by Livia Grant
She felt Jaxson’s lips on her head, kissing her as he tucked her back into bed. “I’m setting your alarm for nine. Don’t be late to meet Ted at ten, you hear me?”
The sleepy duo replied in unison, “Yes, Sir.”
Emma thought about getting up and making Jaxson some breakfast before he left. She felt guilty for not accompanying him into the shower to scrub his back as she often did and for not going with him to work on the backlog of accounting tasks that she needed to catch up on. But in the end, her tired body refused to budge until she drifted back to sleep in Chase’s arms.
“You should drive faster. We’re late,” Emma urged Chase. She felt a not unpleasant tingle skitter across her bottom as she looked at the digital clock on the console of their new SUV. She prayed the time was wrong, because if not, they were already ten minutes late for their meeting with Ted at their new house.
It wasn’t that she was that worried about the interior designer having to wait for them. In fact, she’d like to do many more things to inconvenience the man who kept hitting on Chase just to put the jerk in his place.
No. It was one of their longest standing rules that Jaxson had laid out for his often-tardy lovers. Be on time or your ass will pay the price.
The duo had learned many times over the years that the price was one stroke of punishment per minute late. They were still blocks away as she watched the clock flip to eleven after the hour. Her ass clenched, anticipating the paddling coming her way. Her only hope was that Jaxson was still stuck with Connor and would be too distracted to notice.
Chase pulled the car into the garage five minutes later. Ted’s Range Rover was parked in the driveway, empty. He must have gone in ahead of them. Emma grabbed the bag of color swatches along with the iPad that had all of her notes and photos of the furniture she’d been admiring to show their designer.
She’d been to the house several times already with her parents and was getting excited to move in with Jaxson and Chase. She hadn’t known how much she was dreading living on the top floor of the mansion until Jaxson had come up with the creative solution of confiscating the pool house.
“Sorry we’re late,” Chase offered up as they found Ted in the kitchen, blueprints of the house laid out on the marble counter. He was heading to the coffee maker to grab a cup of coffee as Emma put her stuff down near Ted. She had the perfect view of the designer’s face as he spoke.
“I’m kinda glad you are. I happen to know the consequences. And since Jaxson is so busy I bet he’d appreciate me handling a bit of discipline for him, you naughty boy.” The handsome designer had fixed Chase with a hungry stare.
Emma may be the submissive of their family, but that didn’t mean she was submissive to anyone else. Ted Martin was about to understand his error.
Surprise registered on Chase’s face. He’d been telling her she’d read Ted completely wrong. That he only saw Chase in a professional light. Before he could recover, Emma stepped into the few feet that separated the men, facing off with Ted.
“It’s time you listen up. I’ve had enough of your sexual harassment of Chase. We hired you to do a professional job. Nothing more. Nothing less. From now on you will restrict all interactions to the business at hand that we are paying you good money to conduct. You will not speak to him sexually, look at him sexually, or most importantly, touch him in a sexual way, whether I’m here or not. Have I made myself clear?”
The interior designer stood frozen, eyes wide with shock at the normally reserved Emma’s uncharacteristic outburst.
Without waiting for an answer, she continued. “Failure to do so will not only end up with you being fired, but I’m sure Jaxson has the kind of connections that can make working in this city impossible for you, got it?”
His pitiful, “Yes,” was insufficient.
Emma was vibrating with pent up anger spilling out. “Yes, what?” she demanded.
“Yes, Ms. Fischer.”
“Excellent. Now that we have an understanding, let’s get to work.”
The unusual confrontation had taken more out of her than she’d expected. Emma hated that when Chase hugged her from behind, she collapsed into his arms as if all the air had been let out of her. He held her tight, one steadying hand on her left hip while his right arm hugged her waist.
He leaned in to whisper against her ear, sending a ticklish shiver through her body. “I love watching you get uber protective, baby, you know that?”
She didn’t answer him. She didn’t need to. He knew her heart. They stood linked together until her speeding heart rate from her confrontation slowed to normal and Chase pulled her along with him back to the nearby refrigerator.
He was pulling a bottle of chilled apple juice out when she begged him, “I really need a cup of coffee today.”
“Sorry baby, but no caffeine for you.”
“That’s not fair,” she pouted.
“Maybe not, but you know the rules.”
“Fine,” she begrudgingly snatched the healthy beverage, silently remembering she was drinking for three. “Let’s get to work then.”
They spent a total of four hours walking from room to room, listening and talking with Ted on the plans for redecorating, without a single sexual comment or leer from the designer. They would end up with three bedrooms, four bathrooms, one home office, one gym, several huge walk-in closets, and one bedroom turned adorable nursery. With each room, she became more excited… and more hungry. When it was after two, she couldn’t take it anymore.
“We need to take a break. I need to pee and get food, in that order.”
Chase had brought up several kitchen supply sites on the iPad. “I thought we were going to pick out the kitchen stuff.”
Emma’s tummy growled loud enough for him to hear it and look up from the other side of the counter.
“But it sounds like it will need to wait. Let me call Jax and see if he’s eaten yet or not. With any luck, he can take a break and go to lunch with us.”
