by Livia Grant
Spencer grumbled. “So nice of you to keep us waiting while you guys got laid.”
Jaxson protested. “Oh please. Don’t pretend you haven’t kept me waiting while you and Klara were in the office downstairs ‘doing inventory’.”
Spencer had the decency to turn a slight shade of pink, although Jaxson suspected it was more out of anger than embarrassment.
The DM glossed over his comment. “You’re changing the subject. Did you buy a new property or not?”
“Not yet. I’m waiting on inspection results and want Emma to work up some additional financials to make sure we are making the right decision, but yes. I did find the perfect property in Beverly Hills just a few blocks off Rodeo Drive and near the country club. It’s the best of both worlds. Affluent and trendy, but also a bit sheltered down a side street. The place is massive and gated. It’s been on the market for a few years. The bank owns it now, so they’re ready to take any offer that’s close to keeping them whole. We’ll be able to get it for pennies on the dollar.”
“Yeah, but what about permits? Sounds like you’ll have zoning problems out the ass.”
“I have Lambert, Urbanski, and Reed working on it. Old man Lambert is semi-retiring. He recently brought his hotshot son into the firm. Connor’s been practicing in Southern California for the last ten years and has the connections we need to make it come together, including connecting us with lucrative financial partners.”
Jaxson reached into his briefcase and pulled out a thick file folder. He turned and slid it across the table to Emma. “Add this to the data I’ve sent you electronically. The info on the property along with some back of the napkin calculations are in there. I’d love it if you could put together some cost comparisons to figure out if we should really do this.”
“Yes, sir. I’d be happy to. When do they need an answer by?”
“I told them I’d get back to them after the New Year. With us heading up to Wisconsin in two days for Christmas with your family and then skiing in Vail with Jonah and Sam over the New Year, I knew it would have to wait.”
Emma’s eyes sparkled at the mention of their good friends, rocker Jonah ‘Cash’ Carter and his wife, and Jax knew the real reason. Emma couldn’t wait to get there to hold and spoil the youngest Carter family member. Adorable Natasha Marie Carter had been born just three months ago. The trio had flown to New York to visit their friends about a week after her birth. Jax had to admit, watching Emma holding the new infant had impacted him in ways he hadn’t expected.
“Hello. Earth to Jaxson.”
He shook his head to clear his thoughts and get focused back on work. “Where are the rest of the dungeon monitors?”
“They have the rest of the week off. We’re so rarely closed on the weekends and they all had big holiday plans. Don’t worry. They’ll be back in time to prep for next weekend’s big New Year’s Eve bash.”
Jaxson wasn’t worried. They’d made some excellent hires the year before. They’d had almost no attrition in the thirteen months the clubs had been open; something very rare in the restaurant and bar industry. Of course, Black Light was so much more than that.
“Fine. Just give us a rundown then of this year’s Valentine’s event.”
Spencer woke up the iPad in front of him, pulling it closer to start his report. “Last year was a big hit so we aren’t changing that many things. Like last year, the party will be the night of Valentine’s Day. We decided to open the doors an hour earlier this year and while the Roulette event will again be from eight to eleven, we will have Chase kick-off the pairings at 7:30pm instead of eight this year. We found we wasted almost thirty minutes of the three-hour time limit just in the logistics. The plan is to have all of the roulette wheel stuff out of the way and have the couples ready to start playing at eight.”
Jaxson glanced at Chase, who had an unusual stern look on his face. “What’s wrong?” Jax prompted his lover.
The men’s gazes met. Jax saw an uncharacteristic insecurity in Chase’s caramel brown eyes, prompting him to question him again. “What? Don’t you want to do the emcee duties again this year?”
Chase hesitated, opening and then closing his mouth as if he didn’t know what to say. Finally, he admitted, “If I do, can I at least come sit with you guys in between the wheel duties? Or maybe get me an assistant who can take over after the opening ceremony is done?”
