by Meghan Quinn
“Can you help me?”
“Help you get out or help you get off? I’m not quite sure Jett would be too happy about—”
“Get me out, damn,” I said, struggling again.
Laughing, Pepper said, “Hold on one second.” She set the paper bag down and busted out her phone.
“Don’t you fucking dare,” I said, really trying to get out now but only wound up swinging around like a banshee.
“Listen, you can either hold still for a picture or I can record a video of this mess you got yourself in. What’s your poison, Lo?”
“Just take the fucking picture.”
Laughing, she pointed her phone at me as I flipped her off.
“God, I’m sending this to everyone.”
“I hate you.”
“Is that right? I guess I’ll just leave then,” she joked as she started to walk away.
“Get your skinny ass back in here and get me out of these damn things.
As Pepper helped me get out of the ribbons, she laughed the entire time while asking, “What possessed you to get in these?”
“I don’t know, I wanted to see if they could hold my weight. Who knew they were going to be tricky little fuckers and take me for a tango I wasn’t ready for.”
“Maybe next time you wait for Jett.”
“Would he use these?” I asked, breaking a rule about talking about sex with Jett but at this point, I didn’t care.
Pepper shrugged her shoulders. “He never used them with me.”
Silence spread between us as she undid my feet, the last thing that needed to be unknotted before I was able to climb out of the big ribbon.
“Well this is awkward,” I joked, trying to lighten the mood.
“Slightly.” She chuckled.
Pushing my luck and apparently really wanting to make things uncomfortable, I asked, “Do you miss him? Like…sexually?”
Laughing, Pepper undid the final strap and I hopped down. “I don’t. I mean, I miss the act of sex but that’s all it was with him. I didn’t have a connection with him like you do. Do I miss the thrill of the Bourbon Room? Yeah, but I can move on.”
“Yeah, with Kace.” I smiled and jabbed her shoulder.
“Now that was a massive mistake.” She looked me in the eyes and raised her eyebrows. “And I mean massive.”
“I know, right? When I saw his dick, I was like whoa, man—”
“Hold up—” Pepper held up her hand, “—you saw his dick? When?”
Oh shit, did I say that out loud? Apparently yes, because Pepper’s eyes were bulging out of her sockets, waiting for me to answer her.
“Umm, about that…”
“You tell me right now,” Pepper demanded, more out of excitement.
“Well, I guess I was trying to see if he was okay and I happened to walk in on him taking a shower and I happened to just stand and watch like a creeper.”
Pepper laughed as she covered her mouth with her hands. “Oh my God, I love you. You would just sit there and watch.”
“It was hard not to. You’ve seen the man naked.” I looked around and leaned forward so only Pepper could hear me. “I want to ask you something, when I came to the Lafayette Club did I land in some kind of hot guy paradox? Because it seems like every guy Jett knows was made to melt panties right off, including Jett himself. God, he’s gorgeous,” I said as I thought about Jett and his tender kisses he rained upon me before he left me here.
“I think the same thing sometimes. It’s not fair to be surrounded by so many attractive men but it just gives me more ammo for when I bust out the old jack rabbit.”
“Jack rabbit?”
“Yeah, my very own Magic Mike.” I gave her a quizzical look, making her continue. “You know…dildo, Lo. I’m talking about a dildo.”
Laughing, I said, “I know. I just wanted to hear you say it.”
“You’re a bitch.” She smiled as she bent down and grabbed the white bag that she brought with her. “This is for you. It’s from lover boy,” Pepper carried out, making fun of me.
I snatched the bag from her and opened it up. Inside there was a croissant. I looked up at her with a quizzical eyebrow.
“You’re supposed to eat it.”
“No shit, but why a croissant?”
“I think there is a note in there.”
I grabbed the croissant and saw a note at the bottom of the bag.
