Praise (Salacious Players’ Club)
Praise: Chapter 27

Emerson

“Do I have to remind you to behave today?”

Charlotte bites her lip in the passenger seat as I pull up to the front of the club. We don’t open for another couple of hours, but we’re holding our first club event tonight and I need to check a few more details before it starts.

It’s been a mess at work this week. Too much actual work means I can’t spend my days fucking my secretary over my desk like I want to. In fact, we’ve both been so swamped, we hardly get to even touch each other until after five, when I can usually manage a quick fuck upstairs while the phone rings off the hook in the office.

The other part of my week, affected by the workload, is the plan I had for Charlotte. There are so many things I want to teach her, things she’s eager to learn as my sub. And I don’t know who fucked with this girl’s head so much to make her believe she’s never good enough, but there are some techniques I had in mind to change that.

When we step into the club, it’s chaos. I hear Maggie yelling something in the back of the room, Drake is looking stressed as he barks orders at his men to fix one of the cages on the side of the stage. And when Garrett gets one look at me, he actually smiles.

Which is what Garrett does under stress, he makes a joke out of everything. It’s infuriating.

“Contrary to how it looks now, I can assure you, everything is under control,” he says with brimming confidence.

“Bullshit,” I reply.

“Yeah, it’s a mess. That cage on stage right still rattles, two of the girls called out, and the city is threatening to revoke our liquor license, so Maggie is having a mental breakdown.”

“What can I do to help?” Charlotte asks before I can say a word.

“Well…what are you doing tonight at seven?” Garrett asks with a waggle in his brow.

I grit my teeth and push her behind me. “No.”

He replies with a laugh. “Relax. It was a joke. But I mean…let me know if you change your mind. The members would bid a pretty penny for you, sweetheart.”

He tugs at one of her brown curls, and I’ve never wanted to hurt my best friend more than I want to in this moment. Knowing Garrett, he’s not flirting. This is just what he does. He sees people for what they’re worth, and it’s what makes him good at his job.

But it’s never bothered me so much, the way he talks to Charlotte. In his defense, he still sees her as only my secretary.

Charlotte’s hearty laugh tears my gaze away from Garrett. “You’re crazy. You don’t want me in your auction. It would be crickets…”

My irritation quickly morphs from Garrett to her as I furrow my brow in her direction. I know she means it as a joke, and she can laugh all she wants with him about it, but I know what lurks behind that humor, and it makes me grind my molars just thinking about it.

“That’s enough,” I bark, silencing both of their laughs. I march straight into the club, tearing off my jacket, ready to fix all this shit that seems to be falling apart. “Let’s get to work,” I call back to them.

We put out one fire at a time, and honestly, this is my favorite part of my job. It takes me back to my early days, running events, coordinating vendors and publicists and schedules, before I spent my life sitting behind a desk, waiting for something fun to come along.

Every few minutes, I catch Charlotte running around, and I mostly give her over to Maggie for the day. I’m strangely aggravated with her for some reason. Okay, not with her, but that one comment this morning has been grating on my nerves all day.

How the fuck can such a brilliant, beautiful girl think so badly of herself?

That piece of shit father of hers never wanted to treat her right, so now she can’t seem to wrap her head around the idea that she’s worthy of anything. I wish I could face that fucker right now. I’d like to knock his ass out for what he did to Charlotte and Sophie.

“What do you want to do about tonight’s lineup?” Garrett asks, while I’m standing in the office, going over the contracts.

“How many do we have?” I ask.

“Seven.”

Damn. It’s our first auction, the most highly anticipated event at the club, according to the PR firm. They’ve been raving about this since the club opening was announced, which is great, but also has that fucking criminal investigator breathing down our necks. The girls are auctioning off their time, not sex. At least not publicly. What they do during their date is up to them.

Seven feels a bit dismal for our first auction.

“Talk to the girls we have. Maybe they have some friends. Up their cut to sixty percent, and let’s aim for at least a dozen,” I say, hoping it’s enough.

“You know…” Garrett replies, leaning against the doorframe. The hairs on my neck stand up as if I already know the bad fucking idea he’s about to vocalize. “I meant what I said about Charlotte.”

“No.”

He waits a beat before adding, “You sound awfully protective…”

I raise my eyes and glare at him. I don’t normally hide things from Garrett. We’ve been friends for years, but I’ve never really had a secret to keep before. I’m not even sure I’m keeping this one very well. And I’m not even sure why I still am.

“She’s only twenty-one.”

“They’re all practically twenty-one.”

I busy myself by pretending I’m actually reading these contracts in my hands, sifting through the papers methodically.

“Emerson Grant…are you getting attached?”

“Knock it off,” I mutter.

He holds his hands up in surrender. “Fine. You don’t have to tell me. Just let me put her up on the stage…auction off an hour of her time tonight. If she agrees, of course. You and I both know she’ll rake in a good crowd, not to mention a lot of money.”

It’s not about the money. But something about what he just said makes me pause.

Charlotte would get a lot of attention tonight. Perhaps then she’d finally see what I see. But I obviously can’t let anyone win an hour with her. And I instantly think of our wealthiest member…

“Is Ronan Kade going to be here tonight?”

“You can count on it,” Garrett replies.

Fuck. This is going to cost me a fortune.

“Sign her up,” I reply quickly.

“Don’t you think I should ask her first?”

“I’ll talk to her,” I bark as I storm out of the office.

Charlotte is helping Maggie stuff envelopes for the event. The girls are chitchatting about something, and I notice the way Charlotte’s smile fades and she sits up a little taller as I approach.

