Desires (37 page)

“What on earth is wrong with me? I just want to find a
nice man and be happy.”

“Nothing is wrong with you. Someone is out there for
you. You’re a beautiful woman, and have a fantastic figure.”

Stacie looked at Bailey’s face, still full of concern.
“I’ve been a fool. I thought…”

“Thought what?”

Stacie paused. She’d been about to blurt out to Bailey
that sleeping with Larry might have helped her get over her feelings for Dan.
But she couldn’t admit that to Bailey. Nice as she seemed, she still worked for
Desires. She couldn’t risk that getting back to Angel.

“Do you have a boyfriend?” she asked instead.

“No,” Bailey answered. Her amused tone of voice caused Stacie
to turned and look at her. “I don’t find men enjoyable,” the other woman
explained. Stacie widened her eyes, wondering what she meant. “I’ve been in
relationships with men, but they just aren’t for me.”

Stacie looked at her, confused. “What do you mean?”

“I’m a lesbian.”

“Oh…”
Well, that
makes sense
, Stacie thought. A few things started to add up, all the smiles
and advice. Maybe Bailey was attracted to her. But Stacie was not that way
inclined, at least, she never had been. Maybe she was going down the wrong road—she
certainly hadn’t had any luck with the male of the species.

“We need to get hold of Angel and let her know. Dan
too—he is going to go totally mental,” Bailey said, standing up.

“What do you mean?”

“Dan hates Larry and he has just taken advantage of his client.
Expect war. In fact, this isn’t going to go down well with anyone. Angel will
go ballistic.”

What to do? Stacie really wasn’t in the mood to be
hanging around the club. She just wanted to pack and jump in a taxi home. She
could come back in the morning for her car. She had spent a small fortune on
this place to get her confidence back sexually and within seconds the whole
thing was blown by one idiot man. What the hell was the point? Why did she have
to decide she needed to change her life? And why on earth did she choose the
sex road? Sex is one of the most intimate things a couple can do. Okay, some
people seem to enjoy it purely for the physical, but Stacie had always had to
have an emotional connection. Maybe that was why it was so shit with Graham,
because the emotions weren’t right. As she loved him less and less, the sex
grew worse and worse, not that it had ever been great to begin with. With
Dan…Stacie paused in her thoughts. With Dan, it was only good because she had
feelings for him. No casual encounter would ever make her feel that way. The
only way she was going to have good sex again was to fall in love with someone
else.

The thought made her feel hollow. How could there ever
be someone else, now she’d met Dan?

“How are you feeling?” Bailey asked, hunkering down in
front of her and taking both her hands.

“I don’t know. I feel empty, like someone has opened my
chest and ripped out my heart. I feel so stupid and annoyed with myself.”

“You weren’t to know what Larry was about. He’s a
wanker, and to be honest he has been pushing his luck for quite some time. I
wouldn’t be surprised if Angel uses this as an excuse to finally get rid of the
tosser
. It makes me sick how he thinks he can use and
abuse anyone.”

“It doesn’t matter. I’m just going to gather my bits
together and leave.”

“Why should you have to leave? You’ve done nothing
wrong. He should be the one leaving, not you. Please Stacie, don’t let Larry
win.”

“I’m not. I’ve decided this isn’t the right direction
for me.”

“What do you mean?”

“This isn’t the path I should be going down. I’m going
to take another direction,” Stacie said, her only thought now to escape the
place.

“What other direction?”

“Sex isn’t important to me, sex is just sex, and to be
honest I deserve better.” It wasn't the whole truth. Sex with Dan had been wonderful
and fun. But now… Well, now, if she couldn’t have Dan, she just couldn’t be
bothered with anyone else.

“But you were doing so well. If you leave now, you’re
allowing Larry to win.”

The quiet sound of a key in the door fell into the
silence. The two women looked at one another. Stacie quickly wiped away the
tears. It could only be Dan.

