As they followed Jase to the car, Ruby held back, walking next to her sister.
“Does Paxton know what you are up to? Does he approve of such vile manipulation?”
“He knows I’m helping out his best friend, and that’s all he needs to know for now. I’m sure I’ll have more than a few things to answer for when all is said and done, but I’ll tell you what. I’ll worry about my man, and you worry about yours.”
“Jase is not my man. He’s my client.”
Diamond shrugged with a knowing smile, looking like she had not a care in the world. “Man. Client. Po-tay-to. Po-taht-o.”
They had reached Jase’s SUV, and he was holding the door open for them. Ruby couldn’t resist, giving her sister a shove with her elbow as she scooted in beside her. Diamond just laughed.
A full week later, Ruby stood in the middle of Aubergine scowling at Jase. “I can’t work like this.”
“And I can’t work at all! I have a club to run! I can’t run it if you’re ripping it out from the ground up!”
“Good! We finally agree on something!” she screamed, flinging the book of textile samples in his direction. He ducked and it hit the wall behind him, but when he stood pulling himself back to his full height and advanced on her, with menace written all over his face, Ruby wished she had a safe word for these work conditions.
Client, not Dom. Client, not Dom. Client not Dom. She repeated the mantra in her head, and prepared for a fight, even as she backed up closer to the wall with every step he took in her direction. There wasn’t much farther back she could go. The look on his face was pure Dom, and she couldn’t even blame him. She had chucked a giant book of samples at his head after all. So much for cultivating a professional, reputation. She was going to have to change her mantra. If she couldn’t change his façade, she would have to change her own, starting with the mantra playing on repeat in her head. Professional, not sub. It worked.
“Jase, I understand your frustration, and I promise to do my best to make sure the work gets done as quickly as possible. But you’re going to have to close the club down while the renovations take place. There’s no possible way around it. It’s literally against code to do anything but.”
He was close enough for her to feel his breath on her face, and see the frustration in his eyes. She looked away, focusing her gaze on the tic in his jaw, and watched as it slowly dissipated and his breathing returned to a normal pace.
“One week.”
“Jase, that’s not even a little bit attainable. Be reasonable.”
“Two weeks.”
She leveled him with a look. “Jase, I can’t make it go any faster, but I promise you I will stay on their asses, and do my own work buying the new furnishings in the meantime, I won’t let any grass grow under our feet, but you have to work with me here.”
“Aubergine is my life. I need the club to be open. It’s our main attraction. My bartenders, and my showgirls need the income. And so do I.”
“I don’t know what to tell you, Jase. Put them all on paid leave or give them other jobs to do. Turn your attention to drawing people in for the casino or the main bar. The club is closed for now. And I’m saying this as kindly and directly as I possibly can. You need to get over it.”
She was right, and he had known that it was going to happen all along. What he hadn’t known was how incredibly hard it would be to have her here day in and day out, to know every night when she went to bed and every morning when he went to bed that she was near. To have her smile at him, and not be able to kiss her. To have her raise her voice and throw things at him, and not be able to spank her.
Keeping their relationship purely professional was going to be the death of him. He could hardly sleep, or eat or do anything besides fantasize about the day when he could claim her as his. The more time that passed, the more he was certain of one thing. That day was coming. He wanted it more than he had ever wanted anything in his whole life, including Aubergine. He would do anything to make it happen, including suffering through months of unnecessary renovations and projects just to keep her here. Just to keep her close to him.
He wanted to tell her all that and more. But he couldn’t, not yet. So he just said, “Fine.” And walked away, leaving her to her work, like she wanted.
As he stormed out of the club, his blood pressure spiked, and his body filled with adrenaline. He needed a strong drink, and a hard fuck, but he could have neither of those things. He had promised Diamond and himself that he could keep his head in the game, and do nothing to sabotage the process, even though he had no idea what the process was, or how he was supposed to make Ruby fall for him while she worked, if she didn’t even want him around. And she didn’t. That much was clear. Every time he entered his club, his own club, her dander went up, and she was immediately on edge. It was all he could do to not make her hate him more than she already did, and yet soon, he was supposed to make her fall in love with him?
He had no idea how he was going to do that. He’d never been in love, nor had he ever wanted anybody to fall in love with him in return. Not saying that nobody had, but it certainly had never been a result of any effort on his part.
The stress and emotion left him in a low growl. Diamond would tell him to trust the plan. And to go for a run. He didn’t even know what trust the plan actually meant, but going for a run was one thing he could do. With a strangled sigh, he got in the elevator and punched the second floor for the gym.
“How’s it going?”
Ruby looked up in surprise when she heard her sister’s voice beside her. She had been so engrossed in figuring out the details of the floor plan quickly so as to keep things moving along, she hadn’t noticed that anyone had entered.
“Do you have a key?” she asked. Dread pooled in her stomach as her sister shook her head slowly. Jase had told her to keep the club locked. Anyone who needs to come and go already has a key he’d said.
It was a damn good thing she wasn’t currently taking orders from him. Not in that way, anyways. Still she’d make a conscious effort to be more careful in the future. An unhappy Dom was never a good thing, whether they had the ability to wield a paddle in your direction or not.
