Dungeon Daddy by Golden Angel
Chapter 15
Jax
Marquis was a restaurant on the bottom, with the kink club and hotel portion on the second floor. From the outside and even walking through the restaurant, there was no way to tell there was a kink club upstairs. The restaurant was nicely furnished, with servers dashing to and fro, wearing button-down white shirts, colorful ties, and serving aprons. It looked like any other downtown restaurant on a busy afternoon.
The bar was packed for happy hour, three bartenders on duty, wearing similar uniforms to the servers, their sleeves rolled up to their elbows. Jax had to admire the style of the one working the center section—a white guy, about Jax’s age. The bald head and goatee didn’t work on everyone, but it did on him and on that bartender. He always felt a little kernel of kinship with those who had the same style.
The bartender looked up at that moment, and their gazes met. The other man inspected Jax for a second before giving him the nod of acknowledgment.
We have the same style, and it looks damn good.
Jax nodded back to him before moving through the restaurant to the back. He and Esther had left their bags in the car for now. They could have come in through the back and gone straight up to their room, but he’d wanted to check out the restaurant portion.
In some ways, the setup reminded him of the Outlands, except the Outlands had their club below the restaurant rather than above. The Outland’s restaurant was also a lot more casual and turned into a dance club at night. Marquis was higher-end and remained a full-time restaurant.
Jax’s head turned as a server walked by, plates stacked up one arm all the way to their shoulder. Damn. More maneuverability than carrying a huge tray, but it also seemed risky. Then again, when he thought about it, so did a tray. The server easily swerved past a busboy on their way to the table.
“Oh my God, that smelled so good,” Esther said, giving herself a little shake as if coming out of a reverie. She wasn’t the only one. There was something captivating about Marquis, and they hadn’t even been upstairs. Jax had her tucked under his arm, and she leaned forward to peer around him.
“Do you want to eat dinner here tonight?” she asked.
“We could, but they have the same menu upstairs. It depends on what kind of show you want to watch.” He was happy to do whatever she wanted. The drive down had taken several hours, and they’d ended up putting on an audiobook. Esther had wanted to listen to some book about bunny shifters—there had been wolf, bear, and normal shifters too, but what had drawn her was the bunnies. They’d ended up cracking up multiple times during the drive, which had made things a lot less tense for both of them.
Jax was actually looking forward to hearing the rest of the book on the way home.
Thanks to that break in the ice between them, being able to listen to and laugh at a book together, they were a lot more comfortable with each other than they might have been otherwise. There was no way in hell he was going to ruin that by saying they had to eat upstairs and watch the sex show tonight. Yeah, Gavin had said he wanted them to attend both nights if they could, but Jax wanted to do whatever made Esther happy.
Looking around, she shrugged. “I think I’d prefer to eat down here.”
“Then that’s what we’ll do.”
* * *
Esther
After scoping out the restaurant and returning to their car to grab their bags, Esther followed Jax into the private entrance to Marquis, which took them straight up to the hotel area. They input the code into the elevator to send them up, then they stepped into a gorgeous lobby.
The color scheme was like downstairs, a lot of dark reds and blacks, with black-and-white photographs on the walls. Esther found herself a little disappointed that there wasn’t anything overtly kinky. Then again, they weren’t really in the club portion. She could see the stairs coming up from the back area of the restaurant and hear noises from downstairs before she heard a door shut.
Likely, the lobby was purposefully designed, so it wouldn’t cause comment if any vanillas accidentally wandered upstairs.
There was a desk next to a door and another door on the sidewall with a brass plate that read ‘Manager.’ Behind the desk were a man and a woman, who both looked up and smiled when they saw Jax and Esther. The woman was a stunningly beautiful redhead with long hair that hung in perfect curls down her back and over her shoulders. Her makeup was flawless. She could have just come from seeing Braden at Ulta.
Beside her, the man was her height, dark, and handsome. If Esther had to guess, she would say he was Filipino. Younger than her and Jax but not too much younger, she would guess he was in his forties. Like Jax, he was totally bald but had a goatee. It was a good look. And he was ripped, muscle wise, the same way Jax was. Even though he was wearing a white dress shirt, she could tell by the way he filled it out.
“Hello, welcome to Marquis!” The redhead’s bubbly chirpiness came on a little strong, but Esther smiled at her. She seemed like she was trying very hard, despite her almost intimidating beauty. Her gaze was a little odd—she was looking directly at Jax, then glanced at Esther for a moment, trying to focus on her, before her gaze went right back to Jax. “My name is Morgan. How can I help you?”
It was parroted as if she was reading from a script she wasn’t quite comfortable with. Morgan glanced at the man beside her, looking for his approval, and he nodded. His expression didn’t change, but that seemed to be all she needed to reassure her. Esther was fascinated by the interaction. Maybe she was in training?
“Jax and Esther Johnson. We’re here for the weekend in the pink room.”
Morgan glanced down at the computer in front of her and pressed a couple keys on the keyboard.