For my little one. I know how much you love our croissants, I couldn’t bear to think of you waking up and not getting one today. I’m sorry about all of this. Please be patient with me. – J
“He’s sweet,” I said while taking a bite and pulling away. I nearly choked as I looked on the inside of the croissant. It was bright green. I laughed to myself as Pepper looked at me as if I were crazy.
Swallowing and setting the other piece in the bag, I asked, “So, is that why you came here, to deliver me food?”
“Nope, I’m here to spend some time with you. We’re on rotation. Jett didn’t want you to feel secluded from the girls or feel lonely so you will be getting a visit from each of us every day while you’re here.”
“Really?” I asked excited. “Did he tell you what’s going on?”
“Not really.” Pepper sat in one of the ribbons with ease like a swing. She made it look so simple. “He just told us that he fucked up and that you’re in trouble now and he had to remove you to protect you but you were still an item.”
“He called us an item?” I said a little too giddy.
“Yes, it was kind of cute. He was shy about it.”
My heart melted from hearing that even though I wasn’t around, he still showed how much he cared about me.
“That kind of makes me happy,” I admitted.
“You so have him wrapped around your finger. You should have seen the way he lit up when talking about you. It was nice to see him finally find someone to bring him such joy. Before, he was just floating around, but never really feeling and then you come around and flip his whole world upside down. It’s kind of awesome.” Pepper smiled.
“Yeah, too bad we can’t be together right now.”
Pepper’s face grew serious as she said, “Give it time, Lo. Jett knows what he’s doing. He doesn’t fuck around. He is doing this for a reason so you just need to be patient.”
“It’s hard when my pussy is crying for him.”
Pepper looked at me for a second and then burst out in laughter. “You’re ridiculous.”
“Do you know what’s ridiculous?”
“What?” she asked while slightly swinging back and forth.
“The fact that you haven’t given me details about sex with Kace.”
Rolling her eyes, Pepper said, “I’m going to go now.”
“No! Okay, we will talk about something else. Tell me, were his balls big?”
“I’m leaving.” Pepper got up but I stopped her while laughing.
“You’re sucking all the fun out of this.”
“Get to work.” Pepper nodded toward the sketch Diego wanted me to replicate. I rolled my eyes as she took her seat in the swing again and started studying the instructions Diego left for me. At least I had company that was a plus, even if it wasn’t Jett.
Chapter Twenty Four
“Cool Kids”
Lo
“How’s it going in here?” Diego asked, startling me from my concentration.
“Don’t do that,” I said while gripping my heart and checking my lines to make sure they were still on point.
“Do what? Talk to you?”
“No, sneak up on me.”
“I didn’t sneak up on you. Sneaking up on you would have called for me getting right next to your ear like this and whispering in your ear,” he said as he invaded my space.
Swatting him away, I said, “All right, I get your point.” I sat back and looked at my work. I was clearly still in the ribbon room since the picture he wanted me to paint was a ribbon-like banner with intricate lettering that s
aid, “Constrain my heart, constrain my soul.”
“It looks really good, Goldie.”
“Thanks, I’m not done yet, obviously. I still have a lot of shading to do and I want to add an outline to the letters to make them stand out a little bit more but I think it’s coming out nicely.”
“It is.” He surveyed my work. “I like how you made the ribbon look like it was falling and spanned it across the wall. I didn’t think of that.”
“Yeah, it takes up the wall more so it doesn’t look like this tiny drawing on a big space.”
“I like it a lot. I’m glad Jett sent you here.”
“Thanks. It’s been fun painting. Right now I would be practicing my presentations until Kace stopped cracking his whip so it’s nice to have a bit of a break.”
Diego laughed as he shook his head. “That dude needs to get a woman.”
“Right!” I exclaimed. “Thank you! I’ve been saying that for a while.”
“It would do him some good. Too bad his eyes wander to places where they don’t belong,” Diego looked at me for a second and then turned his gaze to my artwork.
