Ruby stood, shrugging off her sister’s hand on her shoulder as she did so. “No, I’m fine. Sorry. I didn’t realize I was talking out loud. I hope I didn’t disrupt your phone call. That was Pax, right? Is everything okay? Does he need you? Cause I can entertain myself you know.”
Her sister was still looking at her strangely as she answered. “That was Pax. Everything is fine. He wanted us to join him and Jase for dinner later at one of the new themed restaurants in the hotel. An early birthday dinner, since he will be busy tomorrow with the opening.”
“Jase? That’s his partner, right? Mr. Tall, blond and scary?” Handsome as hell too, but Ruby caught herself before she said that part out loud. A girl had to have some secrets.
“Scary?” Diamond laughed. “Jase has his issues, and he puts on a good show, but deep down, he’s a big ol’ teddy bear.”
“If you say so.”
“I do. So, does that sound good to you? Pax wanted me to be very clear that it was your choice. It is your birthday after all. He just knows we are going to be drinking tonight, and wants to be sure we don’t do it on an empty stomach.” Her sister blushed as she said this, and an unexpected pang of jealousy clenched in Ruby’s gut as she wondered what would happen if her sister were to drink on an empty stomach, and what it must be like to be with someone who cared so deeply.
“Dinner is fine,” Ruby answered, pushing away the pangs of jealousy she felt—and the mental image of her sister getting everything she herself only experienced in fantasies. “Where are we going?”
“Oh, it’s a surprise,” Diamond replied with a wink.
Diamond had kept up with her plan to not tell Ruby where they were going for dinner, and Ruby herself wasn’t as familiar with the names and uses of the new stores and restaurants in the hotel as she was with their décor. She followed her sister blindly through the halls, down the escalators, and onto the third floor where the classiest eateries and shoppes were housed.
Ruby knew that Pax had taken care to make the entire hotel have a feel of being kink friendly, and BDSM themed, so her imagination was running wild with possibilities. “C’mon, Di, give me a hint. We’re almost there, anyway, right? What’s the harm?”
“No hint,” Diamond said firmly, her heels clicking as she walked briskly in front of her sister as Ruby struggled to keep up. “As you said, we’ll be there soon enough.”
“Darn you,” Ruby wailed, wishing already that she had settled for a lower more sensible pair of heels. She wanted to fit in here, although to be honest, she didn’t actually have enough experience to know what that looked like, so she was copying her sister and running off stereotypes. Her heels, new this afternoon, were patent leather stilettos adorned with metal studs coming out of the open toes, and heels that had to be nearly five inches off the ground. They had cost her a small fortune, and she was already suffering buyer’s remorse.
Diamond’s heels were only slightly lower, and she walked with an ease that suggested she might have been wearing tennis shoes. Kicking out of her shoes, Ruby bent down and grabbed them, running after her sister. “Wait up, will you!” she cried, catching up to her, just as Diamond stopped short.
“We’re here,” she announced smugly. “Put your shoes on. This is a classy establishment.”
Ruby groaned as she complied, gazing at the black marble door for a hint. There was nothing not even a name. No store front windows either—nothing to tempt hungry shoppers or give them glimpses of the tantalizing eats that awaited them inside, which seemed odd for a restaurant. Butterflies took up residence in her stomach, and her palms dampened with sweat. Whatever this was, she wasn’t sure she was ready for it.
“Are we going to go in?”
“Just a minute. The boys are meeting us. They will be here shortly. We’ve been instructed not to enter without them.”
The implication of the instruction struck Ruby to her core, and she once again flushed with a mixture of desire, and jealousy. This time though, there was something new. A twinge of fear as she realized that she was literally face to face with all her deepest darkest desires. Except for the fact that she wasn’t actually anyone’s sub, and she didn’t have a Dom, or anyone who had the right to punish her if she disobeyed. Even she knew well enough to know that Doms weren’t supposed to go around giving orders to every woman they came across.
