Collared (Vegas Nights Book 1) (18 page)

Pax, like the rest of the audience, found himself on the edge of his seat. He had to admit, it was a clever idea, and a very good draw. He just hoped it worked out like Jase planned.

The first girl came out on stage, and his first thought was, ‘Dear God, I hope Jase checked her ID.’ She had to be barely twenty-one. She had that fresh faced youthful look with a cute little smirk that seemed to say. “Oh, dear, what have I gotten myself into now?” She had even dressed the part wearing a school girl type outfit very similar to the ones the girls at Rojo sometimes wore.

Jason, who had when Pax’s back was turned, dragged a high backed chair to center stage and placed it sideways, walked over to her, microphone in hand.

He held it out for her to introduce herself, but she stared at the crowd wide-eyed.

“This,” Jason told the audience, obviously taking pity on the young woman, “Is Rachel. Rachel turned twenty-one just last month. How is it going being legal, Rachel?”

The poor girl looked like a deer caught in the headlights as she bounced on the soles of her feet. “Um, not good.”

“Make some bad decisions, did you?”

“Yes, sir.” Rachel had a cute southern accent, and the crowd went wild at her choice of phrase. The funny thing was, Pax guessed, it meant nothing. It was probably just second nature to her.

“Can you tell us about them?” Jase prompted, and Pax had to laugh. It was beginning to be a bit like pulling teeth to get anything out of Rachel, and he’d bet money this was not going how Jase had imagined it would. Jase was handling it very well, though, and he was prepared for a bit of stage fright.

Pax watched as Jase reached into his pocket and withdrew a piece of yellow legal paper. “It says here that you go to college at UNLV and work at the coffee shop there. You and a bunch of friends got a room downtown for your twenty-first birthday, got crazy drunk, wrecked a hotel room, and couldn’t pay the bill. Then you didn’t show up to work and lost your job. Who paid the bill, Rachel?”

“My mama.”

“I see. That’s not your mama’s job, is it? To bear the burden of your bad decisions?”

“No, sir.”

“How are you going to pay her back?”

“I don’t know, Sir.” Rachel looked close to tears, and Pax watched closely to see what Jason would do next. If she cried before the spanking ever started, the evening would be a bust. Jason was a good dom, but he wasn’t in the lifestyle, and he wasn’t full time. Pax wasn’t sure he’d be able to recover the situation if it went south. He just didn’t have the experience.

“I’ll tell you what, Rachel, Let’s make a deal here and now. You bend over and take your spanking like a good girl, and I’ll see if I can’t find you a job around here for the next week or so, at least so you can get enough money to pay your mama back. Would that be all right?”

The crowd loved it, and Pax did too. He wondered if Jase had planned it. If he had, Rachel hadn’t been in on the secret. She looked giddy with relief.

“Oh, yes, sir!” she exclaimed, eagerly walking up to the chair, and placing her hands on the wooden seat.

Jason took his place directly behind her. He had the paddle grasped in one hand now, all business. “Bring your legs out further, and stick that bottom out for me, please, sweetheart.”

Rachel blushed, and giggled, but she did what was asked.

Jase was less of a showman than Pax was, preferring to get straight down to business. Smiling at the crowd, he flipped her skirt up with a flick of his wrist, revealing a cute pair of boy short style panties.

Jase laughed when he saw them, and let out a low whistle. “Do you know what it says, right here on her panties?” He spoke into the microphone. “It says Naughty,” he revealed with a chuckle. “Yes, you are darling, yes you are. But I’ve got the cure for naughtiness right here.”

The crowd was in hysterics.

With that, Jase walked over to a table at the edge of the stage and set the microphone down. He turned to Rachel, and wasted no time. His hand came down on her pantied bottom with a resounding smack that echoed off the walls. She shrieked in response, then smiled at the crowd.

Jase was just getting started. Jase had a style. The first one always stood on its own—with a pause to let it really sink in—and the remaining ones fell hard and fast. He worked a pattern of smacks across every inch of her red shorts, and got her thighs a few times for good measure. Rachel was squealing and squirming and dancing in place, but she was still smiling. She was a little spanko, Pax decided.

It all changed when Jace picked up the paddle. He aimed the first stroke right where he shorts ended, and the first bite of leather on flesh had her flying out of position, her hands flying back to cover her behind in shock.

“Tut, Tut,” Jason taunted. “Remember our arrangement. Get back in position. You’re going to take what you have coming, young lady.”

She did, although her smile disappeared, and she looked suddenly close to tears. This wouldn’t take long; she would be a remorseful sniveling mess in no time. Pax looked at his watch, and noted the time, just as Jase lifted the paddle once more.

