“My God, Nix. How lucky are we?” she asked, and I felt a chill run through her as her body shook a bit.
She’d called me Nix. My mother called me that. No one else ever had. I had a reputation that usually stopped anything like that. But I loved the way it sounded coming out of her mouth.
Pulling back, I didn’t let her go as I looked at her with a smile on my face. “Nix, huh? Okay, I’ll give you that one. But does that mean I get to call you Kat?”
With a sigh, she gave me a weak smile. “I don’t know if we’ll be doing anymore calling each other anything. When we leave here, this is over. No strings. I recall how this all works. We had one hot night, and there’ll be nothing more. I know the rules. I’m not going to bother you.”
I’d kind of like her to bother me.
I nodded, knowing she had had to sign something at the club that held her to that promise. But it didn’t stop me from feeling a bit bad about it.
I genuinely liked the woman. “You do have my number if you really need me. Not that I think you would—but if you do, you have it.”
“I won’t use it.” She turned her head. “That’s not what either of us went to that club for, right? One hot night of crazy sex is what we went there for, and we got that.” She looked back at me, and I saw something shimmer in the backs of her blue eyes. Her hands moved up my arms, reaching up to cradle my face. “I’ll keep the memory of last night locked away in my mind forever, Nixon Slaughter. It’s my most cherished one so far.” She kissed my lips softly.
Now it was my turn to feel the chill, and my body quaked for a moment. I tightened my hold on her, pulling her closer to me and kissing her back in a way I’d never done with another one-night stand sub.
A knock on the door interrupted what was sure to turn into another sexual escapade. My brain was thankful; my cock was not. “That would be your clothes. Put them on while I shower. Don’t you dare leave. I’ll have the driver I hired take you home after he takes me to the airport. I’d get you home first but I’ve got to go in to the office once I get back home. Most days are work days for me.”
“Okay,” she said with a smile. “That’s very sweet of you.”
Sweet? Was I being sweet?
I let her go and walked away, knowing I wasn’t being myself with her. I was anything but sweet. Back in L.A I was known for my aloofness and for never dating anyone for more than a couple weeks. Most of the time, business occupied my mind. I’d been accused of being neglectful by my dates, answering calls at dinner, getting up and walking away, leaving my dates alone with no explanation as to why.
As I showered, I tried to think about business to get my head back in working order, but Katana kept popping into my mind with memories of her sweet smile or her hot kiss.
I had to hurry up and get sexy little Katana home and away from me. Her hooks seemed to be sinking into me, and I couldn’t have that at all.
Part Two
Chapter 6
Katana
Sitting down at my computer to get to work on a new book cover, I still wore the gorgeous dress Nix bought me. We’d parted ways only a couple of hours before, and his goodbye kiss still tingled on my lips.
I stared blankly at the computer screen. My mind couldn’t focus on anything other than the events of last night. When my cell rang, I jumped and looked at it, hoping it might be him.
But it couldn’t be him. He didn’t have my number. I had his, though I’d never call it. It wasn’t a sub’s place to call her Master, even if their pact was only for one night.
Blyss’s name lit up my phone, and I answered the call. “Hi, Blyss. How’s it going?”
“You sound way too calm, Katana. Didn’t you go to the club last night?” she asked.
“I did, and I left it only a short time after I arrived, as the most handsome Dom picked me before I had a chance to see much of the club you’ve told me so much about.” I got up and walked to the window to look outside as I conjured up the memory of the first time I’d laid eyes on Nix.
Blyss’s voice pulled me out of my reverie before I could really start daydreaming about the man. “So you weren’t in the club when all the chaos ensued then?”
Oh, that! “No. No, he and I left very early, thank God. Someone from the club called him and told him about it. Seems we dodged a bullet there.”
“That you did.” She seemed to be a lot calmer than before. “Okay, so this Dom, tell me all about him and what you guys did.”
