Immersed in Pleasure. Tiffany Reisz

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.

      “Land is grand, Mr. Prince, but wetter is better. Some days, it is good to be the King.”

      At that, Kingsley strode off and sat next to someone Derek recognized as the top prosecutor in the state of New York. Glancing up, he saw Xenia swimming to the top of the column of water. Derek headed up the stairs again and found her just as she pulled herself from the water.