Page 41 of The Menagerie

She wastes zero time in interrogating Rowan.

“Sooo, looks like you and Malcolm hit it off last time.” There’s a knowing smile playing on her face that makes Rowan’s cheeks flush.

“Yeah, kinda.” He rubs at the back of his neck.

“Are you gonna be his new Dom, then?”

“Unless it turns out I suck at it, yeah.”

Her smile widens to a full-on Cheshire cat grin, eyebrows raised nearly to her hairline in excitement.

But to his surprise, she doesn’t sayYou’ll be great,or something optimistic along those lines. Instead she says, “If you do, he’ll let you know.”

Somehow that makes him feel better. Because the truth is, hecouldvery well suck at it, or not be what Mal wants at all. Camilla clearly knows that, and she also apparently knows that Mal would be honest with Rowan about it if that were the case. And something about that blunt truth is significantly more comforting than any reassurance she could have given him.

She types something quickly on her laptop. “You’re all set. Malcolm reserved the Gold Room for you two tonight. Fourth floor, as I’m sure you could’ve guessed. He isn’t here yet, but he can show you to it when he gets here.”

“Thanks,” he says, fighting to keep his own smile at a normal level and not match her excitement.

“Nooo problem!”

He heads toward the elevator and can’t help but feel like he was being tested. Sized up, maybe. Idly, he wonders how close she and Mal are, and if he told her anything about their time together last week, or if she intuited it from seeing them walk out together.

On the fourth floor, the lighthearted teasing continues from Jeremiah at the bar.

“Back for more, stud?”

At this rate Rowan’s pretty sure his blush is going to be permanently imprinted on his skin. He might have to change his hair color so it doesn’t clash. Something dark, maybe.

“Wouldn’t you be?”

Jeremiah laughs, the movement causing the thin golden chains dangling from his ears to catch in the light in a way that reminds Rowan of Camilla’s glittering eyeshadow. Now that Rowan takes him in properly, it almost looks like they coordinated outfits, Jeremiah wearing black slacks and a black button-up with the top three buttons undone, revealing a glimpse of sculpted abs. Once again, Rowan wonders if he would have hooked up with him had he not gotten into the gangbang.

“I meant what I said last time—that Malcolm’s a one-and-done type guy,” Jeremiah says.

Recognition trickles through Rowan slowly at first, then all at once like a deluge. That must mean….

“You actually hooked up with him?”

“Looong time ago, but yes.”

That gets Rowan’s brain whirring.How long ago? Who initiated? Who topped, if anyone? Was it kinky or vanilla? Why did it only happen once?

The litany of questions must be written all over Rowan’s face, because it elicits another chuckle from Jeremiah.

“Don’t think too hard about it. We were tipsy and bitchin’ about how we hadn’t had any good dick recently.”

Yeah, Rowan’s definitely gonna think hard about that. Despite all the burning, invasive questions flitting through his mind, the main one he wants an answer to is, “Was it good?”

A flash of brilliantly white teeth accompanies Jeremiah’s answer. “Very.”

He’s gonna think about thatreallyhard.

“Blue Ribbon, right?” Jeremiah asks after a beat.

It’s really a wonder how everyone here seems so nonchalant about wreaking havoc on Rowan’s imagination. But he really should have expected as much from a sex club.

He blinks, willing away images of strong thighs wrapped around a taut waist, and feels himself nodding, too distracted to feel embarrassed by his drink choice. “Yeah, thanks.”

---