Wicked Need (The Wicked Horse Series Book 3)(26)

“Are you saying you want to be exclusive?” she asks hesitantly, the smile dying instantly and her lips flattening out.

Well f*ck… maybe I was reading her wrong. Maybe she can’t give up the gang bang or something.

“Well, if that’s not something you’re interested in—”

“Okay, let’s do it,” she blurts out.

“Be exclusive?” I ask, just so I make sure we’re on the same page. I know what it’s like to be on the very opposite page from where you think someone is.

“Yes,” is all she says.

“What about The Silo?” I cautiously ask.

“That was never really my thing,” she says sadly, and it makes my heart squeeze in pain that her * husband made her do that. “I only went back after he died because it was at least something I knew, and I didn’t feel so alone there.”

“Then it’s agreed… we take a break from The Silo,” I reassure her. Of course, I’d have to get with Bridger and explain to him that I was taking a hiatus. I’m only a part-time Fantasy Maker there, so I won’t even be missed. Plus, I know he won’t begrudge me this.

Whatever this is, but I’m rolling with it.

Cat stands up from the table and picks up both plates. I stand as well, quickly taking them from her hands. “You cooked so I clean.”

“Not going to argue there,” she says smugly and sits back down.

I intend on making quick work of the kitchen because now that I’ve disclosed my baggage with Tarryn—which admittedly pales in comparison to hers with her dead husband—I really, really want to get back to the business of sex with this gorgeous creature.

“Why does she call you now?” Cat asks, and it takes me a moment to realize she’s shifted back to Tarryn.

I don’t bother to turn to look at her, working at filling the sink with soapy water. “I have no clue, but it’s been a pattern since we broke up. She’ll get involved with someone, and then I won’t hear from her. Sometimes for months. When she’s single again, she calls me. Or sometimes, she shows up on my doorstep to talk, or she’ll ask me for a favor that is seemingly innocuous, but she tends to think if I help her out, I’ll want to get back together with her.”

“Maybe it’s because you’re not competing anymore, so now she thinks you’re more ideally suited at this point in your lives,” Cat points out.

I scrape the tiny bit of food left on Cat’s plate in the garbage and stick both plates in the suds before turning my attention to packaging up the leftovers. “Just because I’m not competing anymore doesn’t change who I am. She’s still the same person who gave up because things got too hard, and I just can’t respect that. What that really tells me is that no matter how hard I might have pushed her away, she wasn’t the right one for me anyway.”

“It’s fascinating to me that you’ve had this whole other life outside The Silo,” she says almost in awe. “You just never think about the people you come in contact with there outside of that building.”

“The Silo is about fantasy, not reality. It’s easy to leave your real life at the door.”

“Except that was my real life, inside The Silo. There was no fantasy for me,” she says, and my gut clenches hard.

I grab a towel, give my hands a quick dry, and turn to Cat. “That’s over with,” I tell her softly. “The day Samuel died is the day your real life started.”

I watch her carefully. The way her brown eyes look at me blankly a moment, as if the words bounce off, and then a small flare of hope sparks as she swallows hard. Finally, a small nod of her head while she murmurs in agreement with me, “Yes… my real life has just started.”

Good.

She understands.

Now I wonder what she’s going to make of it.





Chapter 10


Cat



“All right,” Rand says as he turns the ignition of his Suburban off and unlatches his seatbelt. He turns to look at me in the passenger seat beside him. “I’m going to go hang out with my buddy, Jake, while you do your thing. Just come find me there when you’re done.”

“It could be a while,” I remind him as I also take my seatbelt off.

He just gives me an amused smile before his left hand shoots out to grab me behind the neck. Pulling me across the expanse of the front cab, he presses a hard, swift kiss to my mouth before letting me go. I actually go dizzy from the unexpected move, but mostly from the display of affection he just laid upon me. I have to restrain my fingers from touching my lips, hoping to savor the tingling he left behind.

“It’s Teton Ski and Snowboarding,” Rand says as he releases me, and then points over my shoulder. “Two blocks down East Broadway. And take your time. I’ve got nothing else going on today.”

“Okay,” I murmur as I grab my large satchel purse from the floorboard. In addition to my wallet, lip gloss, my sunglasses case, and a handful of pens, it also now carries a copy of a resume Rand helped me type up this morning. It’s pathetic and small, and we couldn’t put all of my “work” experience on there, but I did do some waitressing in addition to dancing, and I served on the board of a charity in Vegas that Samuel asked me to do. I’m hoping my youth and eagerness to learn will make up for my pathetic work history.