Reuben Chapter 2
Reuben:
Lustz felt dull tonight. The place was busy as usual, so it wasn’t the lack of people.
And there had been a few disturbances to focus on, though not for long.
I tried not to acknowledge why it was uninteresting to me, but eventually I had to admit it.
Luckily, it was only to myself. Cristiana wasn’t here.
The brief hour or so spent with her last night had done nothing to decrease or kill my fascination with her and the burning desire to know more about her.
The flame grew more intense. So much so, I’d hardly been able to say goodnight without demanding she allow me to walk her out.
She’d reluctantly accepted the door bouncer, Tuck, walking her to her car after Taj begged her to do it.
Tajah claimed it would ease her worry. None of us wanted Taj to worry—not in her state—so Cristiana agreed.
As Tuck did, I hung at the front door of the club, tracking them.
When he smiled and laughed, I wanted to punch him in the face.
Somehow, I resisted when he returned to his post, and I went inside.
It was close to closing time, so I remained downstairs, ensuring everyone left when they should and that the staff was taken care of.
Knowing I wouldn’t be able to sleep when I got home, I stayed to reconcile the tills and work on a couple of other tasks.
It was seven a.m. when I left for home, knowing my day would be filled with restless sleep.
My brain wouldn’t stop thinking about Cristiana.
God, I’d been with numerous women since my first time when I was sixteen.
And while I’d had feelings for a few and we’d been boyfriend-girlfriend for a while or monogamous kink partners, none of them had hit me like she did.
I needed to get my head on straight. I had to work again tonight.
As I lay down on my bed, I had to fight to fall asleep. Cristiana invaded my sleep again.
???
Usually, I arrived at Lustz before it opened at five o’clock. Today, I couldn’t do it. I tossed and turned all day. I walked through the door five minutes before opening. There was already a small line to get inside. The hours seemed to crawl by, but I stuck to my routine.
Finishing checking on a couple of raised voices that ended up being nothing, I was debating where to go next when Mikhail appeared at my side. He held two glasses of liquor in his hands.
“What are you doing here? You should be at home with Taj. And since when do you double-fist the booze? Is everything okay?” I asked.
He wasn’t frowning nor appeared pissed off, so I doubted they’d fought. And if Taj or the baby wasn’t fine, he wasn’t giving any indication in his expression of it. What he said in reply left me more confused.
“Let’s head up to my office. Or if you prefer, yours. We need to talk. Tajah and the baby are doing well. She’s at home with Alex and Cady. And no, I don’t double-fist the booze. These aren’t both for me. One is yours,” Mikhail informed me, as he held one up.
“I, sure, we can talk. You pick where.”
“I think we should go to mine. At least we can see the monitors from there. If anyone needs you, they can call you,” he said.
“Give a minute to send off a text so the managers know where to find me,” I muttered.
Mikhail patiently waited. Once I sent off the group message, I took my glass from him and followed him to the elevator.
Repeating the steps taken last night, we were in his office in no time.
Mikhail took a seat in the lounge area in his office.
It was set up to resemble a living room.
Sometimes he spoke with people here, generally those he wanted to make feel at ease.
Those he didn’t care if they were comfortable were put in one of the two hot seats at the desk, with him staring at them until they sweated.
I took comfort that I wasn’t in one of those.
When we sat, and as I waited for him to begin, I took a sip of my drink. Ah, just what I liked. It was a smooth scotch, my favorite brand, GlenDronach Revival. I was somewhat of a scotch snob, as Mikhail called it. I wouldn’t apologize for it. I liked what I liked.
GlenDronach Revival was aged for fifteen years before being bottled for sale.
It was made in the Highlands of Scotland.
For me, scotch made anywhere but Scotland was swill, hence my snob title.
It had notes of pecan, honey, cedar, and chocolate-covered cherries.
What was not to love? To add to the flavor, it was aged in sherry casks.
It went excellently with aged cheeses or chocolate.
Mikhail sat there, watching me. Finally, I broke the silence. “Mikhail, you wanted to talk. You’re killing me, man. What’s up? Did I do something wrong?” I searched my mind for anything I had done wrong or was concerned about, but recalled nothing.
