Page 4 of Room Seventeen

“Our fantasies have finally warped his reality.” Xander frowns and plops down in one of my guest chairs.

“Look,” Garrett paces an eight-foot section of carpet, something he does when he gets really excited about an idea he's positive is a winner. “There's something I have to tell you guys, and you're not going to like it.”

I sit down in my chair and exchange a quick glance with Xander. I’ve known these guys for over ten years. We went through PsyOps training together and then served our country for eight years in the same unit. We’ve been thick as thieves since the day we met, and it only took bemoaning about a couple of halfhearted dates to realize we share similar tastes in women, similar desires in bed, and similar needs for our hearts. The first time we shared a woman was while on R&R overseas, and we immediately knew our future happiness required meeting that perfect woman who would want us as we wanted her.

I turn my gaze to Garrett. Of the three of us, he is the most impulsive, and the most likely to get us in trouble. “What did you do?”

“Remember the last time we were at Club Sin? It was about ten weeks ago.”

“Yeah?”

“When we walked in, there was a woman in a mask working the coat check closet. She was wearing a fairly modest bustier with skin tight shorts, and although she had her face covered, I knew immediately it was our Car.”

“Car works at a sex club and you didn’t think to tell us?” Xander is on his feet, his fist clenched.

Garrett puts his hands up in a defensive posture. “Shut up and let me finish the story before you think about pummeling me.”

“Xander.” I say his name with an unaffected calm, but the effect is as intended. He retakes his seat, but the tension in his jaw speaks to the anger rising in my chest. Our sweet innocent girl has been working at a sex club? Why? We pay her well, so it can’t be for money. And why the fuck would Garrett allow her to continue when we could have stopped it?

“As I was saying… after we were seated, I asked the waitress to show me the bathroom. When I got her alone in the hallway, I asked her about the coat check girl. She said they call her Ivy, and that she was new to the club, and for the most part kept to herself. I then paid the waitress three-hundred bucks to gossip with her and point us out as partners who share everything, specifically women.”

I jumped to my feet. “Are you out of your fucking mind?”

“What? I presented her with a rumor and let her imagination do with it as it will.”

“She could’ve fucking come to work the next day and given her notice, Garrett. Did you think about that?” Xander’s now on his feet, and of the three of us, he’s the biggest and mean as a grizzly bear when he’s pissed.

“But she didn’t.” Garrett gets that shit-eating grin on his face again. “Think about what it’s been like the last two months. Our sweet, supple, innocent little Car started wearing makeup and doing her hair. She got new clothes—”

“And started wearing those ridiculously sexy stilettos she can barely walk in.” Xander runs his hands down his face, his posture relaxing immediately.

“Right. Instead of running away, she upped her game and started coming out of her shell. She’s been flirting with us in her subdued way.” Garrett glances down at the invitation in his hand and licks his lips. “This is her way of reaching out and initiating the next step that none of us have been willing to take.”

“What if this isn’t her?” I run my fingers over the elegantly inscribed calligraphy. “This could be the waitress you talk to in the hallway.”

“No way. That chick was an exhibitionist, and she’d have no reason to want an anonymous encounter. This is our Car, D. This is our chance to make her ours.”

Xander groans and pinches the bridge of his nose. “Now her family reunion weekend makes so much more sense.”

I glance at him with my brow raised. Admittedly, I have the least amount of contact with Carlisle. I find her to be too great of a temptation and have done my best to distance myself from her. Unlike Garrett and Xander, I don’t like having my control relentlessly tested. “What about her family reunion?”

“Every time I asked for details, she got squirrelly. I know she doesn’t have any close family, so the reunion in itself was a surprise. Part of me thought she was taking a boyfriend and didn’t want to tell me about him. But if she has no family reunion to go to, and that was ruse to trick us into thinking she couldn’t possibly send us the invite or entertain us this weekend, then her body language makes more sense.”

“Check out this card stock. She loves this fancy stationery shit.” Garrett slams his invitation down on my desk. “Don’t fight it, D. We deserve this. We deserve her.”

I glanced at Xander, who is nodding his head. “She’s everything we’ve ever wanted. If there is a chance that this is her, we have to go.”

“If we go through with this, it could end badly.” My mind whirls with all the unpleasant scenarios. Nothing about Carlisle speaks to a wealth of experience. One of us would be a lot for her, but three of us? She might think this is what she wants, and while I know we would take the best care of her, and that none of us would ever do a thing to hurt her, that doesn’t make our presence any less intimidating.

“And if we don’t do this, she’ll never forgive us for standing her up.”

Well shit. Xander has a point.

3

Carlisle / Ivy

Iglance up at the clock, my nerves absolutely fried. They will be here any minute, and I can’t tell if I’m more nervous about them walking through the door, or them not walking through the door. If they don’t accept my invitation, if they stand me up, I don’t think I’ll survive.

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