by Eden Summers
“Like what?” She loosened her grip on his shoulders and stroked the side of his face with a finger. For someone so tough and opinionated, she had a soft heart.
“Like you’re offering me your soul.” Her brown irises were still dark with lust, her mouth tilted toward his, willing, waiting. “I’ll take it, Shay. And I’ll never give it back.”
Her lips curved, a delicate, almost embarrassed smile hitting him full force. How could this not work between them? They were on the same wavelength, held the same desire. In the end, passion would win. He knew it would.
“You can—” She gasped at the click of an opening door behind them. “Shit.”
She shoved at his chest, pushing him until she had room to slide off the counter. Heavy footfalls came from the entry, while Shay rushed to straighten her skirt and untangle her hair.
“It’s only T.J. or Brute,” Leo offered, taking his time to dispose of the used condom. “Nobody else is allowed down here yet.”
She shot him a look of incredulity. “Exactly,” she squeaked.
His heart changed from the desire-ridden thump to something harsh, something uncomfortable. They had so many things to discuss, and no time to do it. Later, once the club was closed and he’d taken her home to sate their lust, they’d talk. And they wouldn’t stop until all cards were on the table. She needed to understand his sex life was intertwined with T.J. and Brute’s. They weren’t gay, had never even glanced down that path, but they shared a lot of sexual moments, and many, many women. It was like an additional partnership added to their business relationship. The three of them knew how to work together, to make a woman wild and replete. Even though T.J. didn’t participate physically, he still played an integral role, and contemplating the conclusion of this part of Leo’s life was like a stab through his gut.
Shay was strong and he could sense her curiosity for Vault of Sin. But no matter how much she lessened the tight hold on her inhibitions, Leo doubted she would ever be able to participate with all her bosses around to enjoy the show.
Brute strode into the room, clearing his throat in a less than subtle manner. “Catch you at a bad time?” he drawled, hitting Leo with an unapologetic smirk. A silent message of congratulation passed between them, one that Leo acknowledged with a slight tip of his head.
Shay’s back stiffened and she spun around to face the interloper. “Just setting up for the night.”
Leo tried not to laugh at her high-pitched tone and placed a strong hand at the low of her spine. “Chill,” he whispered in her ear.
“Right.” Brute raised a brow as he slid across a stool and stretched his arm over the bar. “You might need these then.” He retrieved her lace G-string from the counter and held it up on his pointed finger.
Shay sucked in a breath, the back of her neck and sides of her cheeks turning pink. If it had been any other woman, Leo would’ve assumed she was embarrassed, only Shay’s balled fists below the counter said otherwise.
“Thanks,” she gritted through clenched teeth and snatched her underwear from Brute’s hold. “I’m going to freshen up.” She strode around the counter, head held high, spine straight, and left the room without another word.
Leo waited until she was out of view before he turned to Brute. “Was that necessary?”
“Yeah. Kinda.” The smug fucker still flashed a tiny grin. “Thanks for the show. Obviously you didn’t hear me open the door the first time. I had to go back and pretend I was coming in again.”
Leo narrowed his gaze. Normally, Brute wouldn’t have given a shit about interrupting. He would’ve pulled up a stool and watched without remorse. “It’s not like you to walk away from me putting on a show.”
Brute scowled. “It’s not you I watch, asshole. My focus is always on the women, and this is different. This is Shay.”
Shit. Had he fucked up by assuming his friends wouldn’t mind her involvement in Vault of Sin? They hadn’t brought it up, but neither had they discussed it. “And you don’t want to watch her?”
“If I had a problem with her participating down here, I would’ve brought it up sooner. I just thought you guys were still on shaky ground and I didn’t want to rock the boat.”
Leo released the breath tightening his lungs. “Thanks.”
“Relax. She turned up. That was the hardest part.” The arrogance returned to Brute’s face. “And for future reference, I’d watch her all damn day. In fact, I’d be happy to show her what she’s missing not being with a real man.”
Leo rolled his eyes. “No point baiting me. I’m wound too tight to snap back. You’re more likely to score a fist to the throat.”
Brute chuckled. “I actually thought Shay might’ve done the same when I was swinging around her panties. That woman is going to keep you on your toes.”
Damn straight. “Yeah. If this works out, she’ll send me gray before my time.” Leo couldn’t wait.
“And what will it take for this to work? She was pretty freaked when I walked in. Are you willing to change your extra-curricular activities to keep her?”
Leo glanced toward the door Shay had disappeared into and rubbed a hand along the stubble of his chin. “I don’t know. I’m going to try whatever necessary, and she’s trying too. It’s a hell of a lot further than any of us have got with this fucked up lifestyle.”
A bitter tinge entered Brute’s gaze. “True. Just remember the higher you get, the harder you fall.”
“I don’t plan to fall.”
“Good.” Brute slid from his stool. “I’m happy for you both.” He reached behind his back and pulled a folded piece of paper from his pocket. “The non-disclosure.” He handed it to Leo. “Make sure she reads it before you shove your dick into her again. We don’t want her claiming she had to sign under duress.”
