Page 37 of Embracing Desire

“Yeah, you mentioned something about clients this morning,” Jed said.

“You don’t know?”Katie glanced between Jed and him.She wiggled her eyebrows.“Well, it’s to start taking reservations for your dungeon, of course.There’s a big call for playrooms like yours.”

“What?”Jed roared, and Ry laughed.Katie could always make him laugh, and it had been a long time since he felt this good around a woman.

“I’m only teasing.”Katie held her hand out to Jed, who took it.“I’m not about to advertise our activities.”

Ry’s radio went off.“Okay, I’m off.See you both later.”One quick kiss on Katie’s lips and a pointed look at Jed.

“What was that look about?”Katie asked.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”Jed opened the chair box and began unpacking it.

“I’ll figure it out.”

“You do that,” Ry said, striding toward the front door.

The doorbell rang.“Yeah, that’s the internet guy.”She spun on her heel, ducked around him, and ran ahead of him.

* * * *

Katie settled down on the sofa after dinner that night, waiting for Ry and Jed.She’d had a fun afternoon setting up her office and getting everything into place.She glanced up as both men walked into the room and took their seats on either side of her.Her pulse sped up.

“So, Katie, what are you going to do in this new office of yours?”Ry asked.

Katie smiled.“Well, one of the things I did while I was in New York was become a CPA with a specialty in forensic accounting.”

Jed whistled, and Ry shook his head.“You always had a way with numbers,” Ry said.

“Yes, and I really enjoy the work.”She did.That was one thing her father couldn’t take away from her no matter how much he tried.

“And the clients you have?”Jed asked.

“Mainly people I keep books for as a CPA.When I was working for my…” She bit her lip.She really didn’t want to bring her father’s name up.

“Go on,” Ry urged.

“When I was working for my father, I worked in the accounting department.Kind of boring.”

“Nothing you do is boring,” Jed said.

“Now that we have that out of the way, we need to talk about the past,” Ry said.The two men scooted closer to her.“We really should have discussed this before last night.I’ve been remiss.Did we scare you away when you were eighteen?”Ry asked, his voice low and husky.

Katie shook her head.She wasn’t ready to talk about this yet.But… Ry began rubbing the nape of her neck as Jed rubbed her back.Her fears started to lessen.

“We need to understand why you ran, Katie,” Jed said.

“Can’t it be enough that I’m back?”She closed her eyes against the conflicting sensations of the soothing movements of their hands against her neck and back and her stomach churning with fear she didn’t want to acknowledge.

“It won’t work if we don’t talk about why you left,” Ry said.

“It’s been working just fine so far.Why aren’t we in the dungeon?”She’d rather be there with them than having this discussion.

“Because we need to talk,” Ry said.

“Isn’t that a woman’s line?”She wanted to pull away from them, but she didn’t.Their touch was soothing.

Jed laughed.“It might be, but Ry is right.”

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