19. Chapter 19 – Tamen
Chapter 19 – Tamen
T here was a fantastic chance she’d shoot me.
I wasn’t worried about stabbing, hitting, or any other hand to hand injuries, because I was faster and stronger than her. But firearms, on the other hand, she could most definitely get to me with a bullet before I could dodge it.
Did Sloane have a firearm in her apartment that was decorated with pink pastel wallpaper and gold furniture?
She probably had a bloody bazooka, knowing her.
I looked away from my laptop screen where I had been placing liquor orders for the last two hours and glanced at my watch—again. How on earth did someone sleep until two in the afternoon? It was unnatural.
As if my annoyed thoughts summoned her, a door clicked down the hallway and I looked over the top of my laptop as my disheveled Rainbow stumbled out of her pitch-black bedroom, bouncing her shoulder off the frame in the process. Her hair was tied up in some sort of silk bonnet my grandmother would have worn, and she wore a t-shirt eight sizes too big with the picture of some ugly frowning cat on the front of it. To tie the pathetic outfit together, a pair of pink bunny slippers on her feet scuffed against the wood floor as she shuffled her way toward me with her eyes screwed shut and her hands on the walls to guide her.
Sloane was a menace to her own safety.
Silently, I closed my laptop and watched the train wreck move through her apartment, stubbing her toe on the chair at the island and nearly taking her closed eye completely out of her head with the handle of the upper cupboard she opened blindly. As she reached for a coffee mug with her eyes still closed, the potential for disaster made me restless. The clinking of mugs and the quiet hum of the refrigerator were almost deafening in the tense silence.
“Is there a reason you won’t open your eyes?” I asked, and on cue, her amber eyes shot open as a terrified scream ripped from her lips.
She found me sitting on her couch with my feet up on the coffee table and sagged briefly in relief before her favorite emotion to throw my way took over.
Rage. Her rainbow aura was red now.
“What the hell are you doing in my apartment?” She screeched, “How did you get in?” She glanced at the front door, that was shut and locked, before she continued on, hardly pausing long enough to take a breath. “Did you break my door? What is wrong with you? How am I going to lock out the crazies of this city if you break down my fucking door!”
“How am I supposed to answer any of those questions if you don’t ever shut up long enough for me to speak?” I yawned, unimpressed, rising to my feet as I walked toward her. She tightened her lips and crossed her arms over her bare tits beneath the frowning cat, “God, that shirt is dreadful.”
“Get out!” She snapped one arm out toward the door, and I tried to ignore the way her free tits swung under the shirt.
Tried.
“Stop it.” I closed the distance between us and grabbed the mug off the shelf behind her, caging her into the counter exactly like I had two nights ago on the fire escape. Before she ghosted me. Again . “You’re going to make your neighbors believe you’re in danger in here with all that screeching.”
“You bastard.” She shoved me and took the mug from my hand, huffing and turning to her coffee maker. “Get out.”
Placing my hands on each side of her on the counter, I leaned down so she could feel my body heat against her back and took a deep inhale of her scent at her neck. Her hands froze, halfway through programming her fancy machine as her breath hitched when I brushed my lips against her lower ear. “We both know you’d rather I gave you orgasms for your midday meal, instead.”
“Why are you here?” She whispered, returning to her desired hit of caffeine like I wasn’t in her space. “ How are you here?”
“You ghosted me again.” Replying as I watched her expertly work her stand, adding flavor and foam to her cup. “It’s rather annoying.”
“I didn’t realize you had such a fragile ego.”
“I didn’t realize you were willing to walk away from a career of a lifetime at Prism, just to throw a hissy fit.”
She turned and glared at me with her angry golden eyes before facing forward again, like she was choosing not to rile up at my words. “I can’t work for you.”
“Why?”
“We’ll burn the whole place to the ground, on night one. You have to realize that.”
“Pyrotechnics have never been my kink of choice. Dane loved to burn shit as a kid, but not me.”
She turned in the small space I left for her and held her finished cup of coffee between us as she took a sip. “I’m not even going to touch that comment at this time. Because we need to focus on Prism. And you need to find someone else to do my job. Maybe Mya, or Raven can be manager. They both will work hard, I know it.”
“It’s non-negotiable, Rainbow. You’re the only one that will star on that stage. I built it for you.”
The stage that was going to be the epicenter of the club’s activities had been kept secret from everyone as it was remodeled and updated. Even from Sloane.
It previously was a little over twenty feet wide, and now it was double. Where there were glass mirrored rooms above it before, there were now balcony style seating areas off each room so the guests could immerse themselves in the theme and event occurring downstairs, while still playing with what they purchased in their own rooms.
My pretty little Rainbow would shine on that stage.
It was hers.
“You hate me.” She whispered and then steeled her spine with a little shake of her head, “And I hate you.”
“Then what does it matter if we coexist and make truckloads of money together while we hate each other?” I tilted my head to the side, “I think we’ve both proven that we can get along in short bursts from time to time. We haven’t killed each other yet.”