Jaxson watched his lover and best friend look away nervously. Something wasn’t right.
“Look at me,” he ordered. He waited several long seconds until Chase complied. Only when their gaze was locked did Jax continue. “What happened last year that I missed?”
“Nothing, it’s just…”
“Don’t tell me nothing. Something is wrong.”
A playful smile finally toyed at Chase’s lips, helping Jaxson relax slightly. “Of course you’d read through me.”
“Damn straight. Now what’s going on?”
Chase sighed before launching into an insecure rant. “It’s just that last year you two were sitting so far away from me. You got to visit all night with Sam and Jonah and lots of other members. I could see you chatting and playing, but I had to stay up on the stage, waiting in case one of the couples wanted to re-spin the wheel. There were blocks of time where I was just standing up there feeling stupid and bored and… well… left out I guess.”
Jaxson felt like an ass. Chase was usually so carefree… cocky even. He almost never needed reassurances, but clearly, as his Dom, Jax had missed some important clues last Valentine’s Day.
Jax pushed his chair away from the table before using his best come hither motion with his right index finger. “Get over here. Now,” he ordered.
Chase’s gorgeous eyes rounded with surprise. He moved slowly, but he obeyed, pushing his own chair back. Just before he stood, Jax ordered him, “Down. Crawl here.”
The rest of the room faded away as Jaxson enjoyed the sight of his submissive falling to his knees next to his own chair and crawling to close the few feet of distance between them.
“Kneel up,” was his next barked order.
As soon as Chase was upright, Jaxson thrust his left hand into his lover’s shoulder-length, sandy blond hair and yanked it hard. The result was Chase’s head thrown back making it easy for Jaxson to lean in, dominating him from above.
Jax purposefully waited over a full minute, using the intense moment to connect with his lover before adding. “Let me get this straight. You’ve held on to that little bombshell for a whole year and never thought you should mention it?”
“Well… I…” Chase stammered.
“What was one of the first rules we made when we decided to make our trio permanent?”
The pupils in Chase’s eyes were dilated. His breath was coming in short pants. They lived the D/s dynamics in their complicated relationship 24/7. Outside of Black Light, the visible signs of their dominance and submission may be more subtle, but it was always there, under the surface.
Jaxson had to repeat himself. “I’m waiting. What is our number one rule?”
Chase’s serious face broke into his signature grin. The one that reminded Jaxson of sunshine because it could light up a room. “The number one rule is that you never have to sleep in the wet spot.”
A snort of laughter escaped from Jaxson before he could hold it in. Chase’s jibe was just one of dozens of intimate inside jokes that he and his lovers had. It was those little secrets that tied them together so tightly that it was impossible to envision any part of his life without Chase and Emma there beside him.
Feeling his own heart swell with love, he was reminded of how important it was to get to the root of Chase’s concerns from the previous event.
“Nice try, but I think you better get serious, or I’m going to have to reintroduce you to my new belt.”
The handsome man on his knees tried to backpedal. “I’m sorry I worried you. Really. It’s nothing.”
“Bullshit. What critical rule did you break?”
&n
bsp; “Okay, fine. I felt left out, but it was just that one night and afterwards I felt foolish because…”
“Enough. That’s great that the feeling didn’t last long, but what exactly is our rule?”
“That any one of us has to tell the other two right away if we start to feel like odd-man out.”
“Exactly. And why is that rule so damn important?”
“Because keeping three people in sync is twice as hard as it is for most couples.”
“Yes. And…”
“And because it’s easier to nip things in the bud right away than it is to recover after we let things stew for a while.”
Both men turned to pin a nearby Emma with a knowing glare. She was the normal breaker of this rule. In fact, the men had worked hard early in their relationship to make sure Emma never felt like a third wheel since the two men had been friends and lovers for years before they met her.
“Hey, don’t you guys look at me. I learned my lesson the hard way on this one.”
