Black Light: Roulette War
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Black Light: Roulette War
Jennifer Bene
Livia Grant
Renee Rose
Measha Stone
Sue Lyndon
Golden Angel
Eris Adderly
Kay Elle Parker
Contents
Roulette War: Introduction
Declaration of War
The War is On
Showtime at Black Light East
Prelude
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
About the Author
Breathless
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
About the Author
Burn
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
About the Author
Inflamed
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
About the Author
Meanwhile at Black Light West…
Wicked
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
About the Author
Trained
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
About the Author
Unexpected
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
About the Author
Facade
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
About the Author
And the Winner Is…
Conclusion
There’s more to discover in the world of Black Light!
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Black Light: Roulette War
Jennifer Bene, Livia Grant, Renee Rose, Sue Lyndon, Measha Stone, Golden Angel, Eris Adderly, Kay Elle Parker
Published by Black Collar Press
EBook ISBN: 978-1-947559-22-6
Print ISBN: 978-1-947559-21-9
Cover Art by Eris Adderly, http://erisadderly.com/
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Roulette War: Introduction
By Jennifer Bene & Livia Grant
Declaration of War
Elijah
Runway West
Mid-December
Elijah pulled up to the front gate of the Runway/Black Light property thirty minutes later than he’d wanted. Waving his ID card in front of the reader on the pedestal, the gates started to open, and he nodded at the security guy in the guard shack as he drove through the gate. The poor schmuck had pulled the unlucky shift of working while the rest of the employees would be taking the night off to party.
The Runway parking lot was half full, telling him the turnout for the annual holiday party his bosses were throwing was strong. He rolled out of his sports car with effort, not for the first time thinking about how it was time to trade it in.
He was distracted with the thought, accidentally dropping his keys to the dark pavement.
“Damnit.”
His lower back cracked as he crouched to the ground, feeling around until he found his keyring. He hated how old he’d started to feel, courtesy of his much-abused body.
Ignoring the aches, Elijah took the front stairs to the Runway mansion two at a time in a show of defiance against his own body. He rarely came in the front door, usually entering the property through the secret entrance leading directly to Black Light in the bowels of the building. He’d forgotten how impressive the grand foyer was with its double staircases leading up to the opulent suites.
The mansion was especially beautiful at this time of year, courtesy of the more than a dozen Christmas trees dispersed through the property, each beautifully decorated with twinkling lights and sparkling ornaments. He passed several of them as he made his way toward the mammoth Runway party room where that night’s event was being hosted.
“It’s about time you got here. I was about to send out a search party for you.” His number two, Tyler Darden, greeted him as soon as he rounded the corner just outside the main club room. The holiday music was loud enough he had to speak up to answer.
“Be glad I came at all. I’m not really into the dance scene, and even less into Christmas parties.”
“Bah humbug. I’ll just call you the grinch for the rest of the night. Maybe you should start with a visit to the open bar.”
“Maybe you’re right,” he offered as he passed his co-worker.
He spent more than enough time in clubs these days. It had been tempting to just stay home, yet it was events like this that reminded Elijah of how lucky he was to have fallen into his second career. As he looked around the room full of revelers, many of whom he now considered close personal friends, he was grateful the Cartwright-Davidsons had given him a chance when they’d opened the club almost two years before. Considering he’d had no experience in running a BDSM club, they’d taken a risk.
“Elijah!”
Avery, the mansion’s chef, ambushed him from behind. When he turned to greet her, she leaned in for an extra-long hug.
“Hey there. Looks like everyone’s having fun.”
Avery’s eyes twinkled with mischief as she replied. “You can say that. We’re burning through alcohol faster than food. At this rate, I worry we’ll have a lot of people either sleeping over or calling an Uber later.”
Elijah chuckled. “Well, I’m not planning on drinking much tonight so I’m happy to give rides home to anyone who needs them.”
“Funny. I never thought of you as the designated driver type,” Avery added.
He didn’t take her bait. She didn’t need to know he’d just started a new round of medicine in the hopes of finding something that could help his
broken body not feel like it had been run over by a truck half the time.
They spent a few minutes chit-chatting with a group of groundskeepers and security guards before moving deeper into the room toward the large crowd gathered around several tables near the patio door. Jaxson Cartwright-Davidson was tall enough to stand a head above everyone else in the pack.
Elijah was almost to the group when he stopped dead in his tracks. What the fuck? If he didn’t know better, he could swear that was…
“There he is! I was just asking about you, old man.”
“What the hell are you doing here, Cook? You decide to visit the real Black Light looking for pointers on how to up your game?”
Despite his antagonistic words, Elijah reached out to shake hands with his East Coast counterpart, Spencer Cook. Only after the men were shaking hands did he notice the attractive woman moving closer to the men.
“I see you’re still hanging out with this jerk, Klara. Isn’t it time you come to your senses and ditch him?”
The men had dropped their handshake in time for Elijah to lean in to place a platonic kiss on the Black Light East head bartender’s cheek as she chuckled.
“I think it’s too late for that now. We just got hitched.”
Elijah looked back at Spencer who had a shit-eating grin on his face.
“That’s right. Better be careful there, Keaton. I don’t like you getting handsy with my wife.”
“Holy shit. Spencer Cook married. That’s something I never saw coming.” Elijah grinned at Klara, teasing, “Here I thought you were a smart woman.”
She played along. “I know, right? Although I did finally convince him to take a few weeks off at least for a vacation over the holidays. Too bad I had to get hitched just to get time-off.”
Elijah razzed Spencer. “Wow, what a cheap bastard. Since when is attending a complimentary Christmas party considered a honeymoon?”
