Raven's Seduction (The Pleasure Pros #1) (19 page)

“Remember when I asked you if you were more
afraid of drowning or being electrocuted?”

“Yeah!
 
And I told you both, but electricity was definitely the worst!”

“Exactly, so level five will be all about
facing those fears,” he said in his menacing tone.

A little flutter crept into my stomach that
continued to grow long after I hung up with Gunner that night.
  
When I was seven, a neighbor kid
had been electrocuted when his kite got wrapped up in a power line.
 
After that incident, my parents drilled
into me the dangers of electricity.
 
Even though I knew there would be no real danger, the thought of being
shocked sent chills down my spine.
 
Shit, I can’t even use my safe word.
 

If I tell Gunner the story from my youth, he’ll go easy on
me.
 
He might even switch to
something else instead.
 
I needed to focus on comforting thoughts,
so I could get some rest.
 
The evening
had been a physical and emotional rollercoaster and I definitely needed sleep.

Damn my legs hurt!

Raven

“Have you talked to Gunner about Renegade?”
was the first thing out of Amber’s mouth when she called me Saturday morning.

“I did and you are all set,” I assured her.

“So I’m going to be working with Renegade
from now on?”

“No, it will be Blade actually.
 
Renegade is out of town for a while.”

Long pause.

“Didn’t you say Blade was kind of a psycho?”
she asked apprehensively.

“I don’t think I used the word psycho.
 
He’s just a little wild,” I replied,
trying to downplay it.
 
“You can
always use your safe word if he gets too rough.”

“Red?”

“Yup!
 
If you say it, everything stops immediately.
 
Carter doesn’t want anyone getting hurt
and cashing in on his liability insurance.”

“Okay, but is he as hot looking as the other
guys?”

“He’s actually better looking than Renegade,”
I replied honestly.

“Better looking than Gunner?” She pried.

“I’m the wrong one to answer that one.
 
You know I’m a little biased.”

~~~

It was six days, ten hours, and twelve
minutes until my next dungeon encounter, so I really needed something to occupy
my time.
 
I woke up Hannah to see
what she wanted to do for the day.
 
Since it was a fairly nice day, we
decided to start out by having a picnic in the park.
 
Kids
are so easy to please at this age.
 
If only I could find contentment so easily
.

Even though I wanted to stay mad, I found
myself thinking about Gunner.
 
I
kept going over of conversation time and again until I convinced myself it
wasn’t his fault.
 
The sad fact was
that he was most likely at the dungeon working with someone else, while I sat
home Saturday night pining away for him.
 
I should finish out the ten levels
and ditch him.
 
Otherwise, I will
have no one to blame but myself.
 
I opened a bottle of my favorite pinot
noir in hopes that it would improve my mood.
 
I’ll
never forget my first wine buzz, that warm, fuzzy feeling that washed over my
body.
 
I still like wine, but the
feeling just isn’t the same anymore.
 
I wonder if that will ever happen with sex?

Toward the end of my second glass, the pain
in my heart had begun to subside.
 
I
found myself watching
Notting
Hill
for the umpteenth time.
 
Julia
Roberts is so pretty
.
 
Even
though I knew the storyline by heart, I still found myself on the verge of
tears when she left him behind and went back to the U.S. with her
boyfriend.
 
Why are people so stupid?
 
So what if she’s famous, why does that matter?
 
It shouldn’t, because love is love
.

My phone buzzed, interrupting my trance, and
it was a text from Gunner.

Gunner:
 
I’m bored.
 
What are you
doing?

Me:
 
Having a glass of wine and thinking.

Gunner:
 
Thinking about what?

Me:
 
You and the little sluts you are with.

Gunner:
 
I’m done for the night, so I’m just hanging out.

Me:
 
That’s good.
 
I kind of wish
we could do these levels faster and get them done.

Gunner:
 
I agree, but the wait is what makes them so intense.

Me:
 
So that’s why he insists on keeping couples apart?

Gunner:
 
I think so.
 
He also doesn’t
want a bunch of drama.

Me:
 
I still think it’s because he’s a controlling asshole.

Gunner:
 
He has his moments, but it is a business.

Me:
 
I know.
 
It’s all about the
business.

Gunner:
 
Goodnight.

Even though I felt a little better after
exchanging texts, I was still left with a longing feeling.
 
He said he was done for the night, which
meant he had been with someone or maybe more than one.
 
Who
knows what he’s been doing.
 
Why do
I even care?
 
I’m getting paid, so
it’s not a relationship.
 
Like he
said, “it’s a business.”
 
God, I
wish it had been real.
 
I would give
up the money in a heartbeat.
 

I poured the rest of the bottle into my glass
and went back to staring blankly at the television.
 
Visions of me touching his powerful
chest and ripped abs continued to creep into my mind
.
 
I need to run my hands
across them on Friday.
 
I’ll have to
make sure I do that before he restrains me
.
 
Somewhere near the end of the third
glass, I passed out on the couch.
 
When I awoke a few hours later, my thoughts had turned to my sour
stomach instead of Gunner.
 
Wine always helps.

