“Well, as you can tell from my choice of club, I enjoy a kinky lifestyle and wanted to open a legit kink club in New Orleans, not one of those cheap knock-offs that bachelor parties go to. I wanted to respect the lifestyle, you know?”
“Sort of. I don’t know much about it, I just do what Jett asks and if I don’t like it I just say my safe word.”
Diego shook his head. “There is so much more to it, Goldie. Maybe while you’re here you will learn a thing or two.”
I snorted, feeling a little uncomfortable from his gaze. I knew he wouldn’t ever do anything because he respected Jett too much but the man had no problem denying his approval of my body that was for damn sure.
“Yeah, we’ll see about that.”
“I can teach you,” he said innocently.
“Ha! Yeah, that will happen the same day Jett Colby lets me tie him up and treat him as a whipping boy.”
“You never know.” Diego shrugged.
“Why don’t we just concentrate on the painting and leave my sex life out of this, okay?”
“Where’s the fun in that?” He smiled that sexy smile of his.
The man was one giant flirt, I should have known from when I first walked off with him at the event of “the incident.” He was a flirt then, and perused my body too much, like he was doing now, blatantly staring at my chest.
“Seriously, are you going to at least try to be subtle when trying to see through my shirt with the x-ray vision you don’t have?”
“How do you know I don’t have it? How do you know I can’t see your pink little nipples right now?”
Covering my chest and opening my mouth in shock, I turned away from him.
A bellow of a laugh escaped his mouth as he threw his head back and slapped the table.
“Kace was right, you’re a pistol.”
“Ugh, that explains it. You’re friends with Kace.”
“That explains what?” he asked while draining the rest of his coffee, intrigued by my statement.
“Why you’re an ass.”
“Aw, Goldie, you wound me,” he said while holding his heart and checking the non-existent watch on his wrist. “And it’s only been half an hour and you’re already making assumptions about me.”
“Well, when you’re poking your head in places it doesn’t belong and teasing me about my nipples, I’m allowed to make such assumptions.”
“Teasing you about your nipples? I don’t remember teasing you, I remember saying they were little and pink. That’s a compliment if you ask me.”
“God, you’re infuriating. Do you have a comeback for everything?”
“Pretty much,” he said with a smile as he got up and rinsed his cup out. I couldn’t help but stare at his back and the scars that laced him, along with the tattoo that seemed like it was pretty but now is deformed.
He must have caught my staring because he started to walk out of the kitchen and said, “We’re not that close yet, Goldie. Maybe someday you will hear my story, but not now.” He faced me and continued, “I’m going to hit the gym and then take a shower. The first room on the left down the long hallway has directions of what you need to do. You can start whenever you want. The place is yours so make yourself at home.”
After his instructions, he left me to wonder how lonely I was going to be. Yeah, Diego was here but he apparently had his own schedule which made sense but ever since I’ve been in the Lafayette Club, I’ve been used to having people around me all the time. Not being surrounded by someone was actually kind of sad.
I drank the rest of my coffee, rinsed my cup like Diego did and headed to the room that he was talking about. I pulled my hair up into a ponytail and walked into the room.
I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw the same long cloth-like ribbons hanging from the ceiling as the circular room that I saw last night.
“What the hell?” I muttered as I walked toward them and questioned their texture with my fingers. There were multiple drop downs with loops in all different heights. How did one person even try to begin to get into one of those things? That’s what I thought they did at least, get into them.
Taking a quick look around to make sure no one was watching me, I tested the strength of a rather large loop and noticed that it was bolted into the ceiling securely so I took a deep breath and launched myself into the loop. Like Peter Pan on steroids, I flew across the room, locked into the ribbon swing things and flew into the other hanging ribbons at the same time. My limbs flew about as I tried to catch my balance which only made me get tangled up in the other ones even more while I tried to gain my balance.
“Fucking Christ,” I muttered as I tried to get the swinging under control. “This was a bad idea.”
I wiggled my foot to find out where it was caught but couldn’t twist my body because my arms were stuck in multiple loops. Trying to gain any kind of stability to prop myself up was impossible since the damn things wouldn’t hold still so instead of fighting it, I stopped moving and finally came to a standstill. Looking around, I assessed the mess I put myself in and started to laugh. Only fucking me.
“You’re not even gone for a day and this is how I find you?”
I turned my head to see Pepper staring at me with a joyful look on her face. She was wearing normal clothes which threw my whole life off and she was carrying a small white bag.
“Can you help me?”
“Help you get out or help you get off? I’m not quite sure Jett would be too happy about—”
“Get me out, damn,” I said, struggling again.
Laughing, Pepper said, “Hold on one second.” She set the paper bag down and busted out her phone.
“Don’t you fucking dare,” I said, really trying to get out now but only wound up swinging around like a banshee.
“Listen, you can either hold still for a picture or I can record a video of this mess you got yourself in. What’s your poison, Lo?”
“Just take the fucking picture.”
Laughing, she pointed her phone at me as I flipped her off.
“God, I’m sending this to everyone.”
“I hate you.”
“Is that right? I guess I’ll just leave then,” she joked as she started to walk away.
“Get your skinny ass back in here and get me out of these damn things.
As Pepper helped me get out of the ribbons, she laughed the entire time while asking, “What possessed you to get in these?”
“I don’t know, I wanted to see if they could hold my weight. Who knew they were going to be tricky little fuckers and take me for a tango I wasn’t ready for.”
“Maybe next time you wait for Jett.”
“Would he use these?” I asked, breaking a rule about talking about sex with Jett but at this point, I didn’t care.
Pepper shrugged her shoulders. “He never used them with me.”
Silence spread between us as she undid my feet, the last thing that needed to be unknotted before I was able to climb out of the big ribbon.
“Well this is awkward,” I joked, trying to lighten the mood.
“Slightly.” She chuckled.
Pushing my luck and apparently really wanting to make things uncomfortable, I asked, “Do you miss him? Like…sexually?”
Laughing, Pepper undid the final strap and I hopped down. “I don’t. I mean, I miss the act of sex but that’s all it was with him. I didn’t have a connection with him like you do. Do I miss the thrill of the Bourbon Room? Yeah, but I can move on.”
“Yeah, with Kace.” I smiled and jabbed her shoulder.
“Now that was a massive mistake.” She looked me in the eyes and raised her eyebrows. “And I mean massive.”
“I know, right? When I saw his dick, I was like whoa, man—”
“Hold up—” Pepper held up her hand, “—you saw his dick? When?”
Oh shit, did I say that out loud? Apparently yes, because Pepper’s eyes were bulging out of her sockets, waiting for me to answer her.
“Umm, about that…”
“You tell me right now,” Pepper demanded, more out of excitement.