“Relax, it’s not anything wrong or that you fucked up.
Christ, you’d have to do something awful for me to call you on it.
We haven’t had a chance to talk for a while.
I’ve been all tied up in Tajah and the pregnancy.
I’m sorry. I realized that last night and want to make up for not being a good friend. ”
I stared at him, stunned. Where the hell did this come from?
“Mikhail, you haven’t been an awful friend.
You’ve never been. And yes, you have been tied up, as you call it, with Taj and the baby, but goddamn, it’s expected and necessary.
If I needed you, I would’ve said something.
Never call yourself a terrible friend. You’re far from that,” I assured him, then took another sip of my scotch.
“Good, it relieves my mind to hear you say that. I want you to come to me anytime you need to talk. And you know, Hoss is always there for you, along with Carver.”
He was right about Hoss. We’d worked together here for several years before he met Cady and stopped being a bouncer at the front door for us.
He hadn’t needed the money. Hoss owned a very successful tech company, SacketEdge Technologies.
He was a freaking multi-millionaire who had needed to de-stress from his day job.
The way he did it was to work at Lustz. Crazy. He was second to Mikhail as a friend.
Carver was a new relationship for us. He’d been a patron for a few years but had flown under the radar.
It wasn’t until Tajah got with Mikhail, who introduced Cady to our group, that he became more.
Cady was his sister. He didn’t fully enter our circle until after Carver and Alexandra, a patroness, hooked up.
Alex helped him to come out of his shell and became a good friend.
“I know it. So what’s on your mind if it’s not me? Something happened here at Lustz I should know about?”
“It’s associated with here, but not a problem. Or I hope it’s not. I want to talk to you about Saturday night.”
“Alriiight, hit me. What about Saturday night?”
“I want to talk about Cristiana.” He said it, then paused. His eyes were glued to my face.
“What about her?”
“Tell me what you thought of her,” he asked casually, then took a sip of his whiskey.
“Thought of her? In what regard? As a patroness, I believe she’ll fit in and there won’t be any problem with her finding men or women, likely both to play with or more.”
I hoped my voice didn’t give away how distasteful that thought was to me, but I had no right to dislike what she chose to do.
Cristiana was free to play or fuck as many people as she wanted.
The idea made my stomach clench. I held in my growl of disapproval.
Mikhail’s right eyebrow rose as if to question my statement. I kept my expression neutral.
“That’s how you see her? Hmm, well, she seems to be very sweet, and you can’t deny she’s beautiful.
Rhys was an idiot last night, but I have the feeling he’s the first of many who’ll be pursuing something with her.
Simply being a play partner won’t satisfy most of this crowd, though I don’t believe she’ll be receptive to many.
She’s cautious, almost too cautious if you know what I mean. ”
There was an edge to his voice, as if he was concerned about something. The way he said it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I leaned forward toward him. “What’s that mean? You heard something else? Who said it?” I fired back.
In my head, I was picturing the Doms we had and wondering if one of them had said something that Mikhail overheard.
If so, I’d make sure to have a private word with them.
I refused to allow someone to be harassed, especially a woman.
When it occurred, I was incensed because I pictured one of my three younger sisters as the victim and no one helping them.
After Rhys’ stunt last night, one of the things I worked on before heading home this morning was a notice to the appropriate staff, advising them to keep an eye on him.
If he were seen getting out of hand again, they were to notify me immediately.
Mikhail had been cc’d on it, as he was with all my messages and emails to the staff.
He did the same when he sent them. It prevented confusion and miscommunication.
“There is something that she said in her interview, and again when Tajah and I gave her the orientation. It made me pause at the time, but I forgot about it until last night, when Rhys misbehaved. Did you catch the concerned vibe she was working to hide?”
“I thought I did. Any woman would be upset, but it felt like more than that. I thought it was just me.”
Mikhail shook his head. “No, it wasn’t just you.
Tajah and I both sensed it. You know how my woman is.
She takes to certain people immediately and wants to bring them into our family circle.
Cristiana is that way for her. I don’t like my woman to worry, especially right now.
I was hoping you’d help take that worry away. ”