Chapter 3

Mikhail: Chapter 3

It was a confident Dominus who came strolling into my office the next day around lunchtime. When I got up this morning, I'd placed a call to him to insist he meet with me as soon as possible. I told him it had to be today when he attempted to put me off. He hadn't been happy about it, but he agreed. Reuben called Carver, and he said he couldn't get away until after work, but he promised to come right here. When he asked what it was about, all Reuben told him was that I was back and wanted his thoughts on something.

Reuben and Hoss came in behind Dominus and closed the door. He swung around when he heard it. I guess he had no idea our bouncer was around. Hoss had been waiting for my text to tell him Dominus was here. Hoss waited just down the hall in my apartment for my text to join us. Dominus's smile faltered for a moment or two, and then it was back in place. He came over and offered me his hand. I didn't take it. He let it drop. I pointed out a chair at the table which was to one side in my office. He took the hint and sat in it. We took three of the others which put us across from him.

"Afternoon, guys. Sorry I couldn't come earlier, but you know how it is. When you run your own business, the work is never done, and you have to stay on top of everything and everyone. What can I do for you?" He was trying to maintain a cool, confident demeanor, but I saw the tension around his mouth and eyes.

"You know what this is about, Duncan. I'm not in the mood for games. We need to talk about what happened here last night with Delilah. You grabbed, shook, and kissed her without her permission. You had her pinned to the wall. I had to yank you away from her," I said with a snap. I was done using his alternate name, although I was careful to use her club name that she told me.

"I told you it was all a misunderstanding. We were role-playing. What did she say happened? Just a warning, I found she's very committed to sticking to her role once the game starts. She refuses to break her character."

"She said you've been bugging her for weeks to do scenes and to be your sub. She's turned you down every time, and then last night, you got rough. She didn't consent to any kind of role-playing. You touched her violently without her consent. You know the penalty for that. I gave you a second chance, and you blew it," I told him gruffly. I wanted nothing more than to lay my hands on him again. I clenched my fists in my lap.

"No! Please, you have to believe me. I didn't do anything she didn't want. She's playing you. I thought she was someone I could have fun with. I had no idea she'd do something like this to get someone else kicked out. You can't allow her to get away with it. I'll do anything you want. You can't suspend me or ban me." His voice got higher and higher as he pleaded. It wasn't going to do him any good. I let him run out of steam and spew more lies, and then I informed him of his fate.

"Save it. You're done. I can't have people like you in my club. End of story. I gave you the benefit of the doubt months ago. You pretended to change, but you haven't. That's all I have to say. We'll escort you out. Don't try to come back, Duncan. The staff will be told not to let you in, and so will the other patrons."

He kept protesting the whole time we rode the elevator down and walked him out the door. It was early, and the club wasn't officially open yet, so there was no one here. Hoss was crowding him as we marched him out there. He glared at all of us after we stepped outside. "You'll regret not believing me. She's a lying bitch."

"I stand by my decision. You've never kept to the rules and skated by. It was a mistake to give you a second chance. It was only a matter of time before you fucked up. Goodbye," I told him coldly.

We stood there watching him until we could no longer see him after he drove off. He gave us the finger when he pulled out. Not a surprise. Reuben smacked me on the back. "Let's go inside and forget his stupid ass. We have some stuff to do before Carver gets here. Do you know what you're planning to say to him?"

"I do. I want to be clear why she's no longer welcome and although he sponsored her, as long as he doesn't try to get her reinstated, there are no hard feelings."

"Mikhail, I—" he cut whatever he was about to say off. I knew it was because Hoss was with us. He wouldn't criticize me in front of staff, patrons, or other friends. We had agreed long ago to only voice those kinds of things in private. We also vowed to always be honest with each other no matter what. I knew he was going to keep vouching for her and I had to find a way to get him to see he was wrong.

"Thanks for inviting me to watch him get his ass kicked out. I wish he would've fought a little. I've wanted to beat his ass for a long time," Hoss grumbled.

I laughed. "Sorry to disappoint you and I agree. I kinda wanted him to do it too, but I don't think you would've gotten to be the one to beat his ass. I had the urge too."

"Me three," Reuben added. We all laughed.

"You're free to go. I know you left work to come do this. Thanks. I'll see you Thursday night," I told Hoss. He wasn't on until then. Last night hadn't been one of his regular nights. He covered for one of the others. His schedule was to work our peak nights of Thursday through Saturday. It worked best with his main work schedule.

"It was worth it. It's one of the perks of being the boss. I'll see you later. Oh, and Mikhail, I know I don't have any say, but I think you should reconsider letting the little lady come back. She didn't strike me as someone to cause trouble. Just saying," he informed me, before nodding to Reuben and walking off to get into his sports car.

