The Black Dahlia Hotel 1
Mikaela's Debut
Greenwich, Connecticut’s golden couple, Dillon Cavanaugh and Mikaela Sexton, are staying at the Black Dahlia Hotel in Fort Lauderdale, Florida for the wedding of Jack Dalton Brown and Kaylin Gallagher. The luxurious hotel has a confidentiality guaranteed BDSM club on the top floor. At breakfast, Mikaela receives a text directing her to a YouTube video that shows what appears to be her naked butt starring in a sex tape. The sender of the text threatens to post another video showing her face if she doesn’t pay up.
Handsome attorney and Congressional candidate, Dillon Cavanaugh, cannot afford a sex scandal involving his well-known girlfriend, but he is not willing to abandon the love of his life just to win an election. When the blackmailer threatens to post the second video unless she pays $5,000,000, Mikaela decides to go underground until the blackmailer can be unearthed, to the dismay of her sexy Dom boyfriend.
Can they salvage Dillon’s election, their relationship, and retrieve the damaging video before it hits YouTube?
Genre: BDSM, Contemporary, Romantic Suspense
Length: 44,378 words
MIKAELA’S DEBUT
The Black Dahlia Hotel 1
Skye Michaels
EVERLASTING CLASSIC
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Everlasting Classic
MIKAELA’S DEBUT
Copyright © 2014 by Skye Michaels
E-book ISBN: 978-1-63258-200-3
First E-book Publication: August 2014
Cover design by Les Byerley
All art and logo copyright © 2014 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
PUBLISHER
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
Letter to Readers
Dear Readers,
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DEDICATION
For all of my family, friends, and readers.
I hope you enjoy this new series set in my own backyard, beautiful South Florida. Sometimes we who live here take it for granted.
Life happens. Enjoy the journey.
With many thanks to my beta readers, Patricia Walker, Jennifer Torlone, Donnette Hawley, and Eileen Dix, for all their help.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Epilogue
About the Author
MIKAELA’S DEBUT
The Black Dahlia Hotel 1
SKYE MICHAELS
Copyright © 2014
Prologue
At Maggie Sexton’s apartment in a brownstone in Brooklyn Heights, New York, Friday night, New Year’s Eve, December 31, 1999
Mikaela Camille Sexton, a sophomore at Wellesley College, was excited and having fun. The women’s college, located on a beautiful, old campus in Wellesley, Massachusetts, provided a first-class education, but was a bit lacking in male companionship and fun. Her parents, whom she thought were monumentally overprotective, had insisted that if she wanted to go away to school, she would have to attend a primarily women’s college and live on campus. Mikaela was visiting her cousin, Maggie Sexton, who was having a New Year’s Eve party at the apartment she shared with her boyfriend, Jim Mariano, in a brownstone in Brooklyn Heights. Maggie was a senior at Columbia University, and Mikaela was frankly in awe of her. Maggie had been the older, more mature teenager she had followed around. She knew that Maggie had always thought of her as the pest.
The apartment, decorated in college-student chic, was packed with partygoers. Mikaela felt so grown up and sexy with a martini in her hand. Mikaela was nineteen. She had started college a year ahead of schedule, and she thought her superior intelligence equated to maturity. She knew she looked sexy in the short, tight, red knit dress with the low-scooped neckline that Maggie had encouraged her to buy for the party. Her long, brown hair was cascading over her shoulders in wild waves, and she had worn her contact lenses instead of her usual wire-rimmed glasses. The contacts made her blue eyes water a little, so she saved them for social occasions. She had to admit that the martini was strong. She thought it tasted weird, but she was not a big drinker and wasn’t sure about that. She knew she really shouldn’t be drinking since she was only nineteen, but she was in her cousin’s apartment after all and not out in a club so she thought it would be okay.
Suddenly, she found herself a little woozy and slightly nauseous. She was headed for a sofa to sit down when someone took her arm and whispered, “Let’s get you to the bedroom where you can lie down for a few minutes.” She wasn’t sure, but she thought it was Maggie and went along docilely. The coats had been swept off the bed, and she found herself lying next to som
eone else who had apparently also had a bit too much to drink.
