Total Immersion
Authors: Alice Gaines
For Jeff and Denise at Rosenblum. Keep pouring the wine!
Contents
An Excerpt from
Total Temptation
“W
E HAVE A
bit of a disaster on our hands,” Madeline said. “And I’m afraid it involves you.”
Adam Fairchild didn’t bother to take a seat in the chair across the desk from his boss; he wouldn’t have time to sit and chat. After working with Madeline Shaw for the past five years, he knew when she meant business. Although well into her fifties, Madeline retained the beauty that had made her a top model, but beneath the precise makeup and designer clothing, she had the commanding presence of a seasoned cop. He was here to find out what needed doing and get it done.
“A young woman came looking for you and is making a scene,” Madeline went on. “A very loud scene. You need to get her to quiet down before she upsets the rest of our patrons.”
“Why would a young woman come looking for me?” If the person in question were a current or former client, Madeline could handle her without his help. Since he’d become manager of the male sex providers a few months ago, he hadn’t served any of the club’s women customers sexually. An empty gesture, it turned out—too late to save the only relationship that had promised to grow into something else. Now, his personal love life was nonexistent, so no one from the outside should have followed him here.
What went on at Club Ecstasy, San Francisco’s most exclusive club for women, was by no definition of the word legal. Still, its prices and the quality of all its services—from the spa to the various dining rooms to the male sex providers—drew the elite of the city and of Northern California. Those sorts of customers expected good taste and privacy, and he and Madeline were here to provide that.
“Why don’t we go see what she wants before she makes enough noise to drive all our clients away?” Madeline rose and left the office, her heels clacking against the hardwood floor, and Adam followed.
The noise in question came to him before they reached the end of the hallway. Madeline had put the woman in a room as far as possible from the rest of the facility, but her voice penetrated into the corridor. With yelling, they would have generally expected anger, but a lot of what filtered out to here was laughter. Very, very loud laughter.
She sounded familiar. Way too familiar. But before he could consider how he knew that voice so well, Madeline opened the door, and reality punched him in the gut. Of all people, why her?
“Susan?” he said.
Susan McGraw stood in the middle of the room. Images flashed through his mind so quickly he could barely process them. Her smile when she first opened her eyes in the morning. How she’d dance, shaking her butt, while she cooked. And then tears, lots of them at the end. A chaos of feelings lodged in his chest.
When she spotted him, her face lit up, although her eyes didn’t really focus. “There he is. The sexiest stud in the world, and he used to fuck me regularly.”
“What are you doing here?” At least his voice sounded calm.
“Then you do know her?” Madeline said as she shut the door quietly behind them.
“I do.”
You could call living with someone for a year knowing them. Sharing a bed, sharing meals, sharing a toothbrush rack. With her long dark hair and pale skin, she looked just as fabulous as she had on their first date at the winery in Jack London Square. They’d discovered a mutual love of zinfandel, and he’d fallen for the way she could pair basic innocence with a wicked sense of humor. Now she stood here flushed with maniacal happiness and obviously intoxicated.
“I came here to apologize to you for the way we said good-bye,” Susan said. “After our time together, you deserved better than me yelling at you.”
Yelling hardly covered their last argument, but she was in no shape to discuss it now.
“Why don’t we talk about this later?”
“I figured we could see if we could patch things up,” she went on as if he hadn’t spoken. “But this turned out to be such a fabulous evening, I decided to get laid instead.”
This was not his Susan. Although uninhibited in bed, she didn’t usually talk about her sex life publicly. He held out his hands toward her. “Calm down, honey. You’re not acting rational.”
“Isn’t he cute? He still calls me ‘honey’ after we broke up six months ago.” She went to him, threw one arm around his shoulders, and with the other hand tapped the end of his nose. “I didn’t originally come for sex, but now that I’m here, what the hell? How about it, for old time’s sake, huggy bear?”
“Huggy bear?” Madeline’s voice went down a couple of octaves in pitch, the way it usually did whenever she didn’t believe something could possibly be true.
“A nickname,” he said. “Look, Susan—”
“I am looking,” she said. “And you’re more handsome than ever. You been working out?”
“I always work out.” He’d seen her tipsy from wine in the past, but this was different. Something else had gotten into her system. She’d never believed in experimenting with substances she didn’t recognize, which meant someone must have slipped her something, either just before she’d arrived here or, worse, afterward.
“You’re doing something right. You look fabulous, fabulous, fabulous.” Susan punctuated each
fabulous
with a poke of her finger against his chest.
“Adam, do something,” Madeline said softly.
“Say, you must be Madeline,” Susan said.
“I am.”
Still with one arm around Adam’s shoulders, Susan swung in Madeline’s general direction. “I used to hate you because of what Adam does for a living.”
Madeline stared over Susan’s head at Adam. He shrugged. “She doesn’t know what she’s saying.”
“Oh, but I do,” Susan said. “I hated you, but hate’s such a nasty emotion, isn’t it? Say, you’re really beautiful. I think I love you.”
Madeline cleared her throat. Not because she disapproved of lesbian relationships. This was San Francisco, after all. But clearly Susan was off her rocker.