The faint squeak of the bathroom door sounded as Leo snatched the paper. “If you walked in on us before, you’d know there was no duress. Just a gorgeous woman who happens to enjoy my handiwork.”
Brute scoffed. “Yeah. Too bad for her, your personality isn’t as endearing.”
“As endearing as what?” Shay asked, one eyebrow raised as she strolled toward them.
“Nothin’.” Leo strode around the bar, fighting the need to surge forward and claim her again. “Brute was just leaving.”
Chapter Seventeen
Shay was proud she’d kept her cool for most of her shift. She served partially dressed patrons with ease, even fought the impulse to stare at the appendages of the entirely naked ones, and she no longer felt the cloying discomfort whenever her gaze brushed past sex scenes in the main room.
In fact, she was beginning to enjoy watching, a little too much. Her G-string was uncomfortably soaked, and every time Leo walked into view, she cursed the way her nipples tingled. It was worse when he came to check on her. She ached to grab his shirt collar and drag him into the storeroom.
But that wasn’t how things worked down here. Everything was about exhibitionism, not hiding in storage closets and making out in the dark. More importantly, it wasn’t what Leo desired. As the minutes ticked by, her motivation to give him what he wanted grew. Only, she wasn’t sure when she was destined to grow a pair and suck it up.
“Can I order a juice, please?”
Shay smiled at the petite brunette and nodded. “Sure.”
Another thing she loved was the professional manner in which everyone interacted. The cost of entry downstairs included free alcohol, yet none of them rushed to get their money’s worth. Everyone played it cool, keeping level-headed. The perception of a seedy sex club was entirely different from the reality of Vault of Sin.
Shay handed over the juice and tingled with the brush of someone’s gaze on her skin. She turned her head and found Leo watching her, his eyes glazed with lust. Her focus lowered to his crotch and she shuffled uncomfortably at the thickness pressed against his zipper.
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Whore.
She smiled to herself. Yep, her thoughts were those of a bona fide slut, and she didn’t give a rat’s ass. She’d never been so aroused in her life. And right now, she didn’t care what was turning Leo on. All she wanted was to sate their cravings.
As she continued to serve polite patrons, she watched him mingle in the main room. He put those who appeared nervous at ease. Always remaining the professional host with his confident posture and commanding stare, all the while glancing at her every few minutes with irises that never ceased making her burn.
To stop herself from escaping to the bathroom for her own private play session, she turned her back to the room and began wiping down the shelf filled with high-class liquor bottles.
“Leo.”
The purred feminine call had Shay snapping round on her heels. The petite brunette she’d served earlier was now draped around Leo, both arms wrapped around his neck with a familiarity that flicked Shay’s jealous-bitch switch.
The only thing between the attractive woman and the boner Shay wanted to grapple was two thin layers of clothing. Keep calm. You can’t stab people. She swung back around, trying to curb her inner bitch by keeping busy, and accidentally nudged a bottle of lime-flavored cordial off the counter. Fuck a duck.
“Shay, are you all right?” Leo called, his voice more authoritative than concerned.
“Peachy,” she replied, chancing one last look at him and the leech hanging from his neck before she grabbed a dust pan from under the counter and began cleaning the sticky crap.
So much for her keeping her cool. Her eyes were burning and palms sweating with the need to start her first scrag fight.
Just imagine what it will be like next week when you’re working back upstairs and unable to keep an eye on him. Shay growled. Was it always going to be like this—peaks of arousal followed by consuming lows depressing enough to make her needy and weak?
“This sucks.”
Surely there was something she could do to turn the tables. It wasn’t about claiming him in front of a crowd. It was about feeling secure and confident again. It was about regaining her strength. She just wasn’t sure how.
Every muscle in Leo’s body was tense as he tried to keep his erect cock from rubbing against Grace. There was only one woman causing the current pubescent reaction to his body, and the sassy little wench was probably muttering a curse under her breath, hoping his eager appendage would fall off. Yet he couldn’t bring himself to ditch the woman before him just to sate Shay’s unease.
It was a tough line to draw, but this was life in the Vault of Sin. He would never dishonor a monogamy vow. Ever. However, in the past he’d been intimate with more than one of the women participating tonight, and he wouldn’t alienate them by brushing them aside.
It was still his job to make everyone comfortable within these sordid walls, and as long as he wasn’t reciprocating any sexual advances, he wasn’t doing anything wrong.
“You’re stiff,” Grace murmured.
No shit. He was hard as stone.
Grace giggled to herself. “I mean your posture. What’s wrong?” She released her arms from his neck and met his gaze.
“I’m fine. Just a little out of sorts tonight.” He glanced toward the bar. Shay rose to her feet with the dustpan in hand and shot him a scowl before breaking eye contact.
“Ouch.” Grace had followed his line of sight. “Your new bartender doesn’t look happy.”
He released a grunt of frustration and shook his head. Shay looked like she wanted to flay him alive.
“She’s gorgeous though.”
“Yeah,” he muttered. “She is.”
“Oh, damn.” Grace took a step back and tilted her head to meet his line of vision. “Did I cause that? Are you two together?”
Leo struggled to paste on a smile and met Grace’s gaze. “It’s okay. I don’t think either of us know what we’re doing at the moment.”
