But it was more than I’d had a month earlier, and I tried to focus on going to the coffee shop every day. That and the hours I spent fooling around with Jagger and Vigo, increasingly desperate for one of them to fuck me and equally desperate to get closer to Hawk, who seemed determined to keep his distance.
He still hadn’t heard anything from his FBI friend, but at least that was another iron in the fire.
I’d been hoping for an update from the Hawks, but since no one seemed to be around on the first floor, I set down my stuff,made my way upstairs, and stopped in my tracks when I realized the source of the vacuum: the door that was usually locked wide open.
I hesitated, then pushed it open.
An older woman with long gray hair was pushing the vacuum in the far corner of the room, her long robe-like duster fluttering with every movement of her arms.
But the woman only held my attention for a few seconds.
It was the room that had me rooted to the floor.
It was about the same size as my bedroom, but this room was like a giant walk-in closet, one of those fancy ones that celebrities had. There were hanging racks and rows of shelving and acrylic bins with lids, drawers and individual compartments and niches backlit as if for a collector’s most prized possessions.
Except this wasn’t a room for clothing or shoes or even collectibles.
Not unless you counted sex toys as collectibles.
Because this room was wall-to-wall sex.
The vacuuming woman turned around and just about jumped out of her skin when she saw me standing a few feet inside the doorway.
She held her hand to her chest, then used her foot to turn off the vacuum.
“Lordy me! You just about scared the devil out of me!”
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I just… uh…”
What could I say, I was at a loss for words.
Her expression melted into sympathy. “Oh dear… I take it this is the first time you’ve been in this particular house of horrors.”
There was an undercurrent of humor in her voice.
“Um… yeah. Yep. This door is usually locked.”
She rolled the vacuum over to the door. “Well, you might as well see it since I assume you’ll be the beneficiary of all this hardware at some point.”
My face flamed.
“Are you… Reva?” The Hawks had said she was their housekeeper — and their cook, although if I remembered correctly I was supposed to not eat her food but tell her it was delicious, then throw it out, but only when she wasn’t around.
She nodded. “That’s me. Cooking’s my real specialty, but these Blackwell boys need someone to look after their houses.”
“I… I see.” I couldn’t stop looking around the room, purple light glowing from the crevices of the shelving.
She patted me sympathetically on the shoulder. “It’s a lot to take in. Why don’t you take a few minutes and have a look around before I lock the door again? That way you’ll be prepared for whatever you have coming.”
She said it all matter-of-factly, but I felt like my face would burst into flames.
“Um… thanks.”
She disappeared into the hall with the vacuum and I stepped farther into the room, starting on the right, scanning the rows of shelves that held a wide assortment of dildos in all shapes and colors.
I picked up a purple one with silicone spikes and must have flipped the on switch. It vibrated in my hand, the purple spikes rotating obscenely.
I hurried to shut it off, not wanting to bring Reva back for more conversation about sex toys.
