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“A private nursery.”
“Childcare?” I ask, arching a brow. “How does one go from management to homeless?”
“It’s easier than you think,” she mutters. “One day, you can have the world, and the next, it’s gone.” She clicks her fingers.
“I need more, sladost, if you don’t want me to go back to what I started,” I say, nodding to the door.
She sighs. “I worked for Nick’s parents. They own lots of childcare settings. That’s how I met Nick. I was a trainee at his mother’s nursery, and he used to pop in and see her. He asked me on a date. We hit it off.”
“What did he do?”
“He was area manager for his father’s building societies.”
“Rich family,” I muse.
“I worked my way up until I got to management. Nick had a house, and after a year, I moved in. Things got . . . boring,” she admits, “in the bedroom.” I frown, waiting for her to continue. “I was always outgoing and I liked sex. So, I suggested a threesome.”
I grin. “He agreed to share you?”
“At first, it was random men we met on a night out, but we started to wonder what it would be like to have more . . . as in a regular guy. Three of us together all the time.” I smirk. She’s more adventurous than I give her credit for. “Nick suggested Liam. We all got on anyway, so it made sense. Liam was single, and when Nick asked him, he was up for it.”
“So, how does an agreement like that end in an affair?”
“When you stop asking the third person to join in,” she mutters. “It started well. We made clear guidelines that there would be no intimacy unless we were all together. But as the weeks went on, I found myself more attracted to Liam, and he admitted he felt the same. We started sneaking around until, one day, we got caught out.”
“And Nick kicked you out?”
“Not right away. He wanted us to try and make it work, but I couldn’t stop seeing Liam. It was breaking him apart and I knew that, and then one day, I came home, and he was dead.” Tears fill her eyes, and she swipes them away before they have a chance to fall. “Liam wouldn’t speak to me. He told Nick’s parents everything, and I got sacked from the nursery. Then they kicked me out of the house.”
Talking to her makes me realise she’s not the person I assumed she was. “Didn’t you have money to get a new place?”
“Joint account,” she mutters, shrugging. “They froze it once Nick died, and I didn’t have the energy to fight for it. I deserved what I got.”
“Not really,” I say. “You both agreed to experiment, and it didn’t work out. It’s not on you alone.”
“I feel like it is. They buried him but didn’t tell me when the funeral was, so I didn’t get to say goodbye. Liam did.”
“They forgave him?”
She nods. “From what I hear, he was welcomed back into the family. I assume he placed all the blame on me.”
I stand, leaning down to place a gentle kiss on her head. “Rest, sladost.”
“Wait,” she cries. “Don’t go and hurt her,” she begs.
I feel my eyes soften, and I run my thumb over her wet cheek. “For you,” I whisper.
I have Maxim remove the woman. When he returns to my office an hour later, he confirms she’s on the boat for a new life. One that’ll make her wish she’d stayed here with me.
“Things are good with the girl?” asks Maxim as I pour us each a drink. I nod. “She’s still happy with your plan?” I nod again. “She’s getting confident,” he adds, and I glance in his direction. He shrugs, taking his drink and sitting down. “Talking to the staff. Making herself at home.”
“And that bothers you?” I ask.
“I just wonder how it will all end.”
“It will end the way I want it to. Don’t let details concern you, Maxim.”
“If I may speak openly?” I take a gulp and nod for him to continue. “The men are worried. Things before were . . . slipping. There are concerns your attention will be on her and not the businesses.”