Jaxson smiled, “Yes, you did. Seems that our Chase could use a refresher on it later.” He didn’t miss the flare of desire in the caramel brown eyes staring up at him. He didn’t take his gaze off Chase as he asked Emma, “Sweetheart, how would you feel about being Chase’s official assistant up on the stage for Valentine’s Day?”
He had expected a fast and excited yes, so when he was met with silence, he glanced back over his right shoulder to see Emma with a scowl on her face. “What is it, baby?”
“I don’t mind helping him, but only if I can have clothes on. I don’t want to be up there all night, center stage, naked like I often am at the club.”
“That’s a very reasonable request and I agree. It’s not like we will be in a scene. I’m sure we can find you something hot and sexy to wear that will complement the emcee.”
When Jax looked back down into Chase’s eyes, he was surprised to see tears threatening to spill over onto his lover’s cheek.
“You don’t have to do that. Now you’ll feel left out,” Chase interjected, always putting his lovers ahead of himself.
“I’ve invited a couple financiers that might want in on the West Coast deal. I’m going to be hosting them and making the rounds with the members. Emma would have been bored this year anyway since Cash and Sam aren’t going to be here.”
Chase started to pull out of the hold Jaxson still had him under, but Jaxson yanked him back into line, holding him front and center.
He wasn’t done yet.
“Thanks so much for the suggestion,” his lover replied quietly.
“No problem. Although I’m not sure you’ll be thanking me later.” Jaxson wasn’t finished, and Chase wisely waited for him to finish that thought with another question. “How did we handle Emma when she failed to share her feelings of inadequacy with us?”
“We paddled her ass,” Chase answered reluctantly.
“Indeed. So what do you think Emma and I should do with you?”
Chase smiled. “Let me off as a first time offender?”
“Nice try. How many months did you hold that in before you leveled with us?”
Chase hesitated before answering quietly, “Ten.”
“Tonight, when I come to bed, I’ll be expecting your ass over the end of the bed. Emma, will secure your ankles and wrists before I get there. I’ll be delivering ten strokes with the punishment cane. One for each month it took you to come clean. Be grateful I’m not counting weeks instead.”
His submissive answered quietly, resigned. “Yes, sir.”
“Tell me again. Am I punishing you because you felt left out?”
“No, sir.”
“Then why am I going to punish you?”
“Because I didn’t tell you how upset I was. I held it in and let it bother me instead of talking to you and Emma about it.”
“Very good.” Jaxson swished his thumb over Chase’s bottom lip. He wanted to lean in and bite that lip, but they were already behind schedule in the meeting. “You can take your seat again.”
He’d completely tuned out the only two other people in the room. As Jaxson leaned back, finally releasing Chase from his grip, he glanced down the long table to find one of them missing.
He was about to ask Spencer where Klara had disappeared to when his friend’s eyes closed, and a sexual groan escaped loud enough to fill the room.
“You can get off your knees now, Ms. Ericksson.”
Spencer’s eyes flew open, frustrated at being interrupted so close to what appeared to be his grand finale. At Jaxson’s glare, his friend threw back an annoyed, “What? I thought we were taking a break for a little sexual play.” Jaxson didn’t miss the DM moving his hands under the table, presumably to hold his sub in place.
“Nice try. We were taking a break for me to address a behavior problem with my submissive.”
A rhythmic gagging sound filled the room as Chase retook his seat on Jaxson’s left side. As he glanced to his right, he noticed Emma wiggling in her chair to the same naughty beat. His little sub was horny.
When her right hand moved towards the edge of the table, he warned her. “Palms on the table, baby. No touching yourself. Save it for when we get home.”
Christ, he loved the pink on her cheeks as she grew embarrassed at being caught ready to rub herself off. She begrudgingly obeyed, although he noticed her rocking didn’t stop.
