Immersed in Pleasure by Tiffany Reisz

 
    “I’m telling you, guys, they’re mythical creatures. They’re, like, I don’t know…unicorns or mermaids,” Christian said.
    At the mention of mermaids, Derek started paying attention to the conversation again. For the last five minutes as Mark and Christian discussed their women troubles—specifically how many ex-boyfriends their current girlfriends had—Derek tuned them out and stared at an empty table across the nightclub.
    “They are real actually.” Derek raised his old fashioned to his lips. “I knew one once.”
    “A virgin?” Mark asked. “A virgin over the age of twenty-one? I don’t buy it. They don’t exist.”
    Derek smiled into his drink.
    “Yes, she was a virgin,” Derek said. “And a mermaid.”
    “Bullshit.” Christian threw his napkin at Derek.
    “No, he means it.” Mark leaned back and gave Derek a long look. “Plus, he’s the pretty one. If any of us were going to bag a virgin mermaid, it would be Derek Prince.”
    Derek half laughed and rubbed his forehead. She’d called him pretty too. God, had it really been a whole year? He reached into his pocket and pulled something out. He didn’t show it to Mark and Christian, merely held it in the palm of his hand before tucking it into his pocket again.
    “Believe it or not, it’s true. And I saw her first right over there…”
    Derek pointed to the table he’d been staring at earlier.
    “Over there?” Christian asked, a note of real concern in his voice. “At the VIP table? Kingsley Edge’s table?”
    Kingsley Edge, a wealthy half-French businessman of both renown and ill-repute, owned Cirque du Nuit, the club Derek, Mark and Christian frequented at least once a week. According to rumor, catacombs resided under Cirque du Nuit, catacombs that started under the club and stretched out into New York City like underground tentacles. Legend had it that all of Kingsley Edge’s various clubs could be reached through the catacombs.
    “Didn’t know that then,” Derek said. “It was a year ago. I was waiting for Ireland to show up—”
    “Dude, I’m so glad you got rid of her,” Mark interjected.
    “And I saw this girl,” Derek continued and felt his mind leaving the present and swimming back into the past. “This amazing girl with wet hair.”
    At his first glance of the girl he thought she was one of those women who went bat-shit crazy with the hair gel. But when she moved, her hair moved with her. Not hair gel, just water. The white camisole she wore reached only to the bottom of her rib cage and had gone nearly transparent from the water in her hair. When she stepped into the blue light, he could just make out her pale pink nipples under the fabric. That alone would have held his attention all night except for one thing—she wasn’t just wet and wearing transparent clothes, she was beautiful. Her dark brown hair hung in dripping ringlets over her face and down her back. She looked young, maybe only twenty or twenty-one, too young for this club anyway. Her large dark eyes and light olive skin sported no makeup that he could discern. Watching her, he noticed she moved uneasily. A noise came from the edge of the club and she flinched, her eyes flashing wide open like a startled animal’s. Twisting her hands together, she seemed uncomfortable in her surroundings and utterly out of her element.
    Derek hadn’t been able to take his eyes off her. Other than her little white camisole, she wore a white skirt that rested low on her hips and revealed the full expanse of her flat stomach and lower back. The skirt clung tightly around her slim legs all the way to her ankles.
    She must have sensed his stare, because she turned his direction and stared back. Derek knew he shouldn’t be staring, that he must seem like a psycho to her. But the stare she returned wasn’t angry, only inquisitive. Cocking her head to the side like a curious cat, she watched him watch her.
    “So she was wearing all white and was wet from head to