Queen of Love

Chapter 12

ReturningtoTaipeiwas bittersweet. It felt more like home than Singapore did some days, and it was where Genevieve’s most trusted confidants lurked. Yet it brought her farther away from Aya, who had offered her a bon voyage before Genevieve boarded her private jet from Haneda Airport in Tokyo and landed a few hours later on the outskirts of Taipei.

She had dressed for the trip, at least. When she left Tokyo, the days were cool and humid. When she arrived in Taipei, they were hot and humid. As usual. She wore her best linen travel dress and donned her head with a wide-brimmed hat that kept the sun out of her face. Her personal Taiwanese driver met her at the airport and transported her to the penthouse she kept in the heart of Taipei. The concierge in her building had already prepped her penthouse by turning on the air conditioning and opening the blinds and curtains, and securing a small delivery of basic groceries. The coffee was the most important thing.

Genevieve wasn’t spending much time at home base, though. She had to get right back to work, ensuring that her local investments were running as they should before she went back to Singapore later that week. There’s always something to do. Genevieve could have rested on her heiress laurels for the remainder of her life… except she preferred to keep busy. That meant flying from one country to another under the guise of business.

It was also a great way to meet the people who ended up mattering to her the most.

“Lady Liu.” That was how Gene Huang, the man in charge of Genevieve’s biggest Taipei establishment, greeted her when she showed up two hours before opening. She wanted to inspect things for herself at the end of the business week. Sunday is our biggest night, after Saturday and Friday. It was when her best employees worked and all hands were perpetually on deck. Since it had been a month since Genevieve last dropped by, she knew her co-owners would appreciate a quick inspection. “How lovely to see you. Can I get you anything?”

“That won’t be necessary.” Genevieve offered her manager a generous grin and a reverent bow of her head. “I’ll be doing a walkthrough before leaving around opening. Are there any reservations tonight?”

“Ah, yes.” The man risked wrinkling his silk shirt when he unhooked his iPad from its holster in his belt and brought up the reservations for the night. “Only a few small gatherings, since we don’t have an event tonight. You missed the luau last night.”

Genevieve snorted. “Dare I ask how many leis littered the floor by the end of it?”

“Not as many as you might expect, but I will say the roasted pig was a huge success with the locals and laowai alike.”

“Fascinating. I’ll look at the numbers later. Who is coming by tonight?”

“Er, well…”

“Give it to me straight, Gene.”

“Wendy Ahn and her significant other have reserved the main VIP room. Seems that they’re in town.”

Genevieve understood why Gene would be hesitant to share that, but there was no reason to fear a sour reaction. “I see. So I really should make myself scarce before they arrive.” There was no bad blood between her and Wendy, exactly, but any woman who had been in the “scene” long enough to associate the name “Wendy Ahn” with “a lot.” Didn’t help that Wendy was also from Singapore, and spent most of her time in Taiwan to avoid the conservative atmosphere that plagued a woman when she was less than heterosexual. It was also a decent place to hide her girlfriend and permanent submissive, a former super popstar from the Mainland.

We’ve done it, of course. There was no denying it. Or getting around it. Nor could Genevieve deny Wendy was one of the reasons she decided to switch positions a few years ago. Wendy Ahn can be… formidable in the bedroom. I’ll give her that. One would not guess it by looking at the petite femme, but she was a harsh mistress who painted a woman’s ass red one minute and made her beg for more the next.

Not that Genevieve would know that detail.

“Thanks for the update, Gene.” She showed herself to the other room, where glasses clinked behind the bar and a professional cleaning crew mopped the floors and polished the stripper pole in the corner.

“Well, hao jiu bù jiàn.”

Genevieve expected to hear that voice, but she was still caught off guard when Nyla Deng pulled a tub of dirty glasses across the bar, clattering everything inside. Her shocking blue hair looked different in the plain light of the bar as opposed to the softer, more colorful lighting that often illuminated the smaller bar in the middle of a party. Yet that’s why Nyla was assigned to the room where the craziest shit was likely to pop off, as opposed to the front bar where new guests and their friends were acclimated to Paradise, the sliver of BDSM freeloading that dominated downtown Taipei.

“Yes, long time no see.” Genevieve briefly supervised the cleaning crew before helping herself to one of the stools at the bar. Nyla pulled the tub down and tossed the dirty glasses into the large dishwasher installed halfway between the bar and the back room, where the best booze was stored at a cool temperature. “Or as they say in Japan, ohisashiburi.”

“Forgot that’s where you ran off to.” Blue hair returned. Only then did Genevieve note the small but prominent biceps poking from the pinstripe vest Nyla wore to work that night. She always looks good… so self-assured. Genevieve had to look away before she pined after someone she couldn’t have. Not since a lot of life got in their ways. “So.” Nyla returned with another bin, this one full of clean glasses. She tossed a cloth over her shoulder and prepared to dry off and defog the fresh glasses before they were set aside for use that night. “Anything good in Tokyo? Did you find a new bar for me to tell you is ugly and outdated?”

Genevieve adjusted her skirt over the barstool and removed the hat from her head. “Very funny. Like you would wait for me to pick a place out before giving me your opinion. Nice hair, by the way.”

“You like it?” Nyla’s deft hands moved the glasses beneath the cloth and into their cupboard. “Thought about doing green again, but last time I did blue, I got more tips.”

“How about pink or purple?”

Nyla shrugged. “I like blue and green.”

“Can’t fault that logic. By the way, I did buy a place in Tokyo. It’s a former lady bar, so the clientele is already built-in. I’m returning to Singapore in a couple of days to talk to my legal team about everything before pressing forward with the remodel.”

Nyla surely had something witty to say about that, but she kept it to herself. “Pretty soon you won’t have time for us anymore.”

“Not when Paradise is my #1 moneymaker. You guys bring in more cash than most of my other bars put together.”

“You’re welcome.”