Guilt washed over me as I thought about what Kace said to me in his room a while back. I tried to forget about it, like he wanted to but occasionally it would resurface and I would feel awful. I hated to think that Kace had such strong feelings for me and I didn’t reciprocate them. I liked him and hell yeah I thought he was hot as hell, but my heart belonged to someone else, it belonged to Kace’s best friend.
“Anyway, are you hungry? It’s past lunch and I thought we could get out of here for a bit. Get you away from the paint fumes.”
I looked down at my attire and said, “Can I take a two-second shower?”
“Are you one of those girls who says they’ll be quick but they really take an hour?”
“No, seriously time me. Give me five minutes.”
“Five minutes? No way.”
“I’m serious,” I said while getting up and wrapping my paint brush in saran wrap since I didn’t have to wash them out just yet but didn’t want the paint to dry out in them.
Diego held out his watch and said, “Okay, go!”
“Wait!” I shouted, holding up my arms. “You can’t start the time until I get up to my room, that’s not fair. I don’t even know where my room is, I can’t remember.”
“Ugh, you’re so high maintenance,” he joked as he walked me to my room. “Okay, when do I get to start the clock?”
I shut the door on his face and yelled, “Go!”
Like a mad woman, I tore my clothes off, turned on the water and brushed my teeth while the water froze my tits right off. With one hand I brushed my teeth and the other I washed my hair like a pro. As I rinsed my shampoo, I washed my body with soap working up a good lather. After I got all the shampoo out, I put in some conditioner and then rinsed my entire body. I was out in less than two minutes. Thankfully, Diego had a heat lamp in the bathroom so I turned that on as I whipped the towel around my body, barely drying off the droplets from my skin. The heat lamp heated up my body as I combed my hair out, threw it up in a bun and then put a little mascara on—I wasn’t a barbarian.
Running out to my room, I threw on some denim shorts, skipping the underwear, a bra and T-shirt that read, “Tits” across my chest, stating the obvious, put on some flip flops and then flung the door open where Diego whipped his head around, shocked.
“You’re kidding me, that was like three minutes.”
“Ha! Told you!” I said while dancing around and giving myself fist bumps.
“Uh, before we go out, you might want to zip your fly.”
“What?” I looked down and saw that my fly was undone. Mortified, I quickly zipped it up and tried to pass it off as nothing.
“Nice wax job, damn that was hot.”
“Ew! You’re a pig!” I said while slapping his shoulder and heading down the hallway, trying to hide the blush that crept over my cheeks.
“Wrong way,” he called out over my shoulder.
I turned on a dime and marched the other way, ignoring him and the infuriating smirk on his face.
***
“What are you going to get?” Diego asked as he looked over his menu at me.
“Is that even a question? We’re at the Gumbo Shop, I’m pretty sure I’m getting Gumbo.”
Smiling, he said, “Good. I was afraid you were going to be one of those girls who went to a novelty restaurant and got a salad.”
“What’s salad?” I asked while shoving a piece of bread in my mouth.
“Apparently not.” Diego laughed as his phone started to ring. “Excuse me.” He pulled his phone out from his pocket and eyed me before pressing it to his ear. “Hello? Out to lunch. Yeah, she’s with me.”
My heart fluttered as I realized it must be Jett.
“Do you have your phone?” Diego asked me, I shook my head no. I forgot it in my rush to beat the allotted five minutes I gave myself to get ready. “No, she left it at the club. Yeah, hold on.”
Diego held his phone out to me and said, “Someone would like to talk to you.”
Grabbing the phone and turning away from him so I didn’t have to see his snarky face as I spoke into the phone, “Hi.”
“Hi.” His deep southern voice that made my toes curl rang out. “Are you behaving?” he asked in a teasing tone.
“Yes, I’m behaving.” I heard Diego snicker from behind me so I flipped him off.
“Not what I saw. Pepper sent me a little picture of you testing out some of Diego’s apparatuses.”