I leaned my shoulder against the window pane and sighed. “He was the best lover I’ve ever had. Not that I’ve had that many. Okay, I’ve had two, and it’s been over a year since I’ve had sex of any kind.”
“You haven’t even masturbated?” she interrupted me.
“That’s personal!” I laughed. “But no, not even that. Maybe it seemed so intense and hugely satisfying because of that, I don’t know. But it was electric, and I can’t stop thinking about it. Is it possible to have a sex hangover, Blyss?”
She laughed. “I’ve had more than one of those. But then when you have a man as intense as mine, you get a thorough fucking at least once a month, with major fucks most days.”
“So that’s what it would be like if I had a long-term thing with a Dom?” I asked as the idea did things to my insides that made me quiver.
“Does last night have you thinking about finding yourself a full-time Dom, Katana?” she asked with a hint of humor in her voice.
“Well, not just any Dom would do. But my guy wasn’t into anything that lasts longer than one night. He doesn’t even live in this city.” I moved away from the window and went to sit back down.
“So was he able to get all that pent-up stress out of you? I know you had one hell of a crazy schedule last week—you were going insane.” She laughed again. “I hope he got that off your back.”
All the stress had melted away, and it had to be because of him. “Oh, yeah, he got rid of all that. Much better than the masseuse my friend recommended.”
She giggled knowingly. “I bet.”
Running my hand through my hair, I released the scent of the hotel shampoo and an image of Nixon flashed in my head. I had to think about something else. “So, how’s the hubby, Blyss? Is Troy doing okay?”
“He’s doing well. We’re about to take the kids out to window shop for Christmas presents,” she told me. “We do that every year so they can let us know all the things they want, and then we surprise them with a few of them on Christmas. It’s a fun tradition we’ve had for a few years.”
“Christmas already?” I had to ask. “It’s barely the day after Halloween.”
“Yeah, I know. This is the traditional day that we do this thing. That way we have lots of time to make sure we get them what they really want. I always have my Christmas shopping done before Thanksgiving. Because the day after Thanksgiving we set up the Christmas tree and I have presents ready to go right away. We’re big on the holidays in this family.”
“I’m glad you’ve found yourself a big family to live and love with. You deserve it all, Blyss,” I gushed. She’d been the best person I’d ever met while in the foster care system.
“Aw, thanks, Katana. You know you deserve happiness too.” She paused, and I could tell her wheels were spinning. “I worry about you sometimes. You stay alone too much, holed up in your little apartment in Portland, making those book covers. I know you’re making good money and all, but it takes away from your social life. You really need to get out more. Make a habit of it. Stop working at five or six, get yourself dolled up and go out instead of working all night.”
“I don’t know.” The thought of going out and maybe ending up in bed with another guy just hit me the wrong way all of a sudden. I knew I didn’t belong to Nixon, but there was something that told me I’d be disappointed if I went to bed with another man. Plus, I couldn’t think about anyone else at that moment, still overwhelmed by our amazing night together. “I’m not into clubbing. The only reason I registered with The D
ungeon of Decorum is because of the safety net it provided me. No abuse is tolerated, and I had a number to call if that occurred.”
“Yeah, I know that bastard did a number on you back then. Do you know if he’s still in jail or not?” she asked with concern etching her voice.
I didn’t know a thing about the man who’d left permanent scars on my body, brain, and heart. “I don’t know anything about him. It’s been four years since I left Flagstaff. As far as I know, he doesn’t have a clue where I moved. Lyle Strickland is a man I try hard not to think about.” I paused for a moment, reflecting on the relationship I’d had two years after I left Lyle, after I’d moved to Portland. “I know he’s the main reason it didn’t work out with Jimmy, too. I just never trusted him the entire six months we were together.”
“I know how hard it is to find that trust again. I’ve had my fair share of torture in the past. Not that I want to get into any of that. That’s all better off left alone. Well, I better get going. I can hear the kids putting up a fuss already. Love you, Katana.”
