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“Dude,” Jason greeted him, breathing heavily. “Where did you go?”
Pax regarded him blankly. “I’ve been working.”
“That’s bullshit. You disappeared for an hour after you left the stage—and that show—man, that was intense. You were totally in the zone. I’ve never seen you like—oh.” His friend stopped short, his eyes widening as he connected the dots, looking as if he was afraid to make the connection that seemed the most obvious. “Was she—is she okay? She looked pretty wrecked there at the end, but you seemed in tune to her, so I didn’t worry. Should I? Are we going to have a problem?” Jason’s analytical brain was always examining things from the legal side.
“She’s fine. No problem. And if there was a problem, which there’s not, it would be mine and not ours,” Pax reminded him pointedly. Pax owned half of Aubergine, not the other way around. Rojo was his and his alone.
Jason rolled his eyes as he processed the implications of Pax’s denial, looking very much as if he would have preferred a legal problem to the alternative.
“So, where were you then?” he asked again, though it was clear from his angry expression he already knew the answer. Jason’s mouth was open slightly, his jaw twitching as he worked it from side to side, chewing on the possibilities of what he would say next.
“Making sure she was okay,” Pax answered gruffly, mentally willing his friend to shut up and go away.
“Oh yeah?” Jason snickered loudly. “Is that what the kids are calling it these days?”
“Shut up. Go to Hell.”
Jason remained unamused. “Dude, what is wrong with you? For a guy who apparently just got laid, you sure have a bad attitude. What’s your deal? Was it not any good? Judging by the chemistry radiating off the stage this evening, I find that a little hard to believe.”
Pax couldn’t help but roll his eyes at his friend’s crudeness. “It was more than good. It was amazing. That’s not the point.”
“What is the point then? If it was so amazing, where is she now, and why are you stomping around with a giant stick up your ass?”
“She’s a showgirl,” he ground out between gritted teeth, shaking his head when he realized how that sounded. “She’s an employee. It’s a bad idea to mix business and pleasure.”
“Rules are meant to be broken,” Jason countered quickly.
“That’s what she said.” Pax sighed, rolling his eyes when his buddy lost it over the popular pop culture reference.
“Listen, Pax, here’s the deal. All you do is work even when you’re technically off duty, you’re here at the casino, or next door at Aubergine. Work is your pleasure, and that’s okay; that’s who you are. But it means that either you blur the lines a little bit every once in a while, or you come to terms with the fact that you’ll probably end up old and alone, living out your days here at the casino, with me as your only family. Well, me and my twelve kids.”
“Twelve kids?” Pax asked, flatly.
“Hey, I’m being realistic. I blur the lines a lot,” his buddy informed him with a shit eating grin, clapping him heartily on the shoulder. “So, what’s it going to be? You going to pull the stick out, bend the rules, and take a chance, or are you still going to be here thirty years from now lamenting the fact that you don’t have a damn life outside of this place because you’re too damn stubborn to take a chance and trust your gut? You yourself said it buddy. You are not a rule breaker. You’re the least impulsive person I know. So ask yourself, what happened this time to make the great Paxton Donovan toss his rules and discipline out the window even for an hour, and is it something that’s worth exploring? I got to tell you, buddy, I think the answer is yes.”
“You sure changed your tune fast about Diamond,” Pax observed gruffly.
Jason let out a low whistle, shaking his head back and forth slowly. “You didn’t see the two of you up on stage. It was explosive. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
For the first time since he had left Diamond alone backstage, the light was beginning to dawn in Pax’s brain. Truthfully, he had had no idea that Jason had been there, which wasn’t surprising given the size of the crowd. And he hated to admit it, but his friend had a good point. Several of them, actually. But while Pax now had several things to consider, he wasn’t ready to give up his strict adherence to rules and discipline just yet.
“Thanks, Jase.” He dismissed his friend, with a wave, now entering the casino’s front entrance.
“Think about it,” Jason admonished him sternly.
“I will.”
* * *
While the timestamp machine was located in a small room next to the dressing room, there was no way out besides through the club, or if there was, Diamond wasn’t aware of it yet. After Pax left, she finished dressing, washed her face and re-applied minimal make-up. Now that the endorphins and euphoria had worn off, her ass was on fire and it hurt to walk. Funny, it hadn’t seemed like a big spanking when it happened, and the after effects had taken a while to show up. If her skirt wasn’t so short, she would have ditched the panties completely, as the sheer itchy fabric was having the effect of making her feel like she was sitting bare-assed on a pile of fire ants. Her bottom brushed the tender crease of her thighs with every step she took, making the simple act of walking across the room, an excruciatingly painful feat, and she had to somehow make it all the way back up to her room on the other side of the hotel from where the nightclub was located.
She hadn’t known what to expect when she entered the club, but it certainly wasn’t that everybody would stop mid conversation to look at her and applaud. The room came to a literal stand still, and everybody turned to gaze at her where she stood before slowly erupting into a loud applause. For a minute, she froze in place, petrified that her cover had been blown, until she felt a nudge in her side, and turned to see one of the other showgirls standing beside her sporting a similar get-up.
“That was impressive,” the girl, whose name she thought was Crystal whispered. “They haven’t stopped talking about it for the last hour. Are you sure that was only your second spanking ever?”
“Pretty sure,” Diamond confirmed, rubbing her bottom ruefully through her short skirt, causing the other girl to laugh knowingly.
“Well, you took it like a pro. I’ve never seen anything like it, to be honest. I’m always a total mess when it’s me up there. I squirm, and holler and cry and beg. I do not know how to take a spanking gracefully at all, and I’ve been doing this for five years.”
