CHAPTER 26

I lean back in my chair, shaking my head as I look at Ford. “I still can’t believe you can cook like that.”

He smiles and takes a sip of his wine.

And by that, I mean he made beef wellington with steamed asparagus and a homemade hollandaise sauce, all finished with a crème brûlée that was the best I’ve ever tasted.

“Seriously, how did you learn to cook like that?” I ask, still in amazement.

Ford leans toward the table, crossing his forearms on top of it. With a little shrug, he says, “I don’t know. I guess you can say it’s how I exercise my creative side.”

“Well, you should feel free to exercise it at any time with me,” I tell him with a smile and then a brief glance at my watch. “And I’ve got to get going.”

Ford stands up from the table with me, and I make a motion to grab my plate to take it to the kitchen. I was almost giddy when he’d sent me a text today asking if I’d come early and have dinner with him in his apartment. It was what I would consider our first real date, and to find he actually made dinner for me left me feeling warm and gooey. Things with Ford have changed quickly and drastically, and yet tonight… sitting at his table and having enjoyable conversation as we ate seemed perfectly natural as well.

But I do still have a job to do for at least the next three days, and while Ford told me he’d relieve me of that obligation, I insisted on fulfilling it. I always pay my debts.

He’s amused by this, of course, but he’s playing along.

“Leave the plates,” he says and when I don’t immediately drop it, he rounds the table to take it from my hand. “I’ll clean up.”

“But you cooked,” I point out.

Ford sets the plate on the table and his arms go around my waist to pull me into him. I wobble for a moment on the stiletto heels I’m wearing along with my standard hostess uniform of a sexy black dress. I’m steadied though when my hands come to his shoulders as I look up at him. His smile is mischievous… his eyes sparkling.

“You could always let me come and play with you in one of the rooms tonight,” he says in a husky voice. “I’m thinking The Orgy Room. Maybe I’ll even open you up and invite some others to eat your pussy.”

My sex clenches so tight I almost whimper, even as I’m stunned by his suggestions. Having other people participate, and having Kenneth fuck me… that was all well and good when it was just casual sex. Even though the idea of him opening me up for others to feast on is clearly turning me way the fuck on, I’m confused by it as well.

“You’d let other people be with me now?” I ask him curiously.

He gets my meaning right away, his eyes softening. “If you wanted it and were up for it, yes… as long as I was there, I’d do anything to give you pleasure.”

“But… but… I don’t think I could reciprocate that,” I tell him softly. “I couldn’t let another woman touch you.”

Ford’s eyes get even softer. “You’d be jealous.”

“Absolutely,” I say without hesitation. “Wouldn’t you? If other men touched me?”

“Not as long as I knew I was the one you came home to at night,” he says.

“That doesn’t make sense to me,” I say in frustration as I pull away from him. “If you want to be only with me, then you should be jealous of other men.”

“Thalia… baby,” he cajoles as he pulls me back to him. “I own a sex club. Swinging here is a way of life, and I really don’t think twice about it anymore. This is new to you though, so I’m sure it’s all confusing. So why don’t we just agree that for the time being, it will be just the two of us, okay? And if you feel more comfortable down the line, we can talk about it.”

“You make it sound so simple,” I grumble as I look away.

His hand comes to my face and guides it so I have to look directly in his eyes. “While I might not get jealous of someone else touching you, or giving you pleasure… I’d be jealous as fuck and out of my mind if you ever looked at another man the way you look at me when I’m fucking you. That’s for me and me alone.”

And, oh wow… that was hot as hell and so damn sweet my teeth hurt. I immediately relax into his embrace, because he just validated his feelings for me. And he’s right… this is a lot for me to get used to. I have to remember that sharing bodies in this environment does not mean sharing hearts. That’s exactly what Ford just said to me, I think.

Going to tiptoe, I give him a brief, soft kiss. Smiling at him, I say, “Okay. We’ll work through this, but I’m going to head out and get down to the hostess podium. Don’t want anyone thinking I’m up here doing hanky-panky with the boss.”

Ford laughs… rich, deep, and with gusto. He releases me and picks up our plates. “Go on… get to work, woman.”

“What are you going to do?” I think to ask him as I grab my purse from the kitchen island.

He looks up and pins me with a brilliant smile. “I actually think I’m going to read a book and relax until you get off work. I’ll be waiting for you, and I plan to fuck your brains out when you walk through that door.”

“Mmm,” I say with a wink as I turn toward his apartment door. “I like it.”

“Oh, wait,” Ford says and I turn back to him. “Will you do me a favor? Go through my office and in my top right drawer, I have a folder Kenneth’s going to swing by and pick up. It’s my formal offer to sell Hendrix Group to him.”

“So you’re moving forward with it?” I ask as I follow him into the kitchen where the walk-through door to his office is located.

Ford sets the plates in the sink and rolls up his shirt sleeves before he starts cleaning. “By the end of the year, if he agrees. We’ll need that time to transition him into the boss’s chair.”

“You sound completely peaceful with this decision,” I say, and my heart is happy for him.

“I am,” he tells me, those green eyes filled with satisfaction of a good life.

“I’m glad,” I say and then blow him a kiss. “See you later tonight.”

“Bye,” he murmurs as I push through the door to his office. It’s dim with only a small desk lamp turned on and some accent lights in his built-ins so I turn on the overhead lights by flipping the switch at the door.

Walking to his massive carved desk, I inhale deeply and realize it smells like Ford in here. I didn’t realize Ford had a smell until now, but it’s divine and I breathe in again.

When I reach his desk, I open the drawer on the left but see nothing but pens, paperclips, and some chewing gum in there.

