Lukas Read online

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Lukas

  Josephine Jade

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Sneak Peek: ROMAN

  1. Roman

  Sneak Peek: DOMINIC

  1. Dominic

  Chapter One

  Lukas Rinaldi sat back in his office chair of his New Orleans nightclub—far enough on the edge of the French Quarter to not attract tourists, just locals—with a grin on his face. Being known as the most easygoing of the Rinaldi brothers worked in his favor a lot of times. Most people assumed he was a pushover.

  They’d be wrong.

  Take Peter Torres, sitting across from Lukas right now, annoyance clear on the older man’s face. He’d thought talking to Lukas—making demands barely veiled as requests—would be easier than talking to Dominic or Roman, that Lukas would be an easier in with La Cosa Nostra, the Sicilian mafia that operated throughout the Big Easy and large chunks of the Southeast.

  Again, wrong.

  It didn’t take most people long to realize the charming smile hid the mind and determination of a cold-hearted bastard.

  Maybe he wasn’t as outwardly gruff as Roman or Dominic, the other two-thirds of the Rinaldi triplets, but inwardly? Just as ruthless.

  “You’re making a mistake here,” Torres argued as Lukas took another sip of his scotch. “One I’m sure La Cosa Nostra won’t be happy about when they hear.”

  Lukas raised one eyebrow as the music from the club thumped through the window of his office that looked down on everything. “I’m fairly certain the cosca isn’t going to start doubting my decisions in this area.” The Rinaldi family had multiple business organizations, some completely legitimate, others not quite as much so. Modern mafia was less about breaking fingers and more about breaking even. Cash flow. Diversification. Bottom lines. All things Lukas excelled at.

  “That’s because they don’t know what I’m offering because you won’t move from my sample to the full software system. They don’t know that a number of other family businesses are already using it with the improvements I personally made. They don’t know this because neither you nor your bastard brothers will tell them.”

  Maybe breaking some fingers.

  Lukas tilted his head at the older man. “I’ve got multiple points of contention here, Torres. I don’t know you. I knew your dead brother and respected him, his opinion, and business savvy, but you’re not Jonathan, and I don’t know you.”

  And, from the rumors he’d heard, Peter was not making such savvy decisions with the money and business he’d inherited—inherited because Peter had married his dead brother’s wife. Not helping with the dislike factor.

  Of course, it also now made him stepfather to Reina Torres, by far the most interesting asset Peter had going for him. Emphasis on the ass.

  The other man swallowed, realizing he’d gone too far. “But you can know me, Lukas—”

  “And—” Lukas didn’t feel bad about the interruption because he honestly didn’t care what Peter was going to say. “You come into my own club and insult me and my brothers.”

  Lukas took another sip of his whiskey as Peter’s nostrils flared in annoyance. He didn’t like someone half his age speaking to him in this way. And hell, most of the time Lukas wouldn’t to someone from the older generation with such disrespect—his mama had taught him better.

  Of course, his papa had also told him not to take disrespect from anyone, no matter what the age.

  “Lukas…” Peter held out his hand in front in a gesture of peace, obviously deciding insults and threats weren’t going to work. Damn straight. “Just hear me out. I know you’ve been running the software sample, but I think you would find the full package to be highly beneficial for the Rinaldi family businesses.”

  Peter looked a lot like his brother Jonathan and niece Reina. Dark brown hair, high cheekbones, and olive-toned skin obviously ran in the family. Maybe he would give Peter a chance since he was Reina’s kin, even though she’d moved out of town right after high school and hadn’t been back for more than a few days at a time since.

  “Okay, Peter, listen. Send me everything. I will look it over. No promises, but I’ll give it a shot.”

  The man smiled, the expression a little slimy. Obviously, he thought it was his powers of persuasion that had tipped the scales in his favor. Peter said his goodbyes a few minutes later, and Lukas waited until the other man was gone before dragging a weary hand through his hair.

  He needed to get out of this office and downstairs. Not downstairs on the dance floor of Triple Threat, the club packed with twentysomethings enjoying their weekend and each other. The floor below that.

  Very private. Very exclusive. Where a hell of a lot more than dancing was going on.

  It took an hour to sort through all the things that needed his attention as partial owner of the club before Lukas was finally able to make his way down a private stairwell in the back.

  As he opened the door at the bottom, the Peach Kings playing low and thick through the speakers had a smile spreading over his face.

  Tic, tic, boom. Indeed.

  It was a perfect soundtrack for what was happening throughout the open floor plan of the club. Triple Threat—the nightclub on the street level above them—was known by just about every local as the ultimate place to see and be seen—to dance, party, mingle. If you could get in.

