Holden shudders as he gazes around the room in amazement. This is his first time up here, so I patiently wait as he takes it all in. “And now I have a picture of an old man with wrinkly balls railing into a pretty woman across that bench there.”
“That’s weirdly specific, man.” He shrugs and points at the bed inside the birdcage. “How about we start with stripping all the furniture and ditching all the cushions and things on the bed and in the pit. It’s light, and we should be able to pile a lot of it into the elevator with us,” he suggests, and I nod, going over to the role playing wardrobe.
“There’s a whole heap of costumes and things in here that can join them. Let’s keep piling things in until we have no room, then we can move on to the rest of the stuff.” I look down at the pit and grimace. “We should have brought gloves.”
Holden frowns. “Yeah, maybe we should have. I’ll dig around in the wardrobe and see if there’s anything in there. Who knows what they might have been used for, but it’d probably be better than nothing.”
“Well, I guess that’s as good a place as any to start. Did I tell you I found a supplier to replace all of these things, too?” He’s too entranced in the wardrobe to hear me.
“Holy shit, the count really was kinky.” He runs his hand over one of the furries’ heads just like I did. He looks up at me. “You want to try something like this?” Instead of being disgusted, he sounds curious.
“I like to try everything once, and it could be fun,” I reply, not meeting his eye. I’ve barely finished speaking when a finger presses under my chin, lifting my head up until our eyes meet.
“I’m certainly not one to shame anybody for their kinks. We’ll have to sit down and do the order together.”
And just like that, my embarrassment leaves and my cock hardens. I shift because it’s not comfortable in my jeans, and he looks down at it.
“I’d take care of that, but there isn't a surface I feel comfortable doing you on at the moment. Let’s have a rain check until we can find one we know for sure is clean.”
My turn to wrinkle my nose as I lean in and kiss him. “Agreed, but Iamgoing to take my jeans off to give my tattoo some breathing space.”
“Okay, make sure they don't get mixed up with everything,” he tells me as he starts to pull costumes off hangers and pile them in his arms.
“Ha, could you imagine that? What would Nana say if I came home with no pants on?” I laugh as I undo my jeans and slide them down my legs. Going back out, I look for somewhere to put them and end up draping them over a paddling bench. Holden follows me out and pushes the button on the elevator.
“Okay, let’s do this. I can’t wait until Harlow comes home and sees what we’ve done.”
ChapterFive
Harlow
My head pounds and my stomach rolls with nausea as I try to force my eyes open, a small groan tumbling out of my mouth. God, did I drink too much last night? I try to move, but I can’t make my limbs cooperate, and as my mind starts to unfuzz, I realize a few things that have my heart racing. I’m not on a bed, and the reason I can't move my limbs is because they're tied down.
My eyes snap open, and I can see I’m tied to a chair. What the fuck? Moving my head slowly because it’s pounding, I look around where I’m being kept. It appears to be a basement, but there’s only a dim light from the stairway, so I can’t really make anything else out.
A small sound has me moving my head in the opposite direction. There, tied to chairs just like me, are Jaxon and Jacinta.
Fuck. I remember now. We were in the limo on the way to the cruise ship. Smoke started filling the cabin. Those eyes in the mirror. I swear I recognized them, but now I’m not so sure. Maybe it was my mind playing tricks on me.
Jacinta groans again, so I know she’s okay, but when I look at Jax, a small sob comes out. I can just manage to make out his features. His face is bruised and swollen like he’s been beaten. What happened? Who would have done that? Then a cold chill runs through me, and I shiver, unable to stop myself.The stalker.My head swings around despite the fogginess, and I squint, trying to take in our surroundings. It definitely looks like a basement. There’s a small hanging bulb that lets off a dull light. I can see a window, but it’s so caked with dirt and dust that it’s basically useless. There’s a door on the other side of the room and a set of stairs leading upward. Apart from us and the chairs we’re tied to, there’s nothing else down here.
“Harlow, what’s going on?” Jacinta loudly whispers at me. “Where are we?” I struggle to get myself out of my restraints, but I’m having absolutely no luck. Whoever tied me up knew what they were doing.
“I don't know, but I’m guessing my stalker finally had some luck.” When I look up at her, her eyes are wide with panic. Her breath is coming out way too fast. She starts to struggle too, but neither of us can get our restraints to move.
“Fuck.” I slump back in my chair to think things through. Before I can come up with anything, I hear a door open. The stairs creak ominously as someone starts to descend—make that two someones as it’s two sets of feet that slowly walk down the steps, the tension in the room ratcheting up as we wait to see who appears.
“You fucking cunt,” Jacinta snarls when the first person comes into our line of sight. Cecelia has a smug grin on her face, and when she reaches the bottom of the steps, she moves to the side, giving us eyes on the other person. She’s familiar. I can’t quite put a name to a face, but it turns out Jacinta sure can.
“Raquel, I always knew you were stupid, but this just proves it. You’re already in enough trouble thanks to trying to sell company secrets. They'll throw the book at you for this, and you’ll be in jail just like that crazy bitch that’s obsessed with Thomas.” Oh, this is Jaxon’s fired PA. I remember her now. His ex who didn’t take their break-up well.
Raquel looks confused at the mention of Veronica, but she quickly shakes it off when she catches sight of broken and beaten Jaxon. Then she loudly cries out and runs over to him.
“What did you do?” she demands of Cecelia, but the bitch continues to smirk.
“He started to wake up before we were ready, so he was knocked out.”
“Oh, my poor love,” Raquel coos as she runs a gentle hand over his face while Cecelia rolls her eyes.
