Page 53 of The Bourbon Bargain

“Alex wants to go dancing,” Paige says, wiping what is sure to be her red lipstick from my lips with her thumb. “Can we join you guys when you go back to The Abyss for a little while before I have to go home to Mama’s?”

Fuck. I hate that Payton was right and Caroline is insisting that Paige can’t stay with me tonight for some deluded reason. We’re already married, so there is no reason we should be separated the night before our nuptials. I’m tempted to keep her with me despite what Hurricane Caroline may want just to get under her skin and show her how little control she has in the new life I have made with Paige.

“I think Zander has something planned there, so if you don’t mind whatever he calls fun, we can do that.” I pause, scrutinizing Paige. “Do you even like dancing?”

The first night I saw her, she was being presented to society at her debutante ball and had to do her share of dancing in a fluffy white dress, but I’ve never thought to ask her if she enjoyed that, or maybe something less formal.

Paige purses her lips and tilts her head at me. “I’ve only really danced for society events, which isn’t club dancing, so I don’t know. Would you care to teach me?”

“What makes you think I know how to dance?”

“The way you move over and with me in bed tells me you know a thing or two about it.”

Damn.

“Is that a good thing?” I growl, pulling her close to me and swaying with her.

“It’s averygood thing,“ she purrs, tracing her fingers along the skin on the back of my neck.

“Stop that right now, you two,” Zander yells at us from the doorway of the restaurant. “I heard we’re all partying, so let’s fucking go! You can eye fuck each other all you want, and more, at The Abyss.”

Paige laughs and pulls me after her as we head out into the street and walk back to my nightclub. The Savannah night is crisp and cool, with a fine mist in the air that creates halos around the streetlights lining the cobblestone streets. My fingers are laced with Paige’s and I’m smiling more than I thought possible. My brothers and Alex sing some song I don’t know, not nearly as terribly as they could because Alex can actually sing, holding a clear tenor to my boisterous brothers’ meager baritones.

What awaits us at The Abyss is no shock given Zander’s predilections. The doors are opened by women in white lingerie and angel wings, while shirtless men in half masks with devil horns breathe fire into the night around us.

“Come in, my king, we’ve been waiting for you,” one of the angels says, beckoning me forward and handing me a jagged black crown that I take despite not wanting anything to do with it.

“What the fuck is this?” I turn to Zander and see his absolute joy at his little joke.

“One last night of raising hell, of course,” he replies, taking a mask from a silver tray another angel holds out.

“Payton, he can’t be serious.” I turn the other direction looking for an ally, but Payton is slipping on his own mask and just smiles wickedly. The bastard was in on it, too.

“And for your lovely bride,” Zander says, holding out a smaller black crown ringed in red roses to Paige. “I had a feeling she would end up here tonight, so I planned something you would both enjoy.”

“That was very kind of you to include me,” Paige says, settling the crown on her hair with a smile. She turns to me and takes the crown from my hands and places it on my head next. “There, now we match.”

“We don’t have to be here or do any of this. Zander is an asshole.”

“It’s okay. He just wants to do something nice for you.”

“Zander doesn’t do nice. He does insane and embarrassing, and I’ll likely regret it.”

She raises a shoulder in a shrug. “At least we can dance, right?”

I sigh in defeat and take her hand. If Paige wants to dance, who am I to deny her the simple pleasure? We follow my brothers and Alex into The Abyss and enter the strange carnival of debauchery that has descended on my classy nightclub. The stately black decor is lit up with garish red spotlights, hidden machines spewing a roiling carpet of gray fog along the floor around our feet. Women in white sprawl lazily along the balcony above, dropping red rose petals over our heads as we walk by a trio of leather-clad men strapped to St. Andrews crosses, with masked partners teasing them with feathers and leather lashes.

“You better not have turned this whole place into a sex dungeon,” I growl at Zander, covering Paige’s eyes with my hand. She pulls my hand off her eyes and goes back to covertly glancing at the closest couple utilizing a cross. At least they look quite happy with their arrangement.

“Nah, this is just a taste of the torment of hell. If anyone has sex tonight, it won’t be because we created a free-for-all. But before you get to that part, libations fit for the king of the underworld.” Zander takes a glass dome full of smoke off of a tray to reveal a tumbler of amber liquid inside. “We smoked that Underworld Spirits bourbon you like so much to make you feel right at home in the hot seat. It’s all fire and brimstone, now.”

I gratefully take the glass and sip, tasting the variation in my drink of choice from the smoke. Paige reaches for the glass and I let her take it, watching in fascination as she sniffs the cup and takes a delicate sip, rolling the liquor on her tongue before swallowing.

“I’m going to borrow that trick and take it to our next staff meeting,” she says, swirling the bourbon in the glass. “See, this night is already proving fruitful.”

“You can call it the Zander edition, dear Paige, and I won’t make you cut me in on the profits. Happy wedding.” Zander salutes her and continues walking us into the belly of the club.

“Lucky me,” Paige says and leans into my shoulder with a grin.

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