Page 19 of Shadow

Olivia shrugged. “It’s home. Always has been. My absence doesn’t change that.”

“You’re home for me, Liv. I could say the same thing about my absence.”

She was determined to not start a fight, so she sucked in a sharp breath and did her best not to tense up as they stopped in front of a room.

“This is a quiet playroom. Next door is a medical playroom. Then there are a couple of rooms furnished for bondage and suspension, and at the end of the hall is the Library with a capital L.”

Ripley poked his head into the room they’d stopped at. A woman was giving a man a sensual massage on one table, and there was a cuddle fest happening on the couch between four or five people. All while soft relaxing music played.

“I’ve never seen the appeal of medical play, so we can skip this one if it’s all the same to you.” he said when they approached the next door.

Olivia laughed. “Sure. And the other rooms are pretty self-explanatory. The Library?”

“Is that a code for something or did he actually put a library in here?”

“It’s an actual library. You know Gage is a total bookworm, right? He’s got quite the collection. But people do sometimes play there. Darci and Carrie and their spouses, for instance.”

“Yeah? They all sleep together?”

Olivia chuckled. “They definitely play together. I’m not sure how far they take it, though.”

The Library was quiet tonight, with just one girl sitting in the corner reading. She glanced up but didn’t say anything or even smile. Just turned her gaze back to her book.

“What do you think?” Olivia asked quietly as they stood in the middle of the room.

Ripley walked to a shelf and pulled a title. “Pretty impressive. Gage always has been smarter than the rest of us. Didn’t think he read porn, though.” He held up the book to show a shirtless guy on the cover.

“He tried to put a little something for everyone in here. A few months ago, he sent Carrie and Darci on a shopping spree. I’m sure they had something to do with the shirtless men.”

“You haven’t been here in a few months.”

Olivia shrugged. “I see Peter and Carrie when I can. At least once every few weeks. Darci’s a little harder because of who she’s married to. I didn’t even know she was pregnant until it was almost time for the baby to be born. That’s how tight they kept that news.”

Ripley plopped onto the large sofa and patted the space next to him. “Come talk to me, Liv.”

“I don’t want to.”

He crooked a finger, giving her a dominant stare that had various parts of her body fluttering. But she had to hold out and be strong. She couldn’t just give in.

“Come on. We don’t have to talk about heavy stuff. Just tell me what’s going on. How you’ve been. Catch me up on the last couple of years.”

She sighed and moved to sit next to him. Saying no to Ripley was always impossible. Telling him about her ex wasn’t something she was looking forward to, but it seemed like the most obvious place to start. “You already know most of it. When I didn’t hear from you for six months, I got on a dating app. Met Mario in a roundabout way—it’s a long story—and we got married a couple of months later. It was a whirlwind thing. The tabloids loved it. We didn’t even sign a prenup. I thought for sure he was going to take everything I had when I finally filed for divorce. But then my dear sweet overprotective friends intervened, and I ended up with a sizable settlement.”

The girl in the corner cleared her throat, and Olivia glanced her way. “Sorry. Are we disturbing you?”

She shook her head. “Nah. I just thought you weren’t going to talk about the heavy stuff.”

Ripley glared at the girl, and Olivia smacked him. “She was here first. It’s not like we’re exactly being quiet.”

The girl closed her book and stood. “I’ll just go sit in the bar. You two clearly have things to work out. I’m Nat, by the way.”

Ripley winked at her, and Olivia smacked him again. This time, he caught her wrist and squeezed hard. “That’s the last time you hit me without consequences, Olivia.”

He always called her Liv unless she was in trouble. She tried not to react and waited for him to drop her hand. But he didn’t. Instead, he leaned in and pressed his lips to hers.

His smell invaded her senses, and she couldn’t help the moan that escaped her lips. The noise she made just encouraged him to deepen the kiss. Somewhere in the back of her head, a voice screamed for her to stop this. But his lips felt so good on hers, and the man knew how to kiss her within an inch of her life and leave her soaking and needy.

But the voice grew louder, and she used her other hand to push him away, forcing him to break the kiss. “What do you want from me, Ripley?” She rubbed her wrist when he finally let it go and tried not to let on that she was breathless.

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