Three minutes. It took exactly three minutes for Jase to turn Rachel into a pile of pleas and apologies. When she stood, Jase gave her a quick hug. “You go see Amber over there at the bar. She looks like she could use an extra hand tonight, and I doubt you’ll have any inclination to sit for a good long while.”

* * *

The night continued on. There was a total of five young ladies, and he was using the term loosely. Rachel was the youngest by far, and the oldest looked to be in her mid-forties. That was a fun one. She had come to Vegas on a work trip, and married her boss. Only problem was, her boss was already married. Each woman came up, told their tale, and was then left at the mercy of the audience to decide how many licks of the paddle they would get, and at what intensity. The idea had worried Pax slightly, giving the audience so much power over something he assumed they knew very little about, but they took their job with serious consideration and did it nicely.

At a quarter to one, he assumed the show was over. Jase had said six girls, and all six had been spanked to tears. He had to admit, it had been a good show, and from the looks of it, a profitable one all around.  Pax started to make the rounds around the club, not looking for anything in particular, just keeping a general eye out.

“You thought the show was over, didn’t you?” At the sound of Jase’s voice coming through the sound system one again, Pax’s head jerked to the stage.

“Well, we have a latecomer—a new addition so to speak. Earlier this afternoon. I was approached my one of my own employees. She had heard about what we were doing here tonight, and she begged to be included.” Curiosity satiated, Pax turned his attention back to making his rounds. This wasn’t anything he hadn’t basically seen a million times before.

“Seems she’s just had a bad month all around, and figured she could benefit from the healing pain of a good hard spanking. She hasn’t done anything too terribly naughty as these other ladies, from the sounds of it, but I’ll let her tell you all about that. Come on out here, Diamond.”

It had seemed like a much better idea when Jase had laid it all out for her. Now that she was actually inches from the stage, with Pax in plain sight, it seemed like an especially bad idea. What was she supposed to say to the audience anyway? There was nothing she could say that wouldn’t hurt his feelings, airing out all their dirty laundry to a bunch of strange tourists.

What if she were recognized? What if people took pictures, and the nightmare started all over again? He would kill Jase, and both of their businesses would be at risk. And lastly, what if Pax didn’t react at all, and Jase actually had to go through with spanking her? He had sworn it wouldn’t happen—but what if? She couldn’t take a spanking from Jase. She had given it a lot of thought in her few weeks without Pax, and realized that she was not a spanko in the least. For her spanking was defined only by the deep connection she had with Paxton. The thought of anyone else doing it—ever for any reason—made her literally nauseated.

Jase called her name again, more loudly, and pointedly the second time, and she realized she had to move. She had agreed to this cockamamie scheme, and now she had to see it through to fruition. She closed her eyes and sent a prayer heavenward and began to move. She didn’t make it one step, before Pax cleared the stage in a leap, and caught her by the arm, pulling her behind the curtain. “Stay,” he growled, shaking his finger only inches from her nose.

Her stomach dropped into her toes. He was mad, and quite scary. Jase was right about the drastic change in his attitude.

Pax was back in a minute, all but dragging Jase behind him.  “What is the meaning of this?”

“The meaning of all this,” Jason intoned sarcastically, “is to get my best friend to pull his head out of his ass, face his demons head on, and make peace with the woman who is, in the opinion of everybody who knows you, the best damn thing that has ever happened to you. Period.”

“Nobody asked you to interfere.” Pax’s voice was cold and hard. “And I like my head, just where it is, thank you very much.”

Jase had been on point when he described his best friend as a rigid an unflappable asshole.

“Nobody asked you to interfere just now, either. If you like your head and other things exactly how they are, get out of my way and let me finish my show. The audience is waiting. Diamond is my grand finale, you know. Start and end with the best,” Jase said with a wink. “You taught me that.”

Pax was blocking their entrance to the stage. With his legs spread shoulder width apart, arms crossed with determination over his massive chest, he was about as broad as her and Jase standing together shoulder to shoulder. And he did not look pleased in the least. “Over my dead body,” he growled. “You are not laying a finger on her. No way, no how. And she is not your employee. I’m an owner here too you know. And I say she’s fired.”

Diamond gasped. That was a hiccup she hadn’t anticipated. But apparently Jase had. He pulled up to his full height. Even so, his eyes were level with Pax’s chin, and he looked Pax calmly in the eye.

“I own fifty-one percent, which means I can overturn any decision you veto. I’ve just never chosen to pull rank before now, because I value your opinion too much. But not on this, my friend. Not on this.”

