Black Light: Roulette Rematch (Black Light Series Book 20)

by Livia Grant

  Zandian Lights

  Kept by the Zandian

  Claimed by the Zandian

  Stolen by the Zandian

  Other Sci-Fi

  The Hand of Vengeance

  Her Alien Masters

  Regency

  The Darlington Incident

  Humbled

  The Reddington Scandal

  The Westerfield Affair

  Pleasing the Colonel

  Western

  His Little Lapis

  The Devil of Whiskey Row

  The Outlaw’s Bride

  Medieval

  Mercenary

  Medieval Discipline

  Lords and Ladies

  The Knight’s Prisoner

  Betrothed

  Held for Ransom

  The Knight’s Seduction

  The Conquered Brides (5 book box set)

  Renaissance

  Renaissance Discipline

  Shattered

  A Black Light: Roulette Rematch Novella

  By

  Maggie Ryan

  Chapter 1

  Braxton

  I stopped walking from the parking lot toward the entrance. Not because I was hesitant to enter Black Light but simply because I was a red-blooded male and the view in front of me had that blood heading straight south. How she didn’t break an ankle in those fuck-me heels, I didn’t know, but it was a question I was willing to ponder for as long as her hips swayed with every step she took.

  “Foster—”

  My lifted hand cut off further conversation as I watched the woman disappear from view when the path led her to the right. I found myself listening for any interruption in the staccato click of her stilettos against stone. Hearing none, I grinned. A man had to admire the talent required to successfully navigate the steps leading down to the door of the club. Only when I heard the brief buzz of voices between the door’s opening and closing behind her did I turn to discover Nathaniel Jacobs standing a foot away.

  “Sorry about that—"

  “Bullshit,” Jacobs countered and shook his head. “I can’t say I blame you. A view like that deserves to be properly appreciated in reverent silence.”

  “Exactly my thought.” I chuckled and we continued toward the entrance.

  “Good to see you again, Mr. Foster, Mr. Jacobs,” Brian greeted us as we approached the counter a few minutes later.

  “Good to be here,” I replied.

  “You observing or playing tonight?” Jacobs asked.

  “Definitely playing.” I hefted my toy bag. The night’s possibilities had replaced the trivial minutia of a dozen business plans that had filled my weekend, allowing me to respond with enthusiasm. “Believe me, with the week I’ve got coming up, the only negotiations I’ll be considering tonight are those proffered by my submissive.”

  “You’re in lockers twenty-three and twenty-seven,” Brian said, offering us the keys. “Enjoy your evening, gentlemen.”

  “That’s the plan,” I said.

  For a moment I’d considered asking Brian if he could tell me anything about the woman who’d entered a few minutes before us but knew the man was far too professional to break the rules. Black Light not only offered its members the venue to be as kinky as one could wish to be, but assured anonymity to those within its walls. However, that didn’t keep me from grilling another dominant.

  “Know anything about her?” I asked as we stored phones and watches in our designated lockers.

  Jacobs didn’t bother pretending he didn’t know who I was asking about. “Sorry, can’t say that I do.”

  “Discovery is part of the game,” I said as I tucked the key into my pocket, and we moved toward the door leading to the actual club. “All I need now is to introduce myself to the lady in red.”

  “Good luck with that.” Jacobs chuckled, and I understood the reason for his amusement the moment I pulled open the door.

  There wasn’t one lady in red… there was a sea of them. For a moment I’d forgotten it was Valentine’s Day, and it seemed red was a prominent color for the evening. A dozen different shades of it moved across the room. Dresses of various lengths clung to enticing curves. Slender throats were encircled by red leather collars. A willowy blonde walked by wearing nothing but sexy-as-sin lingerie the color of a fine glass of Bordeaux. While I appreciated them all, none were the object of my search.

  “So what’s your spidey sense telling you?” Jacobs asked with sweep of his hand.

  I’d been blessed with an innate ability of knowing when an opportunity was about to present itself. My friends referred to it as my ‘spidey sense;’ my business rivals had far less colloquial terms I’m sure. Call it what you will, it was pinging now and had drawn my eyes to a flash of red.

  “There.” The single word and nod of my head proved the gift of intuition had yet to fail me.

  We both watched the woman as, for the briefest of moments, she paused in the doorway leading to the theater. Her head turned to look over her shoulder as if she felt it too and recognition swept through me.

  “I’ll be damned.”

  Jacobs looked from her to me and back again. “Not exactly the response I was expecting,” he joked. “What’s the matter? Redheads not your type?”

  “I know her.”

  “No shit? I thought you said you’d never met her.”

  “I haven’t.”

  “Foster, I hate to tell you but you’re making no sense. You either know her or you don’t.”

  “We’ve never actually met but I know of her. In fact, I have her picture in a folder that is presently one of many spread out over my desk at home. Though, I’m telling you, the photo doesn’t even come close to doing her justice.”

  That wasn’t a lie. Instead of a static version of a businesswoman dressed in a black suit and sensible pumps with her hair pulled back into a bun, the live version wore red silk, silver stilettos, and the hair flowing down her back had me visualizing a river of lava. The difference was truly incredible.

