He needed to breathe. Needed to figure out what had actually happened.
And yet his rage took control.
He strode out the door ready to confront the latest woman who betrayed him.
Chapter Fourteen
Kenzie walked toward the dungeon, trying her hardest to stop crying. She’d gone into the bathroom so he wouldn’t see her sob. She’d managed to clean up, wash her face, and calm down. She’d worried he would be waiting for her, but she should have known. He was with the man who formed the center of his life. Huisman. She should have known nothing would matter when he had Huisman’s attention. Certainly not an inconvenient lay.
Ben might not give a shit that she was upset, but there would be plenty of people who did. It wasn’t even midnight. The scenes would be going, the club would be hopping, and the last thing she wanted was a bunch of people trying to figure out what had gone wrong.
Her. She’d gone wrong.
She’d mistaken lust and comfort for love.
She might never forget how his expression had gone from wonder and satisfaction to that blank look the minute the wordsI love youwere out of her mouth.
She wanted to be home. If this was her club, she could get dressed and be home with a bottle of sauv blanc in one hand and the other arm wrapped around Bud Two in less than twenty minutes. She would cry and send Ben some nasty breakup texts and come up with a plan topretend like he didn’t mean anything to her.
She couldn’t do that now. The minute she asked Lucy if she could bunk down with her, everyone would know how poorly she’d chosen again. Poor Kenzie. Couldn’t keep a man. Kept “falling” and all she had to show for it was a bruised heart while everyone around her was happily settling down.
Well, too fucking bad because she didn’t have some fated mate like Cooper or TJ waiting in the wings. Hell, Tris got two damn soul mates. Daisy “The Curse” O’Donnell had found true love despite being constantly in the middle of a hurricane. Zach had lied to everyone and hidden his true mission, but did that stop him from finding love with her cousin? Nope.
Tasha had lied to Dare and they were happily married.
It was only her. Only the one who spent her whole stupid life hoping and praying she would find that magical love that would make her feel whole.
She stopped at the edge of the hall. The Garden’s privacy rooms were separated from the rest of the dungeon by a set of opaque glass doors that slid open when the right code was used.
She wiped her eyes and stuffed her thong in the pocket of her robe. There wasn’t much she could do with the shoes or corset. Normally she would have taken a shower and redressed for the “after” party. They’d taken to meeting with Kala and Cooper and Dare and Tash after play was done. Sometimes Lou and TJ would join and they would sit around talking and having some wine and snacks.
She’d thought he was fitting in, and maybe he was. Maybe he liked having friends more than he liked having a girlfriend. Or he needed them to get to the one person in the world who truly mattered to Ben Parker.
Damn it. She had to get it together. Deep breath. Smile like nothing’s wrong. She could do this.
She put in the code that allowed the door to slide open. Before she walked through, the door to the closest privacy room came open and she could have sworn she had a brief glimpse of one of the assassin girls before she slammed the door closed again.
Tim was staying down here.
And she would have to deal with that, too. Her parents were going to be thrilled to end their night with yet another meeting, but she wasn’tgoing to sleep on it. Her handlers had to know Huisman contacted Ben and that Tim was getting in deep with a group of women they weren’t sure about yet.
And they would know she’d fucked up again. Poor Kenzie, with her head in the clouds.
She heard the doors hiss closed behind her.
“Hey, what’s going on?” Lucy was sitting in the dungeon monitor chair. She looked adorable in a miniskirt and corset and thigh-high boots that made her legs look a mile long. She must have taken over for the big beefy Dom who’d been there when she’d entered with Ben. She had a book in her hand. It would either be a treatise on equity in political access or a manual on how to blow the shit out of something or a really filthy romance. “Where’s Ben?”
She was going to tell her parents about Huisman, but she didn’t have to out him to everyone. “He’s cleaning up. Hey, is it okay if I stay with you tonight? I’m afraid Ben and I need a break.”
One brow arched over Lucy’s dark eyes. “What did he do?”
Yep. She wasn’t getting out of this easy. “Can we talk about it later?”
Lucy’s jaw went tight but she nodded. “Yeah. First we should talk about the fact that two of those girls are in Tim’s room, and I can’t monitor them in there. They showed up with a pizza and a six pack of beer and said Tim invited them down to play board games. Which they could do in the living spaces upstairs and be far more comfortable.”
“But those spaces are monitored by CCTV.” Her deepest instincts were firing off. Something was going on, and they needed to figure it out.
“That’s what I’m saying,” Lucy admitted. “I’ll bug the room when he’s working tomorrow, but Tim’s not dumb. I worry he’ll check and then we have to explain.”
