They walked back to the main lounge, off the selection room.
Chéri called Lennon over as he walked to a VIP area with several security team members, "Lenny! I want you to meet someone special!"
Lennon caught up to Chéri, "Yeah?"
"I want you to meet the Bordello's starlet and brand champion, Spangna! You may have seen her name on signs everywhere but it's pronounced 'Spania'. She's even branched off and debuted into the porn industry and is a popular multi-industry award winner!" Chéri said.
"So, she's a prostitute and a porn star..?" Lennon asked quietly.
"Lenny! She's a star and a lovely girl! Not to mention, a fellow Brit from Manchester!" Chéri said.
"But, I don't know if I want to meet someone like that. They're usually troubled and depressed, drug-addicted people." Lennon said quietly.
"No! Spangna's a twenty-year-old girl who doesn't touch drugs and rarely drinks, which is probably why she gets drunk easily. She loves her work and is super business savvy and a multi-millionairess! She is also a mentor to all the new girls. She has the highest rates and a set clientele list and works when she likes." Chéri said.
Lennon looked interested, "Wow, a multi-millionairess? At twenty?! Okay, let's meet her."
Chéri sprinted up the steps and spoke to Alexandre, a member of French security who was tasked with the important mission of organising Spangna's needs and security. He walked to the back and bent to speak to a young woman who had two assistants by her, one was fixing her makeup and the other was adjusting her long braids and tied in cyberlox. Alexandre beckoned Lennon up to where he and Chéri stood.
Chéri stood on his tiptoes to kiss Lennon, "One sec, Lenny! My brother and siblings are here. I'm going to go find them. I'll be right back" Chéri said as he waved to Spangna, then walked into the room to find his mother.
Lennon climbed the stairs and even he was struck when he saw a pretty young woman dressed in gothic cyber-punk attire, sitting on a sofa being prepared for a fan event.
Spangna was a very pretty alternative girl of about five-foot-five. She was extremely thin and had a pale, milky complexion that was made more striking due to the strong contrast with her colourful hair, slenderly arched dark blue eyebrows, dark blue false lashes and black lips. She seemed authentic right down to her long dayglo lime-green nails.
Even her hair was an incredible display. She had straight bangs and then an explosion of long, thick deep blue and lime green braids and cyberlox as her crown. On her forehead were a pair of spiked, barrel-shaped steampunk goggles with distinctive black tinted lenses.
PVC black and green harnesses covered over fishnets and a green bra on top and she wore a black multi-layered tutu over fishnet stockings and lime green suspender belts. She wore big platformed black boots with large metal panels and buckles.
Lennon saw her spot Marcel on the main floor for a moment, "Hey! AK! Want 4g?!" She shouted.
Marcel turned to look at her, and then turned back around, shaking his head.
Lennon nervously took another step closer towards the pretty girl and held out his hand, "Ms Spangna? It's my pleasure to meet you. My name is Lennon."
Spangna looked up at him and the wide shine of a smile radiated across her face which highlighted her dimples. "Hiya, Lennon! Ohh! A Yank!" She said excitedly in a broad Mancunian accent as shook his hand. Now up close, Lennon could see she had a tongue piercing and snake bite piercings loops either side of her mouth.
Over the course of their short conversation, Lennon felt at instant ease due to her contagiously cheerful and bubbly personality. Just talking to her and hearing her adorable Mancunian accent, Lennon could see that she was very sharp-witted and didn't seem to be like the average twenty-year-old. She was a very strong-willed character, yet still retained a charming innocence as well as being as real and down to earth as she could be. She was keenly intelligent yet quite reserved and he couldn't imagine her when she was 'on' as a sex worker doing all these sex acts confidently and fearlessly.
Spangna was treated like royalty here, and as two members of the French security team watched over her carefully and aided her attentively, Lennon guessed that she must be very high up on the hierarchy of this place.
"Please! Don't just stand there! Be a mate and sit down!" Spangna announced as she slapped the sofa next to her.
Lennon smiled and sat beside her. Right away he loved her and felt as if he were speaking to a little sister, "So, Spangna - is that a British name?" Lennon asked.
"That's my stage name." Spangna said.
"What's your name, if I'm allowed to ask?" Lennon asked.
She smiled shyly and almost awkwardly as if she had never been asked, "Mercy." She said quietly.
"Seriously?" Lennon asked.
"Swear down." Spangna responded.
"Soo, you like it here?" Lennon asked, amazed at her British colloquialisms that he didn't fully understand, but made a good guess from the context.
"I love it here! Joining the Bordello was the best thing I ever did. It's given me the life I want." Spangna said.
"Don't you miss having time off?" Lennon asked.
"I take time off when I want, but why do that when I can shag and make money? I'm about to retire from clients now anyway. I'm focusing on porn, E-girl work and events." Spangna said.
