The Bride: An Age-Gap, Marriage of Convenience Romance

Chapter Two

Chapter Two

The bouncer took my ID, scrutinizing it under the dim lighting of the club signage. With such a polished façade and no neon lights to obnoxiously light up the building and its surroundings, it was pretty damn dark. I watched as he tilted it to the right, the left before flipping it around to scan it.

I panicked, placing my small, delicate hand on top of his bulging forearm. He looked up at me, with a sneer, probably ready to tell me to fuck off, but I noticed something on his hand.

"Is that a semi-colon tattoo?" I quipped with as much enthusiasm as I could. Swallowing down the intimidation he was radiating, I gathered up some courage. "I have one too, but mine's blue." I pulled down the neckline of the emerald green dress Sasha had given me, probably giving the bouncer an eyeful of cleavage. Inked on my left collar bone was a replica of the one that the bouncer had on his thumb.

The edges of his lips tipped up as he nodded approvingly. He handed me back my fake ID, with a tilt of his head towards the door. "Enjoy your night."

I suppressed the urge to squeal, stuffed my ID back into my small wallet I was clutching on to for dear life and headed inside. The second I stepped through the doors; I was hit with a wall of expensive, expensive cologne. So much so that I had to take a few breaths through my mouth before I could move farther into the club.

A Chris Brown song was being filtered through the sound system, with flashing strobe lights matching the pounding notes of the bass. The bass was so strong that I could feel it beating inside of my chest.

Breathe. Relax.

My eyes wandered around the room in front of me, anxiously taking in my surroundings. I was completely out of my element and comfort zone. I wished I hadn't felt so brazen and bold a short twenty minutes ago.

There was barely any seating that I could see except for along the outskirts of the main room, and I would surely draw attention to myself skirting around the room. There was a giant stage placed in the middle of four smaller stages in the middle of the room, taking up most of the first floor. On the bigger platform was a woman, sliding downwards on one of the largest poles I had even seen. She was half naked, her underwear and high heels the only things left. I couldn't tear my gaze away from her as she did some move that ended with her in a splits position on the floor. A group of men sitting in the nearby tables pulled out their wallets silently, walking up to the stage and placing the hefty bills on it without even touching her.

I felt someone's presence before I saw them. From the corner of my eye, I caught sight of a glass tumbler filled with three fingers of whiskey cupped in a muscular hand. I turned towards him with a raised eyebrow, giving him my attention towards him as he voiced his opinion, "Amazing, isn't she? Everyone is always stunned when Marianna performs."

I turned my head to look at him, but to my surprise I had to angle my chin upwards to even meet his eyes. I gave him a tight smile, unsure of what was appropriate to say in a social setting like this. Do I agree and say she has the most amazing body I've ever seen? Play it cool and pretend I'm waiting for a better performer? I didn't want to seem shy, or stand-offish since I was looking at getting some sort of job here, possibly. I was on a mission, and Sasha made sure to prep me with all necessities before feeding me to the lion's den.

Saving me from embarrassment of tripping over my own words, he moved his whiskey tumbler to his other hand and held out the now vacant one to me. "Cason Napoli."

Color me shocked, I almost fell to my knees. I was in the presence of a Napoli and I hadn't even recognized him. Of course, I knew whose territory I was stepping onto when I saw the name of the club, but I hadn't given any thought that one of the Napoli brothers would actually be here. The Napoli family were practically royalty here in Miami, with the amount of money they were worth I'm pretty sure they could actually buy a small kingdom if they were feeling it. I placed a limp, sort of sweaty hand in his and shook it. "Kat Thompson."