Pax didn’t back down, even though anyone could see his goose was cooked in this argument.

“You went behind my back and hired her. You took her from her home, and put her in harm’s way. She isn’t safe here, and she doesn’t belong here.”

“Ha!” Jase scoffed. “That is a prime example of the pot calling the kettle black, my friend.  You went behind my back and hired her first—don’t forget that.”

The two men were nearly chest to chest, spoiling for a fight. Neither one had given her a second glance in the last five minutes. She wondered if she should speak up or wait to see how this played out. With three sisters, she wasn’t used to mass amounts of testosterone flying around and she wondered if this would turn into a fist fight. She had never seen one before, but she imagined this was how they started.

“It’s not the same.”

“Isn’t it?” Jase countered. “It seems the same to me. I fired her, and you asked me to reconsider. I said no, and you claimed extenuating circumstances, and hired her yourself. Well, I asked you to reconsider, too, if you recall. And you said no. And there were extenuating circumstances, namely the fact that you’ve been a giant fucktard since the moment she stepped on that plane and everybody is fucking sick of it.”

“Oh, we’re name calling now, are we? Real mature, asswipe.”

Diamond couldn’t help it then. She laughed and both men jerked in her direction. It was obvious from their faces that they had forgotten she was standing there.

“I’m not name calling. That, my friend, is a fucking fact,” Jase shot back. “And here’s another one. You don’t get to break up with someone and still dictate their life choices.”

The sound that came from Pax could only be described as something between a growl and an all-out roar of anger. His fists clenched at his side and Diamond could see that there was a very good possibility that this would come to blows. As much as she was curious to see what an actual fist fight between two very dominant and stubborn men would look like—these two were best friends—and they were in a way fighting over her. Unacceptable.

Pulling her shoulders back—hoping to look fierce—she stepped sideways between them, extending her arms between their chest to create distance between them. Well, she tried to extend her arms anyway by pushing on their rock like chests, but the two men were unmovable stone walls. There was barely room for her body to squeeze into the small gap between them. Her interference did the trick, though. Both men looked down at her in amusement.

“Having trouble, princess?” Pax spoke first. It was the first thing he had said to her since this debacle began.

“Back up,” she spoke firmly, even though she was trembling from the adrenaline. “The two of you do not get to fight over what I get to do with my life. But here’s a reality check, Paxton. Jase is right. It is my life, and you gave up your right to an opinion. LA is not my home, and hasn’t been for a long time. If accepting Jase’s offer was a mistake, then I’ll deal with the consequences when they come, and on my own.” This part of her speech was fudged a bit because the truth was that Jase had no plans to employ her past tonight to her knowledge—but Pax didn’t need to know that.

“Fine. Do what you want.” Pax was not budging, and her heart was breaking, as she started to lose all hope in Jase’s plan. “But he is not laying a hand on you. If he so much as breathes on you wrong, I’m going to paddle his ass. And then I’ll pound him into the pavement for good measure.”

Diamond had to try really hard to not react. The image of Pax’s paddling Jase made her want to shake with laughter, but the idea that this argument seemed to be coming to an end, without resolution, and without any softening from Pax made her want to curl up in a ball and cry. It had been a long shot. She had been crazy to agree to it, but she would have done anything to have Paxton Donovan in her life and Jase had sworn that deep down Pax felt the same. He was just better at hiding his emotions than she was.

He was really good at hiding his emotions.

Jase let the dust settle on Pax’s threats for a minute before he spoke up. He gave her a soft nudge before he started speaking, so slight she wasn’t sure if it was intentional or not.

“Again, this is my business, Pax. You don’t have the final word in what happens here. Diamond and I have a contract for tonight, and the only one with the option to dissolve the contract is her.”

At the mention of a contract, the intention of the nudge became clear. No such contract existed, and this was Jase’s final move. A Hail Mary Pass so to speak.

It was working. Pax eyed her questioningly and she confirmed it with a curt nod. In for a penny, in for a pound. At least she would know that she had tried everything in her power.

“Oh, my god.” Pax rubbed his temples and groaned. “You made her sign a contract saying you could spank her tonight?”

Jase shrugged. “I learned form the best. Got to tie up all those legal loopholes, man.”

Pax responded with a glare. “If you touch her, I’ll pull out of this partnership so fast your head will spin.”

Diamond’s eyes bugged at his threat and even Jase looked a little taken aback, but he kept on bluffing. “Well technically the contract just says she agrees to be spanked on stage. It doesn’t say I will spank her. I mean, you could.”

“No.”

“Well, I already announced it to the audience, man, and you know, they
did
buy tickets. They’ve been very patiently waiting while you threw your little hissy fit.”

