Monroe, Marla - Desire for Two (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (15 page)

“You going to be okay, D?”

“No, but I’ll make it anyway. Dammit if I didn’t fall in love with them, Byron. What in the hell am I going to do?” She felt the tears sliding from her eyes.

“It will be okay, D. As soon as you get home, we’ll go out and have a drink and you can cuss men all night with me. Jim will understand. Hell, he might even go with us.

“I can just see Jim sitting at a bar with us,” Desire said through her tears.

“Oh, hell, Byron, they’re back. I’ve got to go.”

“Talk to you later. I’m always here for you.”

“I know, bye.”

Desire hung up and hurried to the bathroom. She needed to splash some cold water on her face to smooth out the red ravages of her crying. She heard them walk into the office and call out her name.

“I’m in the bathroom. I’ll be right out,” she called out. Damn.

She patted her face with the hand towel and then applied a little concealer just in case. When she opened the door, she knew something was definitely wrong. Both men looked guilty, and Clay smiled a little too wide.

“Hey, baby. You almost finished with work for the day?” Clay asked.

“You’re not,” she said. You have a conference call in thirty minutes. You can’t miss this one so get in there and look at your folders to be ready for it.”

“Damn, I forgot about that,” Elliot said. He turned around and disappeared into the office.

Clay looked at her and smiled that too-wide grin again. When he walked over and pulled her into his arms, she resisted. He frowned.

“What’s wrong?”

“You need to be concentrating on work,” she said in her best no-nonsense voice.

“Is everything okay? You look like you’ve been crying,” he said, his brows furrowing.

“Everything is fine. I’ve just been staring at the computer screen for the last few hours is all. Go prepare for the call. Then you can approve the letters I have ready to go out.”

“All work and no play…” he began.

“Right, dull as cardboard. Now go with Elliot and get ready for that call. If you put it off again, you might lose the Yarborough account.” She pushed him toward Elliot’s office and watched him close the door behind himself.

What was going on? Did they have their fiancée there in town with her here too? Surely they wouldn’t have been that indiscreet. It wasn’t like them. They were always prepared. Maybe the other woman had arrived early or without them expecting her. She needed to figure out a way to leave that wouldn’t cause a stir among everyone. Maybe she should just get sick. It wouldn’t take much for that to happen.

Desire finished the contract she was working on and closed down the computer. She looked at her watch. They would be tied up for another thirty or forty minutes. If she had a car, she could grab her things and go home, but without a car…

Elliot’s door opened and he called her in the office. She grabbed her note pad and pencil and followed him back, closing the door behind herself.

“They want some changes to their contract. I need you to make a list for me,” Elliot said. Clay smiled at her across the desk.

For the next hour, she took notes and got coffee for the two men. They acted as if they couldn’t have made the notes themselves, though they probably would have had she not been there.

“I think that’s about all, then,” the senior Mr. Yarborough finally said. “Get that contract back to us as soon as you can for us to approve so we can get this conference center off the ground. I’m ready for this baby to be put to bed.”

“We’ll have it to you by the middle of next week.” Elliot looked over at Desire as if she held the answer.

She shrugged and nodded. Whether it would be her or not, it would be ready when they wanted it. What was going on with them? One minute she felt like they couldn’t be without her close to them and the next they were picking out a new admin.

The phone rang. Desire picked it up by habit.

“C-E Middleton’s office. How may I help you?”

“I need to speak to Elliot please. It’s Ann. He knows who I am.” A cold finger of dread curled around her gut and twitched inside of her.

“One moment please.” She put the caller on hold. “Elliot, there’s an Ann on the phone who said you would know who she was. Did you want to take it?”

Was it her imagination or did his face go a little bit pale? Desire felt like she’d gotten her answer when Clay grabbed her hand and pulled her toward his office.

“He’ll take it. Come on, I want to talk to you about something.” He dragged her into his office and closed the door.

“What’s going on, Clay?” she finally asked when he sat her in the chair across from the desk and he took the chair next to her.

“Someone’s already told you, haven’t they,” he demanded.

“Told me what? That you’re already interviewing replacements for me without even letting me know I’m fired? Yeah, Clay. I’ve heard the news.”

He groaned and closed his eyes, leaning back against the back of the chair before sitting up again.

“It’s not what you think, baby. We needed someone to help there while you’re here. Elliot and I didn’t want you always being busy when we wanted to relax some.”

“Then you need someone for here and let me stay there. I live there, not here.” She knew he wasn’t telling her all the truth. She could feel it in her bones. A woman knows when her man is lying.

“But we want you here with us when we’re here,” he tried to explain.