  “Should I even ask why in the hell you have her photo?” Jacobs asked.

  “Haven’t you ever heard of keeping your friends close and your enemies even closer?”

  “I’ve got to hear this story. Come on, I’ll buy you a drink before the action starts.”

  We made our way to the bar and ordered. After swirling the amber liquid around the bowl of our snifters to warm the contents, Jacobs took a sip from his and nodded. “I’m listening. Explain to me how someone who has the power to stop you in your tracks can be your enemy.”

  I enjoyed the smooth brandy sliding down my throat before I filled him in. “We’re both attending meetings this week competing for the same business opportunity.” I took another swallow and continued. “That explains her presence in L.A. though her arena is on the East Coast. The real question is what is she doing at Black Light West wearing a backless red dress that barely covers the curve of her ass?”

  “Same thing as everyone else here, I suppose,” Jacobs offered. “Enjoying herself and, believe me, if all my enemies looked like your lady in red, I can see why you’re craving to hold her very close indeed.”

  I could only agree, the need to dominate shifting from the conference room to this self-contained world of pleasure and pain in the span of seconds.

  A soft chime diverted our attention as the crowd began to move as one toward the theater.

  I cursed beneath my breath. “Shit, I totally forgot about Roulette.” This was the one day of the year when the rules within these walls changed, shutting down any chance of sceneing with just any submissive.

  “Far too late to pull out now,” Jacobs informed me before draining the rest of his drink in one swallow. “Don’t worry. Your loss is my gain. Being the great friend I am, I’ll make sure to keep your lady occupied while you spin the wheel.”

  “How very generous of you,” I grunted, setting my empty glass onto the bar. We followed the crowd as they entered the theater. Leather recliners had been repl
aced with banquet chairs to accommodate a much larger mass of people. A small, raised stage had been erected at the front of the room and was where those who’d be participating in tonight’s game were gathering.

  “Unbelievable. How lucky can one man be?” Jacobs groused as we watched the lady in red join the submissives to the right of the stage.

  “Comes from clean living,” I replied, grinning as Jacobs rolled his eyes and called, ‘bullshit’ for the second time tonight.

  I waited until her eyes found mine before dropping my bag at the base of the stage and moving to stand with the other doms. When her lips parted into a perfect little O of surprise, I gave her a wink. All I needed now was for the gods to continue to bless me by making sure a little ball landed in the pocket containing her name, and then the real fun could begin.

  Chapter 2

  Ember

  Omigod!

  All it took was a grin and a wink to have everything around me disappear. I no longer saw the other submissives I’d joined to await the start of the evening. I no longer heard the crowd of spectators as they began to settle into seats filling the room. I no longer wondered about the others gathered at the left of the stage.

  The only thing existing in my world was the man standing across the room from me.

  Braxton Foster.

  CEO and owner of Foster Enterprises.

  Businessman. Make that businessman extraordinaire. The man’s list of accomplishments was longer than my arm.

  Shrewd…

  Unforgiving…

  Demanding…

  Ambitious…

  He was all of those and so much more. His business acumen was already the stuff of legends even though the man wasn’t forty yet. In the past fifteen years he’d torn apart and rebuilt more companies than most corporations did in decades.

  And if that wasn’t enough, the man was incredibly good-looking. Tall, dark, and handsome didn’t even begin to describe him. He might have exchanged his bespoke suit for a pair of jeans and a pristine, white, long-sleeved, button-down shirt, but he couldn’t shed the raw animal magnetism exuding from his every pore.

  I’d given a great deal of thought to this evening. I was extremely conscious of the power of one’s reputation. I’d even spent the better part of a year attempting to convince myself I could live a normal vanilla lifestyle. That had cost me a great deal of frustration not to mention hundreds of dollars supporting BOB.

  I mean have you seen the price of batteries lately?

  I’d worked my ass off to gain respect as a businesswoman. And while I hadn’t yet reached legendary status, it was definitely one of my goals. But even the best-laid plans needed the ability to shift occasionally. No matter how hard I’d tried to convince myself otherwise, I simply was not a vanilla girl.

  I didn’t just like kink — I needed it as much as I needed air to breathe. Something of a control freak in my public persona, I did a complete one-eighty when it came to my private life. My entire soul craved giving myself over to a man skillful enough to keep me balanced on the knife’s edge of pleasure and pain.

  Still, I’d never once considered the possibility one of those men would not only be known to me… but would be the very person I’d be competing against tomorrow. He might not be sitting across the conference room table from me yet, but he already had the upper hand. Not because he was a man, not even because he was the Braxton Foster. All it took to give him a leg up was his physical position on the left side of the stage — the dominant side.

  Me?

  I waited to be called forward to offer myself as a submissive. The very definition meant I had voluntarily signed up to yield to the authority and will of another person. To serve him… to make sure he was happy. My pleasure — and my pain — came at the discretion of my dom.

  I gave a start of surprise when the crowd erupted into applause and good-natured shouts. I’d been so lost in my own world, I’d totally missed whatever Jaxson, one of the co-owners of the club, had said. All I caught was his introduction of Mistress Madison, our MC for the evening.

