A Jade's Trick (Lilly Black's Jaded Series Book 1) (49 page)

On Thursday morning, Paige comes by to show me her drawings of the remodel.  Everything she has done is perfect, but decorating aside, there are walls that have to be knocked out, staircases that have to be built, and plumbing that has to be rerouted.  We're leaving Sunday night for almost two weeks in Las Vegas, and Paige assures me that she can get all of the structural changes complete by the time we return.  Then we can start working on the dungeons.

The day of the Vegas trip has finally come, and Cain and I are both looking forward to getting away from San Diego and the murder investigation.  Trent has contacted the detectives to let them know where we'll be, and he informs us that Elizabeth's case is stagnating while they await a multitude of DNA test results, which he considers good news because if the detectives were truly convinced that Cain was the only suspect, his DNA would have been their top priority.

Lucy drives us to the airport where Cain's jet awaits, and sitting with him in the cockpit again, he lifts us off safely and touches us down in Vegas where a limo picks us up and takes us straight to the Hard Rock Hotel.

"Is this the casino you're working for?" I ask Cain as the driver pulls in.

"No.  It's an older one down the strip.  You've probably never heard of it, but don't get used to the name in any case because it's not going to last if they take the advice they're paying for."

"Shouldn't you be staying there?" I wonder aloud.

"I have a team flying in separately to pose as guests because the casino staff will know who I am pretty quickly."

The driver wheels our baggage in, and Cain and I are ushered into a private check-in area reserved for guests in the suites where drinks and snacks are offered, and in minutes, we have our room cards in our hands and are heading through the massive casino to the elevator.  We're staying in the Provocateur Suite, and when we get there, a quick look around explains the name.  There is a bondage cross, a cage, shackles on the wall, and a bed three queen-sized mattresses wide.

The bellman carries our suitcases in, and directing him where to set them, Cain slips him a tip as I stand in the shadows, anxious for him to leave.

"Are you not uncomfortable with people knowing you are renting this suite?" I ask when the door closes behind him.

"It's a novelty suite in Las Vegas.  No one would even be interested."

"I hope you're right."

"Do you not like it?  They have better suites if you'd prefer.  I just thought this place might give you some ideas for the home dungeon."

"It already has," I say, planning to take some pictures for Paige of features that have caught my eye like the large, open shower that is part of the playroom.

Later, after I've unpacked us both, Cain's phone rings from the living room where he has set up his remote office.  He answers it on speaker, and I hear his brother's voice come blaring out.

"This place fucking sucks!" Caleb announces.

"You're just now getting to your room?" Cain asks as I look on confused.

"Yes!" Caleb shouts as Cain whispers in my ear that Caleb is one of the plants he has brought in to stay at the hotel where he's working this week.

"I thought your plane got in before mine."

"It did!" Caleb bitches.  "I had to wait in a ridiculously long line with the general public to check in, and it took for-fucking-ever to get a bellman in this shithole!" 

General public?
  He is definitely Catherine's son!

"Is it really that bad?" Cain asks.

"Fucking A it is!" Caleb shouts.

"Good," Cain says, laughing.  "This is the kind of feedback I need."

"Blow me!" Caleb spits.

"It's just a few days, princess." 

"You're a dick," Caleb says, hanging up, and Cain just laughs.

"Why is your brother working for you?" I ask.

"For Nicole."

"I don't understand."

"I have been trying to talk Cay into coming to work for me for years so he can divorce the harpy, but all I ever hear is 'I am not taking a handout from my little brother.'"

"But he's willing to do that for Nicole?" I ask, charmed by it.

"He's willing to try, so don't say anything to her," Cain warns.  "In fact, don't say anything to Cay either."  He explains that his brother's pride would prevent him from admitting that he is actually doing this job for Nicole as getting him here took a series of lies carefully designed to save Caleb's ego.  Since he is only staying for five days, Caleb took vacation time from the distillery, but Cain is hoping he can convince his brother that he needs him full time without making the job offer seem like a handout when a handout is exactly what it would be given the salary he needs.

Before we have to get ready for the dinner reservation Cain made, he lures me into the room with the cage for a more inclusive tour, and I quickly lose my urge to go out.

"They have room service here, right?" I ask.

"Yes, but I'm still taking you out.  I just showed you all of the amenities to get you thinking about what I'm going to do to you in here later," Cain says.

"Oh, you definitely have me thinking," I admit with a lascivious grin.

"Good.  Come here."  Standing in the doorway to the bath, Cain beckons me, his eyes possessing me I close the space between us.  He lifts me up, wrapping my legs around him, and he carries me to the vanity where he reaches up my skirt and pulls my panties off.  Sitting me down on the edge, we work together to get his pants undone, and as soon as he's free, he attacks me, fucking me hard and fast, crashing into me with excessive force. I feel my nails digging deep into his forearms, but so possessed by the intensity of the moment, I can't make myself let go.

Cain leans in to kiss me, grabbing my head, holding it so roughly I can feel each finger pressing into the back of my scalp as his mouth assaults mine.  Savagely, he bites my lower lip, my ears, my neck, and it feels so good as I linger right on the edge, each thrust threatening to be the one to make me come.  I fight to stave off my orgasm as his cock becomes like granite inside me, unyielding, his flesh stretched tight and smooth, and I don't let go until I feeling him explodes inside me in a flood of euphoria and desire.  My voice worships his name as my legs tremble and my body convulses, and I become ethereal, my mind lost in a fugue where I am nothing but the pleasure I feel. Cain puts his arms around me, and with his cock still inside me, in a perfect moment, we meld together.

