Club Helix: The Power Games
Loose Id Titles by Brynley Bush
Club Helix:
THE POWER GAMES
Brynley Bush
www.loose-id.com
Club Helix: The Power Games
Copyright © May 2016 by Brynley Bush
All rights reserved. This copy is intended for the original purchaser of this e-book ONLY. No part of this e-book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without prior written permission from Loose Id LLC. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author's rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
Image/art disclaimer: Licensed material is being used for illustrative purposes only. Any person depicted in the licensed material is a model.
eISBN 9781682521106
Editor: Kierstin Cherry
Cover Artist: Ginny Glass
Published in the United States of America
Loose Id LLC
PO Box 170549
San Francisco CA 94117-0549
www.loose-id.com
This e-book is a work of fiction. While reference might be made to actual historical events or existing locations, the names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Warning
This e-book contains sexually explicit scenes and adult language and may be considered offensive to some readers. Loose Id LLC’s e-books are for sale to adults ONLY, as defined by the laws of the country in which you made your purchase. Please store your files wisely, where they cannot be accessed by under-aged readers.
* * * *
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Acknowledgment
A huge and heartfelt thank-you to everyone who supported
The Power Games:
My amazing beta readers (in no particular order because you all rock)—Tina, Renae, and Debbie. Your unending support of and commitment to both me and my stories constantly humbles me. Thank you for loving this story as much as I did.
The entire team at Loose Id for making
The Power Games
the best it could possibly be, and especially my amazing editor—Kierstin, who really dug in and made this book shine.
My family—for understanding when I get lost in another world, and for helping me find my way back.
My author friends—for keeping me sane in the trenches.
Kim and Gena—for the unconditional love.
And last, but never least, my mother, whom I tell not to read my books but who is nonetheless my biggest fan.
Chapter One
Ava
“Fuck, Emmett. What was I thinking?” I whisper with a hint of panic as our plane from New York touches down in Las Vegas. For the past two years, Emmett has been everything to me—my best friend, roommate, protector, confidant, and the only person in the world I truly trust because he knows better than anyone what kind of hell I’ve been through. After all, he’s been through hell himself. Now he’s about to be my pretend Dom, whatever the hell that means, and I’m suddenly having an attack of serious misgivings.
The five-hour flight has given me way too much time to think about the reality of what I’m about to do—posing as a submissive to Emmett’s Dom on a reality show called
The Power Games
. The show is designed to promote a brand-new Las Vegas resort called Club Helix, an over-the-top, no-expense-spared, sophisticated BDSM-themed resort where guests can indulge their deepest, darkest fantasies in the city of sin.
“You’ve got this, Ava,” Emmett says resolutely, covering my fingers that are digging into his arm and giving them a quick squeeze. “We’ve got this.” Emmett is always supremely confident. It’s one of the things I love most about him; he has enough courage for both of us.
“What if I can’t pull it off?” I whisper, voicing my misgivings. After all, I’m not submissive. Hell, I’ve never even had sex before. I’ve been too focused on school and guarding my heart to get too close to anyone. I learned from watching my mom that I’m better off without love. She had gone to college with big dreams, but instead she’d fallen in love with my father, gotten pregnant, and dropped out of school. For a while, everything was perfect. My father was a successful architect, and we’d lived happily in the charming, well-to-do suburb of Kirkland, just east of Seattle. But that all ended after he committed suicide when I was fifteen, negating his life-insurance policy and leaving my mother and me virtually penniless. She’d had no college degree, no work experience, and no way to support herself and me.
Luckily, I suppose, she was still in her thirties and beautiful, and before long Anthony Sanderson III had come along, seducing her with the promise of financial security and an even more opulent lifestyle than the one she had grown accustomed to with my father. A lifestyle, I think bitterly, that was more important to her than her own daughter.
“We’ve been over this,” Emmett says patiently, drawing me back to the present. “I’m an experienced Dom. Just follow my lead. All you have to do is act for a few scenes when the cameras are rolling. The rest of the time it’ll just be you and me hanging out like we always do. But at a kick-ass hotel in Las Vegas!” His pep talk reiterates all the points we’ve gone over since he came up with the harebrained idea that I should go on the show with him. After his application to be on the show had been accepted and I’d found out my stepfather had managed to yank my summer internship out from under me at the last minute, he’d actually made it sound plausible.