He said left drawer, right?

Maybe not.

I sit down in his massive leather chair and propel it to the right, reaching out for the right-hand drawer. Laying on top is a navy-blue folder with “The Hendrix Group” stamped in gold foil, and I know this is what I need to bring to the front podium for Kenneth to pick up. I start to push the chair back so I can stand up, but something catches my eye under his desk.

I see a plastic bin, not even half full of documents thrown in, but it’s the brown envelope on top that made me pause.

Because I saw the word “Jaden” and that’s not an overly common name.

I bend over and grab the edge of the bin, pulling it out so I can see a little bit better once it’s out of the shadow of the desk.

And there, laying right on top, is a thick manila envelope addressed to Jaden Beckett with his address as well as The Sinful Night Club’s return address on it. There’s no postage though, but it’s clear at some point, this was going to be mailed.

Whatever “this” is, I take very keen note that my gut twists as if something doesn’t seem right. Ford never talks about Jaden, so I gathered they weren’t close friends anymore. I don’t talk about him either because he’s a prick. So for the life of me, I can’t figure out why Ford would be mailing anything to him.

Before I can talk myself out of it, I pull the silver prongs up and peel the flap back. Without any hesitation, I reach in and pull out what I immediately recognize as photos and a few DVDs. But then my eyes hone in on the first photograph, and my stomach drops so quickly I get nauseated.

On the top, there’s a black-and-white photograph of me in The Silo.

Sucking Ford’s dick while Kenneth fucks me from behind.

The next one is of Ford fucking me on the deck with just my skirt hiked up.

The photo behind it is of me sucking Ford’s dick in his office. While he sat in this chair.

I fly up out of the chair, and it rolls back so hard it hits the wall. Bile surges up into my mouth, and I swallow it back down as I flip through the stack of photos. They’re all Ford and me having sex in the club. None in his apartment, but of the handful of times we had sex in the club, there are several photos of each event.

Because I almost can’t believe it, I flip the manila envelope back over and just to make sure… yes, it’s addressed to Jaden.

But why in the fuck would Ford ever be sending this to Jaden?

Tears well up in my eyes as I realize there’s something nefarious going on between Ford and my brother, and I’ve apparently been a pawn in it all. I pick up a DVD, but I don’t know what to do with it. I have to assume it’s either more photos or Jesus—my stomach clenches—video of me having sex in the club.

I stand there… just blankly staring now at the top photograph, feeling my entire body start to turn inward from the humiliation. I wasn’t humiliated when I did those things. I had loved doing them, because I was in a safe environment.

And all along… I was never safe at all.

“Thalia.” I hear Ford’s voice and look up to see him walking toward me. His eyes flick down to the stack of photos and the envelope in my hand, and then back up to me. They’re filled with wariness and unease.

“You son of a bitch,” I whisper, my throat too constricted with a million different emotions to get out much more than that.

“It’s not what it seems,” he says hastily as he puts his hands out in a motion to calm me down. He’s looking at me like I’m a wild animal getting ready to bolt.

My voice is still low, barely audible but now it quakes with fury. “It looks like you were going to mail sex photos to my brother.”

“I was, but I changed my mind,” Ford says, still holding his hands out. “If you’ll just let me explain—”

“I don’t want to hear a fucking thing you’ve got to say,” I yell at him and suddenly I’ve found my voice. “There is nothing you could say that would justify this.”

“I know,” he yells back at me, then in a softer voice as he runs a frustrated hand through his hair, he says, “I know. But at least give me the chance.”

“You don’t deserve it,” I say as I spin from the desk and run to the office door, clutching the stack of vile photos in my arms.

“I hate your brother,” Ford calls after me, and I falter. Then I come to a stop when he says, “So much that I thought this would be a way to hurt him. It was for revenge. That’s not a justification, it’s just the reason I was going to do it. It had nothing to do with you, and I never wanted you to get hurt. But I changed my mind and couldn’t go through with it. Hurting Jaden wasn’t worth hurting you.”

I snort, and then give a hysterical laugh as I turn to look at him. “Well, joke is on you, Ford, because this wouldn’t have hurt Jaden. He wouldn’t give two shits about this stuff.”

“What?” Ford asks in disbelief.

My voice is sharp with malice as I tell him, “Who do you think made the original loan to me, Ford? Who do you think beat me up when I couldn’t come up with the money?”

I don’t miss the way Ford’s eyes flame with fury and his jaw goes rock hard.

“I’ll kill him,” he grits out, with his fists opening and closing tightly as his body seems to vibrate with rage.

I give a mocking laugh at Ford even as the tears break free of my eyes and fall down my cheeks. “I don’t give a shit what you do to Jaden. I don’t give a shit what you do at all, Ford. I just never want to see you again.”

“Thalia,” Ford calls to me as I grab the door and tear it open. I can hear him coming after me, so before I can take three steps down the hallway, I spin on him. He comes to a halt just a foot away.

I suck in a breath. In a voice laced with so much hurt and pain it hurts my own ears to hear it, I tell him, “If you have any care for me at all… don’t come after me. Respect my decision to leave and let me go on with my life.”

Ford’s entire body deflates as his expression turns haunted. He rubs his hands over his face and when he drops them, he looks resigned. Nodding, he says, “If that’s what you want.”

And oh, God… my heart feels like it’s collapsing, the pain is so intense. If that’s what I want, how come his capitulation is making me hurt like this?

Before I start sobbing, I turn around and quickly walk down the private hall to the lobby.

I keep my head down, although I know people are watching me.

Then I’m out of The Sinful Night Club, and I don’t look back once.