Page 18 of Room Seventeen

“In here.” I call from the bedroom.

“Hey honey, how was your—” Jenna walks through the door and stops. “Son of a bitch. What happened?”

John is beside her in seconds, his eyes zeroing in on my face. “What the fuck?”

I touch my face, feeling the heat and puffiness of my tears, remembering the red marks left behind from removing the mask. “Oh.”

“Did those motherfuckers hurt you?” John takes a step forward, but Jenna puts her hand on his forearm.

“Oh God, no. No, no. No, no, no.” I stand up quickly, my head spinning from the crying and resulting headache. “They didn’t hurt me. They’d never hurt me.”

“Then what’s going on, sugar?” Jenna’s forehead furrows in concern.

“I’m just…” I shrug.

She gives me a small smile. “Did you have a nice night?”

I nod, a few residual tears filling my eyes. Where the fuck do these things come from, because I feel wrung dry? “It was the best night of my life, and I guess I’m sad it’s over.”

“Oh, honey.” Jenna walks forward and pulls me into her arms. “That’s kind of the point of this place—to live out your fantasies, but that doesn’t have to mean it’s over. Tonight was one fantasy. Next time, it’ll be another fantasy. And another, and another, until you’re too old to have any new fantasies.”

John chuckles. “And if you’re lucky, you’ll never be too old to fantasize about the kinky shit you want to do.”

Jenna lets go of me and gives her man an exasperated sigh and a shake of her head. “Spoken like a kinky old man.”

“You’re damn right.” John winks at her and then leaves the room.

She rubs her hand up and down my arm. “You almost ready to pack it up for the day?”

“Yeah. Let me get dressed, and then I’ll clean up. I should be out of here within the hour.”

“Okay.” She presses a kiss to my temple and then releases me. At the door, she stops and looks over her shoulder. “You know, Ivy, I was once inexperienced like you. This lifestyle, it’s not for everyone, and there’s a lot more to it than ‘him plus me plus a baby makes three.’ The only way you can survive is to have open communication and be completely honest about what you want and what you need. When you told me you wanted to have anonymous sex with three men, my warning bells went off, because you started whatever this is with a lie. You took from them their choice to want more, be more, the moment you sent them those invitations. You’ve already dealt the deck, and I’m not really sure how you want the game to end, but it’s probably not going to go as you’d hoped.”

I nod, turning to strip the bed. I know she’s right, but it’s not something I can process right now. In less than twenty-four hours I’m going to have to walk into that office, look three men who have stolen and broken my heart in the face, and pretend like everything’s okay. Before last night, I thought I could do it. But now that I’ve lived out my fantasy, exactly as I outlined it, I’m not so sure.

11

Garrett

Ijump out of my car with a dozen red roses in one hand and a four pack of cinnamon strudel muffins in the other. They’re Car’s favorite, and after going round and round for hours with my partners last night, today I have full permission to woo the fuck out of our woman. I have it all planned out, too, starting with some innocent flirting and gentle teasing until she either comes clean and admits the entire charade Saturday night, or until I have her ass up, bent over the conference table, sucking on her clit until she begs us to claim her as our own.

Either way, I fully intend on tasting her again before we have dinner tonight.

I walk across the lobby, waving to the security guards, and ride the elevator up, smiling and giving a friendly nod to the blonde who is riding up with me.

“Beautiful roses.” She gushes, and I can tell she wishes they were for her.

“Thanks. They are for someone very special,” I say, deeply inhaling their fragrant bouquet as the elevator stops on the seventh floor, and she exits the car.

Less than a minute later, I’m whistling as I ride the car up to our floor. I smile, fully expecting to see Car at her desk, her beautiful pale lips smiling back at me as she does every morning, but am disappointed when the doors open, and she’s not there. That’s okay, she’s probably prepping the conference room or fixing a snack in the break room. Peeking into the conference room to find it empty, I swing by the break room—also empty—before I stop at Car’s desk.

Something is different, and it takes me a few seconds to realize what it is.

Everything’s gone.

While Carlisle kept her desk clean and professional for our clients, she also kept a row of fancy, unused notebooks on the shelf behind her desk, organized by color and size in her peculiar way—and they’re gone. Then I look down for her rose gold pen cup, which is also gone. And her coffee mug, the one Xander and I bought her a few months ago that saidOffice Queen—also gone.

I set the roses and the muffins down on her desk and storm into Darian’s office. Xander is sitting in a chair, and both of my partners look utterly defeated.

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