Reuben and I went back inside. I was mulling over what Hoss said. That was two of my closest companions telling me I was wrong. Hoss was not only an employee but a friend. Was I wrong about her? Should I give her a chance? In the end, I decided to postpone deciding until I talked to Carver. Maybe he would help me. Needing to catch up on work, I told Reub I'd see him later after Carver got here. He agreed and went off to his office to get some work done.

It was hard for me to concentrate on what I was doing. I couldn't stop thinking about how she affected me. The awareness, the excitement when she fought back, the physical draw to her. When she was in the light of the office, I saw her so much better. Her hair was a light blondish-brown color with lighter golden streaks in it. It looked natural, not from a bottle. Her skin was ivory and so damn smooth looking. I wanted to see if it was soft and if the rest of her body was the same.

Her eyes were an unusual, gorgeous, amber color, surrounded with long, thick lashes. She'd played them up with a small amount of eyeshadow and mascara, and her mouth was a pale pink color. God, that mouth made me think of all the things she could do with it. Her lips were plump, and the glossy lip stuff she wore only made them look more delectable.

Her clothing was nice and casual but covered too much of her for me. They weren't skintight, but even without that, I knew she had a good body. She was curvy with a tucked-in waist, nice round hips, and a large rack. When she walked away from me, I zeroed in on her ass. It was pert and plump. I itched to squeeze those cheeks. I was an ass and leg man, but I would never turn down a good rack, either. She appeared to have it all. I wanted to see them for myself.

Jesus, stop it. You can't get involved with an author. She's essentially a reporter. You know how that ends,I chided myself.

Early on, when I first allowed reporters to interview me and the patrons who were willing to talk, as well as give tours of the club, I'd made the mistake of giving one woman who was doing a story a big taste of what it was that we did here. She'd been one hundred percent on board with it and seemed excited to experience the life. We had extensive discussions, and she went through all the orientation and signed the NDA.

I didn't do anything too extreme. It was an impact play scene. She insisted she wanted to be restrained. I did it even though I thought she should ease into it. During the scene, she didn't complain, use her safe words, or anything. When it was over, I thought she was fine. She and I even ended up in bed that night.

So imagine my surprise when, a week later, her article came out, and she only said scathing things about the kink lifestyle, the club, and me. I learned my lesson, and that was the last time I allowed anyone to knowingly come into the club who could write about it. If it was discovered a potential patron had ties to anything like a blog, newspaper, magazine, or any kind of writing or reporting, they were denied. The club had taken a hit, and I'd worried my dream would come crashing down. Luckily, we were able to keep it going and overcome what she wrote.

It was a struggle to keep pushing thoughts of Tajah out of my head so I could work but by the time Carver arrived, I'd gotten some of it done. Not as much as I wanted, but it was better than nothing. Besides, Reuben had been good about keeping up on my work and his in my absence. There wasn't a ton waiting for me, but I was going through things to get back on top of what was happening in the club. I prided myself on always being in the know. I wasn't a hands-off owner.

It was almost six o'clock when I was informed by Reuben that Carver was here. He said he was bringing him up to my office. I was up waiting to greet him when he came through the door. I saw Carver was a tad uneasy, but he didn't seem upset or alarmed. Had she told him what happened last night? If she did, surely he'd be more upset. I met him halfway and held out my hand. He shook it.

"Hey, Carver, I'm glad you could make it. Sorry to drag you in but I need some information. Can I get you something to drink? I have water, a variety of alcohol and a few different sodas." I led him to the leather couches and chairs in my office. I had more than one area set up to talk with people. If they weren't invited to the comfy couches, then we sat at a small conference table like we had with Duncan or in a couple of chairs in front of my desk. Reuben went to the wet bar and waited for his answer.

"Uh, yeah, sure, a soda would be nice. Anything you've got as long as it isn't diet," he grimaced as he said diet.

I chuckled. "You don't need to worry about that here. I hate the shit. If you want one of those, we'll have to get it from the bar downstairs. Reub, I'll have water, please."

I wanted Carver to be at ease. Reuben and I talked beforehand, and we decided to let him be more in the background until it came time for him to get involved if it was required. I'd held him back from pleading for her case this afternoon. I knew he wasn't happy about it and we'd be talking after this meeting.

Once we all had a drink and were seated, Carver was the one to get the conversation started. "It's good to see you back, Mikhail. Reuben did a fantastic job, but you were definitely missed. Now, as much as I want to think this is just a chat to catch up, I know it's not. What happened? He said you wanted to talk about something. Did I do something wrong?"

I heard the unease and worry in his voice. "Not exactly wrong, but I do want to talk to you about something I feel has put the club at risk."