“I love you too, Blyss. I’ll call you again soon. Have fun. Bye.” I ended the call and leaned my head back, thinking about my past.
When Lyle had come onto me just after I turned nineteen, I’d thought I had hit the jackpot. He was older, twenty-five, and so dominant. I suppose I liked that sort of thing because I’d never had anyone care that much about me. I took it as a sign that he really loved me.
Turned out, he really loved controlling my every move, and then he really loved beating the shit out of me. My bruises and broken bones healed, but my heart and soul were left in rough shape.
Even if Nixon Slaughter were knocking down my door trying to date me, I wasn’t in any shape to be the woman for him. Still having my moments of being an emotional wreck at times proved I wasn’t ready to be anyone’s girl.
Poor Jimmy had got the shit end of the stick when he got with me. As a couple of years had passed since the horror show with Lyle, I’d thought I was over everything. Jimmy was anything but dominating. Poor guy was a pushover. I suppose that’s why things ended so fast between us. I pushed him to lord over me, but that wasn’t for him. He couldn’t do it.
I knew I’d had a rough life. I knew I had mental issues with that. Was it so wrong of me to need a man who would take control and treat me like I was his?
It didn’t seem that modern women wanted what I wanted. Not most of them anyway. I wanted that firm hand. I wanted that rough touch. Craved it. And I thought I’d found that with Lyle. But what I found instead was that you couldn’t trust every dominant man.
And I couldn’t be happy with a man who wasn’t at least somewhat dominating, either.
I felt stuck in a terribly deep rut. The thing I wanted the most was the thing that had hurt me so much in the past and made me wary of relationships. And I had no idea what I’d ever do to remedy that. Being alone wasn’t the answer either.
Getting up, I went back to my desk and tapped on the computer to bring up pictures of hot, muscular men so I could pick one for the next book cover I’d be making.
One by one, I blew them all off as none compared to Nixon. His tight abs, his broad chest with massive pecs, his hulking biceps—no one compared to him.
How in the hell would I ever get him out of my mind?
Would time eventually rid me of that perfect memory? Would I even want it to?
It had one perfect night. The best night of my entire life. Why would I want to forget about it?
Maybe because it already haunted me. Maybe because I already knew no other man could come close to comparing to Nixon Slaughter.
I was doomed.
Chapter 7
Nixon
Fall weather made the drive to work a pleasure. I didn’t even mind the hour I had to sit in traffic at the airport. It gave me time to think about my night with Katana, after all.
It’d only been a little while since I’d left her, but I had to admit I found myself missing her a little too often. She had my number, and I kept wishing she’d call. Maybe she’d ask me to come down and play for the weekend or something. But the phone never rang.
When traffic began rolling again, I made it all the way to my office building. Champlain Services, located inside the Century Plaza Towers on Century Park East, was my home away from home. With six offices on the top floor, we had a great view of the city.
When I came into the reception area, I saw my admin assistant, Blake, busy on the phone. I gave him a wave and headed to my office. He paused in the middle of his conversation to call out to me, “Don’t forget you have the Skype meeting this morning, boss.”
“Thanks.” I had forgotten about the meeting, but I wasn’t behind schedule even with the hour lost in traffic.
Getting into my office, I turned on the computer monitor on the wall and got ready for the meeting with my partners in the nightclub endeavor. The call came in from Gannon Forester’s office, and I clicked the accept button and found his adorable little secretary looking at me from the conference room in his office. “Good morning, Mr. Slaughter. It’s nice to see you.”
“You too, Janine. Is Gannon there?” I pulled up my most comfortable chair and settled in for the meeting.
“Yes, sir. And I’ll be adding Mr. Harlow to this meeting in just one moment. Sit tight,” she said with a smile, then pushed her thick-framed glasses up her nose a bit.
After a minute, August Harlow’s face filled half the screen. “Hey, ugly,” I joked with him.
