The last time she'd visited an adult club with Lucien it had been open for business and throbbing with paying customers. This was quite different, an almost completed renovation project with wires still trailing, stepladders leaning against walls, and workmen in overalls buzzing around.

Someone called out, and a second or so later a short, older man bustled over to them with a wide smile on his weathered face. Lucien greeted him warmly in French, and then introduced Sophie.

"Sophie, this is Jean, my site manager. Jean, Sophie, my assistant."

Jean smiled in greeting and handed them each a hard hat.

Great. Sophie eyed it reluctantly. Lucien lifted it from her fingers and placed it firmly on her head with a smart tap for good measure.

"Safety first, Ms.Black."

Right. So he was back to calling her Ms. Black again. It seemed he hadn't forgotten his declaration that her rules no longer applied.

Jean and Lucien began a rapid conversation she didn't have a prayer of understanding, and then the smaller man shook Lucien's hand and melted away.

"Jean isn't coming with us then?" Sophie asked. The French supervisor had given her back her sense of safety in numbers. Without him she was essentially alone with Lucien, despite the presence of the various artisans around the place.

"No. I'll give you the tour myself." Lucien turned to a wallboard by the front doors and removed a clipboard and pen. "Can you take notes as we go round, please?"

Sophie accepted the board, her mind wandering back to the tour he'd give her of the club back in the UK when a clipboard had been very much out of the question.

She pinned her paperwork to the board and clicked the pen a couple of times.

"Ready?" Lucien asked, absolutely neutral.

"As I'll ever be." Sophie nodded slightly and pursed her lips. "Let's go."

In decor, Lucien had recreated a similar urban opulence to his larger clubs back home, but here in these smaller rooms it felt far more intimate. Deep, amethyst velvet padded couches lined the booths, and a small stage and dance area filled one side of the lower ground floor. The bar gleamed with backlit mirrors and optics awaiting their upturned bottles, and a couple of women were unpacking glasses and spirits onto the bar. They glanced over at Lucien and then back at each other, and Sophie recognised the look that passed between them. Hot man in the room. She could hardly blame them. Even in a hard hat, Lucien oozed sex.

Decadence dripped from every sophisticated fixture and fitting; the place screamed high-class sex den. Thanks to her previous visit to a Gateway club with Lucien, Sophie could all too easily imagine naked dancers and intimate couples twined around each other in those booths.

He took a seat in one of them now, and inclined his head for her to join him on the curved seat opposite to go through the ground floor checklist. He nodded as she reeled the list off one by one, then gave her a series of comments to note down for future action. She clicked the pen closed and prepared to stand and move on.

"Anything else?" she added, as an afterthought.

He nodded and steepled his fingers on the table.

"Yes. You look fucking sexy in a hard hat."

Her throat dried up in shock. "And I’m supposed to write this down?"

"Absolutely," he said, conversationally. "Write 'Sophie looks fucking sexy in a hard hat.'" He paused, because she wasn't writing. "Write it down."

She flicked her eyes around the room, unwilling to raise her voice because of the proximity of the electricians working near by. His eyes held hers in direct challenge, and she made a split second decision. She wrote it down.

"Anything else?" she repeated.

"I want to take that hat off and run my hands through your hair."

"Lucien..." Sophie warned.

He stood abruptly. "All done in here, Ms. Black. Let's move on."

Sophie swallowed hard and followed him across the dance floor and down a set of steps.

"The spa." He waved his hand around to indicate the space, and Sophie opened the next checklist accordingly. The entire basement space had been converted into a luxury relaxation area, centred around an as yet unfilled pool and jacuzzi. Several workmen were scattered around the space, and Lucien took her elbow and steered her slowly across to sit on the edge of the raised circular jacuzzi wall.

As before, she worked methodically through the list, and Lucien answered each question in turn after inspecting the room.

She cleared her throat. Here we go again. "Err… any other notes?"

Lucien was sitting alongside her on the curved wall, and as he turned towards her his splayed fingertips brushed against her thigh on the tiles.

"Yes." His lazy, lustful eyes flickered down her throat, and then back up to her mouth.

"I need to remember to bring you back here when the jacuzzi has been filled. I want you to test the jets."

She frowned, making shorthand notes. "Can't the plumber test them?"

"I want you to do it." Lucien leaned in close to guarantee that only she would hear him. "I want you to tell me if the jets are perfectly positioned to massage your clitoris."

Sophie 's mouth dropped in a perfect O, and she instinctively crossed her legs. His words made her tremble.

"Write it down."

He looked at the clipboard, then at her pen, then at her face.

His fingertips still brushed her thigh, rhythmically enough to prove it wasn't accidental.

She wrote it down. Check the jets are positioned for clitoral massage.

Knowing he was watching her write the words made her squirm.

Once again he stood suddenly, leaving her hot and bothered as he led her back through the main room to a staircase leading up to the first floor. Sophie found herself walking on shaky legs along a plushly carpeted hallway, low-lit and sultry with the same air of sexy sophistication as downstairs. The scent of new carpets and fresh paint would no doubt fade once the place was packed with warm, pulsating bodies.

"The playrooms."

Sophie closed her eyes for a second, and then followed Lucien through the first doorway.

Equally decadent but decidedly more intimate than the rooms that had preceded it, the space was dominated by the huge square platform bed placed centrally with a step up all of the way around.

"This is the couples’ playroom. The bed area is designed to accommodate anything up to sixteen people at any one time."

Sophie frowned, and found herself abstractly wondering where one might find sheets on such an industrial scale. And then Lucien's hand skimmed feather light against the small of her back, more of a caress than a guiding hand, and all linen-related thoughts left the building.