  A glance back at Braxton showed a quirk of a brow and a slight smirk as if he knew I’d been completely thrown by his appearance. The worst thing I could do was show weakness. I pointedly looked away and watched Jaxson descend the stairs and move toward his wife and husband. The trio was not only famous, Emma, Chase, and Jaxson were some of the best people I’d ever met. I turned my attention back to the stage where I kept my eyes on Madison.

  After going over a few details, the gorgeous woman grabbed what looked like a handful of popsicle sticks. One by one the dominants plucked a stick from her hands to determine the order in which they’d be spinning the wheel. When she came to Braxton, everything seemed to slow down. I watched every centimeter of the stick as he slowly drew it free and saw his lips curl into a grin that had my body betraying me. My nipples hardened beneath my dress and my brand-new panties dampened as his gaze lifted to meet mine.

  “God, he is fucking hot,” the woman next to me mock whispered. “I’ve seen him in action and let me tell you, I’d sell my soul to be paired with him.”

  Okay so maybe the degree of separation between my two selves wasn’t quite a hundred percent because the barracuda made an appearance. I might not want to bow down before my competition, but I sure as hell didn’t want to see the blonde dropping to her knees in front of him either. The snarky bitch inside of me didn’t bother to point out that from what I knew of Braxton’s reputation, he didn’t go for the simpering, sniveling type — he much preferred the fight.

  Then again, what did I know? True, I was familiar with him in the outside world, but inside this room, this club? If she’d seen him play, this woman knew more about him than I did. I simply nodded and whispered, “Good luck.”

  She giggled and then we both quieted as the last popsicle stick was drawn and Mistress Madison returned to the roulette wheels.

  “Now, it’s time to find out which of our doms for the evening will meet their submissive first!”

  I wasn’t the least bit surprised to see Braxton step forward. After all, he’d been number one for most of his life. He exchanged his stick for the ball that would determine who would be his partner for the next three hours. My new friend’s desire proved contagious as other women whispered, a few even softly moaning as the wheel began to spin. I heard the ball drop and looked around at all the submissives who were watching every revolution of the wheel. My mind quickly did the calculation and I realized there were fifteen of us which meant there was almost a ninety-four percent chance I would be safe. I released the breath I’d been holding and scanned the line of men wondering which one I’d be paired with when the blonde next to me grabbed my hand and squeezed.

  “It’s stopping.”

  A look back toward the Roulette table showed she was right. When the wheel stopped spinning and I saw Braxton’s eyes lift and that grin appear again, I knew despite the odds exactly what name I’d hear before Mistress Madison called out, “Cinder, please join your dominant on stage!”

  “Damn,” the blonde beside me muttered while I attempted to cover my shock. I obviously failed when she added, “Omigod, is that you?”

  “Guilty as charged,” I managed. I was pretty sure she hadn’t heard me over the squeal she gave while wrapping me in a huge hug.

  “You lucky bitch! Have fun for the both of us, okay?”

  Fun?

  Having fun was the least of my concerns. Coming out of this with any shred of dignity as a respectable player in the business world was far more vital than having fun. Still, I couldn’t deny the tingle shooting through my body as I slowly made my way up the steps of the stage to join my dom.

  Chapter 3

  Braxton

  She was good...

  Good but not perfect.

  There had been the briefest flash of panic across her face before she’d taken a deep breath and stepped forward. I’d thought the dress quite provocative from the back, but damn… the view from
the front took it from sexy to fucking stunning. Silk dropped from her shoulders to drape over the mounds of her breasts, leaving the valley between them completely exposed. The fabric drew together to cinch at her waist and then hugged her hips and ass. She wore more than some of the other women in the club, but I found it far more seductive wondering exactly what lay beneath soft silk. I was under no illusion she wasn’t going to do her damnedest to best me at my own game tomorrow, but for the next three hours, the lady in red belonged to me.

  “Cinder?” I grinned at the clever tweaking of her actual name.

  “Yes, and you are…”

  I had absolutely no doubt she knew exactly who I was and yet I’d play along. “Master will do for now.” I didn’t miss the quick intake of her breath or the pinkening of her cheeks as I set the tone for the evening.

  “Cinder, it’s your turn to spin,” Madison said. The white ball changed hands and then Madison reached up to set the second wheel to spin. I watched Ember’s bottom lip disappear between her teeth as she glanced up at me.

  Was she seeking permission?

  Well, well… that little tidbit hadn’t been in her file. Then again, neither had any references to the fact she wasn’t always the take-no-prisoners businesswoman either. I obviously needed a better investigator. Until then, I was going to have fun uncovering all the secrets Ms. Keller held close.

  “Drop the ball,” I instructed, nodding toward the wheel which was definitely slowing.

  “Oh.” She seemed surprised to find the ball still in her fist. With a flick of her wrist, the orb flew the short distance before dropping down into the wheel where it ricocheted right back at us.

  I caught it before it hit the floor. Ignoring the hoots of the crowd, I took Ember’s hand in mine and pressed the ball into her palm.