“Hey, precious,” he said with a chuckle. “How’s life treating ya? You weren’t in town yesterday. Where might you have been?”
“Oh, nowhere special. Did you miss me?” I winked at him.
“Of course, my little buttercup. Halloween was nothing without your sweet little ass there,” he kidded with me. “But seriously, you missed one hell of a good time. Gannon and I had some fun with some nurses. At least they were dressed as nurses. There were three of them and only two of us, and one nearly got left out until I decided I could take on two at a time.”
“What a hero,” I said as I clapped. “Always helping out the citizens of our fair country, August.” Retired from the Marines at only thirty, August had seen some pretty grim shit that he didn’t like to talk about.
“I do what I can. Being retired, I can only help stateside. I like to keep up the morale over here.” He laughed again, then Gannon’s face filled the other side of my screen.
Gannon’s smile was bright as always as he greeted us, “Morning, gentlemen. And I do use that term lightly.”
August took the lead, as usual. “So the time has come for us to put our bickering behind us and agree on a name for this nightclub.”
We’d argued over this one thing for far too long. Seemed it was time to shit or get off the pot. So I gave them my idea one more time. “Let the record show, I like the name Club X.”
I knew it would be Gannon who had something to say about that. “And I’ve told you before, that name is much too common.”
August pointed out one major problem to Gannon. “Yes, but Gannon, you have yet to come up with a single name. You’ve had no problem shooting down all the ones we’ve come up with, though. So I am throwing you into the middle of this debate and challenging you to come up with a name on the fly. You have one minute.”
Giving Gannon one minute to do anything was a stretch. He was a thinker, not a shoot from the hip kind of guy. “What?” He looked back and forth at August and me with a look of panic on his face. “I’m not that creative. You guys are.”
I looked at my watch then back at Gannon. “You’re wasting time, Gannon.”
August looked at his watch too. “The time is ticking away. Thirty seconds, Gannon, or we’re sticking with Club X.”
“No! Wait—give me one more minute. I’m terrible under pressure.” Gannon pinched the bridge of his nose, looking as if he had to use all of his concentration to get a name to come to his business brain.
August w
asn’t messing around and wasn’t going to give him any more time. “Nope, no extra time. And we’re coming in on ten, nine …”
I sat back, pretty sure the club would get the moniker I’d come up with.
Gannon’s eyes popped open wide, and he looked as if a lightbulb had just gone off inside his head. “Swank!”
I had to smile; I liked the name immediately.
August nodded, and he also wore a broad smile. “Swank. I like it.”
I chuckled. “Me too. Swank it is, then.” I looked at August. “Seems we’ve had a productive meeting, August. Time to get back to our real jobs. Catch you guys later in the week. Nixon, out.” I clicked off the screen and got up to get to my real job.
There were a couple of things I needed to get to that day, and one of them looked to be lunch with my best friend, Shanna. Not business, but a necessary meeting nonetheless as it had been over a week since we’d talked.
Shanna and I had met in kindergarten at our school in the tiny South Texas town of Pettus. She and I used to walk to school together, as her family lived a few houses down from mine. Our relationship had always been like a brother-sister type thing, with no romance involved.
When I’d come out to California to go to Berkeley, she’d stayed home and gone to the community college there, the only thing she and her parents could afford. Shanna gained an associate’s degree but never got past that. Instead, she got her grandmother to teach her how to sew—and she became quite good at it. She begged me to let her stay with me in L.A., and soon after her arrival she secured herself an interview at Paramount Studios, landing a job as a costume designer.
Her stay with me was short-lived, as she was able to save enough money to move into her own apartment within a month. But she and I made a pact that we’d never brush each other off or put the other to the side. She was the only family I had out here, and vice versa, even if we weren’t exactly family. So whenever I saw a lunch or dinner with Shanna in my schedule, I made sure I didn’t miss any of them.
Nightclub Sins: A Billionaire Romance Series Page 21
