From Sanctum with Love (Masters and Mercenaries #10) - Lexi Blake Page 0,14
contracts. Don’t you, Kai?”
Were they going there? “I do indeed. Contracts lay out expectations and everyone knows how to behave. Speaking of contracts, have you looked over the one Wade Rycroft sent you? He’s the…”
Jared reached into the small crossbody bag he’d set down beside him when he’d walked in. He pulled out a stack of papers. He placed it on Kai’s desk and then took the seat previously occupied by Alex McKay. “Manager of Sanctum. I believe he also might be called one of the Doms in Residence. He was hired on a few months ago when the old manager left. From what I understand he’s in charge, though Ian Taggart calls the shots. Here’s the Sanctum contract and yes, I read it.”
The years had given Jared some confidence. He sounded more polished than he had before, stronger, and it was obvious he’d done his homework. “Excellent. Then we can start tomorrow. I’ll expect you at the club at four p.m.”
“Why wait? The club is open tonight. I’ll be in the dungeon. According to that contract and the rather hefty fee I paid for a membership, I’m allowed in during club hours.” He crossed his left leg over his right, sitting back as though ready for a nice long chat.
“Don’t you mean the production company? They paid the fee to get you a temporary pass.”
Jared’s head cocked to the left and his lips ticked up in an arrogant grin. “No, I paid the membership fee and it’s not temporary. I understand that I still have to pass all of Taggart’s tests in order to have Masters rights, but I can come and go as I please for the next year.”
Shit. He’d been absolutely certain this was a six-week thing. Why the hell did Jared need an actual membership? “Won’t you have another movie to film after this? Why would you sink so much money into something you won’t need a few months down the line?”
Jared sighed. “You still have the sanctimonious big brother thing down. First, I’m not filming a movie. I’m filming the new season of Dart. Crescent City won’t save itself.”
“Yes, it needs a superhero who runs around killing bad guys with freaking darts. Guns aren’t good enough for you?”
Jared smiled, the expression lighting up his face. “I’m sure the producer would say it’s a metaphor or something. It looks cool. Who doesn’t want to be a billionaire who was kidnapped by aliens and sent back to his home planet with dart throwing abilities to save the world from criminals? Come on, Kai. You read the comic books, too. It’s fun.”
“I didn’t read them like you did. I had too much to take care of.” Including his younger brother.
Jared sobered, sitting back. “I know you did. And as for the membership, I will very likely need it. There are a bunch of books in this series and Pierce Craig is featured heavily in all of them. Given the strength of the box office from Fifty Shades of Grey, there’s no reason this can’t become a big franchise.”
Jesus, Ian was going to kill Serena at some point. “I don’t even know what to say to that.”
There was a negligent shrug from Jared. “I think it’s important to get into character. I’ll be hanging around Sanctum and McKay-Taggart a lot.”
He was curious about a few things. Since he intended for all their interactions to be professional from now on, it was best to get curiosity out of the way up front. “How exactly did you figure out I could be your mentor? I don’t advertise my status. There’s no social media page proclaiming my sexual proclivities.”
“Because you hid them so well when we were kids? Yeah, not so much. I knew you were always interested in this kind of stuff. You kept bondage magazines under your bed. I never told Mom by the way. Was it Ms. Hanford who got you into it?”
He felt himself flush. Only his brother could do this to him. If anyone else had asked, he would have explained quite calmly that his first sexual experiences had been with the woman who lived next door. He’d been seventeen and Alicia Hanford had been twenty-one and fresh out of college. She’d rented the two-bedroom next door. Their mother had insisted they call her Ms. Hanford. It was only polite and she was an adult. Kai had called her hot. She’d been a stunning redhead and yes, she’d been the one to introduce him to D/s. She’d