  Deeper Threat, down here below, was known by just about nobody. Those who did know about it guarded the secret with their very lives—La Cosa Nostra ready to step in to make sure that happened.

  This wasn’t the place you came if you wanted to dance, party, mingle. The was the place you came if you wanted to fuck. Hard.

  They had different themes on different nights: swingers, strangers, ménage. And most often, like tonight, BDSM.

  Lukas’s personal favorite.

  Over the low music drifted more melodic sounds: the crack of a whip, a hand slapping flesh, screams, moans, and stern commands. Not even participating—hell, not even really paying attention—Lukas could feel some of his stress slide off him.

  He nodded to the bartender. “Hey, Brax.”

  “Hey, Cuz. Your usual? Wasn’t sure if you were going to make it tonight.”

  Lukas tur
ned his attention to a section of the room where a man had a naked woman on her back on a padded bench about the size of a single bed, wrists cuffed securely to bolts on either side of her head. He’d then taken her legs and attached them to her wrist cuffs, in essence folding her nearly in half—spread and open for his pleasure.

  Evidently, he’d already had her there for a while and had been teasing her unmercifully since she was now begging him for release. Her face—red, sweaty, panting—was the perfect mix of pain, pleasure, and longing Lukas liked to see on a woman. She began keening as the guy finally put her out of her misery, thrusting long and hard into her over and over, his thumb moving around to play with her clit.

  Brax grinned as he slid the whiskey in front of Lukas. “You going to play tonight? I don’t see you, Dom, or Roman nearly as much as we once did.”

  Lukas rolled his eyes. “That’s because my brothers have their very own private BDSM clubs at their homes.”

  “Dominic comes in with Cassandra every once in a while, but they never play publicly.”

  Lukas smirked. “No, that sister-in-law would rather be beaten a dozen different ways, literally, than have people watch her.”

  And Dominic would never expose her that way. She’d been through enough.

  “Sarah on the other hand,” Lukas continued, shaking his head. “I’m surprised she’s not in here even though she’s seven months pregnant.”

  Brax guffawed. “You know, I’m sure there’s a kink group for that.”

  “Jesus. Please don’t tell Sarah that. Next thing we know, she’ll be president of it, and we’ll be holding regular nights here.” He shook his head. “Innocent kindergarten teacher, my ass.”

  Lukas loved his sisters-in-law and was glad his brothers had found what made them happy, but he missed having them around here. And although he didn’t think he’d ever get tired of seeing a woman being spread on a St. Andrew’s Cross—frontwards, backwards, hell, even upside down—and getting nicely flogged until she was dripping and crying, none of this excited him the way it once had.

  It was all becoming routine. A very sexy one, but routine just the same.

  “I’m sure Gina is around somewhere, if you’re looking for a playmate tonight.”

  Lukas just nodded so his cousin could serve the other people sitting around the bar, all people directly tied to La Cosa Nostra or who had been personally vetted. No outsiders were allowed in Deeper Threat, for everybody’s safety.

  Not just from law enforcement. The family had enough connections to make sure the club wasn’t ever bothered by the NOLA cops. But because what happened here was intimate. Private. Not for the general public’s eyes.

  A much more intense scene towards the far corner of the room caught Lukas’s attention. With a small salute to Brax, he picked up his drink and began walking in that direction.

  Now this… this was something that could definitely get him out of his funk. He watched as Timothy took a small blonde woman and strapped her belly down over a padded sawhorse. He stretched her ankles wide and strapped them to wooden legs, then also restrained her knees, spreading her wide. A strap across her waist held her flat so that she was unable to move at all.

  An audience was already starting to form as Timothy spoke to them. Timothy and Melinda were known for their pretty extreme punishment scenes.

  “I caught Melinda cheating on me with another man, and we agreed her punishment would take place here. We’ll begin with a very thorough whipping.” He turned back to the bound woman. “Count the first five, Melinda.”

  The sound of the belt striking flesh and the sight of the pale globes of her ass turning a bright pink had the crowd’s attention. By the time she counted five, her breath was coming out in shudders.

  “Now that she’s warmed up, I need a little help. I would like to see her face for each spank. Would you mind, Lukas?”

  Lukas smiled. “I’d be more than happy to whale on that ass for a little while.”

  “Make her feel it. I don’t want her to forget it.”

  Timothy untied Melinda’s arms so she could hold her own weight up to look at him and pulled a chair right in front of her, sitting with one leg crossed at the knee.

  “Three please, Lukas. Make her sob.”