"Don't you have a boyfriend?" Lennon asked.
A wide and cheeky grin beamed from her rather guilty face, "Hmm, not officially." She said before following it up with the cutest giggle Lennon had ever heard.
"Oh, well I guess it's not good for business, but he's a lucky guy to have you, Spangna." Lennon said.
Spangna smiled and fluttered her eyes in a besotted manner, "Well, it's good for my business! And yeah he's mint and well fit. By the way, you're a mate, you can call me Mercy, but just not in public. Only when we're alone."
"Got it." Lennon said.
One of her Spanish assistants brought up her designer handbag and took her phone out before passing it to her before they quietly bent to speak to her, "The event starts in fifteen minutes, and the signing queue is quite long."
"I better leave you to do your signing event. I hope to catch up with you later, Spangna." Lennon said as a member of security started to usher Lennon away from the starlet.
"Will do Lennon! I'll have my number passed to you!" Spangna said as she blew him a kiss.
Lennon stepped down from the VIP area feeling that he had really met someone special, and he wanted to get to know her.
In the main event room area, most of the eyes in the room were on Chéri because he had just reappeared at the Bordello, seemingly out of the blue, and people were asking him about what he was going to be doing at the masquerade party on the weekend.
Lennon poured himself another whisky and a flute of pink champagne for Chéri. He found Chéri chatting to some of the sex workers until he heard a fuss from the other side of the room. A couple of Chéri's siblings had arrived.
A few people walked into the room. One looked like a bigger, more masculine Chéri, and he had arrived with two very pretty girls.
"Gabriél!" Dolores said as she motioned Lennon to come over. "This is Lennon, Chéri's American boyfriend."
Lennon walked up quickly and put the drinks down to shake Gabriél's hand.
"Hiya, my name is Gabriél, Chéri's eldest brother. This is my girlfriend Monica, and my sister Serena." Gabriél said.
Both Gabriél and Serena strongly resembled Chéri. They both had his slight golden tan, full lips and beautiful bright green eyes.
Serena had beautiful long slightly curled, hot red-dyed hair along with soft and pretty features.
Gabriél was tall and slim, yet more athletically built. He had dyed blonde hair cut into what Lennon thought was a typical surfer fashion. He was very attractive and very straight with his adoring and glamorous Swiss girlfriend Monica, who beamed on his arm. She just looked up longingly into his eyes as he spoke. His voice was shockingly like a deeper version of Chéri's voice with the same strange accent.
Neither of them had the amount of body art that Chéri had. Chéri stood out with the roses on his hands and the tree of cherry blossoms going all the way down his body.
"A real pleasure to meet you all." Lennon said exchanging handshakes and air kisses with the girls.
"Yeah, mamma said something about you." Gabriél said, "She said you taught chemistry."
"Yes, I did, before the work dried up where I live." Lennon said.
"How long have you known Chéri?" Serena asked.
Lennon smiled and looked a little flustered, "Hmm, not long actually."
"So only a few years?" Gabriél asked.
"Well, not that long, actually." Lennon replied with a nervous laugh.
"How long?"
"A matter of weeks."
"Weeks?!" Serena smiled as she lifted a brow to her mother Dolores.
Serena had to be one of the most beautiful girls Lennon had ever seen. She was in her twenties with long wavy hot red hair, thick black eyebrows and massive winged eyeliner like a movie star. She had Chéri's green eyes, high cheekbones and the same slim build. She was wearing a black and emerald green cocktail dress and she moved with the same artistic liquid motions that Chéri moved with. Lennon found himself entranced by the soft sound of her voice and the wavy motions of her hands.
"Yes, yeah. Love at first sight. I fell in love the moment I saw him. It was one of those, Instant things." Lennon replied as he stumbled on his words.
"How did you meet?" Gabriél asked.
"Huh?! Well now, that's an interesting story! And one he tells so much better than me so I'm going to ask him to tell you!" Lennon said with an awkward smile.
Serena smiled at Lennon, revealing her dimples in the same way that Chéri did, "So Lennon.."
"Please, call me Lenn." Lennon cut in.
"Lenn, are you planning to stay in America? Or move here?" Serena asked.
"I'm definitely moving here." Lennon said.
"Good." she said curtly.
"I plan to get a place to live with Chéri, and apply for residency." Lennon said.
"You're moving in together? So soon?" Serena asked.
"Yeah." Lennon answered as they all talked on further, with Lennon managing to steer the conversation away from personal topics and on to general interests. He found that he had lots in common with Chéri's older brother.
They both enjoyed sports, engineering, fishing and outdoor pursuits. He knew he was going to get on famously with him, even though he had to get over the weird fact of Gabriél being a manly Chéri.
