“Happy to help family, Noah.”
The man gave a curt nod and headed inside. Gage stared after him, thinking of all the sadness that Noah had endured to get him to this point. It was a hard-fought happy ending, and Gage was proud to be a part of it. Next, two couples arrived, and Gage recognized them as the group from Las Vegas.
“Gage Allard. You must be Luke, Matteo, Skylar, and Zara.”
He shook hands with all of them, but Zara insisted on a hug. “It seems like such a wonderful place. I can’t wait for Reva to give me a tour.”
Reva was the one who’d made the contact and brought Zara in for help with a project she was working on for the AmericanCoalition for Sexual Liberty. Gage was thrilled to have the four of them as his guests. Their criminal ties meant they were cautious, and he always appreciated people being cautious in his club. It was not uncommon to have government officials and other high-profile attendees at their parties, and discretion was a must.
“I hope you don’t mind me keeping my mask on,” Zara murmured. “It’s possible in this town that I’ll run into old clients.”
The woman wasn’t shy about the fact that she used to be a full-service escort before she married the man who stood scowling behind her. It made sense that she would have clients in a city with as much power as D.C. From what Gage understood, she was the best at her job, and her prices reflected that. Still, Luke Bowden did not look happy to be discussing his wife’s former career.
“Of course he doesn’t mind. It’s a masquerade,” he snapped.
Zara rolled her eyes at her husband. “I understand that, Mr. Bowden. But I thought Gage should be aware that I’m also trying to stay a little more incognito than most.”
Gage liked the couple’s dynamic instantly. Zara clearly loved Luke and probably submitted to him often, but she wasn’t afraid to stand up for herself. Luke seemed smart enough not to get offended when she did. If he had to guess, the mobster probably found her assertiveness a turn-on. Watching the couple together had his mind wandering to the gorgeous girl on a train heading his direction.
He led the foursome into the dungeon, and Olivia, Carrie, and Reva immediately swooped in to kidnap Zara and Skylar for a tour, while he gave the men a rundown of his security protocols. By the time he was done answering their questions, it was time to let other guests in, and soon the party was in full swing. He knew the train schedule could be a little unpredictable, but he’d been hoping she would be here by now.
There was nothing to do but focus on his guests. If he didn’t hear from her in the next hour, he would give in to his worry and use his considerable resources to find her.
A woman heading his way pulled his attention from worrying, and he offered a huge smile to his business partner.
“Edith, I’m glad you were able to make it tonight. It feels like we don’t see very much of you these days.”
Edith pulled him in for a tight hug. “I’ve missed being here. I was wondering if we could talk sometime tonight.”
Gage squeezed her shoulder as he stepped back. “Of course. I’m free now. Is everything OK?”
Edith gave him her sly smile that said she had a secret, and that was either really good or really bad. “I’m thinking of making a change. Simon and I want to spend more time together, and he and his wife are encouraging me to Colorado. I wanted you to hear it from me first. I’m considering their offer, and I might be interested in selling you my share of the club.”
Gage stared at her with a lopsided grin. He was happy for his friend, but he’d been seriously contemplating asking her to buy him out soon. “Let’s get together in the next few weeks and talk more about it. Tonight’s not the night to talk shop.”
Edith gripped his forearm and smiled. “Thanks, friend. You’ve outdone yourself tonight. There’s a lot to celebrate.”
Gage kissed her cheek, and she excused herself to find someone to play with. If he didn’t know that whoever she found was going to love every minute of it, he would have felt sorry for the unsuspecting man’s genitals. Edith was known for cock and ball torture in the dungeon, and Gage preferred to stay far away from her when she was playing.
Another half hour passed, before Noah and Reva returned from the Library where Noah had just proposed. When there was a break in the crowd congratulating them, he approached the beaming couple.
“You don’t know how thrilled I am that you’ve made this bastard smile again.” Gage Allard pulled Reva into a tight hug as Noah looked on, scowling at him.
He grinned at Noah until it looked like the man was going to lunge for him, then stepped back so Reva could return to his side.
“It looks amazing in here tonight. Quite the crowd you’ve got here,” Reva commented.
“Speaking of which, I should make the rounds and greet some more guests. We have a lot of special people here tonight, and most of them are here to celebrate you.”
Gage moved away from the couple and shook hands with several other members of Club Exposure that he hadn’t managed to get to that night.
So far, three submissives had asked him for a scene, and he turned them all down. Once they met the woman he was falling madly in love with, they would stop asking, but tonight, he just blamed his refusal to play on needing to act as host and focus on his guests. For some reason, he was enjoying his secret romance. Probably because it kept Peter and Ripley from teasing him mercilessly about falling in love.
Thoughts of her had him pulling out his phone and dialing her number. It went straight to voicemail again. They were going to have a long talk about her phone and keeping it charged and on when she got here.
As he tucked the phone away, a commotion at the main entrance caught his attention, along with the other partygoers, and he turned just in time to see a ghost storm through the doors.
A very angry ghost.