  Lukas brought the belt down hard in rapid succession on Melinda’s ass, careful to strike the fleshy part and give it an extra sting. He could hear people around the club chuckling as Melinda did indeed sob loudly.

  Timothy just smiled. “Three more please, Lukas. Tops of her thighs.”

  He took it a little slower this time to keep Melinda off balance and was on the third when he saw the movement over Timothy’s shoulder in the darkest shadow of the club, near the little cove that housed the emergency exit door.

  Someone was watching from there. Someone who didn’t want to be seen.

  Melinda was crying hard now. She’d obviously not expected to be apologizing and looking her Dom in the face while being spanked, disconcerting and so very personal.

  “I like watching your face ball up every time the belt strikes your skin,” Timothy said, still sitting back in the chair and forcing her to look at him. “Do you think you’ve learned your lesson?”

  “Yes, sir.” Melinda nodded enthusiastically.

  Timothy reached over and kissed her tenderly before standing. “We are just getting started. But I will allow you to suck my cock before Lukas spanks you again. He’s really good at it, isn’t he?”

  Lukas chuckled, waiting patiently while Melinda struggled to get Timothy released from his pants, not an easy feat with how she was bound. Once she did, Timothy had no qualms about grabbing her hair and holding her face back so he could fuck it at whatever speed and depth he desired. He used her that way for a few minutes, much to the crowd’s delight, before sliding out of her mouth.

  “Another ten, at your pleasure, Lukas. Hard.” Timothy readjusted himself back into his pants. “I want her begging for mercy every time my balls hit that ass in a few minutes. To remember this every time she sits down for days. Then I’ll take the belt back over.”

  “My pleasure, Timothy.” Lukas brought the belt down against the woman’s flesh over and over, listening to her count and apologize to her master between strokes. But his eyes kept drifting to the small form in the dark, watching the scene so intensely.

  At the end of the tenth lash, Timothy untied Melinda so she could turn and thank Lukas by bowing at his feet. He almost felt sorry for her as Timothy got a switch out and led her over to the spanking bench. The thin, stick-like device wouldn’t do as much damage as the belt, but it would sting like hell against her already reddened flesh.

  It was going to be a long night for poor Melinda.

  But for right now, Lukas was more interested in finding out who was over in the corner hiding in the dark.

  Chapter Two

  This was so not the computer server room.

  Reina knew she wasn’t supposed to be down here in the rooms under Triple Threat at all, but she’d thought it was because of insurance purposes or fire hazards or something.

  Not because some woman would be bent naked over some sort of bench thing, alternating between getting her ass whipped with a belt and giving a blow job.

  Reina might have been tempted to rush in and help rescue the poor woman from this horrible ordeal if a look of sheer bliss—in between wails—wasn’t blanketing her features. She obviously wanted this.

  And Reina couldn’t stop watching.

  The Ice Queen couldn’t stop watching.

  And, oh holy Moses, that was Lukas Rinaldi cracking on her ass with the belt. Suddenly Reina’s skin felt too tight, heat flooding her system.

  She stepped further back into the deep recesses of the darkness, knowing she should leave. Like right damn now. To find another way of proving that her uncle was using her father’s computer software and company to steal from customers.

  Standing here watching a woman suck a man’s cock with such abandon as dozen
s of people watched was not helping Reina’s end goal.

  Her thighs rubbed together under her tiny skirt, and her nipples hardened under her black tank. Neither were her normal attire, but she’d wanted to fit in at the club upstairs.

  Now she just felt like she was wearing too many clothes against her over-sensitive skin. A problem she’d never had. Unlike most of the people in New Orleans, Reina had never been comfortable with the underlying sexuality the city gave off. The heat. It was interwoven in the city’s DNA.

  But it definitely wasn’t in hers.

  She never thought she’d come back to the Big Easy for an extended time. She loved her parents, but they’d always been willing to come visit her in Chicago.

  Before her dad died. Before her mom started drinking. Before Uncle Peter took over Dad’s business and ran it into the ground.

  So, the Ice Queen was back in the sultry city. But she’d never—never—felt as hot and sexual as she did right now. Watching a woman thank a man for spanking her.

  God, she was so broken, wanting to watch this. Getting so hot watching this.

  And now Melinda was letting that guy Timothy bend her over and strap her into another contraption—some sort of sawhorse type thing. Reina watched for panic in the woman’s face at being bound with her knees and ankles spread wide and ass completely exposed, but there was none. When Timothy strapped her wrists to the bench at the front, stopping to play and pinch her nipples until she was gasping in painful ecstasy, Reina felt her own nipples pebble even more.