“Wonderful, welcome! I have your keys ready for you, and if you have questions, you can come ask me any time.” Morgan passed the keys across the counter and glanced at the man beside her again, and he put his hand on her shoulder. Esther hadn’t realized how much anxious energy the redhead had until the man did that, and she stilled.
Definitely a Dom and Morgan must be a submissive, a very nervous one at that.
“I’ll take you to your room,” the man said, stepping away from the redhead. He came around the desk to take Esther’s bag.
“Oh, thank you,” Esther said. Yeah, he had an air of dominance as her husband, Gavin, and Aiden. No way was she going to argue with a Dom in a kink club when they’d just arrived, not without a really good reason, and him offering to carry her bag wasn’t one. Besides, the bag was getting heavy. Esther had a penchant for overpacking and should have used one of her suitcases with wheels, rather than a shoulder bag.
“Thank you, Master Law,” Morgan chirped.
The Dom winced slightly, his nose wrinkling for a moment, then the expression disappeared, and he gave Morgan a smile.
“I’ll be right back,” he said before turning back to Jax and Esther. “Follow me.”
* * *
Jax
“Master Law?” Jax asked as they walked through the door behind the front desk, keeping his voice low so Morgan didn’t hear him. Even though he didn’t know the two of them, it was clear something out of the ordinary was going on there. The man didn’t like being called Master Law, but he hadn’t stopped her.
The man sighed.
“My name is Lawrence, and I’m a lawyer. The submissives decided that meant I’m Master Law.” He shook his head. “There’s no stopping them, and they’ve all picked it up. Morgan doesn’t mean any harm, and she’s not doing it to be bratty, so I’ve learned to live with it.”
Jax didn’t quite know what to say, and he wasn’t sure it mattered. He and Esther had come to a complete stop as they entered Marquis’ main room. The lobby had been beautiful but unremarkable, nothing overtly to draw the attention. This room was completely different.
There was a circular stage in the center of the room, raised about a foot above the rest of the hardwood floors. The walls were lined with alcove booths, heavy red curtains hanging on either side of their openings, which could be drawn across them, and a sheer black curtain hung in front of each of them. It looked like it could be drawn aside.
The booths were all made of black leather, and both the seats and the tables they curved around had a multitude of places where cuffs or chains could be attached. Definitely not a standard restaurant setup.
“Wow…” Esther breathed out the word, looking around in awe. “And people scene on the stage?”
“Yup. There’s a long waitlist for the sign-up.” Master Lawrence grinned. “We have quite a few exhibitionists among our members.”
“They would have to be,” Jax murmured. With his hand on Esther’s back, he could feel her shiver.
She was more of a voyeur, though they had played together at the Outlands in public scenes. It had never been either of their preference, though. Jax wasn’t an exhibitionist. Though he didn’t mind being watched, he preferred Esther be comfortable, which meant he also preferred privacy for play. They’d gone mainly to be with Aiden, Cyana, Gavin, and Leah and to be around their people.
Then Gavin and Leah got divorced, Jax and Esther had kids, and it wasn’t like they’d wanted to play publicly at the Outlands, anyway, so it had become easier to stay home. But being at home with the kids had made getting into the right mindset to be Daddy Dom and babygirl really difficult. Walking into this room, even empty, called to a part of Jax he hadn’t felt in a long time. He could sense the change in Esther in the way she was relaxing, the perk of interest and excitement at being in this space, and talking to someone who was part of it.
He hadn’t realized what a difference being around ‘their’ people and in a kinky space made to his mindset. Not that they couldn’t play at home and would absolutely continue to do so, but he’d gotten so used to being ‘dad’ at home, he had stopped thinking of himself as Esther’s Daddy.
That was something he resolved to fix. The kids were more than old enough now for him and Esther to go out for some later nights. Or perhaps, they could do more coordinated sleepovers with the kids’ friends, so he and Esther could come home to an empty house instead of having to sneak around.
Either way, it was something he could easily fix after they got home. Plus, now that Gavin and Leah were back together, going to the Outlands wouldn’t be as awkward.
“Come through this way,” Master Lawrence said, walking straight across the room to a door tucked between the booths.
The hallway on the other side was decorated in a similar manner as the lobby, with lots of reds and blacks. Gorgeous artwork lined the walls, all showing some aspect of kink. A little plaque beside the closest announced the artist was Natalie Mercer. They were stunning, tasteful, and erotic as hell.
“Wow,” Esther murmured, eyes wide. The art made it clear this was a kinky hotel.
“Here’s your room,” Master Lawrence said, stepping aside so Jax could insert the keycard. The pink room—set up for age play, Daddy or Mommy Doms, and their partners, decorated entirely in pink. There was a blue room as well, which was set up the same way, but Jax knew Esther would prefer this one.
Glancing over his shoulder, he reached back to take her hand as he pushed the handle on the door.
“Ready?” he asked.
She nodded, eyes wide and sparkling with excitement. Grinning, Jax pushed open the door.