Emma was relieved when Ted wisely bowed out of their lunch break. “I’m gonna stay here and take more notes while they are fresh in my mind. Most of the changes we are making are easy enough that I should be able to get a crew in here and knock things out within a few days.”
Now that she’d seen how awesome their new home was going to be, Emma was impatient to move in. Especially with sharing the small rental with her parents, she was sure the next few days were going to drag as she anticipated moving day.
“The sooner the better. I’m tired of feeling like everything is temporary. I can’t wait to feel like we’re at home again.”
Chase hugged her from behind again as he reassured her. “With all of the work we still have to do for the clubs opening, I predict the next few days fly by, baby. Now, let’s take a walk up to the big house.”
They exited through the sliding patio door and headed across the lawn. When they reached the mansion, the patio door to the large ballroom that would soon be the main dance floor was already open. Today the space still hosted the pre-opening collaboration space. Emma could hear Lola even before they entered the building. She’d begun to think of the aggressive woman’s grating voice as fingernails on a chalkboard.
“Emma and Chase! I’ve been watching for you two.” Maxine’s greeting was a welcome diversion from Lola’s bossiness as she yelled at some unfortunate employee across the room.
Emma went to hug their friend and star employee from D.C. “Hi there! I can’t believe I’ve missed you the last two times I’ve been here since you got to town.”
Maxine hugged her back before answering. “Yeah, sorry I missed you, too. I was out both times picking up some supplies and making some decisions with Ted on the final pieces of furniture. Is Ted with you?” she questioned.
Chase answered, “Naw. He stayed out at the pool house.”
Maxine huffed. “I told him to hustle back here as soon as he wrapped things up with you. We still have the main restrooms to make decisions on. We’re abou
t to run out of time and we can’t very well open without a place for our guests to pee.”
Emma felt guilty that they were taking Ted away from the main project to work on their house. She almost offered to divert him back to the mansion full-time but bit her tongue. They deserved their own place again.
“Where’s Jaxson?” Chase inquired.
“He asked me to tell you to meet him in the kitchen. He’s holding a staff meeting with some of the newest employees. It sounds like they were also going to be testing some of the new chef’s menu items to give her practice with the menu before opening day next week.”
Chase wrapped his arm around Emma’s waist and started shuffling her towards the double doors that led to the main house. “That’s perfect. We can help taste test too.”
Emma chuckled as he pulled her along with him, calling out her goodbye to Maxine over her shoulder. Her friend shouted to her, “Remind Jaxson that the next candidate for the Runway manager job will be here in less than a half hour. He promised he’d sit in on the interview with me.”
Chase had her almost out the door by the time she yelled her reply, “I’ll tell him!”
He pulled her to the left when they exited the ballroom, taking the path along the back of the mansion weaving through several club areas that looked ready for opening day.
They had just passed the elevator and were about to enter the mammoth gourmet kitchen when a tall man dressed in black jeans, a black T-shirt, and a rugged black leather coat rounded the corner, almost mowing Emma down.
“Oh Christ, sorry about that.” The apology came in a low, gravelly voice that sounded more like a reprimand than an apology.
Emma half expected Chase to pull her away protectively from the gruff looking man. Instead, he released her waist to reach out to shake the man’s hand.
“I was hoping I’d get to say an official welcome. I heard you accepted our offer.”
The weathered skin of the dangerously handsome man’s face broke into a broad smile. Only then did the laugh lines at the corner of his mouth and eyes light up his face. “I feel a bit like I just won the lottery. I still think you guys have lost touch with reality, but I’m gonna have fun while it lasts.”
Emma was curious who the new employee was. He looked like he should be on the security detail, but they’d already hired Miguel for the head security position and there was no way this guy wasn’t going to be in charge of something. She elbowed Chase lightly, trying to remind him of his manners.
Out of her peripheral view, she detected Chase’s eyes on her. When he didn’t catch on she finally turned to look into his eyes as she asked, “Aren’t you going to introduce us?”
Chase looked nervous, glancing around the space before leaning in close. The guy in leather angled in as well, as if they were about to conspire on a top-secret mission.
“This is Elijah Keaton. He’s going to be our Spencer of the West Coast.”
Emma quickly understood the secrecy. It wasn’t like they could go around talking about Black Light in the open at Runway. She reached out to take his offered hand. He had a firm grip as he greeted her.
“Nice to meet you, Miss Fischer.”
“Thanks. You too, sir.” She hadn’t meant to use the respectful greeting. His intense masculinity and new job title of dungeon master just seemed to call for it. His wide smile proved he liked her salutation.
Emma was relieved when he released her hand. Not normally shy, her brain couldn’t help but fast forward to a day coming soon that the alpha man in front of her would witness her naked and sexually dominated in the plethora of creative scenarios the men in her life would come up with. Her eyes took a sudden interest in her shoes as she felt the heat rising into her cheeks.
A gentleman would have given her a pass. Mr. Keaton was apparently not concerned with such niceties. “Ah, I see your sub blushes beautifully. I look forward to watching other parts of her body color, from a distance of course, after the club opens.”
