A Gentleman's Club: The Tainted Series

By T.L. Tate

In the final story of the Gentleman’s branch of the Tainted Series, Jacob Aspen is confronted with the consequences of his various sexual rendezvous. These events take place after Sirens: A Gentleman’s Story, in this story, Jacob, Rachel, Toni, Amara and Sarah are forced to confront very harsh realities and even tougher truths—none of which are more shocking than the admission that Ginger, Rachel’s 24-year old best friend is pregnant with Jacob as the father. This creates a wicked spiral causing all those involved to confront their darkest selves and decide if and to what extent they wish to be involved in their continuing affairs.
While Jacob comes to grips with his new responsibilities, he must confront another hard truth—he is in love with someone other than his wife, Rachel. The changes brought about by her initial bout of infidelity and his accompanying revenge in an attempt to redefine himself all come to a head in this final story. Once known as a Gentleman, will Jacob find a way back to his previous self or will the changes in his life redefine him?
Is being Tainted all that’s left, or will he find a way to purge his sins?
Come and find out.

• Language: English
• Publisher: T.L. Tate
• Release date: Feb 29, 2020
• ISBN: 9780463369937

T.L. Tate

I love books. It has been a dream of mine since I was a child to author a book. A couple of years I gave it a try. It's hard work and I'm still learning but despite that...I love it! I love creating new worlds and falling in love with the characters that I create. I love hearing from fans or watching the downloads of my books increase. I love it because I know that in some way, I'm reaching someone that I wouldn't have before. Being an author is a great gift and I'm grateful to have the opportunity to share my stories with the world.

Book preview

A Gentleman’s Club

The Tainted Series

By

T.L. Tate

Copyright © 2020 by T.L. Tate

Cover Photo Copyright of Sergey Mironov/Shutterstock

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Author’s Corner

Thank you for picking up this story. But before you get started, please be warned, this story is a continuation of the Gentleman’s side of the Tainted Series. As such, this story continues from where Sirens: A Gentleman’s Story left off.

Basically...there will be spoilers.

If you haven’t read Sirens: A Gentleman’s Story yet and if you hate to have a good story spoiled before you can enjoy it yourself—Stop reading, now! Pick up Sirens: A Gentleman’s Story and have a good read before you come back to this story. On the other hand, if you just don’t care about having a good story spoiled or you just say, You know what, T.L.? I’m just too into this story already to stop. I’ll read Sirens: A Gentleman’s Story right after I finish this great story, then I guess I can’t stop or blame you.

Regardless…You’ve been warned.

Without further ado…please enjoy book 7 of the Gentleman’s side of the Tainted Series, A Gentleman’s Bet!

T.L. Tate

*** FINAL WARNING—SPOILERS AHEAD! ***

A Suggested Reading Order.

Hello,

Before you dive into this story. I wanted to give you a quick list of the Gentleman’s branch’s stories in chronological order. That way, you won’t read it in the wrong order and end up spoiling the story for yourself.

I personally hate it when that happens.

Here you go!

A Gentleman’s Curse

A Gentleman’s Folly

A Gentleman’s Pride

A Gentleman’s Code

A Gentleman’s Indiscretion

Sirens: A Gentleman’s Story

A Gentleman’s Bet

A Gentleman’s Club

Contents

Title

Copyright

Author’s Corner

The Story So Far

A Gentleman’s Club

Part 1: A Gentleman and the Young Mother

Chapter 1

Interlude I

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Part 2: A Gentleman and the Sirens

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Interlude II

Chapter 8

Interlude III

Part 3: A Gentleman’s Club

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Epilogue

Other Works

About the Author

The Story So Far

Rachel—my wife.

Toni—my sister-in-law.

Sarah—my executive assistant.

Amara—my therapist.

By this point I can honestly say that I’m not living a very upstanding life. So much has happened. Where should I begin?

Well, I guess as the man says, let’s start at the beginning.

My name is Jacob Aspen. Most people just call me Jake. I’m in my early 30s and I’m married, but our relationship is a bit complicated. Just to give you a quick rundown, my wife of 7-years, Rachel, had an affair with one of her co-workers. His name is Alex. Our relationship has been tough for a few years. It wasn’t that I had done anything, you know. It wasn’t like I was being an asshole or like I was cheating on her or anything. She simply lost interest in me and our marriage. She said that I was too nice. Yeah, that happened. I didn’t know that there was a such thing as a husband being too nice to his wife, but apparently it was a thing. Anyway, using that as an excuse, she went about a torrid affair that I found out about the day before my 30th birthday.

