Chapter 14 #2
“Yeah, it is pretty awesome,” she said. “And why should Joy Delivered limit itself to only striking partnerships with lingerie companies and retail boutiques?”
I arched an eyebrow. “Go on.”
She sat up straighter, her arms still wrapped around the baby as I took another spoonful of gelato. “What if the LolaRing was carried in a classy, unmarked black box with our silvery J on the top? Or perhaps a silvery L for The Luxe?”
“And why would it say The Luxe?” I knew what she was getting at. My business instincts had kicked in too, but I wanted to hear the proposal from her.
“Let’s be honest here. Your hotel is very high-end.
And while you serve a lot of business clients, you also serve lovers.
The top floor has fully-stocked bars, the walls have mirrors, and there’s mood lighting in each room because your hotels are absolutely designed for making love,” she said, locking eyes with me as she spoke.
“I’ll admit that many hotels, especially mine, are known for being a great backdrop for great sex.”
“They are,” she said enthusiastically. “That’s why I could see The Luxe offering a very discreet pleasure box in some rooms. Imagine walking into the room you reserve for your lover and finding an inviting box on the bed.
A velvet lined box, perhaps. If you use it, you pay for it.
If you don’t open it, you don’t pay. It’s no different than a bottle of champagne chilling in the minibar.
Think of this as the minibar for sexual pleasure.
Inside, you would find the classier toys.
A blindfold, a red feather tickler, perhaps even a small silver bullet vibrator.
But maybe in certain locations, perhaps the hotel that catered to the newly married in Vegas or in the Maldives, you would carry the LolaRing. ”
“Tell me, why would we want to carry the LolaRing?”
“Because it is the ultimate couple’s pleasure device.
Nothing even comes close to it. I even have the perfect slogan for it.
You’ve given her a diamond ring, now give her the LolaRing,” Casey said, layering suggestiveness into her tone.
My god, this woman couldn’t be anything but the CEO of a sex toy company.
I had to be careful though. I had to think with my brain, not with my cock.
Because my cock had a very specific agenda when it came to Casey: get inside her.
I put on my business brain and ignored all that I was feeling below the belt.
Because the reality was, her idea rocked. “I have one question for you, Casey.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Yes?”
“Actually, I have a couple of questions. One. How long have we been friends?”
“A few years. Why?”
“Two, then why on earth have we never done a partnership before? Because this is an awesome idea.”
She silent-clapped, and smiled so broadly, I swore I’d never seen her that happy before. I always wanted to see her this happy.
“You really like it?”
I nodded several times. “I really do love it. I think it needs to be done well, like everything. We run a luxury hotel; you run a high-end premium sex toy company. There are natural alignments. The key is pulling it off in a way that is classy and sexy. But that’s exactly what Joy Delivered is known for.
You are the classy and sexy toy company. ”
“It can be great for both of us,” she said, beaming.
“I have to agree. However,” I said, taking my time on that last word.
However. It was the kind of word that was known for derailing business ideas.
It was the kind of word that set off alarms in the person you were negotiating with.
I had chosen it purposefully. I wanted to throw her off, or perhaps just to surprise her.
“I would personally feel better if I were able to vouch for this product. We’re going to need to test it. ”
The look in her eyes was priceless. They blazed with sexuality and desire. I was willing to bet she was turned on something fierce. “Do you have one packed and ready to take to London on our flight tonight?”
She shook her head. “But can we swing by my office? I’ll grab one there,” she said, the most eager tone to her voice. I loved her willingness to go the extra mile for pleasure, and for business.
“Absolutely. By the way, how would you feel about babysitting again, because you seem to come up with really amazing sex ideas when you’re surrounded by my wet T-shirt and two small children.”
As she laughed, I heard the sound of a key in the lock. Kat and Bryan were home and they took in the scene—the two of us lounging on the couch, a carton of ice cream between us, two babies fast asleep on our chests.
“Looks like you two had a good night,” Bryan said, and he was spot-on. We’d had a fantastic night. We always did.
Casey
On the way out, Kat hugged me. “We had a great time just getting out of the house to see a movie. I can’t even tell you how much it means to me that you helped out,” she said, placing her hand on her heart. “Two little babies are a handful.”
“It was truly a pleasure. They are sweet as sweet can be and they love their uncle big time,” I said.
Nate stood by the town car parked at the curb. He leaned against the gleaming black door, scrolling through his phone as he waited for me. No rushing, no pressure. My suitcase was already in the car; I’d remembered to bring it along since we were taking off in a few hours.
“One more thing,” Kat said in a low voice as she grasped my arm, wrapping her fingers around it. “I always hoped it would be you.”
I furrowed my brow.
Kat cast her eyes toward Nate, then whispered, “It’s not as if I failed to pick up on the sparks between the two of you, or missed the reason why he kicked us out of the game last week.”
I blushed, and lowered my face.
“Hey, this isn’t a bad thing,” Kat said, gently squeezing my arm. I raised my eyes. “I always thought you’d be the one to break the spell.”
I laughed as if Kat were crazy. “What spell?”
“I truly believe he’s been in this dark spell after what happened with Joanna. And that eventually somehow the spell would be broken,” Kat said. She was clearly even more of a romantic than me.
I shot her a smile, but shook my head. “I don’t know that he’s under a spell. I think he’s made a deliberate choice.”
Kat shrugged happily. “I believe what I believe. And I’ve always believed it would take a very special woman to break that spell for my brother. Someone he trusts with his whole heart. Who else would that be but you?”
“Oh, Kat. Even if I believed in fairy tales like that,” I began, and the funny thing was that I did believe in fairy tales, and in the kind of love they promised, but as I glanced at the beautiful man leaning against the car, I knew that it couldn’t ever be with him.
Because he’d made his choice to live on the other side of the dream. “He so clearly doesn’t.”
Kat pulled me in for another hug. “Spells are made to be broken.”
But I wasn’t so sure. The practitioner of this one had a particularly strong hold on Nate, had molded him, put him in the kiln, and baked him into this kind of stone—impermeable to love. There was no give in this area of Nate’s makeup. No room for change.
Besides, whatever dark magic Joanna had wrought was more like a curse, and it showed no signs of being reversible.
I had to remember that. I had to remember what Nate was good for.
He was amazingly good at two things—being my friend and sending me into a most frenzied state.
I hoped to achieve many of the latter in London, and that’s why he had the car swing by my office, where I ran upstairs and grabbed my very own LolaRing as promised, clutching it tightly to my chest as I raced back down, an electric thrill charging through me from the knowledge that I was finally going to have what The Happiest Ladies in the World were having.
Next, the car made its way to the west side, stopping by Nate’s apartment.
“Be right back,” he said as the car pulled up to the curb.
“I need to pee. I’m coming with you.”
When we stepped out of the car, we both froze, our eyes landing on a tall, gorgeous, completely captivating black-haired beauty with green eyes that were bewitching.
She was dressed all in black—black tank top, black jeans, black lace-up boots, and a thin black scarf, even though it was June.
I had never met her, and hadn’t even seen a photo, but there was no doubt in my mind this woman was the Dark Queen herself: the one who’d frozen Nate’s heart.