Page 14 of Whatever Lola Wants

He shut the door with a bang, leaving them in a dimly lit hallway. “I’m Axe. Follow me.”

She wanted to grin, but gamely fought it back. “Nice to meet you, Axe.”

She got another grunt in response. Axe apparently wasn’t much of a conversationalist. Taking it philosophically, she turned her attention to her surroundings.

They were walking through the bar area she’d visited before, the lights up as the staff worked to ready the room for the evening. Two bartenders polished wood and glass, the woman in a skimpy leather halter top and matching low-rise pants. The man wore leather pants and nothing else, an impressively muscled chest on full display. They both gave her a respectful nod when she passed, and she smiled and nodded in return.

And knew they watched as she continued on.

Servers dressed in the Odyssey uniform of short shorts and wrist cuffs that bore the club logo were checking the seating areas, carrying dishes of popcorn and pretzels to the tables from the bar. Bare breasts of various sizes, shapes and colors bounced and swayed, and Lola couldn’t quite suppress the grin. She imagined all the bare flesh in the bar area got the crowd ready to move into the play spaces pretty quickly.

Axe took a sharp right turn past the bar and led her down a narrow hallway, past several doors marked Staff Only to one at the end of the hall marked Private. Axe thumped his fist once on the door, then pushed it open.

“Visitor, boss.”

“Thank you, Axe,” came the reply. “You can go back to the door.”

The big man nodded, his shaved head gleaming in the overhead lights. He turned to go.

“Axe.” Lola waited until he’d looked back. “Thanks for the escort.”

He looked momentarily startled, then favored her with a wide smile that transformed his face from menacing to charming. “No problem.”

Lola stepped into the open doorway.

The man behind the desk wasn’t a surprise. She’d seen Michael O’Riley before, though the full force of his attention hadn’t been on her then. She had the fleeting thought that it was a good thing she wasn’t submissive, because this guy was sure as shit dominant.

He rose from behind the massive desk, and immediately the room seemed to shrink. He was white, a few inches over six feet, and dressed in gray slacks and a snowy white shirt open at the throat. His dark hair was shorter than the last time she’d seen him, and he was clean shaven. His green eyes were warm, but no less piercing for it.

He held out a hand. “Lola.”

She took it, noting wryly that he could’ve held both her hands in one of his and still had room for his wallet and keys. The man was huge. The only man she’d ever met who was bigger was Simon.

“Michael.” She paused a moment. “May I call you Michael?”

“Of course.” He gestured to the chair across the desk and returned to his seat. He waited while she sat, fingers steepled together under his chin.

“I spoke with Xander Hayes,” he began, watching her with those piercing eyes.

Lola smiled as she thought of skinny, friendly, dominant down to his bones Xander. “How is he?”

“He’s well. He said to tell you hello.”

“I’ll have to give him a call.”

“He was surprised to hear from me, especially when I mentioned your name. I got the impression he didn’t think you’d be out of the scene this long.”

“I stepped away because I was finishing law school and working two jobs,” she told him, answering his unspoken question.

“That would certainly have taken up a great deal of time and energy.”

She nodded her acknowledgement. “I never intended to leave the scene permanently, but with the move to Chicago and work, it hasn’t been a priority these last few years.”

“And now you find yourself with…renewed interest?” he ventured.

“You could say recent events have reminded me what I’m missing.”

His smile warmed. “And how are Grant and Anna?”

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