She’d planned a weekend fuck-trip with him to Las Vegas. And yes, she planned it to be over my birthday so we didn’t spend any time together. At first, I was hurt, as you’d expect. However, those feelings of pain were a mere pin prick when compared to the feelings I experienced when I found out about her affair.

That brings us to Toni. Toni is Rachel’s younger sister and my sister-in-law. After learning that Rachel and I were having problems, she inserted herself into our relationship and was the first one to find out about the affair. Of course, that wasn’t all that she did to insert herself but we’ll get to that in a little bit.

Toni is a complex woman but I think she’s a good person. She gave Rachel time to tell me about the affair. Rachel didn’t take her up on that offer. After finding me in my house, brokenhearted because my relationship was falling apart, Toni approached me and informed me about the affair. That tough love act tossed my heart and soul down an endless chasm that I was destined to remain lost until the light of life left my eyes. And no, I don’t think I’m being dramatic. That was how I felt.

Despite my pain, or maybe because of it (at least partially), Toni showed up at the stroke of midnight on my birthday to snap me out of my funk by any means she deemed appropriate. As it turns out, the tact she chose was, up until this point, unfathomable to me. Toni showed up to seduce me. Not to make excuses, but with how I was feeling, I think I was easy prey in her eyes. She took advantage and she pounced.

She sold me on it by telling me that it would help me grow stronger and be the type of man that her sister and my wife, Rachel would drool over. I fell into her velvety clutches and never looked back!

What I wished I had known then though was the fact that prior to our tryst, Toni had been a virgin. She’d kept herself that way until she was able to be with the person that she loved. Yes. You’ve guessed it. As it turns out, Toni had been in love with me for years. Only, I didn’t know it at the time.

I’m no superhero. If anything, I’m a bit fucked in the head. After what happened with Toni, I had the balls to confront Rachel about the affair, which she ended immediately and called her fuck-trip short to come back home. But the damage had been done. In my mind, the marriage was over. I couldn’t trust her and I couldn’t trust me not to have a bit more of Toni after finding out just how delicious she was. As a last-ditch effort to save this sinking ship, I suggested therapy. Rachel jumped on the chance.

This brings us to Amara. Now, she’s the most complex. On the surface you’ll see a stunning Black goddess, who was miles ahead of her colleagues in her profession as a couple’s therapist. When we first met, I was floored by how attracted to her I was. Of course, I couldn’t display those feelings in front of Rachel, so I buried them in a decidedly shallow grave.

Amara was patient, understanding, informative and insightful. Amara ended up being a snake in form-fitting clothing. I didn’t know it at the time, but she had already been making her own preparations.

A few days after we started seeing Amara, Rachel met up with her ex-lover, Alex, at a hotel. I happened upon them simply by accident. When I saw them, I assumed that she wanted to continue her affair and was only paying lip service to me about wanting to improve our relationship. I felt like a fool but at the same time, I was just too damn angry to spend anytime ruminating over my feelings. I set off on a mission of destruction, propelled by my intense hatred and pain.

What I found when I arrived at the room was nothing like I expected. Alex had attacked Rachel. So, in a fit of rage, I attacked him. The results of this fight led Rachel into a downward spiral of guilt and after one session with Amara, she decided to up and leave. She took a job out in Rhode Island. We were officially separated.

Amara didn’t wait long before she pounced on me. Of course, it wasn’t all her. I played my part as well. The fact was that I found her ridiculously attractive and when the opportunity arose, I grabbed it with both eyes open.

What Amara and I shared was dangerous and reckless. When I tried to end things my life only got weirder, but we’ll get to that later.

This brings us to Sarah. Hmm, what can I say about this woman? Well, let’s start off with the obvious. Sarah works for me. She’s my executive assistant. When I first met her, she was this mousy little thing who would sooner hide herself away in a corner than look at you. It didn’t take long to learn that that was just the tip of the iceberg.

Sarah was engaged to a guy by the name of Chris. Chris was a real scumbag. He abused her both physically and emotionally. When I met Sarah, she had already been nursing decades wroth of demons. She hid it all well and didn’t let us know but nothing can be hidden forever.