Chase hugged her closer, reassuring her. “Blushing is not all she does beautifully.”
Despite the public location, Emma’s pussy responded to her Dom’s naughty implication by clenching. The last months had been the most vanilla of her entire relationship with the men in her lives. Between the babies, stress of opening the clubs, and distance from their private playground in D.C., they’d had few D/s encounters since arriving in California. It was in that moment Emma knew without a doubt that she’d missed it and couldn’t wait until Black Light West opened the following week.
She forced her attention back to saying goodbye to the new dungeon master as he spoke. “I’ll look forward to spending more time together in the future then. I just stopped by to pick up the newly printed business cards and membership invitations. I’m heading out to do a bit of networking to drum up some business for opening night with likeminded people.”
The DM had moved around them and was already heading towards the front door when Chase called out, “Good luck with that! I hope you have the NDA’s with you.”
Elijah called back, “Yep, I have a big stack with me. Later.”
After he’d gone, Emma expected Chase to pull her into motion again, but instead he leaned closer to talk close to her ear. “He was an excellent find.”
“Why? Has he been the DM at other clubs?”
“Better. He just retired after twenty-five years as one of Hollywood’s top stuntmen. He’s lived his life on the edge and has built up connections with the most powerful people on the west coast. We hired him as much for his connections as we did his BDSM knowledge, which from what I can tell, is extensive.”
Emma wasn’t sure they should be having this conversation in the middle of a main thoroughfare of the mansion, but after glancing around it appeared they were still alone so she asked the question on her mind. “Why is he retiring? I mean he only looks to be in his forties.”
“We asked him that. He didn’t go into a lot of detail, but it seems he had a pretty big accident about a year ago and his doctors have warned him that he’s doing too much damage to his body to keep up with the dangerous career.”
Emma tried to keep her voice calm as she replied, “He looked pretty healthy to me.”
The grin on Chase’s face reminded her that he knew her well. “My little subby was checking out the new DM, was she?”
“Not at all. I mean… he was right in front of me.”
“Uh-ha,” Chase teased.
“Knock it off. You know I only have eyes for you and Jax.” Emma elbowed him in his ribs.
Chase’s chuckle helped her relax. “Don’t worry. I noticed too. He’s smoking hot.”
Emma elbowed him again, this time harder. “Yeah, well stop noticing.”
“Jealous much?” Chased teased.
Emma admitted, “I didn’t have these problems in D.C. It seems like everyone you meet is ready to jump your bones. The news anchors, Ted…”
He cut her off. “That’s not true. Lola isn’t hitting on me,” Chase countered.
“No, she’s hitting on Jaxson. It’s like open season on my men out here.”
Chase reached out to place his palm on Emma’s stomach, cupping her rounded tummy lovingly. “You have absolutely nothing to worry about, baby. Just like you, I only have eyes for you and Jaxson. And I can’t wait to meet these two little peanuts in a few months. I hope they have your beautiful eyes.”
Emma leaned in for a proper hug, letting Chase’s arms wrap her in a cocoon of love. They embraced quietly until her stomach growled loud enough that Maxine probably heard several rooms away.
“Let’s see about getting that tummy of yours some lunch.” Chase released her, reaching for her hand as he dragged them back into motion.
She heard the mild chaos in the mammoth gourmet kitchen before they entered. There had to be at least a dozen people seated at the U-shaped island in the center of the open space. In the middle of the U was their new chef, Avery Cross. Emma had met the redhead the week before wh
en they’d gone through the food and beverage budget together. She’d been impressed with the woman’s business sense at the time.
Jaxson called out to them from the far side of the island. “There you two are. I thought you got lost. Ted texted me that you’d left almost twenty minutes ago.” He motioned to his right. “I saved you two seats.”
Chase pulled her farther into the room as she tried to take in their newest employees, most of whom she hadn’t met. The uniforms the men and women wore told her there was a mix of groundskeepers and security personnel chowing down on Avery’s cooking. A beautiful woman with long, black hair sat alone at one of the three tables that separated the kitchen from the connected great room.
“Hey, Emma. Chase. Jax told me you were coming so I whipped you up a sampler platter to share. I hope that’s okay.” Avery slid a large oval plate in front of them before dramatically removing the warming lid to display the scrumptious looking food underneath.
“It smells awesome,” Chase acknowledged. “I’m starving.” He reached out to pick up a loaded potato skin and dip it in the bowl of sour cream before popping a bite in his mouth.
Emma chuckled. “I can see I’m going to have to fight for my half.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll make you more if you don’t get enough,” Avery assured her.
Emma was reaching for a potsticker when Jaxson’s arm wrapped around her waist, nearly pulling her off her tall stool as he leaned down to talk against her ear. “It’s about time you guys got here. I’ve been waiting for you. Eat fast. We need to leave.”
Something in his voice made her stop from taking the bite, turning to him instead. His potent glare threatened to swallow her, spiking her heart rate. Jaxson was an intense man on a good day. Today, his heated gaze knocked the air out of her lungs. He masked his emotions so well, she truly couldn’t tell if he was happy or upset. All Emma knew was that something big had happened.