When she woke up the next morning, she felt unaccountably sore in all her muscles and between her legs, but she put it down to having had too much to drink. She didn’t remember the rest of the evening after lying down next to the stranger. She didn’t remember the countdown to midnight or the ball coming down in Times Square on the television. It was really a very strange feeling. She rolled over and went back to sleep. When she finally got up, showered, and had some brunch, she felt better. Maggie and Jim were sitting in the living room that appeared to have been totally trashed the night before.
“Hi, sleepyhead. How are you feeling? You pooped out early last night.” Maggie had a worried look on her face.
“I’m okay—a little sore. I think I must be coming down with something.”
“Well, take it easy today then. What time is your flight back to Boston?”
“Five thirty.”
“Then you have plenty of time to just relax.”
* * * *
Maggie Sexton had always thought that Mikaela, also an only child, was a spoiled pain in the ass. She’d had to suck it up and put up with the little pain in the ass because her aunt and uncle helped to subsidize her education. Maggie’s dad was not a ball of fire. In fact, he was the black sheep of the stellar Sexton family. Uncle Mike and Aunt Betty had stepped in more than once to take up the slack.
Well, it had been hysterical when Mikaela had gotten a little tipsy last night. They’d thought it would be funny to drop a little something something in her drink, but they hadn’t expected the reaction they had gotten from the roofie. They’d stripped her out of her clothes and posed her on top of some guy who was asleep on the bed. Jim had gotten his video camera, and they’d made two little movies—one with a frontal view, showing her face, and one from the back, showing the little heart-and-roses tattoo on her butt Mikaela had been so proud of. The funniest part was that Mikaela didn’t remember a thing that had happened. They had encouraged her to ride the guy like a pony, and the poor bastard probably didn’t remember it either. They had laughed themselves sick. Oh well. Mikaela had had a more exciting New Year’s Eve than she knew.
Chapter One
On the dining terrace at The Black Dahlia Hotel, Fort Lauderdale Beach, Florida, Wednesday morning, December 23, 2015
Mikaela Camille Sexton looked up from the enormous breakfast of eggs Benedict, fresh fruit, and excellent coffee and smiled. Her boyfriend, Dillon Cavanaugh, was devouring his ham-and-cheese omelet. Dillon could eat his way through two continents and never gain an ounce. He’d played a couple sets of doubles with his college friends, Jack Dalton Brown, Jamison Devereau, and Miguel Gatto, who were part owners of the hotel, early that morning. His ripped physique was apparent in the tennis whites he wore, his dark hair was falling over his forehead, and his blue eyes sparkled. He was just yummy. He said, “So, are you glad I talked you into taking some vacation and coming down for Jack’s wedding?”
“Yes, Dillon, I’m glad. This really is a great little hotel. Who would ever guess what was upstairs on the top floor? There’s no indication that this is a BDSM facility. I can’t wait for the New Year’s Eve cruise on the Golden Dolphin. That is going to be outstanding.”
“Don’t forget to wear your colored rubber bracelets.” She looked down at his wrist and saw that he was wearing the heavy black rubber band that indicated he was a Dom. He was also wearing the wide white one with “The Black Dahlia Hotel” in gold letters. It contained personal identification that allowed entry to the top floor where the BDSM club was located as well as a GPS chip. The white bracelet allowed guests to be located at a moment’s notice. When they arrived Jack Brown had explained that the colored-bracelet system had been devised by Jamie Devereau for use on the Golden Dolphin, a three-hundred-foot megayacht that provided confidential BDSM cruises around the world. The brightly colored rubber bracelets were worn on the right wrist. The colors indicated whether staff or guests participated in the sexual activities at the hotel and to what extent. Red bracelets meant they didn’t participate, and green bracelets meant they did. The thinner multicolored bracelets were indicative of hard limits or things people did not wish to do. The Dominants—Doms or Dommes—wore one black band. Staff was not required to participate, but were free to do so if they wished. All staff and guests signed confidentiality agreements before coming to work at the hotel or registering as guests. The excellent working conditions, great benefits, and higher-than-average wages kept the staff loyal to a fault. Since all the public BDSM sexual activities took place on the top floor, which was heavily secured, any people accidently walking into the hotel would have no idea of what type of facility it was. The occasional walk-ins would be told the hotel was fully booked.