"Evan," he breathes into me as he rests his head on my shoulder, his face lost in my hair.  "God, I love you, Evan." 

On Monday morning, Cain rises early to meet with his client.  He puts a credit card on the nightstand as he leaves for work, ordering me to use to get anything I want.  Hating the idea of spending his money, I demand a limit, but in typical Cain fashion, he gives me a quota.

After a room service breakfast and a hot shower, I pick up the card and find that he has left a note with it, and what I expect to be a written authorization for me to use his credit card is actually a list of addresses for lingerie boutiques and adult toy stores.  I can definitely find some things I need in those places, and I will have no trouble using the card without an authorization because as I tuck it into my purse, I notice it has my name on it.  I don't know how I should feel about that.

"Hey," Cain says as he walks through the door Friday evening.

"Hey," I echo, and he kisses me as he drops his briefcase to the floor.  I'm so happy the weekend has finally come.  I've enjoyed myself this week, but when Cain was working, whether I was lounging around the pool or shopping, I spent most of my time just waiting for him to come home to me.

"How was your day?" he asks.

"Boring without you."

"Mine, too."

"How did it go with Caleb today?" I ask.  Today the planted guests gave their reviews to management.

"My brother is a fucking nightmare," Cain complains.

"Yet you still come home from work in such a good mood."

"Cay's driving me crazy while the jobs of thousands of people hinge upon my decisions, but I don't even feel the pressure as long I get to come home to you."

"Would you please be serious?"  I roll my eyes at him.

"I am serious," he insists, tracing my jaw line with the back of his fingers.  "When I'm with you, the whole world could go to hell all around me, and I wouldn't notice...not even when I've had to listen to Princess Caleb piss and moan for a week about inferior accommodations."  Cain laughs.

"He and Nicole really are perfect for each other," I joke.  "Do you think he'll come to work for you?"

"I don't know.  When he revealed himself to the owners today, his account of his experiences this week was exactly what I needed them to hear, but just because his spoiled ass was perfect for this job doesn't mean I can find situations where I would realistically need him going forward."

"Does it matter?" I ask.

"Not to me.  I can invent things to keep him busy, but if he feels like he is just coasting on my dime, he'll back out."  As Cain talks more about his brother, it leads to sharing intimate information about his family, revealing the reality beneath the jade's skilled paint job that is Catherine's public image, helping me better understand why she lashes out at me.

As I suspected, Jack has been unfaithful to Catherine, and it happened when she was pregnant with Cain.  While she was alone nursing morning sickness and swollen ankles, Jack was in the bed of a younger woman, and it wasn't a brief or meaningless fling but a genuine, loving relationship in which Jack was far more invested than in his marriage.  If not for the prenuptial agreement and the fact that he had brought nothing to the marriage but the Ballantyne name, he would have left Catherine, and she knew it.  According to Cain, his father claims that before his affair, Catherine was not the cold, self-serving bitch she has become, and the affair had a profound effect on Caleb.

"You never cheat," Cain says.  "Our mother drilled it into us from as early as I can remember.  It was an obsession with her.  When we were older, Dad told us why, but it was too late to put it in perspective.  It had already set in, and her first born always had a need to please her.  He's almost thirty-three, and she still runs his life."

"And coming to work for you will change that?" I ask.

"I don't know, but I have to try.  He's my big brother, Ev.  I looked up to him when I was a kid," Cain says.  "Cay was a lacrosse star, he surfed, all the girls chased him.  He was my hero when I was twelve, but he was also the reason Dad insisted Cary and I go to public high school."

"Wait!  Are you telling me you met Sunny Meriwether at public high school?"  I ask, incredulous.

"Public school in La Jolla, California isn't exactly Compton."

"Then why did Caleb go to private school?"

"Family tradition. It was where my mother and her sister went to school, but Dad needed something to blame when he saw what was becoming of his eldest son."

"What do you mean?"

"Cay was spoiled.  He had everything handed to him and never had to work for anything in his life, and any time he fucked up, he had his mommy there to cover his ass.  That's how she got him back.  After college, he lost the rest of his trust fund trying to start his own liquor label, which she pushed him into, and the golden boy always had to make her proud.  I was still in high school at the time, but even I knew it was a doomed venture.  She knew it, too, and when it failed, he ended up back under her control just like she wanted.  For the past ten years I've had to watch my big brother become thoroughly emasculated by our mother and his bitch wife.  I can't stand it anymore." 

"It's no wonder you've worked so hard to be financially independent," I say.

"And Caleb's mistakes are part of what made me so determined.  I owe him.  I just don't know how to make him see that without having to remind him of how much he fucked things up."

"When we get back to San Diego, I'll talk to Nicole.  Even if he won't come to work for you now, if he falls in love with her, maybe it will push him to make a change."

"That means a lot to me, especially knowing how you feel about that situation."

"I don't want to see Nicole get hurt, but I do want her to be happy, and Caleb could make her very happy.  Besides, if he's half as good as his little brother, how can I deprive my best friend of that?" I say with a seductive smile.

"Nobody's half as good as his little brother," Cain says as he pushes me onto the bed.  Lying on my back, he straddles me, and when he looks down into my eyes, I know that the whole world could go to hell all around us and we wouldn't even notice.