He frowned. "And what exactly is it, and why tell me if I didn't do anything wrong? Do you need legal advice?" Carver was a lawyer so it made sense he'd ask that.

"I hope not. It seems you and Reuben let someone in while I was gone, who I would've never agreed to admit."

He stiffened. "This is about Tajah. What did she do? I swear, I would've never sponsored her if I thought for a second she'd cause issues. Is she here? Can I see her? Is she alright?" The questions flowed out of him, and he became anxious.

I held up my hand to stop him which worked. "She's not hurt, or at least not anything serious. She's not here. As for what she did, last night there was an incident. I'm trying to determine if she was totally innocent in it or if she had some culpability in what happened. Before we talk about that, I want to know what you were thinking in proposing her membership. Surely you can see how allowing someone who wants to write about the club and the lifestyle is inviting trouble. I've never had anyone who hasn't twisted it and portrayed us as a bunch of deviants who are a perversion needing to be stamped out." I planned to remain calm and let him lead but my feelings on the matter came out.

A look of dismay spread across his face. He shook his head. "Mikhail, I swear, if I for a moment thought Tajah would do something like that, there's no way I would've gotten her in here. I don't know what happened, but whatever it was, there's no way she did anything malicious or would attack the club or anyone in her books. She's a romance author. She wants to ensure realism in her new series. That's all. She knows about the life from me, but I'm not an expert by any means, and there are a lot of kinks I don't know much about. She wants a broad understanding, so she asked me to sponsor her. I tried for a long time to dissuade her, but in the end, I had to say yes."

"Why did you have to say yes?" I was curious to hear his answer. He didn't appear to be a weak man who would just give in.

"Because she was looking into going to one of the less desirable clubs. You know which ones I mean. There's no way in hell I would allow it. For one, she wouldn't be safe there alone, and secondly, I couldn't go with her to ensure she was."

That was true. There were other clubs, but they didn't take the safety of their patrons as seriously as we did. I'd heard more than a few stories about what went on at them. I was shocked they hadn't been shut down by now. No way I'd allow anyone I knew and cared about to go to one of them. I couldn't blame him.

"Okay, I can understand why you don't want her to go to one of those but still, why not wait until I get back and talk to me to be sure I was alright with it?"

"It wasn't planned because of you being away. She's ready to start writing her first book, and she had worked on me for so long the time was now. That's all. Knowing she was going to do it whether I helped her or not, I did what would make her safe and allow me to help her. Now, you said there was an incident, and she wasn't seriously hurt. Tell me what happened," he pleaded.

The way he was acting, I couldn't tell if it was all concern for someone he considered a sister like she'd said, or if he had other feelings for her, ones she might not be aware of. I exchanged a look with Reuben. He raised a brow and shrugged. He knew what I was thinking. He was frowning. Was it because he was interested in her too, and didn't want a rival? Shit, since when did I give a shit if two men wanted the same woman. They could share her if she were inclined to it. However, the thought of her with either or both of them sent a jolt of dismay through me.

"Has she said anything to you about someone bothering her to do scenes with him and to be his sub?" I asked.

He vehemently shook his head no. "No, absolutely not. Is that what happened last night? Who? How bad was she hurt?"

"He probably bruised her arms. I caught him when he had her pinned to a wall downstairs, and he shook her and then kissed her. She said she couldn't fight back because he was plastered against her. She did bite him, though," I recalled with a smile.

"Motherfucker! Who did it? I want his name. He's lucky she was pinned or she would've done more than bite him," he said darkly. His fists were clenched.

"Why do you say that?" Reuben asked suddenly.

"Because she knows how to handle herself. Yeah, I didn't want her going to those other clubs because no matter how skilled you are, if enough people come at you all at once, there's no guarantee. And she's my sister's best friend. If anything happened to her and it was because I didn't help her, Cady would tear my balls off. She's tiny but evil." He shuddered.

It was kinda comical to see a big man like him wary of a woman, especially if she was tiny like he said. However, Cady wasn't the issue here. Tajah was. "The culprit said they were playing a CNC scene and she was all for it." Carver opened his mouth to interject as soon as I said it, but I cut him off. "I sent him home and I talked to her. She denied it and that's when I found out he'd been bugging her almost since she came and she hadn't told anyone. I spoke to the man earlier today and his membership has been revoked, but I can't have her here, Carver. I won't risk my club on what she might write about it and our lifestyles."

"His name," he demanded through gritted teeth.

"It was Dominus," I confessed.

"I fucking knew it!" he shouted as he hit his thigh with a fist. "I saw him checking her out. I made sure before I stopped coming with her to warn him she was off-limits and not to bother her. That son of a bitch, I'm gonna beat him black and blue."

"If you knew he was interested in her, why didn't you warn her or, better yet, talk to Reuben and the staff so they would keep an eye on him?" I snapped.

