Ro couldn’t believe she was telling them this. Actually, she couldn’t believe Zach’s words had triggered that much of a reaction in her. They had just been so close to the same words that Evelyn, the Mistress of Evil—as Rowan had begun to refer to her—had uttered as she walked into the bedroom where Ro and Charles were about to make love. Except that wasn’t what it was for Charles Leonard Ashford III. Despite the old money name and pedigree, he’d only been a pawn. Evelyn had been the spider, and Rowan had been the fly. Charles had just been the bait in a fucked up trap.
It had all started one night at a closing dinner. Rowan had been leaving the restaurant, when a partner had asked if she wanted to share a cab. She’d thought it was odd he was even at the dinner, because she didn’t recall him working on the deal. But as a second year associate, Ro wasn’t about to say no. He’d been charming and flirtatious when he’d tossed the cabbie some bills and asked him to wait so he could walk Ro the thirty feet from the curb to her building. Rowan had thought the move strange, but didn’t dwell on it. A few days later, he’d dropped by her office and brought her a latte and stayed to chat. The next evening, while working even later than normal, he’d stopped and asked her out for a late dinner. Ro had been flattered. They didn’t work in the same practice area—with Rowan a corporate associate and Charles a litigation partner—so Ro didn’t think it would raise too many eyebrows. The firm didn’t forbid dating co-workers, just frowned on it when you reported directly to the person you were dating.
Charles was attractive, in a three-piece suit kind of way. He was tall, with a runner’s physique, expensively cut blond hair, and pale blue eyes. And she had thought, naively, that he was interested in her. Although, she supposed, he probably had been at least somewhat interested in her. She hadn’t imagined the bulge in his Brooks Brothers suit pants when he’d walked her to the door of her building after dinner and kissed her for the first time. She hadn’t imagined the desire in his eyes when, after several more late night dinners, he’d finally talked her into coming home with him. And he had definitely been interested when he’d thrust himself against her while they were tangled up in his bed, about to have sex. And that erection hadn’t deflated when Evelyn stood in the doorway, naked, but for the black strap-on harness and giant black cock jutting out from it. Ro shivered at the memory. As far as unpleasant surprises went, that was a doozy.
Graham squeezed her hand.
“Sorry, I just ... I had a rather unpleasant surprise once. The closest I’ve ever come to a three-way, and you could probably say that it scarred me for life.”
Graham’s grip tightened. Before he could speak or jump to anymore conclusions, Ro quickly said, “It’s okay; it wasn’t like I was raped or anything. I just got a little too up close and personal with the pointy end of a strap-on that was connected to a rather evil woman—Evelyn—who used a sorry excuse for a man—Charles—to get me into her bed so they could both fuck me. When I declined, rather vehemently, she didn’t take it well. She decided to destroy my career, which at that point, was pretty much my entire life and the culmination of everything I’d been working for since high school. To make matters worse, I wasn’t the first associate they’d run that game on. Like I said, unpleasant surprise, but I definitely won’t be making that mistake again.”
Ro was surprised at how easily that came out. Granted, it was the extra-abbreviated Cliffs Notes version, but it was more than she’d told anyone else. So much had happened in the last week that it made Evelyn and Charles’s little game seem so trivial.
What still bothered her, however, was how easily she had fallen for it and how, even though her life had been work, and her co-workers had been more acquaintances than friends, not a single one of them had stood by her when Evelyn destroyed her reputation at the firm. Evelyn had claimed that Ro had tried to steal her fiancé, even though Rowan had no idea if she and Charles had actually been engaged. And if that wasn’t a bad enough rumor to start, Evelyn followed it up by telling everyone that when Charles told Rowan he wasn’t interested, Rowan had planned to blackmail him to get ahead at work. Which made no fucking sense! The rumors spread fast and hot, like wildfire during a drought. Rowan couldn’t walk from the elevator to her office without looks of disgust. She had refused to cower, because she’d done nothing wrong … except be stupid enough to think that Charles’s interest was legit. Evelyn had demanded she be fired immediately, and the managing partner hadn’t yet announced her fate. Before the plane crashed, she’d been fairly certain that day was going to end with her carrying a file box of her things out of the building, escorted by security.
Ugh. Whatever. It was over and done with, and she was never going back. Not that there was anything to go back to anyway. Not a lot of legal work was getting done without any working electronics. People had way bigger problems to deal with right now. Like survival.
When she finally looked up, she realized she had somehow ended up in Graham’s lap, and Zach was standing right next to the bed, his mouth gaping open.
“You want to share a few more details?” Zach asked.