The trio had to wait less than a minute for their friends to complete their little intermission at the far end of the table. Spencer’s grunting orgasm was followed by more gagging and sputtering from under the table. When Klara crawled out and found her seat again, Jaxson had to work hard to school his facial expression to keep it neutral as he took in the red smears of her lipstick and black steaks of her mascara.
“Are you ready to continue, or do we need to wait while you reciprocate?”
Klara’s eyes twinkled with mischief as she replied. “I think we can continue. I’m gonna need more than a quickie as repayment for ruining my makeup.”
“Alright then. Why don’t we get back to the details of the Valentine Roulette event?”
Klara corrected him, “We’re calling it Roulette Redux this year. It sounds better than saying ‘The Second Annual Valentine Roulette Event’.”
“Sounds good.”
Chase interjected, “Will it be exactly the same as last year?”
Spencer clarified, “For the most part, yes. The only things we are changing is we’ve added a few more kinks to the wheel and we are opening it up to different top and bottom gender combinations.”
That news made Jaxson happy. “Excellent. I’ve been pleased with the diversity of the club’s members so I’m happy to see we are working to be more inclusive this year.”
“Yeah, well don’t get too excited yet. It’s been a bitch setting things up on the website for sign ups. We had to add another whole layer to the signup process to first organize which gender participants are, and are not, willing to play with. We are also worried that we may not have enough participants to have a very exciting Roulette pairing. It’s going to be pretty boring if we only have one female domme willing to play with a female sub.”
Jaxson had thought about that already. “I’m sure the sign up process can help manage wait lists if we get uneven numbers.”
“Yes, it can to an extent, but only time will tell if we will have enough participants signing up to fill all of the slots.”
“How many couples are we planning on participating this year?” Jaxson asked Spencer. He was surprised when it was Emma that answered.
“I worked up several ROI calculations on last year’s event to better understand the ideal number of couples. After all, we are giving away the equivalent of five thousand dollars for each couple that successfully completes the challenge. But when I weighed in the dramatic increase in memberships immediately after the event and the subsequent growth in the months since then, I believe we can handle up to twenty couples this year. I’m planning on selling at
least one-hundred and fifty tickets for observers which will defray our costs and we also did a healthy food and beverage operation last year.”
Klara jumped in to add her report. “We are also in a much stronger position this year than we were last year with our vendors and pricing.” Jaxson didn’t miss the glare she threw at her Dom and technically her boss. It was no secret that Klara had helped them bring down their operational costs dramatically once she took over the bar operation.
Chase had his iPad open and was taking notes. When Spencer pushed away from the table, looking like he was preparing to leave, Chase started in with his questions.
“So, you said you want to start at 7:30pm. That’s fine, but once my intro is out of the way, what order did you plan on us starting the pairings with?” Chase asked.
“I was just going to throw all of the tops together and have them draw.”
“I don’t think so. That will be too confusing. I think we should start with the new pairings first. We shouldn’t lump them all together if we are going to need to have different options for the wheel.”
Jaxson smiled listening to Chase question Spencer.
“You’re making it too complicated,” Spencer groused.
“No. I’m making it organized. How confusing will it be to have a Domme come up and roll a submissive that doesn’t want to play with a female? Or have a gay Dom roll a woman. That’s too messy. And sets up people to feel awkward.”
Emma was nodding. “I agree completely.”
Spencer was annoyed. “Fine. Maybe we should start at seven then. It’s going to take us an hour just to match people up.”
Jaxson didn’t appreciate his friend’s bad attitude and was about to say so when Klara reached over and held her Dom’s hand. She leaned in and whispered something too softly for the trio to hear, but whatever it was, it wiped the scowl off the older man’s face. Jax thought about teasing him about who was in charge in their D/s relationship, but then stopped himself, remembering the many times Chase and Emma had done the same thing for him when he needed it.
Chase continued on as if nothing had happened. “No, thirty minutes is all we need. I think it’s best to start with the smaller groupings. Male/male, Female/male, and Female/female. Then we can do the Male/female pairs like last year.”