"I did warn her but I didn't say a particular name. I told her if she had any trouble to go immediately to someone who works here. I didn't think she'd hide it. Goddamn it. As for why I never told anyone, I didn't want to cause trouble for someone if all he was doing was looking."

"Well, he wasn't just looking, and he had been warned before not to push if a woman says no. You know the rules. You get a second chance if the incident warrants it. Strike two and you"re gone."

"I didn't know he'd been warned or I would've said something. Jesus, this is a mess. I want to clear up one thing first. I want to address your concerns about her research. Tajah may write romances and most people think those aren't real writing. They are and she's very dedicated and serious about it. She does her research because she doesn't want to misrepresent something or cause offense. That's why she was so eager to come here. Kink-shaming isn't in her wheelhouse, Mikhail. It's just not. I hope you reconsider letting her come back. It would be a shame for her to get something wrong due to not being able to ask someone. I don't know it all but I'll do my best to help her. Now, I need to see her to make sure she doesn't go to one of these other clubs and she's alright. I hate to run but is that all? Or do you want to talk about something else?"

His anxiety was causing me to feel it, too. Surely she wouldn't run out tonight or even later to one of the other clubs after what happened? But what if she felt she had to? The thought of her going to one of them and getting hurt much worse than here made me feel sick. I wanted to run out the door with Carver to go see her. His assertion she would never paint the club or lifestyle in a negative light made me waver in my conviction that banning her was the right thing to do.

"No, go, we can talk more later. Please make her see it's not safe to go to any of those clubs. No one wants her to get hurt, and there's no guarantee she'll get accurate information there."

He got up, nodding. "I will. Thanks for letting me know, and I'm sorry this caused you an issue. It was never our intention. Hate to run, but I gotta go." He quickly shook our hands then hurried out of the room. Once he was gone, Reuben sat down and looked at me.

"You know what you have to do," he said.

"And what is that?"

"You have to talk to her, apologize, and bring her back. If you're so damn concerned about what she'll write, make sure she knows the truth from an expert."

"And who do you suggest I pair her with to learn the truth? You?" I challenged him.

He smirked. "Well, if you want, I won't say no. Tajah is a sexy, beautiful woman, and any man would be lucky to have her scene with him or even have her become his sub. Although if she was a man's sub, I don't see him sharing her or letting her go. She's a remarkable woman from what I've learned so far. So yeah, I'll do it."

Instant denial roared through me. Before I could stop it, the words burst out of me. "No! Like hell, you will."

The bastard laughed and sat back in his chair. "I knew it. I fucking knew it. She caught your eye, didn't she? That's what's really bothering you. You kicked her out because of past issues with that bitch reporter and others, but you didn't want to because you want her."

I could try to deny it, but he'd known me too long. I knew he wouldn't believe me, so I sighed. "Fuck, what the hell am I thinking, Reub? Talk me outta this. It's gonna come back and bite me hard if I let her back in. I know it. My life will never be the same if I do."

"Nope, I won't do it. I do think your life will never be the same, but in a good way, a great way. I know your extended vacation wasn't just because you were exhausted, Mikhail. You're not enjoying life anymore. There has to be more to life than work. Hell, you've stopped playing ever since you and Tessa called it quits. I haven't seen you look at a single woman with a bit of desire. Even before you and Tessa parted ways, your heart wasn't in it for a long time. I need my best friend to be happy."

He wasn't wrong. I hadn't been feeling it for a while. Tessa and I parting was inevitable. Tajah was the first woman to catch my interest, and it was so much more powerful than anything I could recall. The thing I'd come to realize on my vacation was the idea of settling down and having domesticity didn't sound horrible anymore. I thought I was having a midlife crisis, and I was determined to forget it when I returned until I saw her.

"Maybe you're right, but you deserve to be happy too. I don't see you trying to pick a woman and settle down," I reminded him.

"I would if I ever met the right one. Could Tajah be the one, maybe, but something tells me it's a definite if you're the guy. Do you want to take the chance she's the one for you, and you let her go over something like this? The fact she's not already taken boggles the mind. Don't wait until someone else sees her and recognizes what a catch she is. Regrets suck."

"I need to think. Get outta here. We'll talk later."

He didn't take offense to my abruptness. He knew me. He got up and headed for the door. Before he left, he turned back to say, "I'm here if you need to talk. Think hard on what I said. I don't see you regretting taking a chance on her being different. I know deep down she's what she appears to be."

As the door closed, I sank deep into my chair. I had a lot of soul-searching to do. I needed to think about what everyone said, what I felt when I met her, and to read through what Outlaw had found on her. I'd resisted reading it all day, but it was time. Time for me to see if I would take a drastic step that could alter my whole life.