Chapter 6: Discovery

Then they mentioned a few well-known buildings, and Noah said he knew the civil engineer who had designed one of them; he named him by first and last name with a certain familiarity.

“He was my father’s college classmate, and I remember going on a picnic with him and his family.”

The three CEOs at the table knew him very well.

For the rest of the evening, they talked about music. Noah mentioned that his father liked Elton John and that once, when they were on vacation in Europe, they happened to be at one of his shows and went to see him.

The architects on his team were amazed; they had no idea what socioeconomic background Noah had come from.

Joseph thought it was impossible that Jennifer had settled for less after they lost everything and she was widowed.

If that were really the case, she’d surely miss going out to nice restaurants, corporate parties, and ultra-luxurious vacations—and maybe, by inviting her on a trip, he could win her over quickly. He didn’t realize he was going to too much trouble thinking about her, when he believed she was just a woman he wanted to have a brief fling with.

Joseph didn’t know if she’d be easy to win over or if she’d play hard to get.

…Although she sunbathed naked—come on, it shouldn’t be that hard…

That thought led him to recall that woman’s breasts.

“I invite you all to end the night at Bunny Girl,”

Joseph said.

And that’s how the six gentlemen ended up at that strip club—the most upscale one in town.

“It’s been quite a while since I’ve been here,”

Joseph said.

-“That’s true, me too. I think the last time I came here was with you, when I separated from my second wife, more than two years ago.”

Victor replied.

“I came the other time, but I left right away—I got some good stuff.”

David claimed, referring to the fact that he’d hired a prostitute.

Noah had never been to a place like that; one of the two architects on Noah’s team had never been either, and the other employee had been, but to a different level of the club—one more in line with his budget.

At Bunny Girl there were different sections; in one of them there were nearly sexual shows—the models would bring a spectator up on stage, and it was almost as if they were about to have sex right there. There was another section where the girls would approach the tables and flirt with the audience—mostly men—always surrounded by security guards, then there were girls dancing on the poles who stripped as they danced, though most kept their thongs on and, at most, crawled across the stage, getting close to the edge, but they had no direct contact with the audience.

Some models rotated among the three types of stages, while others were assigned to specific areas.

There were also private booths, where an additional fee was charged and men could choose each woman’s outfit, but there was no direct contact—unless the woman agreed to some physical contact, in which case she was often hired for sex.

There were different stripper stages; on one of them, the models had no contact with the audience, and on the third stage, the girls always wore masks and often wigs as well—you couldn’t see each woman’s features clearly, but it was one of the most popular stages.

However, the men sat at a nearby table where the models would get down and dance on top of them.

It wasn’t long before a girl came to their table and danced all over them; David gave her a generous tip, so a little while later another girl came over, and this time it was Joseph who tipped her. Everyone had a great time; Noah, because of his age, was the most excited—he’d never experienced anything like this before.

The second dancer was the one who danced the most provocatively for him; the young man had to control himself—and it took a lot of effort—so he wouldn’t ejaculate in his pants.

A little while later, Joseph was heading to the restroom. As he passed by another area, he noticed one of the dancers—one of the masked ones. That woman, the one dancing at that moment, really caught his attention, so he approached the stage without taking a table, since he already had his own with his friends. He spent a while watching her; She had a spectacular body—almost all of them did—and they moved like gods; after all, they really do train for that.

But that dancer drew him in immensely; everything about her caught his attention, from her legs and hips to her chest.

The moment she took off her top—she did it in a very sensual way, inviting every man to remember her in their nights—Joseph was left breathless, and his gaze drifted down, for an instant, to the woman’s navel, which had a ring that sparkled in the glow of the lights.

He wasn’t usually impressed by the sight of a naked woman; only Noah’s mother had ever made an impact on him—and this woman… with a belly button ring similar to Benjamin’s widow’s.

Suddenly, the woman, following the routine, got down on all fours and began crawling like a tigress, right toward Joseph’s side.

Their eyes met, and Joseph realized that this woman was none other than Jennifer Donato, Noah’s mother.

She, too, recognized at that moment that the man staring at her was Joseph Davinson, her son’s boss.

In an instant, a thousand doubts flooded her mind, but she knew perfectly well that the show had to go on and she had to keep up the act—maybe he didn’t recognize her, since she was wearing a mask and a shiny silver wig.

Joseph couldn’t believe what he’d just discovered; he kept watching Jennifer’s performance until she left, then went to the restroom—he’d forgotten that was his original plan.

He felt uneasy upon discovering what this woman’s job was; she was an exciting and sensual woman, yes, but also refined and delicate.

When he got back to his table, they asked him why he’d been so long.

“I was watching a dancer who… took my breath away.”

His friends gave him a strange look; he wasn’t the type to be blown away by a woman, and this was already the second woman that week who had thrown him off balance, so to speak.

“I thought you’d gone to a private room.”

“No… not yet.”

He replied, thinking that if Jennifer Donato did those private dances, he’d pay her whatever it took, and if she worked as a prostitute, he wouldn’t get out of bed for a few days; suddenly, a bad mood came over him.

He glanced sideways at Noah and thought that the young man had no idea his mother worked as a stripper at that place.

She was mentally grateful not to be on the other stage—it would have been very awkward for everyone, because her friends knew her, and for Noah, who was quite young, it would have even been painful.

Young men—almost teenagers—like Noah weren’t usually found there; boys like him tended to seek out other kinds of sexual entertainment. It was easier for them to pick up girls at nightclubs, where they weren’t charged, and if they did go to see strippers for financial reasons, they’d go to a more affordable venue.

The place where they were was one of the most exclusive in the city, and most of the men who went there were businessmen or people with high purchasing power; generally, these gentlemen were no younger than 30.

Did he perhaps know that his mother worked there?

He didn’t think it was possible; Joseph remembered how angry the boy had been with his mother when they found her sunbathing topless in her own home.

Did his mother tell him she was working out?

Was her workout for her job?

He kept asking himself.

Yes, it was obvious.

The CEO couldn’t get that woman out of his head; he really couldn’t stop thinking about her.

He wouldn’t be able to approach her that night, but he already knew everything he needed to know about her—or at least he knew what she did for a living.

He spent the rest of the night feeling quite anxious and, above all, distracted, and both Victor and David were surprised that, after saying he’d been struck by a dancer, he didn’t even think to get up and go hire her.

Joseph wanted to win her over, not hire her.

Maybe it was easier this way—he’d avoid trouble, pay her fee, and that would be that.

It was obvious that she couldn’t possibly maintain that house and that car on a waitress’s salary.

Dancers made good money, but prostitutes at that level earned much more.

He was speculating out of thin air, because he didn’t know anything about dancers’ salaries; he needed to know if she ended the night with a client.

That, for some reason, bothered him a lot; he didn’t want to think she might be a high-class whore—to put it bluntly.

Without actually being an escort, maybe sometimes she was in another area and was rubbing up against the men who frequented that place, just like the whores who had done so with them just minutes earlier.

Every thought that crossed the businessman’s mind left a bad taste in his mouth.

He wanted to get through that night and return, alone, the next day.

He didn’t know why he felt he had to protect Jennifer’s identity and even look after Noah.