“A word, please?” I say, gesturing for her to follow me to a private room where we can talk. The minute I shut us in, I realize my mistake. Her eyes light up, gazing slack-jawed at the black silk bed with handcuffs, silk ties, and ropes hanging from the wall.

“I thought you were too busy today…” she says, turning back to me and running her hands up my chest.

Fuck, I am too busy, but the way she’s responding to this room right now has me thinking I could just blow off work, the event, my entire fucking job at this point. I’d love to see her pretty pale skin on that black silk, tied to this bed, letting me do ungodly fucking things to her.

“No,” I say, shaking my head. “I brought you in here because I really do need to talk to you.”

“Oh,” she replies, pulling away, but I don’t let her take her hands off me. We may need to talk, but I still need to touch her. Grabbing her by the elbows, I pull her against me.

“You’re going to be in the auction tonight,” I say, like ripping off a bandage.

She tenses, glaring up at me with wide eyes. “I can’t—”

Walking her back until her legs hit the bed, I gently push her until she’s lying down, and I drape my body over hers. I can’t fuck her now, no matter how much I want to, but there will be time later to have a little fun in here.

“Emerson, I really can’t be in your auction. I’m sorry—”

I silence her with a kiss and grind my hips against hers. She hums in response. God, I love these soft lips of hers. I could never get tired of her kisses.

“You can and you will.”

Her hands drift up my sides, pulling me closer as she reaches up for another kiss. “What exactly am I auctioning off?”

“An hour of your time.”

“That’s it?” she asks with a tilt of her head.

Glaring down at her, I pinch my brow together. “Did you have something else in mind?”

“Well, anyone can bid, right? Which means anyone can win.”

“Yes…”

“So, you’d be okay letting me spend an hour with some man I don’t even know?” She’s searching my features, trying to gauge just how much I care about her talking to other men, which, for the record, is a lot, but she doesn’t know that, and I can’t let myself grow any more attached to Charlotte than I already am.

“You’re not obligated to do anything with them, you know. And it’s entirely up to you what you want to auction off.”

She hesitates again. “So other girls are auctioning off more?”

I kiss her soft pale neck. “Yes. Some girls will auction off time in a room or a public display of some sort.”

“Isn’t that…”

“Loopholes and fine print, Charlotte.” My cock is getting painfully hard behind my slacks as I grind against her again.

“Oh…” she moans, trying to wrap her legs around me.

“We don’t have time for this,” I mutter uselessly against her chest, dragging down the deep neckline of her blouse.

“What if I told you I got my test results back?” she says in a breathy moan.

I pull away. “What test results?”

“You said I had to turn in clean test results in order to be a member of the club, so I did. I’m clean.”

My blood begins pounding so hard through my veins that my cheeks flush and my focus goes hazy, all from the image of sinking my fat cock into Charlotte without anything between us. “Fuck…” I stammer through clenched teeth.

In a quick motion, I flip her onto her stomach, grinding against her from behind.

“We can be quick.” She moans, but I’m already one step ahead. I rip her skirt up above her hips, shove her panties to the side, and quickly unleash my cock from my pants in five seconds flat.

The sight of her perfect ass has me feeling wild. I give her backside a quick slap, making her yelp, then knead the flesh with my hand. She squirms against me. Fuck, I love seeing her this needy, and I love that it’s my cock she craves. Bending down, I take a ravenous bite of her right ass cheek. She squeals, driving her face into the mattress.

“I should make you wait.” I growl, standing up and pulling her hips back, lining up the head of my dick with her wet pussy lips. She groans loudly into the satin sheets. “But I want you leaking my cum in your panties while you’re on stage.”

I plunge myself inside her, and it’s like heaven. Her moans and the sight of her soft hips in my hands is enough to drive me mad, but it’s the tight heat of her cunt that makes me crazy. Charlotte was made for me. This pussy was molded for my cock, swallowing me up so eagerly like it’s putting a fucking spell on me. Making me never want another pussy again, which I don’t.

“Harder,” she gasps, pushing backward, her delicate fingers grasping the black satin tightly in her grip. I give her what she wants, slamming into her harder and harder, wondering if I could be hurting her, but she doesn’t look like she’s in any pain. The expression on her face looks more like ecstasy.

“I wish I was fucking you every minute of my day, you know that?”

“Yes.”

“I love fucking you, Charlotte. You take my cock so well.”

“I love it,” she cries.

“I want your pussy to be sore when you’re up there. I want you thinking about this.”

“Faster, Emerson. I’m going to come.” She moans in a high-pitched plea. God, I love that she asks for what she wants during sex now.

I pull her hips up and slam into them, grunting with each lightning-fast stroke. Her beautiful cunt squeezes my shaft tightly as she comes.

Holding her hips in my hands, I let her body relax from her orgasm as I start to unload inside her, watching her intently and imagining her body soaking up everything I’m giving her.

When I finally pull out, I glance toward the door. If there was any doubt about me fucking my secretary, it’s gone now. Even if they didn’t just hear me, since these walls are pretty soundproof, we’ve been in here “talking” for a while now.

I pull up Charlotte’s panties and adjust her skirt. She stands up and fixes her blouse.

Before she moves toward the door, I grab her waist and pull her against me. I need her lips, one quick taste before we walk back out there, and she goes on stage, letting random men bid money for her time. I need to fool myself for just a little longer and pretend she’s mine.

If I were a smart man, I’d let someone else win Charlotte tonight. I should let him impress her with his money or promises of sex, and if she decides she’d rather be with someone who could love her for real, I should let her go.

But even I know, that’s impossible now. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to let her go.