Dan walked in the room, smiling when he saw Stacie.
“Here you are. I’ve been searching all over the place for you. This was the
last place on my list,” he said, looking delighted to have tracked her down. He
came over to the bed and Bailey stood up, her face sombre.

Dan glanced at Bailey and then at Stacie. “What’s going
on?” he asked, looking concerned.

Stacie stared at Bailey, her heart fluttering. How could
she tell him? Bailey stared back and raised her eyebrows significantly. Stacie
looked at Dan, then down at the floor. He would be so angry.

“What’s going on?” he asked again, frowning.

“Stacie?” Bailey said encouragingly.

But Stacie couldn’t bring herself to say it. Larry’s face
floated into her mind again, looking down on her, staring like she was a piece
of shit. His face had gone from thrill to nasty in a split second, just like
Graham’s used to do. She didn’t want to witness Dan’s reaction, feeling the
dark side of Dan was going to come out. She didn’t want to see that side of him.
Would he turn nasty and blame her and call her all the names under the sun? Graham
would have. Larry had hurt her and she cared nothing for him. Dan could hurt
her so much more—she was scared to think how much. She had laid her heart bare
to him, given it to him. What would he do with it?

“Stacie, please tell him,” Bailey said in a soft voice.
“Dan will understand.”

Stacie heard him move closer to her, then he knelt in
front of her, “Stacie, please tell me what’s going on.”

Stacie looked down at her knees, her hair dropping
around her face in a curtain. She could see his knees and his legs, but
couldn’t bear to look him in the eye. She flinched away when she felt his hands
on her knees, hating the thought of a man even breathing on her let alone
touching her.

“Okay, what’s going on?” he asked in a harsher voice. “Surely
it’s not that bad…is it?” Worry crept into his voice. “Bailey?” he asked, when
Stacie didn’t reply.

Stacie felt tears drip down her cheeks. Maybe if she
just didn't say anything, they would all go away. She shut her eyes and hugged
herself, rocking back and forth.

“What’s going on? Come on, Bailey. Stacie obviously
isn’t going to tell me,” Dan said, sitting back on his heels.

“Larry got to her,” Bailey ground out, her voice
overflowing with contempt.

“Pardon?”

“Larry got to her,” she repeated clearly.

“Sexually?” she heard him ask Bailey. Stacie sobbed,
dreading his next reaction.

“Stacie was number eight.”

Stacie watched Dan rise to his feet, standing tall. She
looked at his feet, crying, worried what he was going to say to her.

“Can I leave you here to look after Stacie?”

“Of course,” Bailey said. Stacie heard Dan walk across
the room, and then the sound of the door opening and closing. Stacie looked at
Bailey, her mouth dropping open.

“He wasn’t angry with me!”

“Of course not. Why would he be angry with you?” Bailey
moved to the dressing table, picking up the phone. “I’d get dressed if I were
you. I think things are going to start happening pretty quickly.”

Stacie grabbed her jeans and a baggy T-shirt of Dan’s. She
put them on as Bailey called down to reception telling them to beep Angel. There
was a touch of panic in her voice. Stacie pulled on her shoes, picking up
Bailey’s urgency.

They rushed downstairs. The other receptionist was sitting,
looking up at them with inquiry on her face as they hurtled down the steps.
Bailey quickly briefed her when Angel appeared from the double doors at the
heart of the club.

“What’s wrong?” Angel said, looking deeply concerned.

“Larry got to Stacie!”

“Are you sure?” Angel said.

“I’m very sure. Dan’s going after Larry,” Bailey told
her, frantic. “We need to move fast and catch Dan up or he’ll knock seven bells
out of him.”

“I saw Dan go into the ballroom a few minutes ago,” the
other receptionist offered, looking from Angel to Bailey.

Stacie kept well back, not wanting all the hassle. She
couldn’t understand why Bailey never allowed her to simply pack her bag and
leave.

