Page 31 of Used

I take in a deep breath, unprepared for the fire of desire in his eyes.

But this is my fault, after all.

I should know better than to depend on other people for anything.

Including something as simple as packing a suitcase.

“It was very sweet of you to pack everything for me this morning.” I sigh, knowing he was only trying to help. “It’s on me for not checking to see what you packed before we left.”

He sits down on the only empty portion of the bed, then curls our fingers together before tugging me between his legs.

“I’m sorry.” He says softly.

“Goddess. You’re too hard to stay mad at when you look at me like that.” I say when I look up at him. “It’s not a big deal. I’m just... not used to dressing like this.”

He looks around at the bikinis, lingerie, and dresses I’ve thrown out on the bed as though trying to find a solution to the problem he created.

“Do you not like them?” He asks, giving my hand a squeeze.

“They’re pretty,” I say slowly. “I just don’t normally wear such revealing or form-fitting clothes when I come out here.”

“Isn’t that kind of the point?”

I shrug. “For some people, probably.”

He hesitates. “Elsie, why do you come to the club?”

“What?” I ask, not sure where he’s going with this.

“Why do you come to The Playground? Why’d you start coming last year?” He asks, more confident in his question now.

I start to pull back but soften when he shifts his hold on my hand to rub small circles on my inner wrist.

Thinking it through, I try to decide how honest I want to be with him.

Do I tell him everything?

After a moment, I figure the man is going to be around for the next eighteen years for this kid. He might as well know how fucked up I am.

“My father and I went no-contact four years ago.” I start.

“The club only opened three years ago, though.” He questions.

“If you would let me finish…” I say impatiently.

“I dove into work when I stopped talking to him. He’s really the only family I have—my mom was gone shortly after I was born.” I say.

“Elsie, I’m so sorry.” He says, true sadness in his eyes.

“It’s okay. I’ve had a long time to adjust to that loss.” I shrug. “But Father was different. He was always working his agenda. We never had a good relationship, but it was nice to have someone. You know?”

He nods but doesn’t interrupt me again.

“I kind of lost it after a while and threw myself into dating, thinking that I could just replace the emptiness with someone else rather than dealing with my issues.” I continue. “One of the girls I dated for a while invited me to an event downtown. It was one of the brunches that happens every month.”

I think back to how out of place I felt at first when I was there, but how everything changed when I started talking to people.

It wasn’t like my work relationships, where everyone wanted something from you. It all felt genuine. People were actually interested in me as a person.

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