Chapter Six
Cassian
Kane strolled into my office and took a seat in front of my desk. My half-brother rarely stopped in to see me, so I put my work aside and looked to see him wearing an uncommon grin as he sat leaning back, his right leg draped over the arm of the chair.
“Something on your mind¸ Kane?”
“Maybe. You look like you have something eating at you. Perhaps they’re the same thing.”
I took a deep breath and let it out slowly as I sat back in my chair. I’d just returned from a meeting with our accountant Mitch, who had once again reminded me of the financial ramifications of Stefan’s constant need to fuck the women under him. Literally. Obviously, my frustration with my little brother was written all over my face.
“I just got back from the accountant’s. Do you know what percentage of our income is now devoted to legal fees courtesy of Stefan?”
Kane shook his head. “You know I don’t get involved with that part of the business. I leave that misery to you.”
His dry humor wasn’t helping me get into a better mood. “I’d willingly trade you my misery for your duties upstairs.”
With a deep chuckle, Kane gave me a grin. “They’re not your style. You’d be surprised at how dirty I have to get up there. You’re not the strong-arm type, Cash.”
“Don’t tell me any more. I don’t want to deal with the legal issues you cause too.”
He laced his hands behind his head. “No legal issues from me. I know how to hide my dirt.”
“Nice. Well, the answer to my question is nearly twelve percent. I’ll tell you, I’m pretty fucking sick of paying for his sex antics.”
“Stop him then.”
Another deep sigh. “That’s easier said than done. Each of us is an equal partner here. I can’t just lay the big brother smackdown on him. I also can’t trade places with him since I’m pretty sure he’d run our business into the ground. And I don’t think asking you to trade places with him would work. It wouldn’t be open season on bartenders, but I can only imagine what trouble he’d get into in your area.”
Kane nodded his agreement. “Good point. My people need a strong hand to guide them. Letting him loose up there would be like letting a fat kid loose in a bakery. Hell, he’s already tried to hit on a few of the dancers. If I hadn’t made it clear to them they’d lose their jobs if I caught them anywhere near him, he’d have been all over them. Stefan’s a lot more like our father than we are.”
“Stefan’s a fucking man whore. Our father was never this bad. If he had been, we’d have dozens of brothers and sisters out there.”
“Let’s hope we don’t,” Kane said in a low voice, sending a chill down my spine. God, I hoped we didn’t have any long lost siblings out there.
“I don’t think you came down to talk about our brother’s inability to keep his dick in his pants, so what’s up?” I truly hoped Kane had something that would make my day better and not worse.
“I got an interesting request recently.”
Kane infrequently bothered to give me the details of his part of the club, usually only when a member reserved a room for something wilder or more bizarre than what he was used to. I settled in to listen to his story, happy for a reprieve from my problems with my other brother. “Do tell. I can use a good freak show story, as long as this isn’t going to involve the cops or more lawyers.”
“Nope, this one won’t get us into any trouble at all.”
“Then hit me with it. Just tell me, is it better than the guy who wanted Siamese twins? That was fucked up.”
Kane gave me one of his rare laughs before his expression turned more serious. “Yeah, Sheerer likes the weird stuff. I can’t tell you how fucking hard it is to find Siamese twins willing to hang out with a guy like that. That put a dent in my budget that quarter. Thank God he’s a platinum member. And I don’t even want to imagine how much it would have cost if he wanted them to fuck him instead of just sit with him. No, this one involves your assistant.”
In that moment, it felt like all the air had been sucked out of the room. “Olivia?”
“Yeah. You gave her a membership, so she wants to use it.”
“What did she request?” I asked, my curiosity piqued more than I thought it could be concerning Kane’s area.
“She wants a room and she wants to…how did she put it? Experience being out of control. It’s just a basic level request. Nothing big.”
“Out of control?” I repeated, stunned that my relatively proper assistant had even requested a room upstairs.
“Yep. It’s no Siamese twins gig, but I thought you’d find it interesting.”
