In a shaky voice, I replied, “Yes, I really do want to know.”
The man’s smile widened. “I’m Jackson,” he said. “I’m one of the owners of the club.”
“Hi Jackson,” I murmured. He was still standing close enough to hear me, close enough for me to smell whatever intoxicating cologne he wore. God, he smelled so good.
“If you really want to know what the Underground is, you’re going to have to come with me upstairs.”
I frowned a little. “Why would I need to go with you upstairs if the Underground is downstairs?”
“Everyone has to be vetted before they get to go downstairs,” Jackson replied. “It’s members only.”
Everything in me was saying no! Run! but my feet stayed planted where they were. Any other night, I would have walked away without another word, but I couldn’t fight the growing excitement in my stomach. And I was just so damned curious. I really wanted to know what was downstairs.
Besides, if worst came to worst, all my black belt in karate would protect me.
Steeling myself, I said, “Okay.”
Jackson raised his eyebrows. “You’re sure?”
I took a deep breath and nodded. My hand shook, making the ice cubes in my drink clank together. “I’m sure.”
“Alright, let’s go then.”
I quickly downed my drink, grimacing a little, and put it on the bar behind me. Jackson rested his hand on the small of my back and began to guide me through the crowd. I could feel the heat of his hand through the thin material of my dress and it helped put me at ease.
We made it to the edge of the crowd, through a door, and walked down a hallway. When we reached an elevator, Jackson punched in a code and the doors opened. He gestured for me to step inside.
I hesitated, knowing this was my last chance to back. But did I want to back out?
No, I thought, no, I want to see this through. I want to know.
My feet moved of their own accord, stepping inside the elevator. Jackson followed me and pressed the button for the second floor.
He smiled at me.
Last chance! There’s still time to run through the doors!
But I didn’t. Instead, I returned Jackson’s smile and watched the elevator doors closed.
Caleb
For the past hour, I sat at my desk, doing nothing but staring off into space. Right before Jackson went downstairs to walk around the club, I told him I planned to look through the stack of papers that have been waiting on my desk for two days, but as of yet, I hadn’t even made it through the top page.
I really needed to get it together. I couldn’t let Jackson catch on to how bothered I’d been lately. He’d catch on if I let the paperwork sit any longer. After growing up the child of a businessman who imparted a lot of business wisdom to me, I was the one who loved doing the paperwork. I took pride in it.
Having flings that were mutually beneficial to both me and the ladies I had them with used to make me feel great. I never had much luck with long-term relationships. Things never lasted long and it just became easier to have flings.
Besides, it was fun to date around. I liked meeting new women and felt good each time one took interest in me. But dating became exhausting and it just wasn’t exciting the way it used to be. Dates became less and less frequent until it was practically non-existent. Many of the dates I did have, I canceled at the last minute, simply too exhausted to do more than go home and veg in front of the TV.
Dating wasn’t the only thing I’ve let fall by the wayside. I used to love to go running. Jackson and I would go running together at least once a week, if not more. Now I was lucky to run once or twice a week. I had to force myself to get to the gym, something I once loved. Lifting weights made me feel alive, like I was working my way toward becoming the best version of myself.
And then there was my first love, mixed martial arts. As a young kid, I was a huge fan of MMA and couldn’t wait until I could start training for it too. I begged my parents for nearly two years before they finally relented and found a program for kids for me.
At first, I figured my interests were just changing because I’d reached my mid-thirties, but nothing interested me. I tried reading, video games, restoring furniture. Hell, I even signed up for a sculpting class and only made it to the first class before I gave up.
The club was the one thing in my life I was still able to lose myself. The one thing that still made me feel good about myself. I’d work for hours in the office pouring over reports and researching ways to keep up the club’s prominent growth. Then I’d treat myself by walking around the first floor, immersing myself in the crowd and all the people enjoying themselves, before I went downstairs.
But now even work, my solace, drained me of the little energy I had. It killed me.
I couldn’t help but wonder if it was because I’m damaged. Defective. Nightmares plague me each night, images of explosions and blood and death.
I found myself wanting something real in my life, someone who loved me and accepted me for the way I am. But why should I bother putting the energy into something that could never happen? I’d feel too much guilt foisting all my problems on a girlfriend. Why should they have to suffer through my PTSD episodes and the OCD that tormented my life? It wouldn’t be fair to them, or to myself when they finally had enough and left me.
I could never force someone to tie themselves to me. Sometimes I still had trouble believing Jackson willingly wanted to be in my life. For whatever reasons he stayed, I was grateful for it. I don’t think I’d make it if it wasn’t for him.
After I visited Jackson at his house the other day, it took him two nights before he was able to drag me into the club. He put up with me so much.
I sighed, leaning forward and burying my face in my hands. Why couldn’t I just keep it together? Why did I find it so hard?
I hadn’t even been down to the Dungeon yet, the place I normally looked forward to visiting most. Maybe I’d force myself down there before I took off for the night. I hoped the atmosphere would infect me, calm me down.
The office door banged open, startling me from my thoughts. Jackson walked in holding the hand of the most gorgeous woman I’d ever seen.
