A cab pulled up a little way up the road from the door, and a woman got out. She was quite tall, wearing leather trousers and a long leather coat, and she carried a small pack slung over her shoulder. Her dark, shoulder-length hair lifted slightly in the breeze as she strode confidently towards the black door. She looked perfectly normal. Ordinary, even.

Max chuckled to herself—what had she expected? Two heads? The woman waited for the cab to drive off before knocking. A small shutter opened at eye level, and then the door opened, and she disappeared inside.

Easy as that.

Max took a deep breath, trying to calm the butterflies that were now in rampant flight in her belly.

A part of her wanted to laugh—never in her lifetime did she think she’d be standing here, planning to step inside a building in search of a woman to fuck her. Any which way she wanted. For as long as she wanted. She never needed to know the woman’s name or, if it was as dark inside as the article claimed, what she looked like.

Another part of her wanted to cry. She really shouldn’t be here, standing in this quiet, dark street, contemplating fucking someone who wasn’t her partner.

Suddenly, it was as if a dark wall dropped down in her mind, cutting off her feelings with a sharpness that made her feel almost amputated from her emotional self. Without really being aware she was doing it, she crossed the road and knocked on the door. Her breath caught in her throat as the shutter opened from the inside. A woman’s face appeared in the small window. Her sharp blue eyes looked at Max intently.

“Do you know where you are?” she was asked quietly.

“Yes,” Max replied and smiled with more confidence than she felt. “But it is my first time,” she admitted as a slight blush stole across her cheeks.

The woman smiled in return, and then came the sound of the lock being turned.

She stepped into a hallway that was painted deep red with dim lighting to guide her steps.

“Welcome,” said the woman. She had handsome features to go with her intense eyes. “I’m Mandy, the manager. I don’t like to waste a lot of time here on the doorstep, but as you’re new, would you like a rough idea of what’s on offer?”

In the semi-darkness, Max’s blush deepened. She nodded, shoving her hands into her pockets to hide their shaking.

“It’s twenty pounds membership for the evening, which includes the use of the showers, but you’ll pay for whatever drinks you want. There are three rooms, each with their own bar. Each room serves a different purpose. The Green Room is, shall we say, vanilla—no toys, no bondage.”

Max nodded, involuntarily licking her lips, which suddenly seemed very dry.