Adam slid his arm around Susan’s waist. “Why don’t I take you home?”
“To the apartment we used to share? I don’t think so.” She smiled up at him. “If this is a sex club, then I want some. In fact, I want lots of it.”
“Listen to me, Susan. I think you’ve been drugged. Probably ecstasy,” Adam said. “Did you have anything to drink or eat here a little while ago?”
“Of course. One of your coworkers—super-sweet guy I met in the lobby while I was waiting for you—offered me a glass of zin. I never turn down good zin.”
“Were you,” Adam cleared his throat, “hiring him?”
That seemed to confuse her for a second. When her expression cleared, she said with a laugh, “Oh, you mean
that.
”
“Well, yeah.”
“I just came to talk to you. I didn’t want to do it on the phone,” she said. “But now that I think of it . . .”
Well, shit. “Did you happen to get the super-sweet guy’s name?”
“Frank. No, Phil,” she said. “Definitely Phil.”
“Phil Stewart?” Madeline asked.
“I didn’t get his last name,” Susan said.
“We have only one Phil. Damn it. I knew there was something off about him,” Madeline opened the door to the corridor and spoke to someone outside. “Find Phil and send him here. Immediately.”
The new hire. She remembered that Phil had come with excellent references, and everything about him had checked out. He might have seemed a little
too
sincere, but everyone got nervous during job interviews. He’d performed adequately until now.
After closing the door again, Madeline approached Susan. “I owe you an apology, Ms.—”
“McGraw,” Adam supplied.
“Ms. McGraw,” Madeline said. “This is, as you crudely put it, a sex club, but we never take advantage of our clients. I’d be happy to treat you to the use of our facilities at some later date.”
What the fuck? Susan a client at Club Ecstasy? She made a good living at her tech job but not the sort of income that would allow a membership here. Besides, he’d given her what she needed at home, and she hadn’t had to go anywhere else for sex. Of course, he didn’t do that any longer since they’d broken up months ago.
“What’s wrong with right now?” Susan said.
“We have a policy against providing services for intoxicated clients,” Madeline said. “We don’t want anyone to regret her experience the next day. I’m sure you understand.”
“Actually, I don’t,” Susan said. “I’m horny as all hell, and if one of your employees caused that, you ought to do something to fix it.”
Just then the door opened and Phil stepped into the room. “Hi, sweetheart. Having a good time?”
Susan wiggled her fingers at him. “Hi, Cupcake.”
Cupcake. Ye gods
. If Adam weren’t holding Susan up, he’d put his fist through
Cupcake’s
nose.
“Is this the man who gave you the drink?” Madeline asked.
“Just a little enjoyment enhancer,” Phil said. “Did it work?”
“Get out,” Madeline said. “Collect your things and leave. We’ll send your last check.”
“What? You’re firing me?” Phil shrugged in a gesture of wounded innocence. “What’s the big deal? Chicks love the drug.”
“Out!” Madeline thundered.
Adam hugged Susan to him. Her body fitted against his perfectly, as it always had. “God, honey, I’m sorry.”
“I’m not. I feel great.” She stepped away from him and threw her arms out from her sides. “I should have checked out where you worked ages ago.”
“Susan, this isn’t you,” he said.
“How do you know? You haven’t seen me in six months.” She thumped her palm against her chest. “And I haven’t had your special brand of sex in six months. Maybe this is what I need.”
“Not this way.” He approached her and gazed into her eyes. “Please, Susan. Let me take you home. We can work this out there.”
“Yeah, we’ll make love. Then you’ll come back here, and nothing will have changed,” she said. “Nope. I finally wandered into the den of iniquity, and I want some.”
Major irony there. She’d finally come around to accepting his work, and he no longer performed the sexual services that had bothered her so much when they’d lived together. He probably would have welcomed a chance to explain all that to her if she were rational. He could straighten it out with her later. Right now, he had to quiet her down enough to get her out of here without disturbing the clients.
“Not going to happen,” she said. “I’m going to stay right here until someone scratches my itches. All of them.”
He and Madeline exchanged glances, and she shrugged. “You know this young lady, Adam. Do you have any suggestions?”
“Susan’s a wonderful person, but she has a stubborn streak,” he said.
“Bet your ass I do,” Susan said, grinning like someone who was about to have all her demands met. Which she probably was, based on the resigned expression on Madeline’s face.
“The two of you have already been lovers,” Madeline said. “She won’t wake up in bed with a stranger. I don’t suppose there’s any harm if the two of you use one of the rooms.”
“Thanks. I’ll take care of this.” As awkward as this situation was, it did mean he’d get to make love to Susan. He was only human, after all, and he’d missed her so much.
Given her state, she’d probably climax hard and often. During the time they’d lived together, he’d heard the sweet noises she made as she approached orgasm. He’d felt the tension in her pussy suddenly break into spasms. He’d tasted her and made her clitoris harden into a bud. He could have all that again right now and most likely through the night. His cock immediately swelled and began to throb at the prospect.
“You know, as lovely as that would be, I think you owe me more,” Susan said. “After all, I can have that if Adam takes me home.”
“We’ll have the use of all the club’s facilities,” he said. “If you behave yourself.”