God, even with a mask obscuring her face, I could see she was a true beauty. The woman was tall and slender, wearing a black dress that hit her a mid-thigh. It showed off her shapely thighs. A flash of those thighs wrapping around my waist filled my mind.
I could see lean muscles in her arms and legs and instantly knew she was a fighter of some sort. I’d seen that body type on other women at the MMA gym I was a member of. That intrigued me.
She played with her blonde hair while she looked around the office, a gesture that was typically seen as nervous, but I saw suspicion in this woman’s eyes. I appreciated her shrewdness, admired it.
Jackson looked over her head at me and cocked his head as if to ask what do you think? I nodded and stood from my desk. Perhaps this night was destined to be better than recent ones.
Jackson let go of the woman’s hand and shrugged out of his jacket. He laid it on the back of his chair and took his mask off.
“Who do we have here?” I asked, walking around my desk. I leaned on it and crossed my arms over my chest.
The woman looked me up and down. She seemed to like what she saw by the way her eyes slightly widened.
She met my eyes and held them. “I’m Erin.”
Erin reached up to take off her mask, revealing a face more beautiful than I was expecting. Her green eyes were fathomless. I felt myself growing a little lost looking into them.
Clearing my throat, I pointed to a chair. “Please sit.”
Erin complied, gracefully sinking into the plush chair.
“Would you like anything to drink?” I asked, pointing to the bar cart we kept in the office.
“I just had one downstairs, but thank you for the offer,” Erin replied. Even her voice was lovely. “I actually came up here because I was curious ab
out what goes on in the basement. Jackson said he was in charge.”
“Actually, we both are,” I said. I walked toward Erin and put out my hand. She stood up and took my hand, shaking it. Her skin was so warm and smooth, and the feel of it against mine made my hand tingle. “I’m Caleb.”
“Nice to meet you, Caleb,” she said, giving me a wry smile. “I’m curious about what makes the Underground so exclusive.”
“It definitely isn’t for everyone,” Jackson said, chuckling and joining us over at the relaxing chairs we kept in the office.
“Okay,” Erin said with some suspicion. She was right to be suspicious.
“We have to personally assess everyone before they’re invited downstairs,” Jackson said. He had that smirk of his plastered across his face.
I touched her arm and said, “I don’t know if it’s a scene for a pretty sorority girl like you.”
“I’m not exactly Mother Teresa,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Besides, I’ve never been in a sorority.”
I liked her response. I liked her.
I stepped closer, invading her space. “What do you know about BDSM, Erin?”
Erin appeared to think about it for a moment before she said, “Honestly, not that much.”
“What do you think of being bound or whipped? Of completely submitting yourself to another person?”
Erin’s eyes widened and I watched her cheeks flush. She definitely appeared to be interested. “I’m open to new experiences,” she said, keeping her voice even.
I cupped her cheeks in my hands. “Jackson and I like to personally assess all our applicants. Do you understand?”
I felt Erin nod between my hands.
Lowering my voice, I said, “If you aren’t ready or aren’t interested, you have to leave now. But after this, Erin, there is no going back.”
Erin
At first I thought Caleb was joking, but the determined expression on his face told me otherwise. He was dead serious. I glanced at Jackson and saw his face mirrors Caleb’s. This was all real. This club had an actual BDSM dungeon in the basement and they were offering me a view into the lifestyle.
Was this something I could do? Could I enter the world of BDSM and experiment with these two? Did I even want to?
Yes, a voice in the back of my mind shouted. Yes, absolutely!
I was truthful when I told Caleb and Jackson I didn’t know much about BDSM. Most of what I’d learned over the years from television and an old coworker who loved to overshare, but neither of those things painted a very complete picture of what all BDSM entailed.
Caleb’s words rang through my head. What do you think of being bound or whipped? Of completely submitting yourself to another person?
When he’d said that, uttered those words, I felt something.
I’d never had much of a physical reaction when former lovers tried to talk dirty to me. I just figured it didn’t do much for me. But those two sentences made my body react in a way my exes always wished I would. My breath became short, jagged, and I felt something squirm in my stomach. Most telling was the way I felt my pussy spasm.
I had to squeeze my thighs together just to stave off the excitement I felt at imagining myself tied to a bed naked, Jackson and Caleb leaning over me, completely in control of what happened next.
“How do you assess me?” I finally managed to ask. I hoped my voice didn’t quiver, but I couldn’t help the excitement coursing through me. These two men were so different than any other men I met in the past. They felt dangerous, but I didn’t feel scared.
I felt alive.
To my left, I heard the rustle of clothes. Turning my head to the side, I watched Jackson unbutton his shirt, more of his smooth, firm muscles revealing themselves as he went.
Caleb, still cupping my face, turned it back to face him. “Do you want to leave?” he asked.
Last chance, my brain shouted, but I was okay with that. I wanted this, wanted to know what it felt like. I wanted to know what they could do to me.
“No,” I replied.
The world was barely from my lips when Caleb surged forward and kissed me.
The kiss was hard and firm and I kissed him back with everything I had.
