VALOROUS (A Quantum Novel)(81)

“It sucks.”


“Yes, it does, but we’re fine, sweetheart. There’s nothing to worry about. We’re together and we have each other and everything else is just…noise. Speaking of noise… What do you say we get away from it all for a little while and go on an actual honeymoon?”

“Where do you want to go?”

“How about Mexico? Unless you want to go back to New York right away, and I’ll totally understand if you do.”

“Jeez, what a decision. Sunny Mexico or freezing New York.”

“You love New York in the winter.”

“Yes, I do.” I love New York in the winter, but I’m not sure I can go back to who and what I was before I met Flynn. Don’t I belong wherever my husband is?

“It’s completely up to you. Just say the word on what you want to do, and I’ll make it happen.”

“You’d be okay with going back to New York?”

“If that’s where you want to be, that’s where I want to be.”

“What about Hayden and the movie and work and everything?”

“He and I have come to an understanding. He knows I want and need to be with you right now. I’ll work some part of every day from wherever we are, and he was cool with that.”

“Can I think about it a little?”

“Take all the time you need.” He lets out a huge yawn that tells me he’s as tired as I am from staying up half the night before. “What do you want to do today?”

He’s given me the perfect opening to ask the questions I have about the room I discovered upstairs. He runs a finger over the furrow between my brows. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

“Come on, Nat. Whatever it is, just tell me.”

“I’d rather show you, if that’s okay.”

“Sure.”

I get up out of bed, retrieve my robe from the floor and tie it around my waist.

Flynn groans. “You didn’t say I had to get dressed for this.”

“You don’t have to if you don’t want to.”

“I don’t want to.”

I take him by the hand, and he follows me up the stairs, caressing my bottom as we go. “Flynn, stop!”

“I’ll never stop. This is my favorite ass in the whole world.”

I lead him into Hayden’s bedroom. “What do you want to show me in here besides the biggest bed in the universe?”

“I know! What does he need with a bed that big?”

He doesn’t reply.

“What I want to show you is in here.”

“How did you happen to end up in Hayden’s closet?”

“I was looking for the laundry room and Fluff came in here. I chased after her, and one thing led to another, which led to this.”





Chapter 19





Natalie steps aside, and I nearly gasp at what I see. Hayden’s f*cking playroom. Natalie is in Hayden’s f*cking playroom, and I have no idea what to say right now. I’m feeling panicked. I knew Hayden had a room in his house in town but I didn’t know he had one here, too. If I’d known that, I never would’ve left Natalie alone in the house. And why in the name of f*cking hell isn’t it locked?

“Flynn?”

I glance over at her to find her looking at me curiously. That’s when I realize my dick is hard and giving away my true feelings about the room.

“I guess Hayden has his secrets.” I don’t know what else to say.

“So you didn’t know about this?”

I’m on a very slippery slope, and it’s getting slipperier by the second. “No,” I say, because it’s the truth. I didn’t know he has a room here.

“Oh.”

Does she sound disappointed or is that my hopeful imagination at work?

“Do you know what goes on here?”

“Yeah, I guess.” I venture a glance at her. “Do you?”

“I looked it up.”

“Oh.” The thought of her looking up information about sex playrooms and other such things only makes me harder, which she notices but thankfully doesn’t comment on. I’m dying to ask her what she thinks of it and whether she wants to try it, but then I remember what happened when I pinned her hands above her head. So I don’t ask. Rather, I dodge the subject. “Since we’re moving home tonight, we should hit the beach while we can.”

After a long pause, she says, “Sure, whatever you want to do. Let me put the clothes in the dryer, and I’ll be right down.”

She goes out ahead of me, and I close the door to the playroom. My heart is hammering on the way downstairs. Fuck, f*ck, FUCK! If she ever finds out what I’ve kept from her, she’ll never forgive me, especially after all the painful things she’s shared with me and no one else.

Maybe I should see this as an opportunity and just tell her the f*cking truth once and for all. But the thought of that makes my skin feel hot and tight the way it did when I had hives once as a kid. I can’t tell her. I just can’t, even though I know I should.

We pass a relaxing afternoon at the beach. At least she’s relaxed. I’m wound so tightly, my chest aches from the stress. After dinner, we pack up our belongings and head back to my place in the Hollywood Hills. The paparazzi gave up when they saw no sign of us there for more than a week.