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Chapter Sixteen
“Oh, my god,” Jason moaned happily a week later as they sat together in a steakhouse across town. “It’s so nice to be finally getting away from the hotels. That was a seriously intense week, man.”
“Yes,” Pax agreed woodenly, poking lethargically at his salad. The ordeal was finally and officially over. The news vans had stopped coming, the reporters had stopped calling, and the paparazzi had finally accepted Diamond’s absence and gone home.
“Thank you for bringing me here tonight, and for the scotch, and treating me to dinner, bro. Seriously. This is exactly what I needed.”
Pax’s smile was genuine for the first time all night. “It’s the least I could do to thank you. Seriously, I don’t know what I would have done without you last week. You went above and beyond.”
“I always got your back,” Jason stated simply, pausing and regarding Pax as he chewed. “And because I have your back, I’m going to say something you’re not going to like. You’re an idiot.”
“You always say that. I’m immune to it.”
“Well, I really mean it this time. Have you called Diamond?”
“There’s no point. I can’t be what she needs. I tried to have everything and be everything, and I failed.”
Jase rolled his eyes, looking very much like he wanted nothing more than to grab Pax by the shirt and smack the shit out of him. “This again?”
Pax shrugged. “It’s just the way it is, Jase. I’ll call Martin and let him know that the situation has been resolved and things are back to normal, so they can head home soon, but her home is in LA with her family, not at Rojo. It was fun while it lasted but it wasn’t meant to be. Business and pleasure do not mix,” he stated simply, tossing out a common cliché in place of an explanation.
“All work and no play makes Pax an asshole,” Jason rebutted.
“I’ll keep it in mind.”
“You know, you don’t have to mix business and pleasure. You could bring her back as your submissive but not your employee. It’s not like the girl needs to work.”
“Drop it.” Pax’s voice was a low growl.
Jason didn’t drop it. “Keep this in mind too. It wasn’t so long ago you were lecturing me about second chances. You’re quick to give them to everybody but yourself.”
“Enough.”
Jase shrugged exasperatedly, and went back to enjoying his steak, but the look on his face told Pax that the conversation wasn’t over.
* * *
Diamond had been home in LA for less than twenty-four hours when her old boss showed up at her door. And by old boss, she meant Jase, not Paxton.
Emmy let him in with an expression of amusement and curiosity. Her family had never been to Aubergine, and they didn’t know Jase.
“What do you want, Jase?” She stood near the door in the large foyer, her arms crossed over her chest, looking at him with anger. She wasn’t pissed at Jase, truth be told. She was just pissed at the world.
Jase remained unfazed by her attitude. “I just thought I would come check on you, see how you were holding up.”
“I don’t even know how to answer that question,” she deadpanned.
“Well, Pax is miserable, and he’s driving everybody crazy. Three of his girls have come to me asking if I had any job openings just this week.”
“I don’t care. He brought it on himself.”
“Pax,” Jason started to speak, his mouth twisted into a grimace. “Well, there’s no other way to put this. I love the guy like a brother, but he can be a rigid and unflappable asshole at times. This whole obsession he has with rules and order can truly do more harm than good. And beyond that, the expectations that he puts on himself are insane. And when he fails to meet those expectations, he takes it way too hard. So this whole thing with the paparazzi, and the bomb threats, and the crazy stalker, he feels like it is all his fault. That he somehow brought it on the two of you by hooking up with you in the first place even though it went against his rules. He’s taking it really hard.”
She shrugged. “So am I, Jase. I don’t know why you’re telling me all this honestly. If he’s really as big of a jackass as you say, then I guess I’m better off.”
“Maybe,” he agreed amicably, for about two seconds. “Or maybe not. Everything I said about Pax is true. But what I didn’t say is this. Pax is one of my favorite people in the world. Second only to my mom and my own brother. He had a hard life—a really horribly sucky life—the kind of horrible life that a lot of people don’t recover from, and look at what he made out of it. He owns two flourishing casinos. He’s a damn good business man, a damn good boss, and you won’t ever find a better friend. I can’t speak to how he is as a boyfriend, or a dominant, obviously, but if he’s committed to it the way he is everything else in his life, my money’s on him.”
“Well, he sent me across the country with a broken heart, and fired me in an email. So, he’s obviously not as good as you want to claim.” Jase’s speech had cracked the walls around her heart, but not broken them. She was still spitting mad.
