Prologue

"Hey party people—what's cracka-lackin?"I exclaimed as I strode into the owners' lounge of the Penthouse, an upscale BDSM club I owned with my best friends.

Every single one of them greeted me with a bemused expression. But that was normal. I had always been the unconventional one of the group.

We'd all met in college, became best friends through our shared proclivities, and started playing the lottery every week together on a lark. And then, right before graduation, we'd won. The jackpot. Ninety Million Dollars.

We'd invested in two brand-new skyscrapers in downtown Philly, put high-end apartments in one, moving ourselves into the top floor, in separate apartments of course, because we were close, but not that close. In the other building, the bottom floors had become office spaces that we rented out to keep money flowing into our pockets. All very sound, very boring investments.

But the Penthouse… that was our passion project, our nod to how we'd met and become friends, and the thing that always brought us back together.

We met here every Friday for a mix of business and pleasure. Judging by the serious expressions on my friends' faces, tonight was more the former than the latter.

Taking up my usual place behind the bar, I poured myself a shot with a beerback chaser, and downed both before staring into the crowd of faces.

The original five was now seven. Bas and Nyla had ended up together when she'd moved back to Philly after a failed marriage and became the test run for our newest business venture, Rent-A-Daddy.

Bain had gotten engaged to Jasmine, one of Nyla's college friends that he'd always had a thing for, after she used Rent-A-Daddy to get her life back on track following the death of her husband, Mitch.

Archer, my best friend, and our resident lawyer, had recently had the brilliant idea to take on six Rent-A-Daddy clients at once, just to prove to Nyla that he could. He'd ended up falling for Audrey, the assistant he'd hired to help keep them all straight. They were both in attendance tonight, with Audrey dressed in barely anything, meaning they were primed to get some playtime in tonight after whatever this was.

The last of our group was Theo, businessman extraordinaire, and Big Man on Campus. He had a rep with the ladies. Not that any of us minded. It helped bring new business to the club.

He, like the rest of them, was sitting on one of the leather couches that lined the back wall of our private lounge, staring at me.

"Seriously, guys," I said, cracking open a second beer because it seemed like I was going to need it.

"Some of Archer's Rent-A-Daddy clients need reassigned," Nyla explained, "And we've been waiting for you so we could discuss who to reassign them to."

"Sorry, got caught up in the art," I said, by way of explanation. The truth was I'd been too high to get off the couch and had gotten sucked into an all-day Harry Potter marathon. Whatever. It was artsy. The effects were insane. Even more so when you were high as hell.

"Sure, the art," Archer scoffed, and I vaguely remembered having a phone conversation with him earlier on in the day.

"Hey, man, life is art."

He rolled his eyes. Theo sighed, and Nyla tapped her pen on the countertop. I swear, if we gave her a gavel, she'd run these meetings like the Supreme Court.

"Y'all are so serious today," I drawled, coming to sit across from Nyla.

"Sorry. It's just… the clients are unhappy. Which I don't get, because to hear it from Archer, he was really giving the bare minimum."

"I was keeping it platonic, the way it's supposed to be," Archer corrected pointedly. Bas, Bain, and Theo looked away.

"Yeah, I know." Nyla sighed. "So we dropped Lola and Marissa. That leaves Riley, Sophie, Ellie and Zoe."

"Dibs!" I called. So far, I was the only one of the males to not have taken on a Rent-A-Daddy client.

"They're people, Lennon, with real problems. You can't just call dibs. Besides, you're not taking all four of them. We've already been there, done that."

"These are the ones who didn't mind keeping it platonic?" Bain clarified. "If so, I can take one. I have the time, and extra wedding and kid funds never hurt."

I bit back a scowl. None of us needed money, but out of all of us, Bain needed it the least. Augustus Weston Bainbridge the third. Even his name sounded rich.

"Great." Nyla scanned the packets in front of her as if considering her options. "You can have Sophie. You have experience helping single moms."

"Done."

"I think things with Erin are done," Theo grunted, not looking at all happy about it. Erin was his on-again, off-again Rent-A-Daddy client who we all thought was a little bit more—not that Theo would ever admit it. He was a total ladies' man.

"I'm sorry to hear that… I think." Nyla frowned and pursed her lips like she didn't quite know what to say or think. She wasn't the only one.

Theo shrugged, and Nyla pushed a packet toward him. "Here you go. You can take Riley."

Crossing my arms over my chest, I tried not to feel like chopped liver. Every time we got a new client I volunteered, and every time they passed right over me.

"If you don't mind, babe, I can take Ellie."

Nyla beamed. "I don't mind. I was hoping you'd say that." She pushed the third packet at her fiancé, then placed both hands on top of the last packet.

"I guess that means we just have one last client to place."

"Dibs," I muttered with far less enthusiasm this time, because I was certain I'd be ignored again.

Instead, Nyla looked straight at me. "I was hoping you'd say that. I think this last client would be the perfect fit for you."

"Wait… really?" Her words caught me so off guard I tugged the beer Archer was nursing out of his hands and took a long swig.

"Hey!" he protested.

I shrugged. "Go get a new one." He stood, muttering as he ambled toward the bar to do exactly that, and I turned my attention back to Nyla.

"So… who's the client?"

There was a strange smile on Nyla's face, the kind she usually gave Bas when she was up to something. Her eyes twinkled as she pushed the paper slowly toward me.

"Cool. Thank you. I'll contact her as soon as possible to set up a meeting."

Nyla just nodded, still staring at me.

"What?"

She just kept staring. "I saved this one just for you, Lennon," she finally said.

I looked down at the packet in question, my gaze dancing across the page until I noticed the name in bold print across the top. Zoe Kramer. Holy shit. My mouth fell open and I read it again just to be sure.

I looked at my watch, pushed a couple buttons, and looked again at the paper.

Nyla snickered. "Lennon! What are you doing?"

"I was checking the date to make sure it wasn't April Fools' Day. Is this really real?"

"It's really real."

I looked at Archer. "You were topping Zoe Kramer, and you didn't even mention it?"

Archer shrugged. "She was just a client. It didn't seem important."

I gawked at him, tempted to smack him upside the head for not telling me, but thought better of it. If I'd known that Archer was her Daddy, I would have died from jealousy. It was better this way.

"I don't get it." Audrey frowned. "What's the big deal? Who's Zoe Kramer?"

"She's a professor at UPenn. Lennon's old art professor, to be exact."

"The art professor he was totally gaga over. I'm pretty sure not a single day went by for four years where we didn't hear about her." Nyla was teasing, but it wasn't an exaggeration. At least, not much of one.

"I can't believe this is real. Thank you, thank you, Thank you!" Leaping to my feet, I pulled Nyla into my arms and kissed her first on one cheek, then the other. "Thank you!"

Grabbing the papers, I ran to the door.

"Lennon!" Nyla cried. "Where are you going?"

"Home!" I explained, as if the answer should have been obvious. "I need to clean my apartment, and take in my recycling, and get a manicure, and ooh… should I manscape?" I was talking to myself as I rushed out the door with my friends' laughter echoing behind me.

As the irresponsible party animal of the group, I was used to them laughing at me. This time I really didn't care.

To Archer, Zoe Kramer may have been just a client, but to me, if I played my cards right… she could be my future…