth fell open.
Who the hell is this man?
“You’ve heard of her then?” I smirked.
“Heard of her? I’m practically in love with her.” He chuckled. “I’m a curator for a well-known museum. My favourite era is the Roman empire and its overlap into Egypt and beyond.”
My heart kicked. “My mother used to be an archaeologist. That was her favourite era too.”
Twice I’d shared my parents with strangers.
Twice I glowed with newfound happiness.
“Well...it has to be fate that we’ve been introduced then.” Rhodes took my hand and kissed the back of it. His touch was dry and strong, but it failed to send pinwheels of heat through me. No crackle of chemistry. No conduit of electricity.