Open Doors (Suncoast Society #27)(4)

She stared up at him, doing exactly that for a moment. “That would be nice,” she finally said.

“I know, right? And we can have full nudity. No worrying about if a neighbor will call the cops because they heard someone moaning out an orgasm and thought they were being killed or something. It actually removes a lot of liability. And several people have already told me they’d be willing to chip in buying sodas and supplies and stuff like that, in addition to a donation for coming to the play parties.”

“Sounds like you have it all figured out.”

“Not all of it. But a good start.”

“So when are you going to fess up how long you’ve actually been working on this without telling me first?”

“Kel just bought that industrial park about a month or so ago. There weren’t any plans before that.”

She stared at him.

“There weren’t any serious plans before that,” he amended, seeing he was busted. “I’ll admit, Kaden and I—”

“That explains it,” she said. “I love that man, but he’s an instigator.”

“Kaden and I kind of looked into stuff several months ago, but nothing serious came of it. I didn’t really find any affordable properties that would have been worth investigating, that would suit our needs, and dropped it. Then Kel bought that industrial complex, and he has a vacant unit. It’s like it was meant to be.”

“I didn’t agree to be poly when we got married.”

That confused him. “Huh?”

She rolled her eyes. “When do I get to look at this new time and money suck we’re now freaking married to? And don’t tell me we’re not married to it, because we are.”

He grinned. “We’re meeting Kel over there tonight and then going out to dinner with him and the Fosters.”

“They’ve got money. Why aren’t they doing this?”

“She’s pregnant. With little kids underfoot, they can’t.”

“You just have an answer for everything, don’t you?”

“I try, sweetheart. I try.”





Derrick and Marcia arrived at the industrial complex a little after six that evening. Kel wasn’t there yet, but Derrick already had a key to the space. She realized that when he pulled it out of his pocket to unlock the door.

So this wasn’t a maybe deal, like she’d hoped. One that she still thought she might be able to talk him out of.

This was, for all intents and purposes, a done deal. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have keys.

Dammit.

When Derrick opened the door and led the way through, Marcia stopped inside the doorway and stared. Dim evening light still filtered through the four opaque roof panels acting as skylights, revealing the cavernous space.

“Holy crap,” she muttered. “I didn’t realize it was this big.”

“I know, right? The other reason this is perfect is it’s actually a double unit. He doesn’t have many of those.”

Their voices echoed through the space.

“What was this used for?”

“A guy who runs an Internet store was using it for his merchandise. That’s why he’d installed the AC units, to keep the temp down.”

She turned and looked at the front wall. “Those roll-up doors need to be insulated. Not just because of heat, but for sound.”

“Kel said the guy had two temporary walls in front of them that the tenant took down when he left because he never used the roll-up doors after he moved in. Kel took pictures before the guy moved. It’ll be easy to recreate them.”

She turned again, her mind racing despite herself. “We’ll need an office, eventually. The front door needs to open into an entry area so we can screen people and contain them before they pass through. Also, for privacy. That way, random people standing outside can’t see what’s going on inside. And so we can make sure people coming in are actually on the guest list before we let them through.”

“That’s a good idea. I hadn’t thought about that.”

“And if we’re building an office, you can build a loft area on top. Storage.” She pointed at the bathrooms. “Loft over the bathrooms, too, and add a sink for a medical and edge play area. Gets it up off the floor, and keeps people from accidentally bumping into someone.”

His smile widened. “Good ideas.”

They turned as Kel walked in. “Oh, hey,” he said. “You been here long?”

“No, just got here,” Derrick told him. “But listen to what Marcia just thought of…”

She tuned them out as she walked across the space to the bathrooms. Inside, they had two stalls each and were wheelchair accessible, which solved another potential problem. Bathrooms were always a premium at the private parties.

When she turned, the men stopped talking and looked at her.

“Well?” Kel asked. “What do you think?”

She crossed her arms over her chest and stared up at the tall ceilings, at least twenty feet up. “I think,” she said, “that someone’s going to have to rent a scissor lift to rig permanent lighting if we’re going to really turn this into a play space. We can get by temporarily, but we don’t need people tripping over extension cords.” She pointed at the four sets of fluorescent lights on the ceiling. “Those lights won’t cut it for ambiance.”