“Besides, you’re a great actress.” His mouth tightens into a line. “You do a damn near perfect job of acting like you’re fine after what your asshole of a stepfather did to you,” he adds grimly. His expressive brown eyes bore into mine with an intensity that’s rare for him. “What he did was despicable, and he should pay. The world should know exactly what he is. Remember, Ava, that’s why you’re really doing this. To ruin the fucking bastard!” He leans back against the seat, once again the easygoing charmer women fall all over. “And it beats being homeless in New York for the summer.”
I sigh. He’s right on both counts. It had seemed like the perfect solution when he’d suggested it. I had no money, no job prospects, and no place to live. I’d spent the last of my scholarship money on a plane ticket to Florida for the internship I no longer had, I’d already given up my job at the coffee shop where I worked, and we’d sublet our apartment for the summer. I’d definitely had a few misgivings about going on a reality show, especially one as sensual and boundary-pushing as
The Power Games
, but I’d have a place to live for the summer, time to regroup, and the chance to win some serious money. And the show was going to be edgy, but classy and sophisticated. Plus, the hotel
was
gorgeous. All I had to do was act like a submissive for a few hours here and there. And with Emmett as my Dom, how hard could it be?
But somehow, I still hadn’t been able to pull the trigger initially. The whole idea was so foreign, so surreal, that I couldn’t even wrap my head around it. Because I don’t buy into the whole Dominance/submission thing. Although Emmett swears there’s freedom for a submissive in giving the power to someone else, I can’t imagine how I could possibly feel free relinquishing my control. I’ve learned the hard way not to trust anyone. And while I’m certainly no prude, at least not in theory since I’ve never really had the opportunity to explore that side of myself in reality, the whole BDSM aspect of the show was more than a little intimidating, not to mention the thought of being so…exposed to millions of viewers.
Then I’d called my mom, and my hesitation faded. I hadn’t spoken to her in two years, not since she’d betrayed me by choosing to believe my stepfather over me. But I’d desperately wanted her to be there when I walked across the stage to accept my diploma, so I tentatively opened the door I thought I’d slammed shut forever and picked up the phone. My heart stutters a little at the memory of the thinly veiled joy and hope in her voice when she’d answered the phone.
“Avalon! I’m so glad you called.”
Tears had filled my eyes at the sound of her voice and the reminder of a time when my world was whole. I’d wanted to ask her why she hadn’t believed me, why she hadn’t loved me enough to protect me. Instead, I’d asked if she was coming to my graduation.
There’d been a long silence on the other end of the line, and I’d willed myself not to beg her.
“You really want Anthony and me to come?”
she’d asked hesitantly.
“No, Mom. Just you. Anthony is not welcome anywhere near me,”
I’d answered, my voice steely.
She’d sighed then.
“Avalon, it’s been two years since what happened, or what you think happened. When are you going to move on and let it go? He misses you, you know.”
I take a deep breath, consciously relaxing my death grip on the armrest of the airplane seat at the memory.
I’d told her not to worry, that it would be long and boring, and of course I understood if she couldn’t come. Never mind that I’m her only child and graduating with honors from NYU despite everything that has happened to me.
“Avalon, try to understand,”
she’d pleaded.
“He’s my husband. I took vows before God to be one with him and support him. Besides, he’s been good to me…good to us. I’d come on my own, but you know how anxious I get flying. Besides, the primary election is in less than a month, and Tony’s got to be very careful about his image right now. It wouldn’t look good if I went to his stepdaughter’s graduation without him.”
“Well, I certainly wouldn’t want to hurt his reputation at this crucial point,”
I’d said sarcastically.
“Oh, thank you for understanding, Ava,”
she’d said, her voice relieved.
“It means so much to me. You know I’ll be there in spirit, sweetheart.”
I’d hung up the phone woodenly, swiping away angry tears and damning Anthony Sanderson for having such control over my mom and still keeping her from me. He was worried that being conspicuously absent from his stepdaughter’s college graduation would damage his run for the presidency? Ha. If he was so concerned about that, I wondered how he’d feel about his stepdaughter being on a kinky pay-per-view reality show.
Realization of the power I held hit me with empowering clarity, and my mind was unequivocally made up. I’d go on the show and finally be able to do the one thing that had given me a purpose to live for the past two years—I’d fucking ruin the man who had stolen my life from me.