“It’s going okay, if you don’t count the times I’m hurling things at his head.”
“You threw things at him? Ruby! What did you throw?”
Ruby shrugged. Tears pricked the back of her eyes, but she didn’t know why. Exhaustion probably. “Just a book of samples.”
“Those things are massive!”
“I know.” Ruby grinned, at her sister, able to see the humor in the situation now that it had passed. “He ducked. It hit the wall. He wasn’t pleased.”
“No, I’d imagine not. Girl, do you have a death wish? You do not throw things at Doms!”
“He’s not my Dom,” Ruby pouted, half wishing he was. Being in close proximity to Jase and Rojo was doing nothing to relieve the sub frenzy she had been struggling with ever since her birthday weekend had ended.
“Keep throwing things at him, and he’s likely to forget that little fact, sister! Not to mention, it’s not good business to throw things at your clients!”
“I know. I know.” Ruby groaned, rubbing at her temple with both hands. “I don’t know what is wrong with me. I’ve never done anything like that before, and believe me, I’ve wanted to. More than once.”
“I know what’s wrong with you. You need to destress. Come out to Rojo tonight. Master Darius is doing a demonstration, and those are always hot as fuck. The Tanners are in town, and Crystal has the night off so she will be there just to hang out. Come play with us!”
Ruby was already shaking her head. “I can’t. I promised Jase I would make sure this was all done as soon as possible so Aubergine wouldn’t be closed for long. Having the club in shambles is really stressing him out.”
“All work and no play makes Roo a ticking time bomb,” Diamond taunted, eliciting a laugh from Ruby. Her sister knew her too well. Ruby worked hard, but
she played just as hard. She knew it was important for her to have downtime, and yet she hadn’t taken any in nearly a month. She was certain Diamond was right, and she desperately needed the night off to decompress. She was equally as certain that her night off needed to happen anywhere but Rojo. That scene was not what she needed right now. Not if she was going to stay strong around Jase.
That was proving to be hard enough as it was. He had been behaving himself, but every smoldering look, or smart assed smile, or raised eyebrow shot in her direction threatened to send her into a tailspin of want. There was just something about that man that made her want to kneel at his feet.
That couldn’t happen. This was just a job. For the sake of her new business. She needed to finish her design as soon as possible and get away as soon as she possibly could. For both their sakes.
Chapter 17
Aubergine was stunning. And Ruby had kept her promise, pulling off the impossible. The work had taken less than a month’s time. He had kept his promise too, and left her alone, trusting her to make all the minor decisions. It hadn’t been a mistake.
The end result was breathtaking. He could tell by the looks of amazement on the faces of his staff, as well as Pax and Diamond that they were in agreement.
But that meant, she was going to leave. Unless he stopped her.
He was frozen in place, staring dumbly at her, watching as she began to gather up the piles of stuff she had kept here for weeks while she treated his club like her own personal office. He could see it in her eyes. If he didn’t move quickly, she’d be gone within the hour. Diamond had noticed it as well, and was shooting meaningful and impatient glares in his direction. He had promised to behave himself while she was on his payroll.
Moving quickly, he whipped out his checkbook, and wrote the amount of the final payment, handing it to her with his heart in his throat.
Her eyes met his as she took it, as if she realized the significance of the moment. He waited, tracking her movements with his eyes, as she glanced at it, folded it in half and tucked it into her pocketbook.
Then he stepped forward, and took her hands in his. “Ruby, it is everything I could have and never would have imagined. You have worked a miracle, and I will proclaim your design prowess to anyone who will listen as long as I live. I have no doubt you will be successful in your new venture, and the money doesn’t seem like nearly enough of a thank you. Please consider having dinner with me tonight.”
She was shaking her head in denial before he finished speaking. He could feel Diamond cheering him on from behind, and he was not going to give up without a fight.
“I have a proposition for you and I’d like to discuss it over dinner. A business proposition,” he added carefully.
She eyed him skeptically. “My business here is done, Jase. I need to go home now, and work on building a clientele where I actually live.”
“The club is so perfect, the rest of Aubergine doesn’t hold a candle to it. It’s like walking through a garbage filled alley into Utopia. It needs to match.” The truth was, he didn’t give a rat’s ass what the lobby looked like, and he didn’t love the thought of spending more money on renovations he didn’t care about. And he had a feeling she knew that. If she suspected he was lying, she wouldn’t stay.
“I need a cohesive atmosphere,” he continued. She was still eyeing him wearily, shaking her head slowly. He thought all was lost, until he looked down and realized she still had a hold of his hands, and hadn’t let go. That gave him the courage he needed to move forward in a different direction entirely.
“When you were here for your birthday, I was crazy about you. I fell for you in a way I have never fallen for anyone before. And it scared me. No, it straight up terrified the shit out of me. I’ve never done relationships. I’ve never wanted to. But every time I looked at you, all I could think about was the next time I would be able to see you. I knew it was never going to be enough. And I told myself that you deserved so much better, that I wasn’t even close to capable of being the kind of man you deserved. Some days, I’m still not sure I could ever be capable of such a thing. But I do know this; I’d sure as hell like to have the chance to try.”
