Page 6 of Doubling Down

She stands and refills my glass again, then disappears through a door in one corner of her office.

“Wow, okay, I guess I’m doing this,” I murmur. I glance at the champagne and push it away. I’m buzzed enough as it is. If this is happening, I want a clear head.

I sign the NDA after scanning it, then start working my way down the list, leaving the safe word for last since that will require a little more thought. The entire time, my stomach flutters and my panties get wetter.

The first item is the benign activity of kissing and being kissed. I rank both a four, because while I love kissing, it’s not what I’d call the pinnacle of pleasure for me. SM is a maybe, so three, and bondage is a four.

Genital torture is a hard zero, as is watersports or scat. Yuck.

Most of the items on the list are things I’ve thought about, but never done, and don’t turn me off so much I’d avoid them. Few are enthusiastic fives, but the one I mark fastest is “one looking for two.”

A surge of excitement rushes through me when I make the mark. It never occurred to me that I’d find myself in the position to be with two partners again, but the fact that it’s a possibility—no matter how remote—makes me giddy. I doubt I’ll find anything like I had with the twins, but being here isn’t about finding a relationship anyway. This place is about exploring fantasies and having fun, right?

At the end of the list, I move to the top again and fill in the blank for safe word. My subconscious has been dredging up old memories of the twins this entire time, and it’s as if our month of fun was only yesterday. I write “Starry Night” in the blank and nearly choke up at the thought of how much they’d have loved this place. If only we’d found it together.

Then I stand and wander to the nearby bookshelf, perusing Chloe’s library. I expect books about sexuality, but mostly find classics, though some are decidedly racy classics like Fanny Hill, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, or Delta of Venus.

The door opens and I turn, smiling at Chloe. “I finished the list.”

“Wonderful. Then I will leave you in the capable hands of my tour guides.” She steps aside and motions toward the door.

As if she’s read my mind, not one, but two men step through. They’re tall, clean-cut, muscular… and they’re twins.

Not only that, they’re my twins.

Chapter Four

“Sarah?” Jude’s mouth falls open and he stands there, staring at me. Simon enters behind him and rocks back as if he’s been struck. I’m just as stunned.

They look good, though—less like the seventeen-year-old boys they were the last time I saw them and more like full-grown men. Their hair is short now, cropped almost to their skulls, and they’re dressed in tailored suits and crisp white dress shirts, looking every bit like they belong in this place with all these well-dressed people.

There are more new details: I see a hint of a tattoo peeking above the collar of Jude’s shirt, stark black against his deep tan, and both twins have small silver hoops in their ears. Jude has another hoop through his right eyebrow, while Simon has one in his left nostril.

“What…” I stop, not sure what the hell to say. “What are you guys doing here?” I finally manage, because seriously, why are they here, of all places?

They glance at each other, then at Chloe, whose smirk and raised eyebrow tells me she’s put the pieces together. “These two are the boys you mentioned, aren’t they? What an amazing stroke of fate.”

Jude frowns. “You told her about us?”

My face heats. “It was part of the interview. I didn’t see the point in lying. But the last thing I expected was to see you again, like ever.”

A lump forms in my throat as the heartbreak of their departure washes over me anew. They had a good reason to go, but it still hurt like hell when I never heard from them again.

“We work here,” Simon says. “Have for almost three years now.”

“So you know Casey?” I ask, though my mind is fixated on what they do here more than who they know. And more importantly, who they do it to.

My stomach lurches at the idea that all this time they might’ve known Casey, and she didn’t mention them to me before bringing me here. Or that they might more than know her…

“Yeah? Everyone knows Casey,” Jude says, frowning and looking at his twin.

“Oh god,” I mutter, a chilly prickling sensation working its way up the back of my skull.

I can’t be here now. This is too much, too fast. I turn and stride to the door, aware of nothing but the driving need to escape. But the feeling that my world has just dropped out from under me doesn’t end when I make it down the hall, or out the door to the valet.

“Sarah, wait!” one of the twins calls as I slide into the driver’s seat and slam my door.

I speed off, leaving them standing in the driveway in my rearview mirror, each of their faces perfectly mirroring the other’s shocked expression.

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