Travis jacked himself slowly, brushing his thumb over his slit and gathering his precum to use as lube on the downstroke. I licked my lips, desperate for a taste. I longed to relive last night and lose myself between them. I was fucking terrible—I had zero self-control and even less morals, but these men were addictive. Jacques squeezed my hips, and his cock twitched again, hardening more. He’d just come inside me, and—wait. We hadn’t used a condom. Shit.
“Ah, guys,” I said hesitantly. My heart started thumping, panic rising within me. “We didn’t use protection. I’m on birth control, but….”
“I got tested a few weeks ago as part of my physicals at work, and I’m negative for everything,” Travis said, making his way over to us. “I can show you my test results—” He gestured over his shoulder. “They’re on my cell phone.”
Jacques swiveled his hips, fully hard again, and I gasped. Then I rocked back against him. He scrambled my brain every time he moved.
“I’m negative too,” Jacques assured me, his voice a deep rasp.
“I haven’t been with anyone since I was tested a few months ago,” I admitted.
Travis took my hand and raised it. Then he froze. Jacques stiffened behind me, his grip on my waist tightening. I looked between them.
“Travis,” Jacques whispered. His voice cracked. He’d gone from suave and sexy to freaked the hell out in a nano-second.
I followed their line of sight down. They were staring at my hand.
That was…
What. The. Fuck?
There was a ring on my left ring finger. A giant rectangular diamond set in a silver—or probably platinum—band winked at me, reflecting like glitter in the overhead lights.
I shook my head and stared at the ring. I blinked, then did it again. It was still there. Surely it wasn’t what I thought it was. It probably wasn’t even real. Where could you even buy a ring, fake or not, in the middle of the night?
Then the voice inside my head whispered,“This is Vegas.”
There was no way it was a wedding ring. No way. It had to be fake. It had to be a joke.
“We need to go home. Right now,” Jacques whispered.
six
Carina - Then
IwassittinginSophiaand Pierre’s eat-in kitchen, nursing a cup of coffee that Sophia insisted I drink while she plated up the cookies we’d baked. I’d been in Seattle for two weeks. It was so much fun reconnecting with Sophia and Pierre.
I’d done a bit of soul-searching myself too. I didn’t know what I wanted out of life anymore. I’d done the high-powered career. The stress, the long hours, and the need to be constantly on were a drain. I was disillusioned too. I always thought David and I were building Delaney’s Warehouse together, for us. He’d imagined Cara taking over and our eventual retirement. But even when she was a teenager, I realized that she would never want to be a part of it. Sporting goods wasn’t remotely interesting to Cara, and more importantly, she wasn’t the corporate type. That wasn’t an insult to her at all. She was a creative. The restrictive nine-to-five schedule, business suits, and a corporate office would strangle that creativity right out of her. I didn’t want that for her.
I’d fully accepted that when we were ready to retire, David and I would sell the company. But then he’d cheated on me. I couldn’t stay with him after that—I wouldn’t. He shattered my trust, but even worse, he put me at risk. That was a betrayal I couldn’t get past.
The HR Department’s reaction to my request to take some leave was a wake-up call. I realized that it was his business, not ours, and definitely not mine. I may have been by his side from the start, but that was irrelevant. I’d made it possible for David to run the business and open more stores. I’d helped him grow it to where it was today. But it washisbusiness and always would be. I hadn’t realized it, but I’d been like any other employee the whole time, nothing more. The management team tolerated my direction because I was married to the CEO.
And for what?
I’d missed so much of Cara’s childhood. The weight of knowing how many school assemblies I missed was suffocating. Cara received awards for English every year of her schooling. I’d never seen her get one. She entered poetry and short story competitions and had won so many of them that I’d lost count. All those hours I put in every week meant I’d missed everything. With the benefit of hindsight, I now realized they were so much more important than David’s business.
She’d say I was there when it counted, but she was looking back at her childhood with rose-colored glasses on.
My whole adult life had come down to shirking my responsibilities as a mother, choosing work over my child while working for a man who was completely ungrateful. I’d helped him build up his company and sacrificed our daughter to do it.
These past couple of weeks had given me perspective. I saw how Sophia and Pierre balanced their life together. Despite both of them working, they made time for each other. They enjoyed life.
I wanted the same. Desperately. But I had no idea how I was going to get it. Maybe if I hadn’t been a stupid teenager and signed a prenup that cheated me out of millions of dollars, I could have afforded a little plot somewhere in the hills where I could grow my own vegetables and work part time. But that was a luxury I’d never know, not without challenging the agreement. To do so, I needed to fork out a hundred thousand dollars in legal fees and even more in forensic accountants—money that I just didn’t have. I was stuck between a rock and a hard place.
“Carina,” Sophia called.
I blinked, shaking out of my thoughts. I’d been a million miles away and hadn’t heard a single thing she’d said.