When his speech was finished, everyone in the room was staring at him with looks of shock on their faces. Jase was well known for being a commitment phobe. The only person who mattered at the moment was Ruby, and he forced himself to look only at her while he waited for her response, even though it physically hurt him to do so.
She pulled her hands from his grasp, and his heart broke. She shook her head, and it shattered. But then, she spoke. “Jase, I…I never knew what happened. I was so hurt. One minute you were there and we were making plans and the next it was like you wanted nothing to do with me. I don’t want to hurt like that again.”
“I don’t either,” he whispered, because it seemed like the only thing he could say. “Don’t go. Stay. Stay and redo the lobby. Let’s get to know each other.”
You could feel the electric levels of tension in the room as the employees and friends he loved watched him lay his heart on the line for the first time in his life, and waited anxiously for her response.
“We have to go slow, Jase. Treat it like our intentions are towards a real relationship. It can’t all be about BDSM and kink.”
“Was that a yes?” It sounded like a yes to him, but it wasn’t like he had any prior experience in this area to go by.
Her voice shook as she nodded. “It’s a yes, Jase. Yes, I’ll stay. Yes, I’ll redo the lobby. Yes, let’s get to know each other.”
“That’s a lot of yeses,” he whispered. It seemed in retrospect like a really stupid thing to say, but his brain was all rainbows and fireworks. He couldn’t remember ever feeling as happy as he did in this moment. “Can I kiss you?”
Ruby smiled, and he saw her stifle a giggle even as he inwardly laughed at himself. He had turned into such a sap in just the last ten minutes. “On the cheek.”
“Deal.”
When he leaned in and grazed her cheek with his lips, the entire room erupted in loud applause. She blushed deeply, but Jase didn’t mind. They were so loud; nobody could hear what he said next.
“It can be a little bit about BDSM and kink, though, right?”
“Yes, Sir,” she purred.
Epilogue
Ruby pulled up to the rose colored stucco ranch home in a quiet neighborhood just off the beaten path at the end of the Las Vegas strip and sighed happily as she grabbed her briefcase, exited the car, walked up the sidewalk and turned the key in the lock.
The little house wasn’t anything compared to the one she had grown up in, but she couldn’t set foot inside it without remembering the day three months ago Jase had surprised her with it.
“Well, I guess that’s it then.” They were standing inside the newly remodeled casino at Aubergine, the last on many remodeling projects Jase had hired her to do.
Their eyes locked, and each waited for the other to speak.
“I’ll be back soon. I got that job at the hotel across town.” It was all she could bear to say. Their agreement had been to go slow and get to know each other while she was there, and doing remodeling projects. It had been eight months. She knew him inside and out, and was pretty sure he knew her the same way. They had kept their promise to each other and taken it slow. Slower even than she wanted to after the first two months, but she had done it for Jase as much as for herself. She had wanted him to be sure. And she had wanted her submission to be a journey, just like her sister had advised.
The only problem now was she was certain that she was head over heels in love with Jason Oliver and she had no idea if he felt the same way.
Just as he had seven months ago in the club, he handed her a final check, and took her hands. “Have dinner with me tonight. To celebrate.”
This time she agreed with zero hesitation.
“It’s already dinner time.”
Jase’s smile was devilish. “So it, is. And I’m starve
d.” He brought her hand to his mouth and kissed it. “Shall we go?”
He led her out to his car, held the door for her, and waited as she got in before shutting the door and crossing around the back of the car to get into the driver’s seat. Neither of them spoke as they cruised down the strip, and the air was thick with tension.
It wasn’t until they reached the end of the strip that she turned to him with questions in her eyes. “Jase, where are we going? I thought we were going to dinner, but you’ve passed everything.”
“We are. I just wanted to make one little stop first. It will just take a minute.” He had turned off the highway then, and into a residential neighborhood full of well-kept mid-sized houses. Whatever, she thought, crossing her arms over her chest as she stared out the window.
He rolled to a stop in the middle of the street, pulling up in front of a house that was slightly bigger than the others with a pretty fence, a gazebo on the side, and rose bushes lining the front of the house. He hopped out without a word.
Growing annoyed, she rummaged in her purse for her phone to check her emails. At least she would have something to do while he was doing whatever the hell he was doing inside.
When he opened her door, unbuckled her seat belt, and took her hand, she jumped in shock, but quickly recovered. Trusting him, she allowed herself to be helped out of the car, and led down the walkway onto the front porch of the house. When Jase pulled a key from his pocket, and stuck it into the knob, she turned to him in confusion, but he still wasn’t saying a word.
His finger went to his lips, as he opened the door, and led her inside.
The house was cuter on the inside than it was on the outside. Completely spacious and open with brand new everything. It was a designer’s dream, and even though she had no idea what they were doing there, she mentally began to decorate.
She was busy daydreaming about paint colors and tile floors and she barely registered Jase’s voice when he finally began to speak. But when it registered, every other single thought flew out of her head, and she hung on his every word.
Claimed (Vegas Nights Book 2) Page 17