“I’m not buying it. If you’re tired of me, tell me, and give me a good recommendation so I can find a decent job somewhere else. Don’t string me along, Clay.”

“We’re not stringing you along, Desire. We want you.”

“Okay, tell me two things.”

“Anything,” he said.

“Do you already have a name for the contract and just don’t want to add it yet because of me?”

“Aw, baby.”

“Don’t ‘aw, baby’ me. Answer the question.” She crossed her arms over her chest.

“Yeah, we already have the name.”

She swallowed hard and drew in a deep breath through her nose. Okay, she could handle this.

“Is Elliot talking to his fiancée on the phone right now?”

Clay turned almost white at her question.

“Never mind. I think I already have my answer,” she said quietly.

“I’m going to go pack my bags. I’d appreciate it if someone could drive me back to the city. I need to get started looking for another job.”

“Baby, we don’t want you to go. We want you with us,” he said in a strangled voice.

“I’m not a whore, and I’m not going to be your mistress. Now is there someone, or do I need to call a friend to come and get me?”

“Please, Desire. Don’t do this, baby.”

“Fine.”

She pulled out her cell phone and dialed Byron’s number. He answered on the first ring.

“Can you come get me? I need a ride home.”

“I’ll be there in a few hours. Where do I pick you up?” he asked.

“There’s a quaint motel there in town. I’ll be in the office waiting on you.”

She ended the call and slipped it back in her pocket. Then she walked out the door and back to the main office, where she picked up her purse and walked out of the building. She didn’t even bother hiding the tears this time. She couldn’t have stopped them if she had tried.

Chapter Twenty

“What do you mean she left?” Elliot yelled.

“She walked out of the office and over to the motel. She called someone to come pick her up. What was I supposed to do, lie to her? We’ve already lied by omission. I wasn’t about to make it worse,” Clay yelled back.

“Aw, hell. We’ve got to stop her.” Elliot jumped up and grabbed the keys to the truck. There was no way she was leaving without talking to him first.

He slammed the truck into gear and spun out of the parking place before his brother had his door closed.

“Fuck, Elliot. She’s not going anywhere for at least two hours. It takes that long to drive here,” Clay groused as he struggled with the seatbelt while holding on to the dashboard.

“We should have told her the whole truth to begin with,” Elliot said. “I’m telling her all of it—now.”

“All of it? Including, Ann?” Clay asked.

“Including Ann.”

Clay didn’t say anything more, and Elliot was glad. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do after that. It would all depend on Desire. Their entire future depended on Desire. If she refused to wait for them, he wasn’t sure what he would do. He didn’t think he could face a life without her in it. But if they had a child, he had to. That child would come first.

Elliot slid into the parking spot outside their motel rooms and cut the engine. Now that he was there, he wasn’t sure what he was going to say. Disgusted with himself, he climbed out of the truck and waited on Clay to join him before knocking on her door.

“Desire, we want to talk to you,” Elliot said after knocking on the door and getting no answer.

“We have nothing to say to each other,” she finally called out.

“We have a lot to say. At least I do,” Elliot told her.

“Go away and let me leave with some dignity, Elliot. Don’t embarrass me any more than I already am.”

“You don’t have any reason to be embarrassed, baby,” Clay cut in.

Elliot glowered at him. Clay frowned right back at him.

“Look, Desire, there have been a lot of half-truths told today. I want to be sure you have the complete truth before you make a decision to quit us.” Elliot clenched his hands, wanting to kick the door in and make her his.

“I think you’ve already made that decision for me.”

“No, you don’t understand. We weren’t trying to replace you. We wanted more time with you.”

Silence.

“Desire, I don’t want to do this through a closed door. Please open the door and let me talk to you.” Elliot’s breathing grew raspy with fear.

He heard the locks click, and then the door opened. He and Clay stepped up to go inside. What he saw stopped him, though. She had on blue jeans and a T-shirt accenting her generous breasts. The tight jeans had his cock elongating down his leg. He heard Clay’s indrawn breath next to him. But it was the sight of her standing by her suitcase that nearly broke his heart.

She’d been crying. Her mascara was smeared and her cheeks were red from where she’d been rubbing her face. Her hair was a mess, though she’d pulled it back in a ponytail to get it out of her face. And she was shaking all over.

“Go ahead”—
sniff
—“and say whatever you’ve got to say.”
Sniff, sniff.

“Aw, baby.” Clay took a step toward her, and she backed up, throwing her hands up.

“Don’t, Clay.”

“Clay,” Elliot said quietly.

“Fuck this.” Clay walked back outside and slammed the door behind him.

* * * *