“Clear as mud,” Knox chimes and then flinches when Jax makes a move towards him.
“Sammie brought the offer to Jax and Knox before we arrived last night. Emmett was busy with the event, so the extent of our talking was Jax and Knox telling me and then me telling Emmett.”
“And then me wondering how in the fuck you found out.” Knox’s voice ticks up an octave. “Which I can see now, you didn’t know anything about, and I may have jumped the gun on our conversation.”
“Shocking,” Jax snipes.
Knox retorts by sticking out his tongue.
“Sammie? She’s the owner?”
“I assume you knew, since you were talking to her last night.”
Puzzle pieces start clicking into place. Sammie could definitely be the owner of a sex club. I bet she was a domme too. An image of her in a black shiny leather outfit with large metal loops hanging around her waist wearing a cat mask and holding a whip pops into my head. Very Halle Berry cat woman look.
“No, but this is all starting to make a lot more sense.” Feeling the situation needed a more formal approach, sans the entire conversation taking place in a hot tub, I sit up and climb off Emmett’s lap, ignoring his slight groan. “What do you all want to do?”
“We want to talk with you about it because if you have any qualms, we won’t pursue it further. You’re our priority.”
My stomach tightens. “Ok. For the sake of this conversation, let’s say I have no qualms. What do you all want?” I feel like we’re in a very precarious situation in our relationship. They don’t want to do anything that will upset me and I don’t want to do anything that will upset them, with neither of us having the courage to say what we really think or want.
They look at me without speaking.
“Guys,” I huff. “This can’t work if we aren’t open to having conversations about the tough things. Ignore how you think I will react or what you think I want. I don’t know what I want right now, so I doubt you can figure it out. Scratch that. What I want is to have a conversation about this with you. An honest conversation. That’s the only way we’ll truly know if this is a good decision.”
Knox puckers his lips and stares at me. “Well, then.” He claps his hands. “I… I want it. I would like to take this conversation to the next step with Sammie. We loved Allure when we had her before. We sold to Sammie, because it wasn’t where we wanted it to be and because it gave us the money for Bo’s, Vixen and Loveuz. But… I do miss it.” He quickly turns to me. “Not because of all the sex and debauchery, but because it allowed us to explore questions we had, and I loved being able to do that for others.” He pushes out of the water and sits on the edge, looking at the guys. “Hell, Everlee’s desire to try Shibari is a perfect example. Without Allure, she may be tempted to search it up online and find some freak with a fetish who doesn’t know what he’s doing and she could get seriously hurt.”
“Simmer down there hot stuff,” Jax teases. “Weren’t you the one telling me earlier to keep it light?”
Knox rolls his eyes, but doesn’t speak.
Callum adds, “We have Knox’s point of view. Anyone else?”
“How would you run it? Where would we fit in? And I’m not asking to be selfish, just to have understanding.”
Callum thinks about it for a moment. “We’d probably use a lot of the same staff that’s currently in place, but I believe Sammie plays a large part in finding and vetting teachers for demos. We’d have to be there quite a bit, at least at the beginning, to ensure a smooth transition and make sure all proper measures are being taken. We will have to build trust with the team and get to know them better. It’s been almost three years since we sold it, so I imagine there’s been some turnover.”
My eyebrows perk up.
He smiles, “I know, I know. I’m thinking.”
Jax presses out of the hot tub, palms pressed onto the edge, causing his biceps to tighten. I try to contain myself, but fuck, it’s hard. “Assuming the hours are the same at Vixen, we’d have to split our time. You take Vixen, Knox can take Allure, I’ll keep Loveuz, and Emmett has Bo’s.”
“I can help too.”
“Where?”
I shrug.
“Weren’t you the one saying we needed to be open and honest?” Jax presses.
“Fine. I would… have an interest… in Allure.” I squint one eye.
He reaches under the water and gooches my side.
“Do you want to be part of this, Everlee? Like included in conversations, ideas, the whole business piece of it?”
“Really?”
