“I rocked that look for about a year on our first tour. Alright, alright, I’m signing. Jesus.”
He scrawled his signature at the line on the bottom. Then Greg took the paper and signed at the line directly opposite.
“Great. Let’s play some cards, shall we?”
Rising from his perch on the desk, Greg walked to the wall and pressed on some seemingly random piece of the woodwork.
And Baz’s mouth dropped open as part of the wall swung out.
“A secret door? Seriously?”
Smiling, Greg waved toward the door. “It gets better. Haven’t you ever wondered what the hell was at the end of this hall?”
“No. Why the fuck would I?”
Greg shook his head. “Christ, Baz, why the fuck are we friends?” Then Greg laughed, letting Baz know he was kidding. “Come on. And prepare to be amazed.”
Baz was still shaking his head at Greg’s statement when he walked through the mysterious door. And stopped dead as the lights came on.
“Whoa.”
“And now your inner Keanu Reeves emerges. Told ya.”
Baz’s head felt like it was on a swivel. “Holy fuck. Did you design this for a set or something?”
“Nope. Not me. Jared, mostly. Dane and Ty contributed some.”
Yeah, he could see Ty’s influence in the baby grand in a far corner. And Jared’s in the Oriental rugs and shiny wallpaper and the crystal chandelier hanging dead center from the ceiling.
Under the chandelier was a game table with eight sides and matching chairs. The rest of the furniture around the room looked antique. Hell, it all looked like it’d come from some historical film about butlers and dukes and English mansions.
Something caught his eye in another corner and he was halfway across the room before he realized what it was. Then his gaze darted to the huge glass cabinet along one of the walls, where he was pretty sure—
Yep, the damn thing was filled with sex toys. Okay, they weren’t all sex toys. Some of them looked like something you’d find in a museum. A museum of sex toys.
Then he turned and took a closer look at the artwork. Erotic, all of it. The room screamed sex, but in a way that wasn’t vulgar.
Finally, he turned to find Greg sprawled in one of the chairs at the game table.
“What the fuck?”
Laughing, Greg shuffled a deck of cards with the proficiency of a Vegas dealer. “I’ll let Jed and Ty tell you the story but basically, yeah, it’s a party room.”
“Jesus, this is like no party room I’ve ever fucking seen. It’s like— Wait. What kind of parties?”
Greg stopped shuffling and stared straight at him. “Exactly the kind of parties you think.”
Baz’s mouth dropped open before he could stop it. “Sex parties? You seriously have sex parties in here?”
Smirking, Greg started shuffling again. “All of the members have certain . . . tastes in common. Some are a little more hardcore than others. Some participate. Some like to watch. Damn, look at that. I think you’re blushing. How cute.”
Baz was having a hell of a time wrapping his head around this. Which was stupid. Baz had his own kinks. He got off on watching. Mostly watching Nik fuck women. One or two. Sometimes three. He’d watch and join in after Nik had worn himself out. Then Nik would watch. He and Nik had double-teamed women more times than he could count.
“I’m not fucking blushing. I’m just . . . fucking impressed. This place is amazing.”
And he couldn’t help but think about all the things he could do to Tru here. Like that bench in the back. What he wouldn’t give to tie her to that, and then fuck her until she passed out. And then he’d lay her out on that chaise in front of the fireplace and lick her pussy until she came again and again.
“You bring Bree here, don’t you?”
“Yep.”
“Does Tru know about this place?”
“Nope.”
“How many other people signed that waiver?”
Greg paused for a few seconds, eyes narrowed. “About twenty, I think.”
“Do I know any of them?”
“You’ve met them all, yeah. And they all liked you or you wouldn’t be here.”
Baz shook his head. “Damn, if I’d have known I was being tested I would’ve worn my good shoes.”
“It wasn’t a test.” Greg fanned the cards on the table. “It’s more like seeing if you fit.”
“So are you going to tell me who I made such a good impression on or do I have to guess?”‘
“Ah, good. You’re here.” Jared stepped through the wall, pushing a room-service cart overflowing with trays and grinning in Baz’s direction. “Glad you signed off, Baz. Food’s hot. Ty’s right behind me. I’m ready to play cards. Belle and Kate are huddled in our room making scrapbooks, and as much as I love my wife, there was no way in hell I was getting roped into making scrapbooks.”
“The truth is she didn’t want you there to screw anything up.”
Ty smacked his brother on the back as he and Dane Connelly followed on Jared’s heels. Both men came to the table to shake Baz’s hand, who then bowed in Ty’s direction.
“Dude, this place is fucking amazing.”
Ty laughed. “Yeah, well, I really didn’t have much to do with it. This was Jed and Dane’s baby from day one.”
Baz turned to shake hands with Dane Connelly, Jared’s best friend. “How the hell did you come up with this?”
Baz didn’t know Dane well. The guy was quiet and intense and had recently fallen for Talia Driscoll, who was good friends with Jared’s wife, Annabelle, and Ty’s girlfriend, Kate. The only times he’d met Dane, the guy had been focused on Talia.
But Baz figured the guy had to be okay if these men liked him.
“Long story short,” Jared said, “I developed an obsession with Victorian erotica in college and Dane and I started a secret society based on ones we’d read about in a few classes. When Ty and I built the hotel, Dane and I came up with the idea for the Salon.”
“Well, hell, man, you’re way more interesting than I gave you credit for.”
“I guess I’ll take that as a compliment, coming from the rock star.” Jared laughed. “Come on, let’s dish up the food and get started. I’m feeling lucky tonight.”
An hour later, comfortably full of perfectly cooked Kobe beef, some kind of amazing dish with vegetables in a white sauce, and a slice of chocolate cake he was still working on, Baz was trying to keep his head in the game but had lost the last three hands. Luckily, he’d won a few of the first ones so he wasn’t out much.
Thoughts of what Tru was doing kept poking into his head, alternately pissing him off and making his stomach roll.
“Jesus, Ty, you have the fucking best poker face.” Dane tossed his cards on the table and gave Ty the finger when Ty just smiled. “Where the hell’s Cory? He can’t bluff for shit.”
“Not available.”
Something in Greg’s short answer caught Baz’s attention, and he looked up from his cards. But Greg had his gaze trained on his hand.
“Oh. Fu— Yeah. God damn it, Ty, don’t be so fucking smug.” Dane’s response pulled Baz’s attention that way, and there was something in Dane’s expression that made his gaze narrow.
“I can’t help it. I’m just that good. And you suck at cards, Dane.”
“Fuck.” Baz tossed his cards on the table. “That’s who she’s out with, isn’t it?”
Jared tossed his cards at Dane, who shrugged with a grimace. “I forgot you told me not to say anything. Sue me.”
Shit. It made sense. Cory had been all over her Wednesday night at dinner. Why the hell hadn’t he put that together sooner?
Maybe because he hadn’t wanted to think about her out with another guy.
Now he had four pairs of eyes watching him with varying degrees of “Oh shit.” But it was Greg he focused on. And it was Greg he felt most betrayed by.
Which was stupid, but still true.
Greg had the grace to grimace. “You really wanna do this? Now?”