“Yep, he’s my dad.I hear you’re his new hire,” Seth said,taking a sip of the beer in his hand.“Good luck.All of my siblings and mostof my cousins have worked at McKay-Taggart at one point or another.Mostly assummer jobs.I lasted maybe a month before I begged to wash dishes at myuncle’s restaurant.My dad is a sarcastic asshole.I love him but I cannot workfor the man.”
“I suppose I’m used to the type.Spent some time in theArmy,” Nate replied.“Also, I’m in the bodyguard unit, so I don’t see much ofthe upstairs folk.At least not yet.My boss is Tessa Hawthorne.”
Seth nodded.“Yeah.She took over when Wade Rycroft got anexecutive job at Lodge Corp.To say my dad was unhappy would be like saying anuclear bomb causes a little mess.At least they didn’t take his assistant.Idon’t know what my father would do without Genny Rycroft.But Tessa’s awesome.She’s much easier to get along with than my father.The key with my dad is topretend like nothing bothers you.Ever.Nod and agree with him, and then go dowhatever you were going to do in the first place.It’s how I survived mychildhood.”
Nate had to chuckle at the thought.“I grew up around agroup very much like the one here in Dallas.”
“That’s right.Aidan was telling me you spent most of yourchildhood in London, right?Your dad worked for Damon Knight,” Seth said.“I’msure we’ve met at some point.”
“Probably, though we were much younger.We moved back toAustralia when I was eleven, and our visits here became more infrequent.”He’dlost touch with some of his closest friends from childhood.He’d heard OliverKnight was working with his dad.He’d been close to Oliver and his brother,Archie, and their sister, Samantha, had been around Elodie’s age.
It was his mom’s relationship with Avery O’Donnell that hadkept him close to Aidan, and even they had gotten distant when he’d gone intothe Army and Aidan had gone into college and then medical school.
It was odd how easily they’d fallen back in.
“Yeah, life catches up to you, doesn’t it?I live close to abunch of the kids I grew up with, but sometimes I only seem to see them onnights like this.Starting this club actually kept us all together.Huh.Ialways thought it was because my sisters and their friends were perverts,” Sethsaid thoughtfully.“Now I have to wonder.Not about Kala, but Kenzie might havethought this was a way to keep us all together.”
“Are you the older son or the younger one?”Aidan had beenon an opposite schedule the week since Nate had gotten in, and honestly, he’dbeen trying to adjust to his new American time zone.It would be good to startputting names to faces.
Like Daisy O’Donnell, who he would meet later tonight whenhe got home.
“Older,” Seth explained.“You might have seen my youngerbrother, Travis.He was the dude asleep on the couch in the locker room.”
He’d wondered about the bloke snoring away earlier in theevening.The men’s locker room wasn’t elegant, but it had its charms, includinga big living room area with a TV and game systems and a couple of couches, oneof which had been occupied by a sleeping Taggart.“Is he okay?”
Seth stared out over the dungeon floor as though looking forsomeone.“It depends on your definition of the word okay.He’s a third-year lawstudent and a single dad with an infant.This is the night my parents agreed towatch his son so he could have some form of a social life, and what does he do?He falls asleep in the locker room during the wildest party of the year.Didn’teven manage to get a beer in.I knew he likely wouldn’t indulge in the sex partof the evening, but I thought he would at least get a little drunk.”
Poor guy probably wasn’t sleeping at all between school andparenting.He felt for Travis Taggart.
He checked his pocket.Yes.The condoms he’d snagged were inthere.Just in case.
“Is there a reason you’re not down there?It really is awild time,” Seth said.“We only do it once a year, though it gets talked aboutfor months after.The couples of the group tend to either skip this party orsit up here and watch the chaos.”
Aidan had taken one look at Carys and swept her away,picking her up and carrying her toward the privacy rooms.He’d told Nate hewould see him at home.
“I don’t know.”He wasn’t sure this was the right night tomake his debut at The Hideout.The idea of some giant orgy wasn’t appealing.
Of course an orgy wasn’t what was happening.It was morelike a slow rotation of Doms around subs before one of the Doms would gentlymove in and separate his selected treat for the evening from the crowd.
He understood what a party like this was for.Exploration.It was for indulging in something that in this group wouldn’t come back to bitea bloke in the arse.
A couple was already playing on the main stage.A big Dom inall black had a tiny sub tied to a St.Andrew’s Cross, and he was using aviolet wand on her nipples.
It should have him aroused, but he was still strangely numb.
He wanted to blame it all on jet lag, but he was over it.And the numbness was exactly why he’d taken the job in the first place.Itwasn’t working.
“Then this is not your night because the chaos is part ofthe fun.It’s also a great way for a smart woman to indulge in self-delusion.”Seth stared out as a couple of subs walked in from the locker room.One of themwas a petite sub in a red catsuit and matching mask, dark hair piled high onher head.She was whispering to her blonde friend and seeming to look aroundfor someone.“I think I’m going to go downstairs.Hope you find what you’relooking for.I’m going after what I need tonight.”
Seth strode toward the stairs.He obviously knew what hewanted.Nate stared out again, trying to figure out which gorgeous sub hadcaught Taggart’s eye, but before Taggart came into view a woman in whitestepped out from the hallway leading to the locker rooms, and Nate felt likethe world slowed down.
Long, dark hair caressed rounded shoulders, tumbling over aset of truly gorgeous breasts.They were offered up by the pure white corsetthat cinched in her waist and flowed over hips he could hold on to.She stoppedat the edge of the crowd, staring out as though trying to decide if she wouldjoin them.The white boy shorts she wore barely covered a spectacular arse.
She was a beauty, and he felt a rip of pure lust go throughhim, making his cock tighten and sparking his dominant instincts.
A Dom approached her, his every move seemingly predatory.His lips curled as he moved in close.She turned her chin up and saidsomething.The Dom suddenly stepped back as though shocked.His hands came tohis chest, palms out, and he backed away.
The pretty sub’s face fell.She glanced around the dungeonand seemed to realize there were a lot of eyes on her, but now the first Domwas talking to another, and they all seemed to ease away from her.One of thesubs moved in, but she shook her off.Her head came up and he watched as shepasted a smile on her face and squared her shoulders.She leaned over to theother sub who nodded, and then the gorgeous woman turned to the stairs.