Mikaela picked up her iPhone when it gave the text signal and hit the button. Check out your film debut on YouTube. It gave a YouTube link. If you don’t want to see the version showing your face, I’ll be back in touch to let you know how much it will cost you. What the hell? Who was this from? What film debut? “Dillon, look at this. I have no idea what this is about.” Mikaela felt a frisson of fear race up her spine. What the hell was going on?
Dillon took the phone, performed some maneuvers on the keypad, and said, “I can’t tell who sent this.” He hit the link and a video sprang up on the screen. “Come here and look at this.” The video showed the back of a naked woman who was built remarkably like Mikaela—and who mysteriously had Mikaela’s small, rose-wrapped heart tattoo on her butt. She was riding some guy lying on a bed for all she was worth. Dillon looked shocked. “Babe? What the fuck?”
“Dillon, I’ve never seen that before, but that looks like my tattoo.”
“Didn’t you design that tattoo yourself in college?”
“Yes. I suppose the tattoo guy could have inked it for someone else, but he promised me he wouldn’t do that.”
“Mikki, this definitely reads like a serious blackmail threat. Do you mind if I show this to Jack and Jamie?”
“I don’t know if it’s me. I certainly don’t remember that situation. Whether it is me or not, we need help. They are likely to see my naked butt upstairs in the dungeon at some time or other before this trip is over anyway, so go ahead and show them.” After viewing the video, Mikaela realized that this was not the time for false modesty.
* * * *
Dillon Cavanaugh, attorney and current favorite to be elected to a recently vacated congressional seat from his home district in Connecticut, was concerned. He knew his woman’s opulent sweetheart butt, and he was sure that was it on the YouTube video. They didn’t need a sex scandal before the special election in which he was running at the insistence of his father, but more than that, Mikaela was still grieving for her parents, who had died in a plane crash a little over a year ago. She was just starting to get her feet under her again, and this would definitely be a setback if indeed it was a credible blackmail threat. Jamie Devereau and Jack Brown were two of the toughest customers he knew in the business world. He was sure they would have some ideas on how to check this out.
Dillon stepped into the hotel offices behind the reception area. They were as well done as the rest of the redesigned hotel. Jack and his team had been busy since the real estate closing in July. He knew Jack had wanted the project ready to open after his wedding on Christmas Eve, and he had put the pedal to the metal. Dillon walked up to the secretary’s desk. “I’d like to see Jack Brown or Jamie Devereau. They told me they were going to check in at the office after we finished on the court.”
“Yes, sir. Both of them are in with the manager, Dane Dunross. I’ll buzz them if you’ll have a seat.”
While he waited, he again watched the YouTube video he’d forwarded to his phone. He shook his head. This video looked like it had been taken some time ago. Not that Mikaela had aged or anything. However the picture had a more girlish, youthful vibe. At thirty-five, Mikaela’s figure now had the rich curves of a woman. The furnishings he
could see looked like they were makeshift. The bookcases appeared to be apple crates. He wondered if Mikaela would recognize the surroundings when she looked at it again with a clearer head.
Jack came out of the office followed by Jamie. “Hey, man. What’s up? I thought you were having breakfast.”
“Something is definitely up. Check out this text Mikaela just received and the YouTube video that was attached.”
Jamie took the phone from his hand while Jack looked over his shoulder. They both read the text, and then Jamie hit the link. “Holy shit, man. Are you sure this is Mikaela?”
“Not to put too fine a point on it, but I know that ass. I think it’s now a little bit more mature, but not much. And that tattoo is one of a kind. She designed it herself when she was still in college. She thought she was being wild and crazy.”
Dane Dunross had overheard the conversation and joined them. “Why don’t you bring that into my office and let’s see what we can figure out.” He booted up his laptop and went on to YouTube. “The video has had a significant amount of activity so far. 9,000 views in just one day.”
“Shit! I don’t like this. If I want someone to see my woman’s ass, it will be in the dungeon when I’m there—most likely turning it a nice, warm shade of pink.”
Jamie said, “Calm down, Dillon. Why don’t you call Mikaela and ask her to come in. Maybe we can figure out where this was taken and who is responsible.”
Michaels, Skye - Mikaela's Debut [The Black Dahlia Hotel 1] (Siren Publishing Everlasting Classic) Page 1