~~~

Monday Morning 7:00am

How can you mend a broken heart, how can a loser ever win?
 
Those were the words
that woke me on Monday morning.
 
I
love some of those old Bee Gee songs, but after two days of struggling with my
feelings, it was the last thing I needed to hear.
 
I slapped the off button and crawled out
of bed.
 
Thank god, I get to go back to work.
 
I couldn’t take any more time off,
fussing and wondering.

I’m definitely not ready to quit my job.
 
If we can only do one live show per
week, I’ll have way too much free time.
 
I’ll drive myself crazy if I don’t have anything productive to do.
 
I wonder what Gunner does all week?
 
I probably don’t want to know.
 
I need to drop Hannah off and get to the
office where I can focus on something productive.

Since my normal daycare provider was out of
town for the week, my mother had agreed to watch Hannah.
 
Even though I appreciated the help, it
also meant that I would have to see her twice a day for the next five
days.
 
We had never gotten along
well, but things had become much worse since Dad’s death.
 
She had expected my sister and me to fill
his shoes, but my life was already busy enough the way it was.
 
I wasn’t quite sure why she would’ve
wanted to spend more time with me anyway, all we ever did was
argue
.

“Do you have a new boyfriend?” was the second
thing to come out of her mouth.
 
The
first had been, “You’re running late again.”

“Why would you ask that?”

“Because I can tell it on you,” she replied
while Hannah studied the two of us.

“No, I’m just in a better place,” I told her,
backing away to make a break for my car.

“I’m happy for you, dear.
 
You need some stability in your life for
both you and this little sweetie,” she said putting an arm around Hannah.

Stability… if she only knew.
 
I tried to recall a time when she had
put her arm around me and called me “sweetie.”
 
Instead, I remembered all of the times
that she had pointed out my flaws or called me a “Daddy’s Girl.” The reason I
had favored Dad was because he was the only one who gave me hugs and seemed
genuinely happy to see me.
 
Maybe
that’s why I consciously tried to treat Hannah the way I always wanted Mom to
treat me.
 
I couldn’t imagine having
a strained relation with my daughter, especially since she was already
basically fatherless.

Driving away, I once again suppressed my
feelings and cranked up the radio.
 
There is no need to dwell on the past.
 
I need to sit down and clear the air
with her one day.
 
It just won’t be
today.

Gunner

First thing Monday morning it was my ritual
to login and see how much I had made in the previous week.
 
I was especially excited this time
because of the two record shows I had done with Raven.
 
In fact, over seventy percent of my
income had come from the scenes we had done together.
 
Based on my take, I figured out that she
was going to receive just over sixty-seven thousand dollars for the week.
 
She’s
going to be amazed when she gets that check on Friday.

“Are you staying out of trouble?” Carter
asked when I called him.

“So far.”

“What can I do for you, Gunner?
 
Have you heard from Renegade?”

“No, but I’m sure he’ll resurface after he
cools off,” I replied, knowing that would most likely be the case.
 
“I want to talk to you about working
exclusively with Raven.”

“I’m already down to you and Blade,” he
rebuffed.
 
“I can’t afford to lose
you, too.”

“You won’t be losing me.
 
Raven and I can have a record breaking
run if I’m able to focus all of my energy on it.”

“I’ll tell you what.
 
If you two put together six more shows
like the one you did last Friday, I’ll let you out of your contract,” he countered.

He knew that putting together six record
breaking live shows in a row was a nearly impossible challenge.
 
The only thing that could save us was if
we could maintain the extreme level of sexual tension that had been building up
between each show.
 
The scenes I did
with other subs felt like work, whereas, the ones with Raven felt real.
 
That passion was driving our success
with the members.
 

I sent
Raven
a quick
text after my meeting with Carter, hoping to repair some of the damage.

Me:
 
Good news.
 
Carter is going
to let me go exclusive with you.

Raven:
 
Seriously?

Me:
 
That’s what he agreed to.
 
So
I need you to show up hot and bothered on Friday.

Raven:
 
You’re hilarious. I already need some flame resistant panties!

Me:
 
Good.
 
We need to keep you
that way for the next six weeks.

My balls ached just thinking about being with
her.
 
Normally, if I found myself
with this
much unresolved
sexual tension, I would just
take care of it manually.
 
This
time, however, I decided to let it build.
 
We were eleven days away from Level Six, and I was determined to make it
the performance of a lifetime.

Eleven days, that’s going to seem like an eternity.

Raven

Maybe Gunner and I are on the same page after all.
 
He obviously wouldn’t want to work with me
exclusively unless he felt the same chemistry that is obvious to me
.
 
My mind instantly
began reanalyzing our relationship.
 
I began wondering how many other women had been in my shoes over the
past three years.
 
Then a truly
depressing thought entered my mind.
 
What if this is simply a ploy to
keep obsessed with him in order to boost the ratings?
 
They have all been manipulating me, why
would this be any different?