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The laughter followed her out the door of the lounge and across the expanse of the main room. She determined that she would not only show up Pepper, but the rest of them, too. If they had not been thinking the exact same things about Jazmyn as Pepper had, they would’ve intervened before it had gone so far.
Chapter 2
Amazed that she had been harangued into making such a stupid bet with Pepper, Jazmyn downed a shot of vodka and took a deep bolstering breath. Gage would be at the Hideaway any time now to start working on those flickering lights upstairs.
Stupid lights. If the lights had been working properly, none of this would’ve come up in the lounge room conversation and Jazmyn wouldn’t have to decide how to go about hooking up with Gage.
The group of friends had been running the Hideaway for almost three months and business was great. The novelty of the new club hadn’t worn off
yet as they all had expected would happen around the three-month mark. That was terrific for the women. According to Drake, the new club hadn’t hurt their business up at Harley Heaven, either. Their business had actually gotten a bit better since the Hideaway opened.
Jazmyn wondered if their underground business was still going strong up there. She had only been in the dungeons that one time, and that had been enough to fuel three months’ worth of kinky dreams. Being the least adventurous of all her friends, Jazmyn had never really experimented with toys and props during sexual encounters. The more she thought about it, the more she realized that Pepper had been right. Jazzy had always been thinking of making a future and a family with any potential lover.
Shaking the thoughts from her head, Jazmyn made her way to the upstairs section of bad lights. They’d been trouble since day one and someone always ended up having to go up there and fiddle around with the lights to get them to burn steady even for a little while.
Today Gage would be going up there. Hopefully, he would fix them and they would work correctly for the duration of the night anyway. She let her mind roam freely with the idea of sexy Gage bent over and working diligently on that section of lighting. He was sexy, tall, muscular, and his black hair and tanned skin made his green eyes stand out like two bright green emeralds. Though she only had two small tattoos herself, Jazmyn had always loved men with ink, finding it nearly an irresistibly sexy characteristic.
With the table and chairs moved to the side and out of the way of the faulty lights, Jazzy stood at the railing of the balcony, admiring how the club looked from her vantage point. Tavia ascended the steps slowly, wiping down the handrail and polishing away any stray spots on the riser-facings and walls as she went.
At the top, she smiled at Jazmyn and stuffed the cleaning rag into her back pocket. “So, you going to go through with the bet?” She stood beside Jazmyn and surveyed the place alongside her friend.
Shrugging, Jazmyn nodded at Tavia. “I don’t have much of a choice now.”
“Yeah, you do. You could always forfeit; tell her you didn’t mean it; tell her it was stupid.” Tavia didn’t look at Jazmyn.
“Nope. I made it; I’ll keep it. It was on my word, my honor, as a friend and fellow female.” She turned to Tavia. “Do you really think I’m a prude, Tavia?”
“Huh? No way.” Tavia didn’t hold eye contact and it made Jazmyn suspicious.
“Really? That didn’t sound very convincing. Am I a prude?” She asked more forcefully.
Tavia took out the cleaning rag and began wiping at the railing and the short wall below it, which was clear and showed every scuff mark from every shoe that touched it and every fingerprint from every patron who passed by it. “Not a prude, per se.”
Laughing, Jazmyn asked, “What the hell does that even mean? Either I am a prude or I’m not a prude. Which is it? I’m a big girl; I can handle whatever you tell me.” She nudged Tavia with her elbow.
“All right. You’re a little bit of a prude. But just compared to the rest of us floozies. You know how bent and warped all of our morals are by now. We’re all damaged goods, Jazzy. You’re just the only one of us that’s not damaged beyond repair in some fundamental way.”
Jazmyn searched Tavia’s face for signs of deceit and found none. “So, what you’re really saying is that I’m less fucked up than the rest of you?” She was shocked. How could any of them think she wasn’t just as screwed up as they were? Her life had been one major disaster after another for as long as she could remember. And, sex was at the root of most of those disasters.
“That’s pretty much what I’m saying, Jazzy. We only hold it together so well because we’re a group of screwed up people. We support each other and help put the duct tape back over the cracks in the walls when one of us starts leaking our crazy in public.”
“Well, when I start leaking my crazy, one of you bitches had better break out the arc-welder—forget the duct tape!” Jazmyn belly laughed at her own humorous remark but she had said it only half-jokingly. She was afraid that when she let go and started going to bed with men just for the sake of sexual release and experiences that she wouldn’t stop any time soon and that no man would be off limits. She had always thought she enjoyed sex way too much to be a woman. As a matter of fact, her own mother had told her that more than once when Jazzy was in high school and would come home after some date or other elated and smiling—even if she hadn’t had sex; her mother still threw the derogatory comment at her as if she were only a slut.
Tavia cackled and high-fived Jazmyn. “Maybe I was wrong. Maybe you’re just as wickedly twisted as the rest of us and you’re just better at hiding it.” She put the rag in her pocket again. “If you do hook up with Gage, god, give me the dirty, dirty details first. He’s had me drooling since I met him. I’d let him hook me up to any of those things in his dungeon. And, did you see his peach package in those jeans he wears? Girl, you have a treat coming for sure, unless that’s a sock stuffed down the front of his pants.”
Jazmyn had indeed noticed. It had been a long while since she’d had sex of any kind. She hadn’t had sex since before the opening of the Hideaway. “I did notice and I do believe it is most definitely not a sock. Hell, it’s been so long since I had sex that I might not remember any details, Tav. I might pass out cold as pond water when I see him naked.” She nudged Tavia with her elbow again and added, “You might have to get the details from him and then give them to me so I’ll know what happened, too.”
They both doubled over with laughter. Pepper, Madison, and Jayda came into the main room below Jazmyn and Tavia. Pepper grinned up at them. “You two all right up there?”
Jazmyn gave her a thumbs-up. “Just planning and scheming how to get a man into my bed, is all.”
Madison said, “As if you’d have to plan or scheme to make that happen. I can name three men off the top of my head who would gladly carry you off to bed.” Pepper, Jayda, and Tavia all gaped at Madison, who looked as if she’d just let something very important slip by accident.
Jazmyn looked at each friend in turn. “What was that all about? What are you all keeping from me?”
With her deer in the headlights look, Madison grinned sheepishly and said, “Nothing, Jazzy. You know them.” She scoffed and flapped her hand dismissively at the others, rolling her eyes dramatically.
Hands on hips, Jazmyn turned to Tavia. “Give.”