“She’s not into girls, is she?” Grace grinned and waggled her brows.
Fuck. His dick pulsed, pushing against the zipper of his pants. He’d been down here too many times to have a hair-trigger cock, only the thought of Shay and Grace made his blood surge south. “She’s not into the lifestyle at all.”
His own words resonated, penetrating his cloud of arousal. This wasn’t her scene. He was pushing her to change her ways. The exact thing he’d hated other women trying to do to him.
“Give her time. Apart from glaring at you with contempt, she doesn’t seem to have an aversion to the club itself.”
He nodded, gaining some comfort at the truth in her words. “Yeah. I’m trying.” Only he didn’t know how long he could stand back and let Shay move at her own pace. He was too eager to have her splayed before a crowd. To have others watch as her beautiful face contorted with release. To see her luscious breasts, smooth stomach and tight pink pussy moving in a dance to set them all on fire.
Yet he’d drive himself insane with lust before he pushed her.
“Go to her,” Grace jerked her head in the direction of the bar. “Give her my apologies. And if she’s ever into a bit of girl-on-girl action, I call first dibs.” She strode around him, slapping his ass hard enough to make him take a step forward.
Perfect timing. Shay hadn’t missed the friendly tap. She stood tall with one hand tightly fisted around a mop handle. Her eyes were glittering and her cheeks flushed with spite. And he couldn’t help acknowledging with a grin that she looked hotter than he’d ever seen.
Her nostrils flared as he made his way to the bar, instinctively staying on the customers side so he didn’t get a mop head to the balls. “I’d ask you how you’re doing, but your facial expression says it all.”
“I estimate you can see about a tenth of the emotion I currently feel.” She scrunched her nose and sashayed her angry ass to the small storage room behind the bar.
He strode after her, the first time he’d ever chased a woman. Thankfully, she ditched the mop and made an attempt to push her way back to the bar, but he blocked the doorway with his body.
“Let it out,” he commanded. “Tell me what’s making you want to claw my eyes out.”
“Isn’t it obvious?” She scowled. “I don’t appreciate other women touching you. It’s not something I think will ever change. And definitely not a scenario I want to imagine every time you’re down here without me.”
“You mean you can never get used to me rejecting attractive women so I can be with you? Because that’s the way I see it.” He stepped into her, grabbing her around the waist. “It will take time for everyone to know I’m no longer open to play. I’m not going to send out a fucking memo. So to some extent, you need to get over it.”
She released a derisive laugh and shook her head in frustration.
“This isn’t going to be the reason you walk away from me. This is the reason you’re going to stick around. Because you’ll soon realize you have what every other woman in here wants. Me.”
“Arrogant much?”
He smirked and shrugged a shoulder. “Is it really arrogance if it’s true?”
“Yes!”
He softened his features and brushed his lips against hers before she could pull away. “Grace told me to apologize to you. She realized why you were giving us the evil eye.”
“Great.” She stepped out of his embrace. “Now I’ll be known as the jealous bar bitch.”
“You play the part well.”
Her eyes flared and he caught her wrist when she tried to slap his chest.
“Look.” He chuckled. “I told her I was taken and she backed off. You should be happy. Even more so, that she then became more interested in seeing if you were into girl-on-girl action.”
“What?” Her eyes widened.
“You heard me.” He bridged the distance between them again, pushing them farther
into the darkened storeroom, not giving a shit if patrons were waiting for drinks. “So should I be jealous?” He backed her into a wall, and leaned his body into hers. “Because I’m not. I’m hard as hell thinking about another woman going down between your pretty thighs.”
Chapter Eighteen
A strangled noise escaped Shay’s throat. Yet again, she was struggling to gain her footing.
Girl-on-girl action? Holy shit. She’d thought her days of experimenting had died with her teen years. Muff diving had never been on her fantasy list. Yeah, she’d shared a drunken kiss or two with friends, but that had been a lifetime ago. Only now, knowing she’d excite Leo by diddling another woman made another thrill shoot through her body.
“I need to get back to work,” she rasped.
He chuckled, fucking chuckled in her ear before stepping back to let her leave. “I’ll be calling last drinks soon. You should start worrying about what will happen once we get back to your place. I’ve got a week’s worth of attention to dish out.”
She increased her pace from the storeroom, needing space so her nipples didn’t bore a hole through her bra. She’d wanted to be more sure of herself before she left Vault of Sin tonight. Because walking out of here would be easy, but coming back as a participant would be a nervous nightmare. And after a lifetime of being confident in herself, she was damn sick of the apprehension.
She’d thought turning up tonight had been difficult, yet all her appearance had done was voice her willingness to be in a relationship with Leo. What she really needed to do was make a choice. Decide right here, right now, if she could be a part of this lifestyle. No fucking around for days. Or second-guessing what might or might not be. She couldn’t wait around for a set of balls to miraculously appear between her thighs, she had to pull up those soggy, sexy lady underwear and bite the bullet. She didn’t want to change the man she’d fallen for, so the question was, did she want to be with Leo on his terms, in his environment? Or say to hell with all the angst and take the easiest option for all of them, T.J. and Brute included, and simply walk away.