“You’re an asshole, you know that?” Spencer countered before turning to his wife. “Are you going to let that stand without telling him the truth?”
Klara grinned as she reached out to pat her husband’s chest as if to placate him. “What’s the fun in that?”
Spencer groused as he was forced to set Elijah straight on his own. “We’re just in town on a two-day stopover between Vegas and Hawaii. Silly me, I thought coming to the party would be fun, but I clearly forgot you’d be here, Keaton.”
Elijah laughed off the insult. Spencer Cook was a certified asshole, but he didn’t take it personally since he was pretty much an equal-opportunity asshole, treating everyone, including the club’s owners, like shit.
“Well, I’m sorry to hear you’re off the market, Klara. Especially since you decided to marry a grumpy old man. I’ve been hoping you’d move out here to the best Black Light,” Elijah joked.
“Are you fucking kidding me? You have a watered down version of Black Light going on out here with your fancy celebrities and the throngs of fans who just come to watch. You don’t have a clue how to run a real BDSM club,” Spencer spat, clearly not realizing Elijah had been goofing around.
“Hey, can you keep it down? I don’t think the shoppers down on Rodeo Drive heard you talking about our completely private and secret club.” Jaxson had walked over to join them, toddler Alicia wiggling in his arms. “And for the record, I’d appreciate it, Cook, if you’d stop cussing in front of my kids. In fact, I think everyone here for the Christmas party would prefer you left your f-bombs at home.”
Elijah had to hide his grin at watching the owner setting Spencer in his place. Jaxson was about the only person who usually got away with it. Well, him and Klara, of course.
Spencer wouldn’t let it drop. “I was just explaining to Elijah that his club isn’t really a BDSM club. It’s just a private sex club where a few BDSM scenes may occasionally happen.”
He couldn’t let the diss stand. “Are you kidding me? The level of kink is way heavier here than in D.C. You guys are just a bunch of stuffy politicians and uptight government officials.”
“Are you fu… um… I mean, are you kidding me? Not only is the East Coast way more hardcore into the kink scene, but we have more members and bring in more membership fees every month.”
Elijah could feel his blood pressure rising. He hadn’t come to the party expecting to have to defend Black Light West. If it was just him, he might just laugh it off and walk away, but it suddenly felt like the music volume had been turned down and the group of his dungeon monitors that had been hanging out by the bar had walked over to stand behind Elijah, forming a nice line of defense.
“First of all, you may have more members on your membership roll, but I pay attention to the numbers too. Your attendance has been declining in the last year and you have less than twenty-five percent of the number of educational classes that we do out here.”
“Like I said, that’s because no one is really experienced out here. Just a sex club.”
“That’s bullshit.” Only after he said it did Elijah remember, glancing up at Jaxson and adding, “Sorry. I meant that’s crap.” He then turned back to Spencer to continue. “More importantly, our membership numbers are growing month over month and our food and beverage revenue has never been higher.”
“So what? That just means you’re turning into a restaurant instead of a real club.”
Madison and Avery had joined their group, as had all of the security guards hanging out with Miguel and his wife. Elijah had to stifle a smile when he realized Spencer was literally surrounded by the whole West Coast family. They’d gathered around to watch the showdown.
He didn’t want to disappoint them.
Stepping closer to Spencer, Elijah resisted bumping chests like a caveman. “You have a lot of balls, I’ll give you that. Coming into our house and throwing shade. But you’ve got your head up your ass if you think the East Coast club is better in any way.
“We are growing. Both our revenue and bottom line income outpaces you. Hell, we’ve raised more for charity in the last year than you’ve taken in for profit.”
Spencer’s face was getting more red by the minute as he stepped forward to bump chests, knocking into Elijah hard enough that he almost fell backwards. He steeled himself to hold his ground.
“The fact that you spend time raising money for charity instead of for the bottom line just proves my point. You’re running a glorified country club out here. Admit it. You’re no more a BDSM club than Runway is.”
His DMs started to crowd in, and Elijah threw his arms out to hold them back. Cook clearly had a death wish coming into their house and picking a fight like this.
He wasn’t going to let Spencer’s hotheaded temper drag him into a physical fight. He took a few deep breaths before he replied up in Spencer’s face.
“First of all, not everyone in this room is a Black Light employee, so you should absolutely know better than to be picking this particular fight with me up here at Runway. But for the record, we raised a ton of money and hosted an epic Roulette event last year. You see, we can talk and chew gum at the same time.
“More importantly, we’ve already started planning for the upcoming Valentine’s Day and once again, like last year, we’re gonna blow your numbers out of the water!”
“Oh yeah, well money isn’t everything. Our Valentine’s Day is going to be epic. We have a waiting list a mile long for Roulette participants and we haven’t even opened enrollment yet.”
“That doesn’t make any sense. And anyway, of course we’re both going to have plenty of participants. This isn’t about quantity anyway, it’s about quality. Our scenes from last year were hands down the best ever. People are still talking about that night, months later.”
“That’s only because they don’t know any better. The few West members who have visited us on the East coast always say they wish their club could be more like ours.”
“Oh really. That’s funny. They all come back home and tell me how glad they are I’m not a raving asshole lik
e you are.”
“Alright, alright, I think that’s just about enough…” Jaxson tried to step between his two DMs to break things up. He had gotten rid of Alicia at some point, which was a good thing.
Klara was grabbing her husband’s forearm, pulling him away and berating him for embarrassing her.
Elijah took a few deep breaths, determined not to let Spencer’s sunny nature drag him down.
But the visitor was determined to escalate things by shouting, “I’ll bet you anything our event will blow yours out of the water this year.”