Page 22 of Naughty Dreams
“Yeah.” DJ managed a half shrug, winced. “Earlier in my career, thank fuck. Once was enough to teach me the lesson,without me learning much else. It was a private party, and it didn’t feel right from the get-go. The prick got off on the whole topping a rising rockstar thing. He didn’t see me.”
The wiseass had given way to the mature adult. “I get it, clients getting the wrong impression about your relationship with them, because of the nature of your job. With me, people are attracted to the talent or the fame. The disappointment when they figure it out takes them in two directions. The smart ones move on, or readjust their expectations and step back. The less smart ones try to turn you into what they want you to be.
“If you don’t accommodate, then it’s messier, but they move on. If you do accommodate, it’s never quite right. They’re always wanting to make you into something else. Like that wannabe Dom. He wanted a pet he could say he’d rescued, ‘from my darkness,’ as he perceived it.”
He waved a hand at Roy’s look. “No, he’s not our guy. Thirty-five-year-old record store owner in Detroit who died in an armed robbery about a year later, which I was sorry to hear, even if he and I didn’t have a good experience.”
DJ took a breath. “You know how to shoot, how to handle a gun, right?”
“Pretty obvious.” Roy’s brow creased at the segue.
“I’ve been thinking of picking out a firearm, but I need to understand the safety stuff and practice. Is that something you could show me off shift? Teach me to do?”
“Yes, I could do that.”
A gleam entered DJ’s gaze. “Okay, now instead of the word ‘firearm,’ insert ‘BDSM.’ How is taking time off shift to show me the ropes, literally or figuratively, any different? You didn’t think twice about the gun question. Well, maybe you did, but then you thought, what if I sayno, and he tries it by himself and shoots off his foot?”
He’d chosen the mentor track, just like G had suggested. Maybe it was what DJ himself was most comfortable with, but the kid was too savvy. If Roy would consider the idea at all, it had to have a structure that was acceptable to him.
“You are relentless.”
“It’s a skill you develop in this business. Otherwise, you don’t make it.” DJ sobered. “I find you incredibly hot, and you find me hot. That’s not unusual. But when you’re looking at me, even when you’re not looking…you see me.”
“Yeah, I do.” Roy removed DJ’s hand from his chest and gripped his wrist, a hard squeeze, before he let it go. “Do you really think you can play me like one of your instruments?”
Celebrities might want a connection with a person who didn’t want to use them, but often, no matter what DJ claimed, they still wanted the upper hand and the adulation.I want you to see who I am, but I still want you to treat me like a star.
“I’m not a faucet that can turn on and off according to your whims,” Roy said shortly. “Find someone else to tie you up, beat your ass, or melt marshmallows and chocolate on it to make you their personal s’more. It’s not me. There’s a line I don’t cross on the job.”
“So if I fired you, I’d have a shot?” Despite the joke, DJ’s mouth tightened.
“Don’t fuck with me, kid.” Roy moved to the bedroom door, out of range. “Say something happens to you. Was I a second slower because I was thinking about having you at my mercy when my shift is over? Or getting pissed watching your fans try to grab you?”
“You wouldn’t.”
“You don’t know that,” Roy said severely. “You don’t know me, any more than I know you.”
“I think you’re the kind of Dom who cares more about your sub than your own needs. Which is why you’re fighting about it now. It’s already happened, Roy. I’m already one of yours.”
Roy stared at him. DJ’s eyes showed a mixture of irrepressible youth and tested mature adult, wanting what Roy could give to him, and equally eager to offer Roy what he wanted.Shit.
Roy locked down his response, inside and out. “Lie down, get some sleep. I assume that shoulder needs to be in working order before your next gig.”
“It will be. I won’t give up, Roy. No matter how much you change the subject.”
Enough. Shut it down.Roy leveled a hard gaze on him. “Every celebrity I work for goes through this phase. You’re not unique. You think you have the right to fuck with my head while I’m trying to keep you safe. Playing the cutesy ‘Watch me try to piss Daddy off’ game makes you feel in control of what can’t be controlled. Or eases the irritation of taking orders from an asshole in a suit who doesn’t understand what an important person you are, a person the world says should be able to do whatever they want, whenever they want to do it.
“Get the fuck over yourself and respect my job. That’s theonlything I want from you.”
As he unloaded, DJ had gotten paler. Halfway through the icily delivered tirade, Roy told himself to shut the hell up. He’d taken it too far.
He was unleashing on the kid for one simple reason. DJwasunique. Roy not only wanted to take him up on his offer, he was halfway to convincing himself to say yes.
Instead, he stepped out, closed the door firmly, and went to take up his post. Outside DJ’s suite.
Outside of his life.
CHAPTER FOUR