Her eyes fell to a hidden spot on my chest beneath my button-up shirt, where she tried to stab me with my own knife. “That could change at any second.” Her amber eyes drifted up to mine. “And probably will if we keep pretending.”
“Well,” I pulled back from her and stood up to my full height, towering over her. “Only one way to find out, Rainbow. Will it be your lightning that kills me, or will it be my darkness that takes you out? Which do you think will happen first?”
Sloane took another sip of her coffee and leaned up off the counter, “Call me Rainbow one more time and I’ll show you just how fast lightning can strike.” She walked away, back down the hall toward her bedroom without another glance as I stared directly at her lush ass as it swayed with each step under her oversized cat lady shirt. “And get the fuck out of my apartment.”
I didn’t leave her apartment, at least not right away. Instead, I spent the rest of the afternoon working in her living room while she moved around her home, glaring at me every chance she got. At least that was on the rare occurrence that she actually left her bedroom. Sloane acted as though if she hid from me that I’d disappear. At least that was how she had started the day.
Avoiding.
Until it was time for a workout. Some sort of yoga on a sliding bed thing in her living room, to be exact. Then I was a fucking goner and didn’t even try to pretend I wasn’t staring at her graceful body as she contorted herself for my enjoyment.
Jesus, a man could get used to watching that.
When I did leave, she left with me to go to Prism, like such a good girl. Though I refrained from telling her that. I was fairly certain my pretty little Rainbow had a praise kink. At least, that’s what I was garnering by the way she came on my cock every time I commended her.
Well, that and the shirt she came out of her room wearing when it was time to leave for Prism.
I had been standing in her kitchen, waiting for her when she came out, fixing her long hair back into a ponytail. As soon as I read the words on her shirt, I choked on my tongue.
“You cannot wear that out in public.” I droned, as she paused, looking perplexed, so I nodded to her chest.
“What’s wrong with it?”
I read the shirt aloud, “ Don’t praise me, I’ll cum .” And glared at her. “That’s a ridiculous shirt.”
“Yeah,” She scoffed, “That’s the point. Besides,” She winked at me as she grabbed her keys and bag, “It’s also incredibly accurate.”
And now we were at Prism, and I was watching her in the main lounge and bar area, working the crowd of girls hired and vetted to open Prism at the grand opening night in one week. For a while, I doubted we would have a lineup of girls worthy and capable of working with the elite customers who were already buying memberships faster than my assistant could process the paperwork. But one week out, we had a completed roster, with their trusted Ember back at the head of the crowd, settling the last details about roles, responsibilities and expectations.
I didn’t even need to host the party I threatened them with at the beginning, hoping to light a fire under their asses to prove they wanted a spot at my club. They had all buckled down and worked for their position on the list.
Things felt—right. They felt good. Which should have been my first sign that they were going to go wrong, because I had nothing good in my life.
My phone vibrated in my pocket, and I opened the message, reading through the details of the job I took from the cocaine dealer that Sloane had been working for the other night. The man traded her for one job with me.
I got my side of the deal, and it was time for me to pay up. It wasn’t as if I wasn’t capable of the gig, or even excited by the hunt. But there was something I wanted to do with my evening that didn’t include killing drug dealers.
It included tormenting Sloane. It included fucking her as she dug her sharp claws into me again, leaving more marks over my already flared skin.
But again, I didn’t get what I wanted most times.
“Is that your booty call for the night?” Sloane asked as she walked around me, glancing down at my phone before I locked it and put it back in my pocket.
“I didn’t realize you texted me.” I chided, staring her down, “Does that mean you’ve finally unblocked me.”
She snorted, turning away from the dozens of prying eyes actively trying to watch us interact like we were on a dirty daytime television show. “Not a chance.”
“Then no, it wasn’t my booty call.” I replied, avoiding actually answering the question. “I have to leave. Can you handle the rest of this?”
Her eyes rounded dramatically, “You mean I get to pretend I’m actually the manager?”
Now it was my turn to reply dramatically, “Only if you actually bother to show up from now on.”
“Whatever. I can handle it.”
“Good. I’ll see you tomorrow morning for scheduling.” I stated, reminding her of our meeting to set up the roster with rooms and clients that were already requesting pre-booking. It was at ten am, which I knew Sloane hated because it was before the time she normally rolled out of bed, but she’d be there.
She was too interested in scheduling the stage acts to let me do it on my own. It was her baby, after all.
“Yeah, I know, boss.” She droned on as I backed up and then gave me a salute. “Have fun on your date tonight. Can’t wait to hear everything about her.”
“Him, actually.” I threw back and her eyebrows rose. “Though I’m sure the details of our evening together won’t be your cup of tea.”
I left the lounge, reveling in the shocked expression on her face as I walked away, knowing that insignificant victory would stick with me for the rest of the night. I was going to need it too, because my night was about to go to shit.