“Right, you two stay here,” Angel said to Bailey and Stacie.
“Call security,” she ordered the other receptionist who nodded and picked up a
walkie-talkie. Angel spun and rushed into the ballroom.

Stacie’s heart skipped beats. If she had known the problems
it was going to cause, she would have kept her bloody mouth shut. She sat down
on one of the squashy leather sofas in the reception area wishing she’d never
come. The double doors banged open and Angel reappeared, her face like granite.
She came over to Stacie and sat next to her.

“I need to know exactly what happened. Where did he take
you?” Angel demanded.

“Down that corridor on the right,” she answered in a
whisper.

“And?”

“He had sex with me, look I didn’t know. I just—”

“It’s okay, Stacie. But I need the information.”

“We were having sex—”

“Was it consensual?”

“What?”

“Did you agree to have sex with him?”

“I guess, at first, but then he got a bit too rough.”

“Did you ask him to stop?”

“No,” Stacie answered in a tiny voice. “I figured it
would just be easier to get it over with.”

“What happened then?”

“Then he wanted me to suck his mate’s cock, I hadn’t
even agreed for the mate to be there in the first place. He walked in on us
when I was naked. I didn’t want to do that so I started to fight him off and
told him to stop.”

“Did he stop?”

“Yes, but then he got nasty, saying I’m a whore and a
slut and that they’ll find number nine,” Stacie said, feeling her heart
shattering into pieces, going over the sordid incident again.

“Thank you, that’ll do for now,” Angel told Stacie as Dan
appeared, bursting out of the ballroom. He ignored everyone, storming off
through the double doors, looking ready to kill. Angel ran after him.

Stacie panicked, trying to figure out what she should do.
What would Dan do when he finally caught up with Larry? She felt like running
out of the front door, leaving all the bizarre mess behind her. But she’d
started this mess. She needed to find the confidence to face the fallout. Quickly,
before she could change her mind, she got up and rushed to the double doors
after them. Behind her, she could hear Bailey shouting her name but she ignored
her, charging through the doors.

Stacie saw Angel heading toward the orgy room. She ran
to the room and stood at the door reaching out a hand to push aside the voile,
still moving from Angel’s entrance.

She entered the room. Whatever the naked and semi-naked
people in the room had been doing before, at the moment they were watching a
different kind of show. Dan and Larry were nose-to-nose while Angel strode
toward them.

“You’re a fucking
tosser
!” Dan
was yelling at Larry, prodding him in the shoulder.

“What’s your fucking problem?” Larry yelled back,
getting in Dan’s face.

“If Angel’s got any sense she’ll be tossing you out on
your ear. I ought to knock your fucking block off.”

As Stacie watched, Dan clenched his fists.

“Just you try it,” Larry sneered. “I’d have you in a
second.”

“Gentlemen,” Angel said, her voice carrying clearly.
“Can we take this upstairs, please?”

The two men glared at each other, but subsided.

Angel turned to leave, Larry and Dan following her,
sulky looks on their faces, like two little boys being told off by the teacher,
Stacie suddenly thought. As they passed her, Larry stared at Stacie. Dan
stepped between them, pushing out his chest and glaring at Larry.

Dan took hold of Stacie’s hand, but she pulled away. She
didn’t want to touch him or any other man at the moment.
It was his fault too!
she suddenly decided. If he hadn’t
encouraged her to go after another man, this whole thing would never have
happened. She fell in step behind the trio as Angel led them to her office. She
opened the door and commanded Larry to go in. She closed the door, shutting him
in the office and then turned to Stacie.

“Is that him?”

Stacie replied with a nod. His face haunted her,
especially after the amount of flirting she’d done. She felt so dirty—she’d
almost begged for it.

“Just had to check.”

Angel opened the door and they all trooped in.

“Sit down, please,” Angel said, addressing all of them.
The two men settled themselves on the sofa, sitting as far apart as they could.
Stacie sat on a chair, not looking at anyone.