I knew Jackson was watching us and couldn’t help but wonder if that’s what he got off on. Voyeurism. Jackson’s soulful gray eyes watching us sent another spike of lust through my body.
All my thoughts retreated when Caleb deepened the kiss. My knees threatened to buckle beneath me, and I was glad he still held onto me otherwise I’d surely be on the floor. I got lost in our kiss in a way I’d never experienced before. I’d always thought kissing was just kissing. A type of foreplay. But the way Caleb kissed me felt like sex, like an act unto itself.
After a minute, an hour, eternity, who knows, I felt another body press firmly against my back.
Jackson, my mind shouted. It was Jackson; his hands on my hips, his lips on my neck.
I broke the kiss with Caleb to turn my head to Jackson.
“We like to share,” he murmured, and then he kissed me too, maneuvering my body to face him as he did.
It made my head spin to kiss Jackson. I’d wanted him from the second I laid eyes on him and now we finally kissed.
Kissing Jackson was very different than kissing Caleb yet still incredible. Jackson had a tenderness about him that Caleb lacked while Caleb was more assertive.
I felt thoroughly debauched by the time Jackson broke our kiss. I probably looked it too. Jackson pulled away enough that I saw Caleb at the bar cart, pouring a drink.
“I think I’ll have that drink now,” I panted, my chest heaving. I could only imagine how wet my underwear were.
Both Jackson and Caleb laughed, though I could see shock register on Jackson’s face as he stared at his friend. Was it because Caleb was laughing? I didn’t know.
Jackson managed to recover. “What do you think, man?” he asked.
“She’s perfect,” Caleb replied. “She’s a perfect fit.”
“Yeah,” Jackson replied, “I think so too.”
Caleb grabbed a packet of papers from a file cabinet. “Contract?” he asked.
As a lawyer, I felt a sudden apprehension come over me. A contract? I wasn’t sure about signing anything. Even if it was standard procedure when visiting a BDSM, I didn’t want to sign anything without taking it home to read first.
Biting my lip, I decided to fib a little. “I only have a week left in my vacation,” I explained. “My friend is getting married the day before Halloween. We’re staying at the Golden Gate until then.”
While I normally wasn’t one for lying, I technically hadn’t told them anything that was untrue.
Jackson and Caleb appeared to have a silent conversation between them. “A contract might not be necessary for Erin,” Caleb mused aloud.
“I agree,” Jackson said. He turned his gaze back to me. “We can have fun together while you’re here if you want.”
Yeah, I definitely liked the sound of that.
I gave him a small smile. “I’d like that.”
The smile that spread across Jackson’s face was breathtaking. He really was impossibly good-looking. “Great! We can get started tomorrow night.”
“Cool,” I said. A thought entered my head.
When I came back tomorrow to learn about BDSM, would both men be there? Together at the same time?
“Will both of you be there?” I asked, feeling a bit sheepish.
Caleb lowered his voice back to that assertive told from earlier. “Do you want both of us there?”
I struggled to say the words aloud. Yes, I wanted them both there. Yes, I wanted to know what it felt like to have the attention of two handsome men at once. I wanted to submit to both of them.
I nodded. Clearing my throat, I asked, “Do you two share everything?”
Again, they looked at each other before Caleb shrugged. “That’s a story for another time, Erin.”
He walked back over to me and fin
ally handed me my drink. It pleasantly burned my throat when I drank it.
Caleb set his drink down on the coffee table and pulled out his wallet. He briefly riffled through it before finding what he looked for. It was a card.
He handed it to me. “When you come back, show this to the bartender and they’ll let you in. Okay?”
“Yeah,” I said, desperately looking forward to tomorrow. “I’ll be there.”
Jackson
I hadn’t heard Caleb laugh for months. Thinking about it, I came up blank when I tried to remember the last time. However, after just ten minutes in Erin’s presence, he laughed. A real laugh rather than one of the tight, fake ones he let out whenever he was socially expected to laugh.
None of the other women he’d spent time with had managed to make him laugh no matter how funny and beautiful they were. I remember one woman from a few months ago who was a stand-up comedian and an absolute riot, but she’d barely managed to make Caleb smile.
So was it about Erin that managed to break the damn he’d built inside himself? Was she some sort of enchantress, a witch who’d cast a love spell? Whatever or whoever she was, she was special.
I couldn’t deny that I was pretty smitten with her already too. Downstairs in the club, I’d stood nearby as she asked Grey about the Underground, drawn to her by the sound of her voice. Then she’d turned around and my heart stuttered in my chest. Erin was so beautiful and desirable and inquisitive and I couldn’t help but look forward to tomorrow night.
Eventually, I looked over at Caleb. He leaned against his desk, sipping his drink, also lost in thought.
“What should we tell her when she comes back?” I asked, my voice cutting through the silence.
Another honest-to-God smile illuminated Caleb’s face. “Well, she did say she wasn’t Mother Teresa.”
“True,” I chuckled.
“And she didn’t run screaming after we both kissed her.”
Two Billionaires in Vegas: A Halloween MFM Romance (Love by Numbers Book 1) Page 3