I found it more than interesting. The idea of Olivia even approaching Kane with a request like this surprised me. After giving her the tour of the fantasy rooms, I’d felt like something had changed between us. We’d been getting to know one another and then within a few days, she was all business, as if finding out what the club was really about had changed her opinion of me.
“Did she ask for anything specific?” I asked, trying not to appear too interested.
“No. She didn’t seem to understand how it all works. She filled out the request form, but she didn’t include any details about exactly what she wants. I had the feeling she was a little shy about it all.”
I input my password into my laptop and brought up my calendar. Typing in meaningless comments on a few random dates, I worked to look nonchalant. “So what do you plan to give her?”
Kane slid his leg to the floor and crossed his arms across his chest. “I have nothing planned as of yet. She reserved this Friday, so I have three days to figure it out. Any suggestions?”
He wasn’t buying my disinterested act. When the hell did I become so goddamned transparent? “I have no idea. I don’t get involved in your domain, remember?”
“I just thought you might want to be a part of this.”
Obviously, I hadn’t been as slick as I thought I’d been about how much I liked Olivia. I didn’t want to see her get in over her head upstairs. “Take it easy on her, Kane. She’s a nice girl. I don’t know exactly what she’s looking for, but don’t go overboard and scare her off. I like working with her.”
Kane’s smirk told me he saw right through my cool attitude. “No problem, Cash. Maybe I’ll hook her up with Samson. The ladies like him.”
Samson looked everything his name implied. Giant with muscles and long blond hair, he was requested more than any other of Kane’s performers. The Godivas had kept him busy for hours at their party, and he’d left with enough tips to fill a bank bag. Kane knew all this too. Nothing like a little brotherly ass busting.
“Samson sounds fine, Kane. He’s experienced,” I bit out, struggling to keep my cool.
“Yeah. He’ll treat her right. Don’t worry. I think she just wants to loosen up a little. Nobody knows how to loosen a woman up better than Samson.”
Fuck. As much as I didn’t want to admit it, the very idea of that Fabio type doing his phony seduction routine with Olivia made my stomach turn. And my half-brother’s thinly veiled reference to Samson loosening anything on Olivia got under my skin. Kane had called my bluff, so I had no choice. I had to show my hand. “I don’t think Samson is the man for the job. He might be a bit much. Olivia doesn’t need that.”
Kane raised his eyebrows in surprise. “You know what she needs?”
“She doesn’t need your resident fucking gigolo, Kane. All she wants is a taste of our world, not enough to choke on as she tries to swallow.”
Another rare smile brightened up his face. “Well, then what do you want me to give her? Are you thinking you want me to do it? You don’t have to worry about that non-fraternizing clause. I’m not like Stefan.”
The thought of him taking care of loosening up Olivia was barely better than Samson. My half-brother had a penchant for the rougher side of things, if his choice in piercings and the rumors I’d heard were any indication of his preferences. I couldn’t imagine him having the patience needed to take care of a woman like Olivia. She didn’t need Samson’s heavy seduction or Kane’s rough style. A woman like her deserved something more sensual, something I doubted neither Kane nor Samson excelled at.
I typed Olivia’s name into my calendar for Friday night. “I think that might be unnecessary. Leave this to me. I’ll take care of it. You said she reserved Friday night, right? Just make sure I know the time and what room you give her.”
“I’m surprised, Cash. You never bothered to get involved when Kate took advantage of the fantasy rooms.”
Looking up from my laptop’s screen, I said, “Olivia isn’t Kate.”
Kane smirked. “No doubt. Kate knew how to have a good time. That’s why her husband made her quit this job with you. From what I hear, he thought you were fucking her. I don’t think you were, but I can tell you that girl knew how to party. Olivia, on the other hand, could very well be a virgin for all I know.”
Kane’s gossiping about my former assistant amused me. He said so little that when he did say something like that I couldn’t help but imagine him like some Peeping Tom on the upper floors spying on our patrons as they lived out their fantasies. Maybe that strong, silent thing he had going on was all an act.
