Page 82 of Unbind

‘Hot ones, yeah. Me and every other woman out there. I blameFleabag.Do you know there’s a full-on confessional in one of the rooms downstairs? Rafe had it installed.’

I laugh. ‘Did he, now? Kinky bastard. There won’t be any of that happening once his wife pops.’

Her perfect little tongue peeks out and licks a line along my lower lip. ‘I bet you’d look hot in a dog collar. We should try it sometime.’

I thread my fingers lazily through her glossy mane of hair. She looks glorious tonight in a short, sexy red dress. I know for a fact that, just as we’ve agreed, she’s wearing pristine white panties underneath it.

Perfect for being spanked.

‘Just say when, you dirty little sinner, and I’ll be there.God knows, you’ll carry out your penance on your knees for me.’

It’s not until a little later, when Darcy’s turned up with Max and their other partner Dex and Nat’s scooted away from me to chat happily with Gen and Darcy that we guys have a chance to catch up more closely.

‘You look shattered, mate,’ I observe to Gabe. I suspect Nat’s take is correct—he definitely has a look of the diabolical about him, and that tortured demon thing he’s got going on is certainly a hit with the women, even if the shadows under his dark eyes are more black than purple.

‘Burning the candle,’ he admits with a sheepish swipe of his hand across his forehead.

‘Oh yeah?’

The Sullivan family office is a behemoth. Gabe’s grandfather emigrated from Ireland, he and his sons—Gabe’s father included—amassing enormous fortunes by winning contracts to rebuild huge swathes of the east London docklands. Gabe ostensibly left the priesthood to take over the management of the family wealth when his old man retired. It’s a full-on family office: they have several billion pounds of assets under management. I’ve always had the impression there’s more to the story than that, but he holds his cards close to his chest. Contrary to any perception his looks may encourage, he’s a thoroughly decent guy, even if he’s intense as fuck.

‘I’m pretty stressed at the moment. And when I’m stressed, I need to let off steam. You know what I mean,’ he adds with a meaningful jerk of his head towards The Playroom.

‘Fuck knows how you lasted as a priest.’

That gets a tired laugh. ‘Nothing about being a priest was stressful—except the celibacy part, obviously.’

‘Is Alchemy your only outlet, then?’ I ask, amused, because I’m sure he doesn’t find it hard to get dates.

‘It’s the most time-efficient and least emotionally painful outlet,’ he admits, and I chuckle. ‘I don’t have time for dating or remembering to call women. That’s a full-time job in its own right.’

‘Alchemy definitely knows its target customer,’ I muse. I’m pretty sure mega-successful, time-poor guys like Gabe, who would otherwise be fending off gold-diggers left, right and centre, are precisely the reason the club is thriving as much as it is.

All of which bodes very well indeed for my new stake in its overseas JVs.

‘Yeah. It’s fucking impossible to stay away from. Hence I’m here at ten o’clock at night, champing at the bit to get my dick wet next door when I should be at home, out cold on the sofa with a pile of reports on my lap.’

I’m tempted to keep taking the piss out of him for being a horny former priest, but an idea hits me before I get the chance. ‘You know,’ I say slowly, ‘Anton may have an even more time-efficient solution for you.’ I lean over Gabe to tear my mentor’s attention away from Max, his successor and closest friend.

‘What’s that dodgy agency you pretend very hard not to own? Celestial or something.’

‘Seraph,’ he and Max chorus. Max’s entire face brightens with a dirty grin at the thought of it.

I nudge Gabe. ‘Think I might have found Seraph their next punter.’

Gabe’s frowning. ‘I’m not familiar. What kind of agency?’

Max and Anton exchange a conspiratorial glance.

‘Executive assistants,’ Anton says. ‘The best in the world. They all have MBAs from the top schools.’

‘Full serviceexecutive assistants,’ Max interjects. ‘These women will meet every need you didn’t know you had during office hours. I swear to God, you’ll never need to go looking for sex again.’

I laugh, because it’s all dodgy as fuck and also absolute genius, if you think about it. Anton founded Seraph during one of his marriages, as far as I remember, but he definitely made use of it before he met Gen.

‘What was the name of that EA you had?’ I ask, screwing up my face with the effort of recalling her name.

‘Athena,’ he says quietly with a glance over at Gen, who’s in full swing and oblivious to the turn our chat has taken.

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