The redhead in her took over, her nostrils flaring as she grabbed hold of the door. “I’ve been instructed with no such thing. And even if I had, there’s not a person here who has the right to instruct me of anything!”
Stomping her foot on the marble tile beneath her, she pulled on the door, shocked at its heaviness. Just as it opened, a hand closed over her wrist, moving it easily from its hold on the handle, and pulling her gently back. Her mouth opened in an ‘O’ of surprise as she looked up and saw not one, but two stern faces glowering down at her.
“You’re my wife’s sister. My instructions to you are out of concern for your safety and the rules around here. For your information, they are not borne out of some misplaced sense of power and authority on my part. But as your brother-in-law, and the owner of this hotel, I can and will instruct you as I see fit this weekend to ensure that you have a safe and consensual experience during your stay here. This place will be crawling with Doms this weekend. Some of them will be wannabes. I don’t like that, but I can’t help it either. It falls beyond my realm of control. What I can do is make sure that you are always escorted by someone I do know and can trust. This place is for couples. You do not come here without an escort. They will not allow you inside.”
The stern lecture that had her stomach dropping to her toes came from Pax, but the hand around her wrist belonged to Jase.
Her mouth went dry once again as she realized how real this all was. It was no longer just files on a computer to fuel her fantasies. She was knee deep in the world of safe and consensual BDSM, but, as she had just been reminded, it had a dark side.
Her eyes welled with unshed tears as she took her brother-in-law’s words to heart, and nodded remorsefully. “Yes, Pax. I understand. I’m sorry.”
“Good.” He nodded to Jase, who then and only then, dropped her wrist. She immediately cradled it, wrapping her own hand where his hand been, startled by the warmth of her skin. But why shouldn’t it be warm? Her face felt like it was on fire. Hell, her whole body did. These men may not have been anything to her, but they were dominant as hell. There was no way she could be within a stone’s throw of two stern looking Dominants lecturing her and not have her body react. Which meant from this point on, she was in for one hell of an interesting weekend.
“Are you okay? Ready to go in?” Jase finally spoke, and she looked up from her thoughts to find all three of them staring at her with looks of mild concern.
“Oh, yes, I’m ready.” Her voice came out in a thick whisper, and she wondered if they knew she was aroused.
“Yes, what?” Jase asked, opening the door, and guiding her to enter in front of him with a hand on the small of her back.
“Yes, Sir!” She managed to squeak out, before he came to stand beside her in the elegant foyer, and she caught a glimpse of his face, which was sparkling with smug amusement.
“I was joking,” he informed her with a hint of a smile. “You don’t have to call me Sir.”
If it was at all possible, her face got even redder, until it must have matched her hair. “Sorry.” The word fell out in a shaky breath.
He leaned in close, whispering in her ear. “Don’t be sorry. I was about to add ‘not yet anyway.’”
Her eyes widened as she stepped away, adrenaline and arousal rushing through her. What in the hell was going on here?
She didn’t have much time to question it, though, as their hostess finally arrived.
It was her first clue into the evening that awaited them, and it wasn’t much of one. The hostess was petite, and Asian. Her short black locks were decorated with red streaks that matched the untraditionally short kimono
she wore. The only traditional thing about her was the black leather collar that adorned her neck—an ever present reminder to Ruby of where she was and who she was with.
“Good evening, my name is Hirosha. I will be your server this evening.” Her English was perfect and her voice friendly, instantly setting Ruby at ease as the group followed her through a hallway adorned with oriental patterned wallpaper in a deep gold. Ruby noted that she still didn’t know the name of the place, only that it was Asian in cuisine. They walked for a while, and Ruby noted that she never passed anything looking remotely like a dining room, and that they seemed to be the only ones there besides Hirosha. Curious.
More curious still, when Hirosha came to a stop in front of a closed door, and knocked before entering. No sounds came from inside, but that must have been good, because she smiled at them once more, and pushed the door open.
