The others snort, and Lulu laughs. “Eight months,” she says, rubbing a hand over her belly. “I have a few weeks to go, and I’ve been on my feet this whole pregnancy, since I’m still bartending down at Rapture a few nights a week. Rome’s awesome about rubbing my back and my toes every night.”
“I’m sure that’s not all he rubs,” Scarlett says, making me smirk.
“Okay, what are your questions?” I take a bite of pizza and my eyes roll back in my head. “Holy shit, this isincredible.”
“I know,” Lulu says proudly.
“My girl here is the resident chef,” Natasha says. “She’s taught me some basics, but we all flock over here to eat her food becauseholy shit it’s good.”
“So good. I might live here now. Tell Mateo I’m leaving him for Lulu.”
“Rome says he’s sworn off threesomes now that he has me,” Lulu says and looks at me likeSo sorry.“You’ll just have to stick with the sexy Mateo. What a hardship for you.”
“Wait. Do the guys dothreesomes?” I frown and sit up a little straighter. “Like, in the club? Why hasn’t this occurred to me before?”
“I willnotspeak to what any of the guys did at Rapture before you girls came into their lives,” Scarlett says, shaking her head. “No way. You don’t want that in your head.”
“Hold up.” I set my pizza down. “How do you know what they did?”
“Oh, I’m the general manager of the playroom,” she replies. “And before that, I worked the playroom. I totally had sex with the guests, but never any of your guys. That would be weird now. Glad I dodged that bullet.”
“Interesting.” I blink at her and then look to Natasha. “Do you work there too?”
“Hell no,” Natasha says, shaking her head. “I’m the prude of the group.”
“Not a prude,” Scarlett says, rolling her eyes. “Stop saying shit like that about my friend.”
Natasha flushes and then smiles at me. “It’s a long story. There was some trauma there. But Julian and I like to pop in and ...watch.” The last word is said with a little whisper.
“No judgment from me. Watch all day long if that’s your thing,” I say as Lulu passes me a fresh bag of frozen veggies for my ankle. “This is all fascinating. I had fun there that night.”
“Oh, we know,” Lulu says.
“What?” My gaze bounces between the three of them. “If he filmed me and showed you?—”
“Oh, nothing like that,” Natasha assures me. “Definitely not. It’s just, we saw Mateo go in the playroom after you, and you guys were in there for along time.”
“Ah, yeah. Yeah, we had fun. I don’t know, I guess I never thought I’d go to a sex club. I never really thought about it. I’ve been too focused on finding Rosie.”
The room goes quiet, and I look up to find them looking at me, but no one wants to ask.
“I’ll talk about it.”
“You don’t have to,” Lulu rushes to assure me. “We’re just thrilled to hang out with you.”
“She’s right, I was just going to ask about tattooing and what’s the craziest thing someone has had you permanently put on their body,” Scarlett adds, making me grin.
“I have stories, don’t you worry. But, the guys are going to help me find my sister, and you’ll probably overhear them talk, or they’ll talk to you about what’s going on. I mean, I hope they would since you’re in relationships, and people talk to their partners, you know?”
“They tell us some,” Natasha says. “They try to protect us from a lot of what they do. But more than that, we want you to know that we’re your friends. Anything you say to us stays with us. We’re kind, but we’re married to hard, dangerous men,and we will do whatever we have to do in order to protect this family.”
The other two nod in agreement, and fuck if it doesn’t make me want to cry.
These three women are welcoming me into their fold, just because I’m Mateo’s. It’s as easy as that.
I haven’t had anyone in so long, I’m not even sure I remember how to do this.
“I’m going to give you the short version for now,” I tell them and take the ice off my ankle. “My sister was taken seven years ago. She just vanished.”