“I had no idea you knew so much about my assistants, Kane.”
Leaning forward, he tapped his knuckles on the top of my desk. “Just takes a little paying attention. Kate was a good time. I liked her. As for Olivia, I get the feeling she’s a bit more uptight. It’ll be interesting to see how this all goes.”
Closing my laptop, I shook my head. “I don’t want her to feel like she’s doing anything wrong, so don’t say anything to Stefan so she gets scared off.”
“Not a word, Cash,” Kane said as he stood to leave. “I’ll put her in one of the smaller rooms on the top floor so you two can have all the privacy you need.”
He turned to leave, but I stopped him. “One more thing, Kane. Make sure you make it early, around midnight, and make sure she wears a blindfold.”
Kane said nothing, but the look on his face showed I’d piqued his interest. I had no intention of explaining what I planned for Olivia, though. That was between her and me now.
And then just as my day was looking up, in walked another dose of misery for me to deal with. Looking up at Kane as the two met at the door, one of Tampa’s VICE squad, John Sheridan—or as we called him when he wasn’t around, Shank—had a look on his face that told me anything I’d been worrying about with Stefan would be child’s play compared to what he wanted to discuss.
“Kane, how you doing these days?” Shank asked as they shook hands, the question meant to be a thinly veiled reference to my half-brother’s past run-ins with the law.
“Same as always.” Looking over the policeman’s head, Kane shot me a look of disgust. “Don’t worry, Cash. I’ll take care of things.”
“John, what can I do for you?” I asked as he sat down in front of me and smiled that greedy, cop smile he always gave me.
“Just my usual monthly visit, Cassian. You know how this works.”
Reaching into the file cabinet behind me, I grabbed the envelope Shank had come for. I handed it to him, and he slid it into his jacket pocket, as always. “I do, John. You know how thankful we are for your help.”
Shank patted his chest where our monthly payment sat inside his coat. “I like working with you, Cassian. You’re a real businessman who understands the way of the world. You’ve got a nice thing going here. I’m happy I can help to keep it nice.”
Nice. I’d heard that word from Shank enough to know it meant he wanted something. Something more than the twenty grand we paid him every month to make sure Club X didn’t get shut down. Hesitant to know what he wanted, I leveled my gaze on his pockmarked face and stared into his dark eyes. “What can I do for you?”
Expecting him to want something akin to a pound of flesh, I was surprised to hear his next words. “Did you know I have a daughter?”
I’d anticipated a different answer, and as worry ebbed from me, I shook my head. “No, I didn’t.”
Leaning back in his seat, he smiled and for a moment I thought I saw a proud father in the man who shook me down for protection money every month. “I do. Her name is Lorraine, after her mother, God bless her soul. It was just the two of us after my wife died, so she’s my entire world.”
Unsure of what to say since this John Sheridan wasn’t someone as easily hated as the one I usually dealt with, I nodded and mumbled, “That’s nice, John.”
“I want you to give her a job here.”
And there it was. The pound of flesh. Shank might very well have been the ugliest man I’d ever seen. Greasy, salt and pepper colored hair pushed back from his face allowed the world to see the ravages acne had left on his skin, and eyes like a snake’s didn’t add any good to the overall picture. If his daughter looked anything like him, there was no way she’d be able to be a dancer or a bartender for me. Plus, did I really want some relative of Shank’s getting a bird’s eye view of the inner workings of Club X?
But there was no way I could say no. Not if I wanted to keep our arrangement going. “You want your daughter to work here? Things get kind of rough here sometimes. I wouldn’t want her to get hurt.”
“I trust you. She’s a good girl, a lot like her mother. She has experience bartending, so just tell Stefan he’s got a new worker.”
“Okay, John. No problem. I’m sure it will work out fine for her and us.”
He flashed me that old crooked cop grin and stood to leave. “I knew you’d say that, Cassian. She’ll be thrilled. I’ll tell her to come over.”
