She ignored his hand and instead leaned forward to kiss him on the cheek. He shivered as her warm soft lips pressed into his cheek. “I have to go now, but you can stay if you like.”
“Go where?”
“Underwater.”
At that, Xenia took a step back and pulled her camisole off. Her skirt came off next, and she stood before him completely naked.
Derek felt his eyes go as wide as hers. Although a sight to behold, the club paled before Xenia’s naked flesh. Thin but with soft girlish curves, Xenia barely looked human to him. The silver metallic scale tattoos graced not only her feet and calves but the sides of her thighs and the edge of her hips. Her breasts, the perfect size, appeared designed to rest in the palm of his hand. A healthy red-blooded man, he couldn’t help staring at her breasts and between her legs. Completely smooth and hairless, she seemed a being of eternal youth. His body tensed at the sight of such pristine flesh so unashamedly on display.
The girl, Xenia, reached for a silver chain and fastened it around her stomach. Little silver scales hung off it and dangled around her hips. She clasped silver bracelets onto each wrist and connected them to the silver rings on her fingers. Around her forehead went a heavier silver chain like a small circlet. The body jewelry shimmered in the low light and rendered Xenia a creature of ethereal beauty.
She strode to the edge of the tall pool and dived gracefully into it. Derek ran back down the stairs and up to the side of the column. Around and around she swam, her long brown hair flowing behind her. She spun in slow graceful circles, arched under and around, and seemed to need almost no air. Derek watched her, unable to look at anything else. She swam to the edge of the column and smiled at him through the water. He pressed his hand to the glass and she laid her hand against the inside to meet his. But she pulled back quickly and swam off again.
“Ah…that little one. She may be my favorite,” said a lightly accented voice from behind him. Derek turned around and saw the man from Cirque du Nuit, the one in the Victorian suit and the ponytail, standing behind him with a cocktail in his hand.
“She’s amazing,” Derek agreed. “She’s the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen in my life.”
“Merci. I found her myself.”
Derek stared at the man. Merci, he’d said. Found her…
“Oh, my God. You’re Kingsley Edge,” Derek said. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to barge into your club. She told me I should—”
The man shook his finger and tsk-tsked him in a manner that was infuriatingly French.
“I know who you are, Mr. Prince. And I know who your parents are. Consider yourself on the guest list.”
Derek followed Kingsley to the bar. They sat on stools side by side and said nothing until the bartender—a beautiful young blonde woman wearing a shimmering sea-green dress—brought them both fresh drinks.
“Ah, Urs,” Kingsley said to the bartender as he took a drink of his sidecar. “You are too good to me.”
“Nothing’s too good for our King.” She leaned up to kiss him on the cheek as Xenia had to Derek.
“So, you really are Kingsley Edge?” Derek asked. While Kingsley Edge’s clubs were famous, the man himself was infamous.
Kingsley shrugged, a small smile playing over his lips.
“It’s a living.”
“A very good one. My God, these girls are incredible.” Derek counted at least a dozen stunningly beautiful naked girls swimming about the club or lounging on large rocks with their decorated feet tucked to the side. Not even the mermaids of lore could be more spectacular than the ones right in front of him.
“Incredible, yes. In many ways,” Kingsley agreed. “My mermaids are my pride and joy. I went to Japan ten years ago and met a geisha. Such a woman I’d never seen before. How she talked and teased and entertained us all. I recall thinking the world needed more women like that—beautiful, mysterious, untouchable.”
“Untouchable?” Derek asked. He glanced at Xenia, who continued to swim languid graceful arcs in the transparent column.
“Oui,” Kingsley said. “Untouchable…untouched. This is no gentlemen’s club or brothel. If you’re here for a lap dance, you’re in the wrong place. All my mermaids are virgins.”
Derek nearly spat his drink out.
“Virgins?”
“Bien sûr. Those who come here wish to see something truly unusual, something magical or mythical. Beautiful women, naked, exquisite and all virginal.”
“Even Xenia?” Derek asked.
“Even she.”
“But she must be in her twenties, right?”
“She is. She started here at age eighteen and has been a mermaid three years now. I saw in the paper a little article about a girl who’d broken a record for holding her breath underwater. I met her the next week, and she’s been here ever since.”
“But that’s crazy,” Derek protested. “Why would women this gorgeous choose—”
“If I offered you an extraordinary sum of money to go a year without sex, would you do it?”
Derek stared at Kingsley and burst into laughter.
“So it’s the opposite of prostitution here?”
“I pay them to not have sex. As long as they stay intact, they can work very few hours, meet the wealthiest and most powerful men in the world, and leave whenever they wish. Most depart after a year or two with a rich boyfriend, a very large bank account or both. Many, like Xenia, stay longer.”
Just then a redheaded mermaid slid off her rock and divded back into the water.
“Come back, Alanna,” the man at the table called after her. “Please?”
“No, go away,” the girl, Alanna, said when she surfaced. “I don’t like your tie. It’s ugly.”
Kingsley chuckled softly at the scene.
“Mermaids,” he said to Derek, “have cold hearts. To win the heart of one takes much perseverance.”
Shaking his head, Derek could only gaze around him in awe. He understood it all now. Beautiful virginal women who were trained to be unimpressed by the wealth and power that surrounded them…no wonder this club attracted such a high-caliber clientele. Seducing a stripper was child’s play. But netting a virginal mermaid? Now, that was a feat.
“But how do you know they’re virgins?” Derek asked. “Can’t they sneak out and do whatever they want?”
“We have ways of knowing.” Kingsley took another sip of his drink.
“What ways?” Derek studied him out of the corner of his eye.
Kingsley merely swirled the ice in his cocktail.