Ruby entered first, with Jason on her heels, and stopped short as she took in her surroundings. The room was small. Two long tables side by side ran lengthwise down the middle of the room. Each had a raised platform in the middle that was adorned with gold tablecloths. A wooden plank sat atop the tablecloth in the middle of each raised platform. And smack dab in the middle of each table, lying flat, and covered only with an artful display of sushi and flowers was a naked person. Her eyes bulged out of her head as she processed what she was looking at. Sushi covered naked people. Tingles traveled down her spine as she took in the simple eroticism of the scene before her. Nyotaimori. She had heard about it, of course, and always secretly wondered what it would be like, but she had never experienced it, and had honestly thought she never would. She had attempted once, to convince Trevor to take her when a new place had opened up in Beverly Hills. His response had been one of disgust.
A gentle push propelled her forward and she realized she had frozen in the doorway. Blushing, she turned to the side to see whose hand was on her back, desperately hoping that it was her sister’s. No such luck. It belonged to Jase, and the look he gave her made her panties instantly dampen, for reasons she could not explain. Maybe it was the exchange that had taken place outside, or the sensualism of their current surroundings, or maybe it was the fact that everything about this man screamed Dominant in a way that had her wanting to bend over the table and beg him to spank her. Either way, she was in a room with only him and two other people about to eat sushi off a naked man’s body, and she couldn’t remember the last time she had been so turned on by things that were actually happening, and not just inside of her head.
Closing her eyes, she tried to get her color under control so everyone in the room would not be privy to how turned on she was. That was one thing about being a redhead that she hated. Her whole body flushed to match her hair. It was always a dead give-away to whatever she was feeling. She took deep cleansing breaths and tried not to think about what had happened outside, or the fantasies taking place inside her head, but focusing on what was taking place in the present wasn’t much better. Her whole body was tingling as she sat down, following Hirosha to a place on the opposite side of that cafeteria style table. It wasn’t until she sat that she realized the spot she had chosen was directly adjacent with the man’s leaf covered package. She tried to draw her eyes away from it, but it was right there. Eyeing the length of the table she awkwardly wondered if she could discreetly move. She was about to, when the weight shifted, and Jase took the seat directly opposite her, so that he was adjacent with the woman’s flower covered mound.
A fact that judging by the wink he shot at her, did not escape his notice. Suddenly, nothing else mattered, and the room may as well have been empty because all she could see was his blue eyes, and those gorgeous dimples.
“This is a lot of food for four people.” As soon as the obvious statement left her mouth, she cringed. How lame could she get?
“Oh, I don’t know, I can eat a lot of sushi.” Jase’s smile was easy and engaging. She decided right then and there that it was his best feature. And there were lots to choose from.
“It’s kind of a test run. Whatever we don’t eat we can pack up for later,” Diamond said with a grin as she sat down next to Ruby. “I love breakfast sushi.”
Immediately more at ease, Ruby smirked at her sister. “God, Di, you’re so weird.”
“She is,” Pax agreed smoothly, sliding into the seat beside Jase. “But that’s what I love about her.” His face instantly softened as he smiled at Diamond before turning his attention back to her.
“So, what do you think about Nyotaimori? Your sister insisted we pull out all the stops to make this your early birthday dinner. Officially, it doesn’t even open until next weekend.”
Touched, Ruby beamed at him, once again marveling at how lucky a woman her sister was. “It’s a little nerve-wracking but I’ve always wanted to try it. Thank you.”
“It’s all Diamond. She wanted to make this birthday one you will always remember. I’m just the orchestrator, doing what she tells me.” He laughed and rolled his eyes at this, but the twinkle in his eyes belied the truth. A stolen glance at her sister caught Diamond blushing, and shaking her head at him, and Ruby wondered exactly what else her sister had planned.
Whatever it was, it appeared from the smirk on Jase’s face that he was in on the joke. Her eyes darted wildly between the three of them, and panic rose in her chest, but she caught Diamond’s eye and instantly relaxed. She trusted her sister. And besides, weren’t birthdays supposed to be all about surprises?
