2. Gold's POV

Kissing lessons

I was never one to back out of a challenge and that was why I made my way to this club after taking my bath and doing my research. 

It was fair, newly opened which meant that it wasn't as easily crowded as the others and that also meant that they adhered more strictly to sanitation rules than the others. 

However, seven cocktails and four hours later and I still haven't found a man. I know I'm not looking for a woman because I was only ever raised to think of a man as my partner and I had never crossed any lines with my curiosity. 

And because I had only ever had my eyes on my ex fiance, Carlos, ever since I was allowed to feel attracted to the opposite sex, I had an idea of what my taste in men could be. 

However, for one I knew I needed something more than what I saw in his trousers this afternoon. 

Perhaps, longer, thicker and more veiny. 

I ordered three more glasses of cocktail drinks, tempted to request for wine as my fourth, but I was never good with alcoholic drinks, so I sighed and started to sip from it as I looked around mindfully for a man that would catch my fancy and another hour passed. 

It was now well into the night and the club was starting to get filled up. 

I was also feeling heavy with my thoughts. I needed a friend, so I turned my phone face up and sped dialed my best friend. 

She was number two since we met in college and I thought Carlos would always be number 1. 

Too bad. 

I sighed and dialed her number again and then for a third time after which she picked. The urge to cry out and tell her all my troubles overwhelmed me as I brought the phone to my ear, but all the fifteen years of training that I'd gone through with my parents before they passed held me and kept me calm. 

Plus why wasn't she saying anything. 

“Promise, were you asleep?” I asked gently into the phone even though I knew that if I was the regular human, then Promise was the bat, the very nightcrawler of our friendship.

“Who is there?” That's her voice sounding from a distance, but who picked? 

“Wear a fucking cloth, your towel is damp and barely covering your ass.” 

Carlos!

Again? 

“Babe did you pick my phone?” Her voice sounded nearer now as she snatched the phone. 

“Hey Jenna, what's up? I just came out of the bathroom, I'll call you back,” she said in a rushed voice, ready to hang up. 

“Wait a sec, was that Carlos' voice that I heard just now?” I asked and she cleared her throat for a minute before answering. 

“No, it was the TV,” she said. 

“But you don't have one,” I pointed out. 

“I meant my laptop. I'm watching a movie and… w..what about you,” she suddenly stuttered and gasped in a way that made her sound like she could very well be in the club instead. 

“Me?” I no longer felt the urge to pour out my grievances to this best friend anymore. 

If anything, I just wanted that wine. 

The one I couldn't handle. 

“Yes, you sound like you are in a very noisy place. Don't tell me you went to a club,” she gasped in a high-pitched tone again. 

“Club?” Carlos' voice sounded more clearly amidst the rustling in the background and some attempts to shush him. 

“Carlos? Why are you in my best friend's bathroom?” I asked but I didn't want the answer. 

I didn't even want to think about it, which was rare for an overthinker like me. I knew if I started this train of thought, I might need months to stop trying to figure it out, so I paused, froze my mind and waited. 

“I just came to ask her about you. I haven't been able to reach you since this morning. I was worried,” he did sound worried and I would have believed this any day and time before what I saw. 

“Oh,” was all I managed to mutter when he started speaking again. 

“So tell me, have you managed to find a man who would take your pathetic self?” He asked. 

“No, no one has caught my fancy yet and I am not pathetic. We are no longer together and this is none of your business,” I said, eager to hang up and I angrily grabbed the neck of my glass. Sounding princely while the suppressed thug in me was slowly surfacing. 

“More like no one wants a woman as pathetic as you. Truth is I am the only one who can ever accommodate someone like you. You might think highly of yourself but men don't like women like you. So when you're done throwing your tantrum you can come back to me,” he said and while I stared ahead, my hand shaking and tears springing in my eyes. 

Why would he do that to me?

“Fuck you!” I shouted my first curse word in ten years since the first time I said it and my mother canceled our scheduled vacation to Disney world and punished me with a trip to the beach instead where we had gotten into an accident and they had both died. 

I hope he gets in an accident too. 

I hung up, drowned the other two glasses and paid my bill all in the span of thirty seconds before jumping off the stool and losing my balance on my stilettos. 

Very unfit for the club. 

I staggered my way amongst the growing crowd bumping into a touchy stranger who tried to grope me, but I shoved him hard to the side and continued forward until I reached the very entrance where I bumped into another man, but this time I didn't dare shove. 

He stood there, his 6 ft 4 height towering against the door frame as he leaned forward to enter. 

My head bumped on his hard chest and I gasped, not from the pain, but from the heat that emanated from him. The electricity that scratched my skin and made me stand in place. 

I was a solid 5ft 8 myself and I often intimated Carlos with my height whenever I wore high heels. 

But this guy whose grunts and words of apology sound like butterfly producing music could never be intimidated. 

Not when the hand that he held out for me was covered in tattoos up to his neck is covered in ink. 

“Are you okay?” He's talking again and I'm getting distracted and awfully wet with the way his lips move.

I wonder what else they could do to me. 

“Yes Yes,” I said and felt faint, stumbling into his hold again as this time he wrapped his arm around me. 

“Careful, do you want to sit?” He asked, but I knew that sitting alone couldn't quench the very flames that were building and burning in the depths of my belly and making me rub my thighs together. 

I'd never felt like this before. 

Not once, not ever. It was one of the reasons why I had no qualms staying chaste. After all, nothing about Carlos made me this thirsty and curious. 

It had to be the alcohol, or the gods of the club, but I rose to a tip toe on my heels and planted my first kiss on this stranger's mouth. 

As I neared them, I got a better view of his face right before closing my eyes in the sloppy melding of lips that I called a kiss. He looked older. Way older than I'd have ever thought, but I didn't mind. 

I never had a type anyways.

I dropped back to my feet and staggered backwards, apologizing and rubbing my forehead, with his arm firmly planted on my waist like he had laid claim on me. 

And I didn't mind it. 

“I'm sorry it must have been the alcohol. I had way out of my limit of drinks today and I just couldn't resist,” I confessed wondering if he'd managed to make sense of my words when he smiled. 

“I could tell from the kiss that you are inexperienced too,” he said calmly and I fluttered my eyelashes at him, upset, but unable to express it, not when his hold on my waist tightened even more and I was practically grinding my crotch against his thick thighs. 

Before I could think of a word to say, he leaned in closer, his rich breath fanning my face, “do you want to learn how it's done properly,” he asked and I nodded eagerly. 

Was this my inner child? 

“My place? I have a penthouse fifteen minutes from here,” he suggested, but he was already leading the way back out of the club with my insides turning and dancing at the thought of what my teacher had for me. 

That was when I noticed the long line right behind him, but the Bouncers didn't seem to mind. 

In fact, the look in their eyes showed more of fear tinged with respect than their usual intimidating look as they bowed their heads when he walked down the stairs. 

The valet brought the car and we were in, on our way to get kissing lessons in his penthouse.