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“Sweet Jesus, Thane, we really need to work on your arachnophobia. Go away, you idiot, you’re not even supposed to be here for another hour!” Connie’s tone vibrated with exasperation.
Torn between the riveting conversation that was no business of hers and the glorious male behind that most definitely was, Caera didn’t know what to do first. So, listening to her friend and her lover argue, she watched Saul finish drying himself off through the open doorway, wishing she had the courage to end the call and walk into the damn bedroom.
“Caera doesn’t want to talk today, apparently,” Thane purred seductively. “I think you should respect her wishes, so that I can strip you naked, lick your pussy until you do that thing with your thighs around my head, and then fuck you over your desk.” His chuckle made Caera wet. It was dirty and raw, unlike anything she’d ever heard before. “I’ll be the poor, beleaguered personal assistant, and you can be the hot as fuck, dominant CEO.”
Caera’s eyes dropped to the phone, widening in surprise.
“Little rabbit, it’s rude to eavesdrop,” Saul chastised, resuming his place in the doorway, only this time wearing the briefs she was beginning to despise. “And as for you two,” he said loudly, “I don’t need to hear about PAs and CEOs, or where Thane’s planning on filing his cock.”
“Saul. Took you long enough.” Connie’s disgruntled tone dissolved into giggles. “Thane, enough. Go wait outside. This is my professional time, and you know how I feel about keeping business and pleasure separate until after hours.”
“I just love how you feel on my—I’m going, I’m going!” Laughing, Thane added, “Nice talking to you, Saul. Hope Caera’s keeping you on your toes, buddy.”
“Go,” Connie hissed.
“Yes, Mistress,” he purred again in that wicked tone.
Caera’s gaze locked onto Saul’s face in time to see a dark scowl cloud his features for a long second. When he realized she was studying him, his expression cleared. He was hiding the fact he was…different, she realized, and was annoyed that his friends had potentially given him away.
“Sorry about that. The nuisance has left the room.” With a subtle clearing of her throat, Connie recovered her professionalism. “Are you ready for our chat now, Caera?”
She actually was. There were a lot of questions ready to be asked, and Caera was determined that she would be the one asking them. It was better not to seem overly eager, though—Saul would get suspicious, and she didn’t need him loitering, doing some eavesdropping of his own. “I guess.”
“Oh, there you are.”
“Still here. Haven’t run screaming into the wilderness yet.”
Saul wagged his finger at her as if telling her to behave, then stepped into the bedroom closing the door at his back. Why there wasn’t a bedroom door leading into the hallway, Caera had no idea, but the whole cabin was designed in a very strange manner.
“So, you were trying to avoid me?”
“Of course not, no, I think it was just a bad connection. Phone service is spotty up here, I guess.” Caera attempted a nonchalant tone. This wasn’t how she’d expected this conversation to start. She huddled deeper into the chair, losing her confident edge, trying to get it back.
“Oh really? Because I never had an issue with service when I stayed at the cabin, and every time I’ve spoken to you or Saul, the line has been crystal clear.” Connie sounded more amused than pissed. “Believe me, I understand all too well what it’s like to want to hide away and avoid something. I assume you know that Saul and I had a talk on Friday, and that the reason for that talk was—”
“The voices.”
“Yes, the voices. Saul believes that your memory might be making an effort to return the years you lost, and that the insomnia, the night terrors, stem from whatever you’ve repressed. Have you got any thoughts on that?”
She was supposed to be asking the questions, Caera thought sullenly, not being sucked into her friend’s clever whirlpool of interrogation. “He’s probably right. He’s looking in from the outside, a perspective I don’t have. Something’s trying to get out, and it’s not…it doesn’t feel nice.”
“Again, I understand what that’s like.” Connie hummed thoughtfully in her throat. “Have you made any steps toward intimacy with Saul? Last week, you expressed your frustration that he was taking things more slowly than you liked.”
Caera snorted. “I’ll be thirty before he does anything but cuddle me.”
“How nervous are you?”
“I’m not, really. Maybe a little?”
“That’s good. I wondered how you’d react to that kind of contact, and I must admit, I thought you might fall more on the phobic side, given your aversion to socializing. Why don’t you tell me in your own words what the voices bring to mind when you hear them?”
God, she didn’t want to have to go through it all again. “I just hear the voices.”
“They don’t bring any images to mind? Any fractious memories, snippets of time?”
“No.”
“Who are they? What vibes do you get when you hear them?”