As he left my office, I just hoped she looked a lot like her mother too. If not, maybe I’d have to consider placing a bartender on one of the upper floors in a corner somewhere. But if she looked like Shank, I wouldn’t have to worry about Stefan going after her. At least there was that.
* * *
Leaning back against the couch cushions, I closed my eyes and let Rachel do what she did best. For all the hassle and unhappiness she’d brought into my life on more occasions than I cared to remember, she did know how to suck cock like a champion. Ordinarily, I’d be enjoying it like I always did, my hand stuffed into her long black hair guiding her, not that she needed any help. We’d done this enough times over the years that she knew exactly how to get me off. There were no mysteries about her, no secrets to uncover. Rachel was what she’d been for years—someone to fuck. No more, no less.
Her hands danced over the tops of my thighs, gently raking her long, perfectly manicured nails across my skin before she wrapped her palm around the base of my cock and squeezed. I’d always enjoyed that moment when her hand’s motion let me know she was about to take me into her mouth and deliver a world class blowjob. I’d had every intention of enjoying it tonight, but as I sat there watching her slowly bob up and down in my lap, it just wasn’t there.
I was barely there.
My hand slid from her head and landed on the couch next to my leg, a not-so-subtle sign I was bored. Rachel may have been self-centered and thoughtless most times in her life, but she wasn’t stupid or blind, and I wasn’t even trying to hide my disinterest.
She looked up at me as she slid my cock out of her mouth, those nearly jet black eyes questioning me before the words passed her lips. “What’s wrong with you tonight, baby? Hard day at the club?”
“No. I’ve got other things on my mind.”
Rachel sat back on her heels, but her hand never left my cock. Stroking it from base to tip and back again, she shook her head. “Poor Cash. Always so worried about everything. Let me guess. Another lawsuit from a disgruntled worker? You need a better screening system there.”
I rolled my eyes at the veiled reference to my younger brother’s sexual antics. Of all the people in the world, Rachel was the last one I wanted to discuss Stefan’s indiscriminate fucking with. “No, it has nothing to do with a lawsuit.”
Her expression showed me she didn’t care why I was distracted, just that I wasn’t fulfilling my role in the play we acted out at least one night a week. As I looked down at her petulant face, I suddenly felt like I didn’t want to do this with her anymore. It had been nice for a while, but I didn’t want this.
“What’s going on, Cassian? Is this about that thing again? I told you he meant nothing.”
“No. I don’t care about that.”
Her hand stopped its movement against my skin, and as she let my cock loose, it smacked off my stomach. She stared down at it in its still rock hard state, her mouth turning down into a pout. “Then what? You’re killing our good time here, baby.”
I ran my hands through my hair while I tried to figure out what was going on with me. It had been a long time since just sex hadn’t been enough, but now as Rachel worked to coax interest out of me with her mouth on the inside of my thigh, I just couldn’t fake it. This wasn’t enough.
The truth was that since hearing Kane say Olivia had reserved one of the fantasy rooms I couldn’t think of anything but her. And the thought of one of Kane’s guys taking care of her made me want to hit someone. After working with her for just a short time, I shouldn’t have been jealous at the thought of Samson or even Kane being with her in any way, but I was.
I wanted to be the one with Olivia when she finally shed the mask of control, not my half-brother or one of our employees. That she was my assistant didn’t make my desire for her easy, though. I’d religiously stuck to my belief that fraternizing with employees was a mistake none of us could afford to make, and now I was quickly becoming obsessed with the idea of doing just that with her.
“Cash, did you hear me?” Rachel asked in a voice full of irritation, shaking me out of my thoughts about Olivia.
I pulled up my pants and walked over to the bar for a drink. Pouring myself a glass of whiskey, I looked out the enormous window at the bay below my condo. The alcohol warmed my throat going down, and I took another swig before turning back toward Rachel now sitting in my spot on the couch.