"Gabriél! Serena! And the beautiful Monica. I see you've all met my American boyfriend, Lennon." Chéri said as he re-entered the room, his arms outstretched in welcome.
Chéri was wearing an off-shoulder, large brown sequined sweater dress that reached down, just covering his hips and he matched it with over the knee brown heeled boots. He wet-look his hair in waves. For makeup, he had a brown Smokey eye and deep red glittery lipstick with lip gloss over it.
Lennon looked at Chéri and could feel a rising lust within him. He couldn't even help looking him up and down especially due to his shapely thighs that he'd always loved so much.
"Yes! he's charming." Serena said as she smiled at Lennon.
"Put your eyes back in your head Serena." Chéri said with a smile as he took a drink from Lennon.
Gabriél turned around and hugged Chéri, "You still wearing dresses my man?"
"Of course! You're just jealous 'cause I have the figure to pull it off!" Chéri said.
"Haha!" Gabriél laughed, "Speaking of which.." He added as he stepped close to Lennon, "I've been down to the gym..-"
"Once a month." Monica cut in.
"As I was saying.." Gabriél said with a smile, "I wanna get a body like yours. How do you achieve that?"
"Ohh here we go..." Monica said as she rolled her eyes, "He's already asked Marco here, but couldn't keep up with his regime."
"Who's Marco?" Lennon asked.
"One of the two athletic assets here, you saw them earlier." Monica said.
Gabriél threw his hands up, "Yeah but they're all built up and live in the gym. Lennon's lean and according to Chéri stuffs his face with chicken buckets. He actually eats! Not lives on protein shakes."
"Well, I've let myself go this past couple of months, but generally work out every other day." Lennon said.
"I love your accent. Where is it from?" Serena asked.
"The accent - Montréal, Quebec. Where I grew up mostly." Lennon said.
"Ohh! Let's hear some Canadian French!" Serena replied.
"Oh God no!" Gabriél cut in.
Chéri turned to Lennon, "Hold on... do you speak French?"
"Mmm. Not really, and not Parisian French like you all. I speak some of the more guttural Quebecois." Lennon replied.
The conversations continued with everyone getting to know everyone else. Lennon enjoyed meeting a couple of Chéri's many siblings.
Gabriél told Lennon about a classic car he was renovating in one of the garages on the estate and insisted that he and Lennon work on it together. Chéri was bored and lost with the conversation about engine capacity and parts, and he Joined Monica and Serena talking about where best to have a manicure or facial.
Suddenly the kitchen staff called to say snacks were prepared with far more alcohol on offer so they all went to the selection room.
"So what are your plans, Lenn?" Gabriél asked.
"Well, in two months I have to leave the country as I don't have a visa. I was thinking of using that opportunity to fly home and wrap up my life there." Lennon said.
Serena smiled, "I think that's so romantic. An impassioned love-struck American, leaving his whole life to live with a European he's in love with... and just met!"
"Won't you miss your family?" Monica asked.
"I sure will. But I can fly back once every other year to see them." Lennon answered as Serena poured him another drink.
"Do you have brothers to look after your parents?" Serena asked.
Chéri tilted his head at her, "You're not even subtle, Serena!" he said with a smile.
"Yeah, two. My younger brother Logan, and the youngest, Nathen."
"Oh, there are nine of us." Gabriél said.
"Wow! You all look very similar. I see your momma in each of you. Do you all have contact with your father?" Lennon asked.
"Sometimes. Chéri more than most of us as he likes to hang out in England." Gabriél added.
"What's your Papa's name, Chéri?" Lennon asked as he turned to Chéri.
"Sheridan." Chéri answered.
"That's a weird name." Lennon said as he thought about it.
"I think it's descended from Irish, and means untamed - fits him." Chéri added.
"That's dad alright!" Gabriél said, "What's your dad's name, Lennon?"
"Hmm, Merrick."
"Talk about weird names!" Chéri said.
"How's he doing? Is he retired?" Monica asked.
"Well, he's not so well just now, but momma's taking good care of him." Lennon said.
"Yes, I hear your mother's French." Serena asked.
Lennon nodded, "Yes she is. From Paris, France. My Papa always used to tell me that he was punching above his weight with momma, but he talked a good game and was very persistent. Momma had to date him cause she just couldn't get rid of him! My Pa always told me that if he took no for an answer and didn't take a few slaps, none of us would have been born. I think I get my resilience from him." Lennon said.
"Do you look like him, Lenny?" Chéri asked.
"Heck! We're all carbon copies of him! Back in my town, I and my brothers were known as the Adamski boys as we were always together." Lennon said.
Chéri nodded, "Lenny says his family mostly has boys, no girls!"
"Really?" Gabriél asked.