With a wicked grin of her own, she held the chopsticks precariously in her grasp and stood to lean over the man, plucking a piece of sushi roll from just below the woman’s left breast. Still standing, she popped it into her mouth and sighed deeply as the flavors melded together on her tongue.
From his place, across from her Jase smirked. “You’re supposed to get a few pieces, put them onto the plate in front of you, and then eat them,” he informed her with a wink.
Her face was wicked with mischief as she smirked back, and grabbed a second piece, this one from the male model’s rock hard abs. “What’s that old saying? Obey all the rules, miss all the fun? If I can’t break a few rules here at the Rojo in Vegas, then where?”
The look on his face could only be described as promising as he took in her cheeky retort. “Where indeed?” he agreed.
The air between them sizzled. Ruby knew she wasn’t imagining it by the way her sister and Pax were looking at her. Suddenly self-conscious, she sat down, casting her gaze at her empty plate. Everyone was silent for a moment, then Diamond, bless her, started to choose her own pieces, leaving chunks of glistening bare skin in her wake as slices of sushi roll and sashimi found their way onto her plate.
After she had picked out nearly a dozen, she plopped back into her seat with a satisfied smile, and grinned at the men across from them. “Well, boys, what are you waiting for? The pickings are ripe.” It was all the invitation they needed to load up their plates.
Soon the four of them settled into a comfortable conversation at the offerings at the new and improved Rojo and their respective plans for opening weekend.
“It’s going to be crazy busy if the reservations are anything to go by. I’m sure all the usual insane opening day chaos will be in full effect and I will barely have time to breathe. If I do end up with a minute or two here or there, I’m excited to see a few people who are flying in, and hope to get a minute to chat with everybody although I know that’s probably a little ambitious. If by some miracle, I get more than a minute, I’d love a chance to explore one of the new playrooms with my lovely wife.” Pax beamed and Diamond blushed and giggled in response.
“I’m excited to see everyone as well. I know I’m going to be busy greeting people as well as just being around to support my amazing husband and show my little sister a birthday she will never forget.”
Diamond turned to Jase then, and he shrugged, a shit-eating grin wide on his face, showing off his gorgeous dimples. “You know me; I like to wing it.” His gaze f
lew to her and his smile grew even more enticing, if such a thing were even possible. “You never know,” he continued, “when a great opportunity will avail itself to you. I like to keep my options open.”
He was looking right at her when he spoke, and she wondered if anybody else heard the innuendo laced there or if she was just imagining things. “What about you, birthday girl? Got any hot plans for opening night?”
Her plan right now was to try not to throw up as they all stared at her expectantly. “I-I…” she stuttered, feeling the heat creep up her chest as the familiar flush worked its tell-tale magic up her body. She was saved from having to answer by the shrill ring of Pax’s cell phone.
Diamond immediately turned to her husband with an accusatory pout. “You said no cell phones tonight.”
“No,” Pax retorted, patiently over the ring. “I said I wouldn’t answer any calls that weren’t important. And it’s Derek, so it probably is.” His finger went to his lips to shush her, as he hit the button to pick up the call.
They all watched as he frowned into the phone. “They said what? What permit? That’s ridiculous. Why do I need a new inspection and maximum occupancy check? The club is exactly the same size as it was before. It just looks different. Now? Of course. Fine. I’ll be right there.”
He ended the call, and sighed, addressing her first. “Happy birthday, Ruby. I’m sorry to rush out, but they are threatening to shut me down if I open up without getting this taken care of, and I’m out of time. I have no idea how long this will take or what other things might pop up in the meantime, so I’ll say goodnight now.”
“Of course, go. Thank you for arranging this. It’s really lovely,” she added graciously.
He nodded, and turned to go, and Diamond stood abruptly. “I better go with him. This stuff can be so stressful and too much testosterone can make it even more so. Sometimes they need a woman around to talk some sense into them.”
Claimed (Vegas Nights Book 2) Page 4
