Before we got out, Alexander turned to me with a warning. “Inside,” he said, “don’t wander off. Stay within my line of sight.”
I nodded. Without a weapon on my person, I knew better than to disappear into the back-alleys of Bangkok.
***
It was a club. A band was playing in the corner. African music, loud and boisterous. A teeming multi-ethnic crowd on the floor was dancing without a care in the world. Africans, Europeans and Thai – everyone swayed to the music and bounced to the sound of the drums. I heard snatches of shouted conversation in many languages.
“You like to dance?” Alexander asked me.
“I don’t know how,” I responded. He opened his mouth to say something, when two men appeared in front of him. Both were large. Both looked dangerous. But though their eyes betrayed tension, their lips parted in a cordial smile.
“Alexander, tu es ici,” one of the men said. “?a va?” His French was tinted with the Arabic lilt of the Maghreb. He was Moroccan then. Or Tunisian. I couldn’t tell which.
“?a va, Salim,” Alexander replied. He turned to me and performed introductions, which surprised me all over again. Dylan wouldn’t have ever introduced his slave to his associates. I was property.
“Jenny, this is Salim,” he switched to English, “and Rachid.” Both men nodded politely. “Rachid, can you show Jenny around while I chat with Salim?”
Rachid grinned, his teeth flashing. “Of course,” he said. “Jenny, do you dance?”
Alexander and Salim withdrew to a corner. My eyes followed and Rachid took my curiosity for concern about being left alone. “Do not be worried, Jenny. He’ll be right back and I don’t bite.”
I surveyed Rachid. Two hundred pounds of solid bulging muscle. Just under six feet tall. But I could probably take him in a fight. “I’m not,” I replied. I smiled a slightly nervous smile, staying in character as the American girl who had never left home, but who found herself in a seedy part of Bangkok in a crowded club. Whose new master had just deposited her in the arms of another man. “I don’t dance.”
Rachid’s eyes twinkled. “No, no, Jenny, this will not do,” he exclaimed in mock-horror, drawing me into the crowd. “Come. Let the music flow through you.”
He placed his hands on my hips and helped me sway to the music. I frowned in concentration and followed along, trying not to step on his toes. He clucked in disapproval. “You think too much, Jenny,” he rebuked, pulling me close to him so he could be heard above the loud sound of the band. “Relax. Feel.”
I could feel Alexander’s gaze on me, intent and piercing, from across the room. A sharp shard of terror stabbed through me. Would he punish me because Rachid’s hands were on my hips? The touch wasn’t sexual. I got no sense that Rachid had any intention other than just seeing that I enjoyed myself while his friend talked to Alexander. But fear of punishment was etched deep into me. Too many times, I’d been harshly disciplined by Dylan for things that were entirely out of my control.
“Ah, there it is.” Rachid’s voice boomed with satisfaction. “When the mind stops working, the body takes over.”
My lips twitched. The same thing could be said of so many things. Over and over, I’d trained with Lucien so that the ability to fight back would come by instinct. That night in Paris, two years ago, I’d let my body respond to Alexander without a care in the world, another instinctive reaction that brought so much pleasure.
My eyes searched for him, as they had many times over the course of the evening. I couldn’t look away.
He was standing in a little alcove with Salim, both of them in intent conversation. Salim was gesticulating wildly and Alexander was listening. Finally he said something with a grim smile to Salim, who nodded and clapped him on the shoulders. An agreement had evidently been reached.
As if he could feel my gaze on him, he lifted his head up and looked directly at me. His lips quirked as he saw me dance. He made his way towards me, threading through the crowd with ease.
Rachid grinned. “Your man comes to claim you.”
“Indeed,” Alexander said easily, coming up to us. “Thanks for taking care of her, Rachid, but I’ll take over now.”
“No worries, man,” Rachid laughed. “Jenny, remember, don’t think too much.”
I smiled at Rachid. “Thanks,” I yelled over the music and watched as he disappeared, before reluctantly turning to look at Alexander. Was this where I was rebuked for dancing with another man?
“You look worried, cherie.” Alexander pulled me close and whispered in my ear. “Is there a reason why?”