One day, Sarah appeared on my doorstep. She had been beaten brutishly. She was black and blue all over. Upon seeing her, I couldn’t help but want to protect her. So that’s what I did. I opened my home to her and became a shoulder for her to lean on. Under that situation, she flourished.

Not only did she find the strength to get rid of Chris once and for all, but she also grew as a person. Stepping into the light for the first time in her life. We were suddenly friends and I loved it. But that didn’t last for long.

Unbeknownst to me, Sarah had been nursing an affection for me. What’s worse, she even found out about my affair with Toni, Rachel’s sister. I felt like my world was going to end. Right when I felt like things were hopeless, she made me an offer that I couldn’t refuse. I agreed to be her lover.

When I had first started this journey, after learning about Rachel’s affair, I was a man in pain and I was broken. By this point, I know for a fact that I’m not the same naïve man that I was in the past. Instead, I’ve been come wizened by the trials. My past has shaped me but my choices have tainted me.

Now that the introductions are out of the way, it’s time to tell you the end of my story.

A Gentleman’s Club

The Tainted Series

Part 1

A Gentleman and the Young Mother

Chapter 1

Jacob Aspen

The bright lights seemed dim. To my right sat Rachel. Her long brown hair was curled at the ends. She wore a tight evening dress that made her slim figure look enchanting. To my left sat Ginger. Despite Rachel and I dressing up, she wore a simple ensemble of jeans and a faded t-shirt.

If I could describe the room where we sat in a word, that word would be opulent. I learned this before coming over, but Ginger’s father, Darwin Plades, was a developer. He was apparently pretty successful, too. Their house wasn’t greedily large or overbearing, but the materials that it was built from were expensive yet functional. The design, including the interior design, was proposed by his wife, Ginger’s mother, Julia Plades.

When we first arrived for dinner, Darwin and Julia met us in the front hall. They were a handsome couple. Darwin was likely 20-some odd years my senior but still looked fit enough for a pick-up game of football. To compliment him, Julia was as graceful as a dancer when she moved. She was also older, but younger than Darwin. It was obvious around the lines of her eyes and mouth that time was catching up with her. However, it only made her look more attractive. She didn’t look like a cougar or anything. She just seemed experienced and calm. She seemed to view the world as it was without making excuses and although she was kind and welcoming, there was a certain coldness that I felt. If Darwin wore his heart on his sleeve, she protected hers behind a mountain fort.

I got the distinct impression that with Darwin, what you saw was what you got. However, with Julia, she’d only lower her guard after you’ve earned that privilege. Right now, I hadn’t earned that privilege so I was greeted with a kind yet cold welcome.

The evening was billed as a dinner. In reality, we planned on explaining the situation between the three of us as well as letting her parents know that she was pregnant.

When they welcomed us, Darwin was pretty friendly with Rachel. I guess they’d met before so they got to know each other a little. He was even nice to me because I was her husband. While Darwin talked our ears off, Julia led us to a sitting room. In that room, I was offered the middle cushion on the couch, while Rachel and Ginger sat on opposite sides of me.

The entire time that Darwin entertained us, Julia watched. Her eyes were piercing. Not in an aggressive way, but she was definitely preparing herself for the worst.

Darwin asked a lot of questions. He asked about my business. He asked about how Rachel and I met. When he asked how I felt about Rachel living here and me living back outside of Chicago. When he did, Rachel was the one that spoke.

Honestly, Darwin…that’s a bit complicated.

Dad, it’s personal.

Personal? Darwin looked between the two women. He was like a bull in a china shop—no delicacy whatsoever. What could be so personal? It’s a simple question.

I smiled wryly. At first, I didn’t like it. At the time, Rachel and I were having some marital problems. Because of that, and a few things that happened after, Rachel decided to take a job out here to give us both time to work things out on our own.

Really? His eyes grew large but he didn’t retract his question. If anything, he doubled down. "If I were you, I wouldn’t have let such a cute girl live alone halfway across the country. No matter what you did, Jake…it is Jake, right? Right. So anyway, no matter what you did, you’ve got to be a man and stand up for your lady. You can’t just let her go because she’s mad at you. If it were me, I would’ve fallen on my sword to keep her at home.