“I think it’s time we admit this isn’t what either of us want, Rachel. We had fun. Most times we did. It’s just run its course.”
She stared at me for a long moment before that mouth that had given me so much pleasure in the past hitched up into a knowing smile. “Who is she, Cash? I’ve known you long enough to know when you’re in love with someone. Remember? You used to look that way when we got together.”
Turning back to look out the window, I took another drink, holding it in my mouth for a second before letting it slide down my throat. “I’m not in love with anyone. You forget who you’re talking to. I don’t do love. I do sex. Sometimes I do sex exclusively, but I don’t do love.”
“Yeah, right, baby. Don’t tell me you weren’t in love with me, Cassian March. I know you better.”
I didn’t want to have this discussion with her. She wasn’t wrong. I had loved her. Up until just recently, I’d thought I still loved her, even after she tore my fucking heart out. I’d lied to myself and convinced some part of me that fucking her like I did would show her I didn’t care anymore, but for a long time the spark she ignited in me still burned strong.
Not anymore, though.
Rachel padded up behind me and slid her arms around my waist. “I loved that look you get in your eyes when you’re in love, Cash. I thought since I saw that look again tonight that you might ask me to come back.”
Her words resonated through my body, but they meant nothing anymore. For the first time since we broke up, I didn’t want her. Turning in her hold, I looked down at her beautiful face. “It’s been over for a long time with us. You knew that better than I did.”
“You never forgave me, did you? You forgave him, but not me. That’s the truth, isn’t it?”
“No. I never forgave him really either. I just don’t have a choice in that.”
We stood there silently until I saw in her eyes she understood this was it. “You’ll be fine, Rachel. I imagine you already have a few on the hook besides me.”
She ran her hand over my chest until it came to rest over my heart. “She’s a lucky woman this one who’s captured your heart. Any one of the dozens I’ve seen you out with?”
Shaking my head, I chuckled. “No. You wouldn’t know her. She’s not like you. She’s not like anyone I’ve ever met.”
Rachel laughed. “Really? You’re doing the ‘she’s unlike anyone I’ve ever met’ thing with me? I’ve known you since you were just that rich teenage boy with too much freedom and money to blow. I’ve met practically every woman you’ve slept with since we broke up too. I doubt she’s unlike the rest of us, Cash. You like a certain type. I can picture her already. Tall, legs that go on forever, platinum blonde, or she might be the occasional brunette, but only if she has black hair like mine. Am I close?”
I shook my head at how wrong she was. “No. Not even close.”
“So you’ve decided to fall for a dumpy girl with mousey brown hair? Really, Cash. Is this some kind of thing to show me you can go on without me?”
I took the last gulp of whiskey in my glass and pushed past her as she continued with her questions. She wouldn’t get anything more out of me on this. For the first time since I was that teenage boy, I wanted whatever Olivia and I would be to remain private. No parading her in front of cameras for publicity at social events just to promote the club. No telling Rachel about her in some misguided attempt to make her jealous or show her I’d moved on. No showing her off to impress others.
No, Olivia was unlike anyone else I’d ever met. Intelligent, confident, and sweet, I wanted to protect her from the life I’d led all these years and the people I’d included in that life. Taking my seat on the couch again, I said, “Rachel, this has nothing to do with you. We had a good time for a while. Let’s leave it at that.”
For a moment, she got a look on her face that made me think she might actually miss me, but then it was gone, replaced by a perfect smile and a roll of her eyes. “As you wish. You know your happiness has always been important to me.”
“Thanks, Rachel.”
She dressed and grabbed her bag. Walking behind the couch, she leaned over and gave me a kiss just below my ear before she whispered, “Be happy, baby. Maybe we’ll be even better at being friends than we were lovers.”
I didn’t answer because I had nothing to say anymore. My mind was already past Rachel and onto Olivia and what would happen Friday night. Whatever the future held, I was about to break my cardinal rule I’d lived by since opening Club X. I just hoped it wasn’t the biggest mistake of my life.