Hidden Paradise

chapter FOURTEEN



Mac

Lou left the dining room arm in arm with the Paint Boys, all three of them deep in conversation. Did she know what she was doing? Surely she wasn’t planning a threesome with them? Mac felt a pang of alarm that she was the victim of a pair of sexual predators (because to think she might be a willing participant was unthinkable).

Mac rushed after them and tapped Lou on the shoulder. “Mind if I have a word?”

She turned, eyebrows raised, and the Paint Boys continued forward.

“Well?” she said.

Not good. Downright frosty, in fact.

“I know it’s probably none of my business, but I wanted to warn you about those two. They’re sort of kinky.”

“And?”

“And I wouldn’t want to see you get into anything you couldn’t handle.”

It seemed a perfectly reasonable thing for him to say, but it didn’t improve her attitude. She drew her shawl around herself and glared.

“Anything I couldn’t handle?”

“Yes.”

“What a hypocrite you are,” she said, her voice cold and clear.

Uh-oh.

“You assume, with no justification whatsoever, that I’m thinking about screwing two guys, and you advise me against it. Does that seem like a double standard to you, or did you literally screw your brains out this afternoon?”

His heart sank. “That was you, opening the door.”

“Yeah, that was me. Doesn’t it strike you, Mac, that you’re a little possessive for someone who turned me down this afternoon for two of the dumbest women I’ve ever met?”

“I wasn’t interested in their brains.” As a joke, it fell flat. “But you dumped me—”

“Yes, I did.” She continued to glare at him. “But I found your note and I thought you deserved some sort of explanation. I came looking for you, and you weren’t in the bathhouse, so I asked after you at the spa reception desk. Funny how much the woman there giggled. She must have thought you were a real stud. And guess what I found—you healing your broken heart in the way you know best.”

“It wasn’t like that.” He wanted to explain the note—that he’d left it there before she dumped him—but she didn’t give him a chance.

“Is it so hard to believe that I might be attracted to guys who are, although you may find it hard to believe, actually good at something and with whom you can hold an interesting conversation? And whether we were intending to screw each other’s brains out or talk about Georgian interior design, you know what, Mac? It’s got nothing to do with you. Not anymore, not ever.”

“Lou, I—”

“Did it ever occur to you that I may have been interested in a threesome?”

“Well, no, I…” He could only stare at her. “I didn’t think… I mean, we don’t—didn’t—really know each other that well. You didn’t seem the type. I thought…”

“That I’m not that sort of girl?” She laughed. “Oh, that’s rich, Mac. Let’s get it quite clear, shall we? What I do is none of your business. I liked you for a time, but now, it’s too late. Got it?”

God, what a ballbuster. To think he’d felt sorry for her, or, dumb jerk that he was, that she needed his protection. “I get it, Lou. See you around.”

* * *


Lou

SHE CAUGHT UP WITH JON AND Simon and linked her arms into theirs.

“Everything okay, dear?”

“Fine.”

“Ooh, Mac does have a lovely glower,” Simon said.

The two of them exchanged a meaningful glance.

“We’ve never done a couple, have we?” Simon said. “Do you think Mac would…?”

“I wouldn’t want him to. And better not count me in, either,” Lou said.

“Oh, dear,” Jon said.

Simon clucked his tongue. “Has Mac been a naughty boy?”

She shrugged, proud of her coolness. “There was never much there, I’m afraid.”

“And you’re absolutely sure we can’t help out?”

Maybe it was the wine, maybe it was admiration for their professional skills and the enjoyment she found in their company, but at that moment she felt an enormous affection for them both. But sex with them? No way. For all their naughty perversity, she didn’t find them attractive, and the idea of the three of them in bed together made her cringe. “No, thank you, but you’re so sweet to offer.”

“I understand. It’s so difficult to find good help these days,” Simon said. She really, really hoped their giggles would give Mac entirely the wrong impression.

* * *

BUT LATER, ALONE IN HER ROOM, she wondered why she felt so disappointed and lonely. Maybe Chris and Peter were still up and would tolerate her company, but when she crossed to the door and peered into the gloom of the passage, she changed her mind. She didn’t like the feel of that dark, cavernous space—it was altogether a bit too much like a bad Gothic novel. Besides, she had plenty of dark, cavernous feelings at the moment, a huge emptiness that she could attribute only a little of to Julian. It was Mac she’d lost this time, and it hurt, hell, it hurt. But she’d made the right decision, she was sure of it.

She brushed her teeth and retreated into bed, listening to the gentle hiss of rain outside. To hell with him. He was dishonest, greedy, unpredictable, selfish. He was everything she didn’t and shouldn’t want.

She remembered his hands, his touch. I’m good at you, Lou. Good in you.

And today, her shock at opening the door and seeing him rapt, astonished, a participant in some holy rite receiving absolution as the two naked women twined themselves around and over him. Had she ever given him that sort of ecstatic pleasure? Could she? Or, equally important, could she lose herself enough to receive it?

Now she’d never know.

She wanted to persuade herself that she was angry. Maybe she was, but her predominant emotions were abandonment, sorrow, just when she thought she was emerging from that dark tunnel. If that was what he wanted, why hadn’t he asked her?

“Really, Mac, your excuses were pathetic,” she said as though he was next to her. She turned her face to the pillow to see if any of his scent remained from the previous night.

Nothing.

Good, she tried to convince herself. She didn’t need him.

She ran her hand over her breasts and then down her belly. She didn’t need anyone but herself. Mac had been a mistake, an aberration—her entry back into the world of relationships and sexuality and some of it she’d enjoyed a lot. But hadn’t she known all along he wasn’t right for her? It didn’t explain why she now felt lonely and abandoned.