Inwardly groaning and gripping my forehead, I said, “I fucking forgot that she took a picture. God, did she really send that to you?”
“Yes, she did.”
“Fuck, that’s embarrassing.”
Lightly laughing, Jett responded, “I thought it was hot as hell even though you went about it all the wrong way.”
“I have no clue how those things work. They’re like vines that like to fuck with your mind and claw onto you,” I whispered into the phone. “I think they come alive at night.”
Laughing some more, Jett said, “I miss you.”
It felt like my heart stopped beating for a second, hearing him say such an intimate thing. When I first went to the Lafayette Club, I never thought I would come to this point of my life where I would be talking to Jett Colby on the phone, hearing him say he misses me.
“I miss you, too,” I admitted as my face turned red from Diego’s staring. I turned to look at him for a second and he was making kissing noises at me. “Don’t you have something better to do?” I asked him.
He laughed and said, “I’m going to the pisser.”
“Are you talking to me?” Jett asked, a little concerned.
“Sorry, no. Diego was being a dick.”
“Do I need to have a talk with him?” Jett grew serious. I loved how protective he was.
“No, nothing like that. He was just making fun of me for saying I miss you.”
“He’s a jealous bastard. Can you do me a favor?” he asked.
“Of course.”
“Can you make sure that you always have your phone on you? I don’t like the idea of you being out and about and not having your phone. I need to know that if something happens, you can get in touch with me.”
“You’re sounding a bit paranoid.”
“Goldie, I’m serious.”
“I know. I’m just not good with this whole captive thing. I like to have my own freedom.”
Jett let out a long breath and I could envision him pinching his nose while looking out the window of his office as he spoke to me. “I know, little one, but right now, we just have to be careful. I have no clue what’s going to happen and until I do, I would like you to be as careful as possible. Promise me?”
“I promise.”
“Thank you,” Jett said, relief washing through his voice.
“Am I going to see you tonight?”
“I don’t think so. I have a person
tailing me already. I went out earlier and noticed a black unidentified car following me around.”
“Are you serious? Jett, are you in danger?” My heart rate started to pick up.
“I don’t want you to worry about that.”
“Well, I’m fucking worried,” I said while raising my voice. “I feel like I barely just got you, I don’t want to lose you because some fuckwhit out there has some vendetta over you. Like, get over it, buddy, Jett Colby is by far superior than whoever the hell you are.”
Jett laughed in the phone. “If only it was that easy.”
“Well, I want you to be safe too. You have to stay in the club, no extra activities after dark and make sure your hand keeps your dick warm at night while thinking about me.”
Diego, who just appeared from the bathroom, stopped in his tracks and looked at me as if I was crazy.
“Mind your own damn business,” I spat at him.
“Sweetheart, when you’re using up my minutes to talk about masturbating with your boyfriend, I’m pretty sure I don’t need to mind my own business.”
“I should let you go,” Jett said with mirth in his voice.
“Fine, I will talk to you later tonight.”
“Bye, little one.”
“Bye.”
I ended the phone call and handed the phone back to Diego who wasn’t taking it. “What are you waiting for, my arms to sprout out like Inspector Gadget? Take your damn phone.”
“No way, wipe off your face juices first.” Diego made a motion with his hand and wiped his shirt with his fake phone.
“I don’t have face juices!” I stated while causally glancing at the phone.
Diego erupted in laughter and said, “Yeah, you fucking do.”
“You’re an annoying bastard, you know that?” I asked while wiping his damn phone and handing it back to him by pushing it across the table, not waiting for him to take it from me this time.
Our food arrived and instead of taking part in a conversation with him, I just buried my head in my bowl of Gumbo. I was irritated not because of Diego, he was actually a good time when he wasn’t being annoying but with the situation I was in. I hated being trapped and helpless. Ever since my parents were taken away from me, I’ve taken care of myself and now that I couldn’t do that and was being kept in the dark, I was irritated.