Dirty Filthy Fix: A Fixed Trilogy Novella (Fixed #5.5)(30)

That was what I loved about these parties. This community’s communal goal, everyone reaching toward their own climax, everyone helping everyone else attain pleasure. And sometimes it wasn’t even an orgasm, sometimes it was just watching and feeling every kind of sensation. The beautiful words exchanged. The sounds… God, the sounds that we made together. The harmony our bodies produced. It was my favorite thing in the world.

I’d never had to have any of it outside of these nights, never needed to take anyone outside of these walls, but seeing Nathan Sinclair, I wondered if that had changed.

Had he changed me? How much could I change?

I pulled him away to a bathroom to clean up with me.

“I didn’t think you’d make it tonight,” I said, not wanting to give away how glad I was to see him, but desperate to say something at the same time. To acknowledge that he was important to me.

“I wouldn’t have missed you for the world.” He kissed me, his tongue moving into the deepest parts of me, the places that I didn’t always want to share.

When he broke away, I felt unsettled.

“Busy week?” I asked, looking away as I pulled my dress on over my head, not wanting to meet his eyes. “You seemed to be working late when you sent your texts.”

“Yes. With Weston on his quote-unquote honeymoon, I had to pick up a lot of slack in the office. Donovan took his girlfriend off for the weekend, which meant they both left early yesterday, so I was working today too.” He helped straighten my dress and rubbed off my smudged eyeliner. “I took a break tonight to come and see you.”

“I’m sure everyone loved having you here.” I pushed out the bathroom door, wishing he hadn’t made tonight all about me. It made me feel shackled even though my stomach fluttered at the same time.

Once again, I was worried what he thought was going on between us.

It would sure help if I had a handle on the idea myself.

“Did you want me to grab your coat?” he asked when we were in the hall.

“Sure. That would be great.” Grabbing someone’s coat for them was harmless. Right?

He disappeared into the guest room where the coats had been stored. As soon as he was gone, Chuck Richard came up to me, fully dressed now.

“Miss T,” he said, brushing his fingers along my jawline. “You are so sexy tonight. And I’m still so hard for you. Let me come home with you.”

This was pretty standard. Almost every week he asked if he could go home with me or if I would go home with him.

“I’ll take you to a hotel if you’d rather,” he suggested this time. “We’ll keep the neighbors up all night long.”

“Sounds like a blast,” I said with a flirtatious wink. “But I’ve got my rules, Chuck.”

“Rules were made to be broken.” He rubbed his nose against mine.

I was about to give him another one of my patented brush-offs when Nate returned with my jacket. “She’s going home with me,” he said adamantly.

I stiffened.

What the—? I mean, he hadn’t even asked me. We hadn’t talked about it. He’d just assumed?

I wasn’t going to challenge him though, not in front of Chuck Richard.

“So you do know rules are made to be broken,” Chuck said, his eyes darting from me to Nate, assessing how serious the situation was. “I knew you couldn’t be that strict of a rule follower. No one here is.”

I bit back the growl threatening at the back of my throat. Because I was that strict of a rule follower.

Just somehow my “date” had yet to get it through his head.

I would have to take care of that.

Nate helped me with my coat, and I didn’t say a word, silently seething. The three of us walked out the doors together into the brisk night air. Chuck’s driver drove up and, almost immediately afterward, a cab pulled in behind his car.

Nate opened the door for me to get in. I hesitated for a second, but Chuck was still watching us, and again, I didn’t want to make a scene.

So I got into the car, my cheeks red, as much from rage as from the cold.

When Nate started to give his address to the cabbie, I interrupted and, with a pointed glare in Nate’s direction, gave mine instead.

Then, as soon as the cabbie started driving, I shoved my mask onto my forehead and laid into him. “You told Chuck Richard I was going home with you.”

“I wasn’t trying to assume,” he said apologetically.

“Damn right you weren’t trying to assume.” Fury underlined every word I spoke. “I never said I was going home with you. You didn’t even invite me!”

“Would you like—” he began.

But I cut him off before he could finish. “Don’t you dare ask me now. In hindsight. If you had asked beforehand, by the way, I would have told you the same thing I told Chuck. I have my rules for a reason.”

Nate’s head tilted with a sigh. “You can calm down. I remember your rules. I didn’t mean to step over them. I was simply trying to help you out of a sticky situation.”

“I didn’t need you! I’ve handled him by myself a hundred times in the past. I didn’t ask you to help me.”

“Well, I’m sorry for that.” His voice was calmer than mine but his irritation was just as evident. “Excuse me for wanting to help.”