"Yeah, we are a male-heavy family. There ain't been an Adamski girl in ages. In fact, we're just the latest set of Adamski boys. The previous ones were my Pa and his brothers. I think my momma got the best one though." Lennon said.
"How did your parents meet?" Serena asked.
Lennon looked down and giggled, scratching his eyebrow as he recalled the story, "Hehe well, Papa told me that when they were young, he stole her off her then-husband, some stuffy, angry and stuck-up French guy. They owned a café together and an industrial fridge broke down so they called a maintenance man. In walks my Pa - they see each other and... the rest is history. He told me that he spent more time breaking the damned fridge than fixing it. He made sure she had to keep callin' him back."
"That's soo romantic." Monica exclaimed.
"Sounds like he fixed more than their appliances!" Chéri said.
Lennon nodded, "He sure did. She ran off with my Pa in no time. He still has the gift of the gab."
"Yet you're so quiet." Serena said.
"Well, I look just like my Papa but I take after my Momma." Lennon said.
"Well, we need someone like you in the family business, Lennon. You're level-headed and calm, you think with your head and not your dick, just what we need." Serena said.
"I would disagree. My objective thought process has been greatly influenced by my dick of recent." Lennon smiled and raised his brows.
"What's this! A saucy joke? Mmm?" Chéri teased.
"Hardly. You know, I can't get over how alike you are with your siblings." Lennon added.
"Except for the obvious." Cheri joked.
"They say there's a gay gene? But no-ones found it." Gabriél said.
"Yeah, I got them all." Cheri joked.
"I'm not even going to get started on your genes, Chéri." Serena added.
Chéri stopped smiling immediately and just stared at his sister with a fixed and serious stare.
"Well, I wish I knew where my gay gene is so I could give thanks for it." Lennon added.
"Are you drunk? Or is the European Freedom starting to affect you?" Chéri said to Lennon.
"Well, I must say. I don't think it's the alcohol but, I've never felt so... Included. So natural. I don't feel like I'm silently lying to anyone. At first, I was surprised about it, but I love your family's openness and the freedoms you all hold so dear." Lennon said.
"Oh my God, I think he's actually starting to get it, or he's drunk." Chéri laughed.
The alcohol flowed freely as the night went on and they all talked about everything, from religion to politics, music art.
Gabriél proposed some after-dinner games but most people were too inebriated to want to spend too long thinking about anything. He pointed out the working ladies and gentlemen of the Bordello knew the best party games and loved to play in between clients.
Lennon turned to see Chéri breathing deeply and slowly on his asthma inhaler. Chéri would unclip the mouthpiece delicately, shake it, slowly bring it up to his mouth to suck on the mouthpiece and then he would press the button, causing a spraying sound, then slowly inhale. He would then do it again two or three times, exhaling when he'd finished.
Lennon tilted his head, transfixed on Chéri using his inhaler and leaving bright red lipstick on the mouthpiece that he would wipe off with a napkin. Then he'd always get his cherry lip gloss out and slowly go over his lips again and again.
The conversation around became a din in the background as Lennon watched Chéri apply his cherry lip gloss and wipe the side of his mouth with his finger. He could feel himself becoming aroused and was worried that it would be noticeable.
"Please excuse me. I need the little girls' room to fix my face." Chéri said with a smile as he got up.
Chéri walked into the mens and stood in front of the large toilet mirror as he restyled his hair. He felt Lennon's arms slide around his waist to embrace him.
"Mmm, Lenny." Chéri said.
"Do you know how gorgeous you look?" Lennon asked quietly in Chéri's ear before he started to kiss the side of Chéri's neck.
"Aww Thank you. But everyone's eyes are on you, Lenny. I've never not been the centre of attention."
"You're always the centre of my attention." Lennon said as he pulled Chéri against him.
"Mmm Lenny, is that something very large in your pocket or are you glad to see me?" Chéri said.
Lennon whispered in his ear, "I got such a massive fuckin' erection that I'm gettin' light-headed! So, I am glad to see you all dolled up and yummy." Lennon breathed.
"Yummy?! You're drunk Lenny!"
"Nah."
"Then you're very, very horny. I can tell by the look in your eyes." Chéri said with a giggle.
"Let's go upstairs. I want to make some mad love with you." Lennon whispered.
Chéri turned to face Lennon with a grin, "No Lenny! We can't just walk out on everyone! Mum would kill me!"
Lennon stared at him for a moment in Contemplation during a brief pause, "Fuck it. Come suck my dick." he said as he pulled Chéri into a cubical then put his hand on Chéri's shoulder, pushing him down slightly, while he started to undo his thick belt with the other hand. "Darlin', I want to see how much of that gorgeous red lipstick you can leave on me."
Next Chapter: Home Is Where The Heart Is