“Sounds like a personal problem, you know since I only own forty-nine percent.”

“No problem, not really. See, Diamond is agreeing that she wants to be spanked, and I am ready and willing to spank her. The only person who seems to be taking issue is you. And you’ve basically sat here running your mouth, but when offered the option of doing it yourself, you declined. So—again—you need to pull your head out of your ass, my friend. I hope you get that figured out soon. If it gets shoved up there any farther it might have to be surgically removed. Now, if you’ll kindly get the fuck out of my way, I have a show to continue.”

Finishing his speech, Jase shoved Pax out of the way with a dismissive shove, and grabbed ahold of her hand, pulling her onto the stage.

Once there, Diamond regarded him with wide eyes. This was not how she had expected everything to go down. This was not what she bargained for. She did not in any way shape or form want Jase to actually spank her.

Jase knew that, but for whatever reason, he wasn’t quite willing to give up the charade just yet.  She wasn’t sure if it was because he honestly thought Pax would come to his senses still, or if she had just become the pawn in a pissing contest.

“Don’t worry,” Jase whispered, as he slowly guided her to the chair in the center of the stage. “If he didn’t care, he’d be gone. He’d have burnt rubber on the pavement by now, but look.” Jason used his eyes to “point” backstage. He was right. Pax was leaning against the wall, just behind the curtain staring them down angrily.

“What if he doesn’t do anything? What if he just stares? And ends up angrier? What if he really pulls out of your business deal?”

Jase just shook his head.  “He won’t. And if he does, I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. I’ll explain later. Right now we have a show to put on. Do you trust me?”

Diamond nodded slowly. It was weird. She had been Jason’s employee for four years, and she hadn’t had any sort of relationship with him at all until after he fired her. Now, she realized with a start, she would actually call him a friend. And a damn good one at that.

He motioned for her to take the same position the other girls had. Bent over the sideways facing the chair, which would mean that Pax had a perfect view of her ass, hands on the high seat, bent at the waist, bottom pushed out.

Jase picked up the paddle and the microphone from the small table, and began to speak. Diamond was listening intently, hoping that whatever he said was enough to get her out of this mess.

“Sorry about that folks. So, here’s the deal. Diamond and I go way back. She was an employee of mine for four years, up until about a month ago. She had a really bad night, the worst actually, and she was very naughty.”

She couldn’t see Jason’s face, but the crowd was laughing, so she guessed he had wiggled his eyebrows or some such other silly thing.

“Anyway, I didn’t know the circumstances at the time, and I wasn’t willing to listen. So, big bad meanie boss that I am, I fired her without giving her a chance to explain herself. And here’s where the story gets interesting.”

The crowd was visibly, excited, leaning forward on the edge of their seats, which was great, but Diamond couldn’t see that anything Jase was saying was going to force Pax into acting. This was a bad idea.

“My business partner figured out what was going on, and decided she needed a second chance. He tried to reason with me, but I wasn’t hearing it. So, since he owns a club of his own across the street, he hired her there. On one condition, see his club is a well-known BDSM club, and when his employees are naughty, he spanks them—on stage no less!”

The crowd went wild with applause. Some of them hadn’t been sure how they felt about spanking when the night started, but they really seemed to be getting into it now.

“So Diamond gave her consent to be spanked onstage for the naughtiness that got her fired. I was there that night—and I have to tell you—it was nothing like the spankings you have seen here tonight. Those two had an instant connection, and sparks were flying all over the place. People were talking about it for weeks. And they fell in love; they couldn’t have not. Did I mention my buddy was a professional dom? No? Well, he is. So, Diamond here, I’m going to guess, besides being his spanked employee, was also his spanked girlfriend. But he broke her heart.”

The crowd sighed audibly and in unison, they were totally invested in Jason’s story by now. Diamond just hoped it had a happy ending.

“It really wasn’t his fault. Without going into details, there were more extenuating circumstances—damn pesky things anyway—and she was in danger. Now it wasn’t really his fault, but he had vowed to keep her safe, I guess. How does one take sole responsibility for another person’s safety, anyway? She could leave here tomorrow, hop on a plane and crash. Would it be my friend’s fault? No, but he’d find a way to bear the blame for it, in his own mind anyway. I’m getting off track here, sorry about that. So because my friend with his epic guilt complex, feels like he failed to keep her safe, he decided that he failed her and that she would be happier, and safer without him. But, she’s certainly not happier—and she’s up here on stage, about to get her ass beat—because she feels that is the only way to get rid of her own epic guilt over the way things ended. Pretty fucked up love story, isn’t it?”