Two Can Play (Celeste and Dominic) novel Chapter 538

TASHA

The door shut behind me and Scarlett came around the front of the car a second later, her heels ticking across the hotel driveway, and I had taken maybe two steps toward the entrance when the second car pulled up behind us and stopped. Lucia climbed out first, smoothing the front of her dress, and then the three of them followed her one by one, standing in a loose row on the pavement with their handbags and their perfume and their careful, curious smiles.

That evening in the ice cream shop, Lucia had made the whole thing sound so simple. Find a man who does not care who you are, take a room, and let him have you. I had said no before she finished the sentence, and I had told her exactly why, because there was one line in that contract Sparrow put in front of me that I had read twice and remembered both times, word for word. While I was his wife, I was not permitted to do anything that would bring shame, disgrace, or ridicule to his name and reputation, and if I did, I owed him a billion dollars.

A billion. I did not have a billion.

What if the man talked afterward? What if somebody at the club knew my face, or worse, knew Sparrow's face and recognized me standing next to it? One photograph, one video, one stranger with a phone and a reason, and it would be everywhere by morning. Scarlett could not save me from that. Nobody could.

So I laid it all out for Lucia across that little table with the ice cream turning to soup between us, and she listened with her chin propped on her hand, and when I was finished she put her spoon down and told me we would give that a rest for now. Then, focus on testing Scarlett. Quietly.

The first test was the car.

I came home in my new car, low and sleek, with a body the wind might have shaped and an interior that smelled of new leather and polished wood, and Scarlett heard the engine from inside the house and came out with her sleeves rolled up and flour still on her wrist.

"Whose is that?"

"Mine."

She walked a slow circle around it, dragging one finger along the paint, and stopped at the driver's side with both eyebrows up.

It did not come.

Her eyes went glassy instead, and she pressed the dress against her chest and looked at me over the top of it.

"Do you know, I used to lie awake in Bryan's house and think about the day you would be able to buy me something. Anything. Even a scarf." She blinked hard and laughed at herself. "And here it is. My niece bought me a dress for an engagement party."

"Try it on."

She went upstairs and came back down wearing it, and it hung off her like a curtain and did nothing for her at all, and she stood in front of the hallway mirror and turned once and smoothed the front with both hands.