Page 69 of Gamble
As her eyes grew used to the dim lighting, the space beyond the curtain came into focus. The scene was like nothing she could have imagined. The space was larger than she’d expected, with multiple levels connected by stairs and walkways. But itwasn’t the architecture that stole her breath—it was what was happening within it.
People were having sex. Not just having sex but engaging in acts she’d only read about in her most scandalous romance novels. A woman was bent over what looked like a heavy piece of furniture while a man took her from behind, her wrists bound with silk rope. On a raised platform, another woman was tied to a wooden X-shaped cross while her partner used what appeared to be a leather implement to stripe her back with red marks that made her cry out in what was unmistakable pain mingled with pleasure.
Everywhere Reagan looked, she saw scenes of dominance and submission, pain and pleasure, control and surrender. Men and women in various stages of undress engaged in acts that should have shocked her, horrified her, sent her running back up to the elevator.
Instead, she felt a deep, throbbing ache between her legs that made her squeeze her thighs together even as she felt her face flaming with a deep blush. When she felt lightheaded, she forced herself to take a deep cleansing breath.
What was wrong with her? Why was this turning her on instead of freaking her out?
“Elijah works here?” she whispered.
“He doesn’t just work here,” Jaxson said, appearing beside her and Nalani with the rest of their group trailing close behind. “He’s the Dungeon Master. He’s in charge of all of this.” His arm stretched out to show the whole scene.
The pieces began clicking into place with horrifying clarity. Elijah’s dominant behavior in Vegas. His talk of safewords and consequences. The way he’d made her feel things she’d never experienced before.
“Why didn’t he tell me?” The question came out smaller than she’d intended.
“Because he thinks he’s too old for you,” Shane said, “and that you won’t approve of all this. He’s convinced himself that you’re better off without him.” Shane paused before adding, “I know he’s been a real asshole by ghosting you, but knowing the old man as well as I do, I know he thinks he’s doing the honorable thing by letting you go.”
These people—these close friends of Elijah’s—were giving her answers to questions she hadn’t even known to ask. Answers Elijah had been too chicken-shit to give her himself. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but his silence still wasn’t sitting well with her. Why not just talk to her about all of this?
Reagan stared at the scene before her, trying to process everything she was seeing and feeling. The rational part of her brain was cataloging the safety measures she could see—the monitors stationed throughout the space, the way every interaction seemed negotiated, the obvious care and attention being paid to the participants.
But the emotional part of her brain was reeling with a different realization.
This was Elijah’s world. This was who he really was. And instead of being horrified, she was... intrigued. More than intrigued. She was aroused by what she was witnessing.
“Where is he?” she asked, her voice barely audible over the sounds of pleasure echoing around them.
“He’s not working tonight,” Emma answered.
That didn’t make any sense to Reagan. The club was full and busy. Why wouldn’t he be working? “But I need to talk to him. I need answers from him,” Reagan insisted. She couldn’t… no, she wouldn’t leave without talking to Elijah himself.
Nalani exchanged a look with Jaxson, who seemed to weigh his options.
“I’ll tell you,” he said finally, “but on one condition. I’ll tell you why he’s not here tonight but only if you’re sure you’re stillinterested in him after seeing all of this.” He glanced around the room again and then pinned her with an intense glare before adding, “Because if you’re going to run away from this lifestyle, it’s better that you do it now. You can just walk away, no harm, no foul.”
Reagan looked around the room one more time, taking in the sights and sounds that should have sent her fleeing but instead made her feel more alive than she had in weeks.
She thought about Elijah’s hands on her body, the way he’d made her feel beautiful and desired and cherished. She thought about the connection they’d shared, the conversations that had lasted until dawn, the way her heart had recognized something in him she’d never found with anyone else.
A calmness she hadn’t felt since Elijah had canceled their date settled into her heart. She knew what she had to do.
Meeting Jaxson’s intense gaze again, she gave the only answer possible. “I’m not running away. Tell me where he is. Why isn’t he here tonight?”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
ELIJAH
The automatic doors of Cedar-Sinai Medical Center whooshed open with the institutional efficiency that made Elijah’s skin crawl. When his hip had stopped resembling an overripe eggplant, and Dr. Jennings had cleared him for surgery. Which meant that at seven-thirty on a Tuesday morning, he was shuffling through the hospital entrance like the broken-down old man he’d become.
“Wait here. I’m going to find you a wheelchair,” Nalani said much too brightly for his dark mood.
“You don’t have to do that. I’m sure I can drag my ass to the surgical check-in desk,” he groused.
“I’m sure you probably can too, but I’m trying to think of all the people we’re going to meet along the way. I’d rather not expose them to your grumpy ass when you are hobbling along in pain. Stay here.”
It was an order. Oh, how things had reversed in such a short time. He was now so useless that even sweet Nalani was barking orders at him, the dungeon master. And the worst part?
