The Gallery_A Reverse Harem Romance Page 14

  “Sure. Let’s do it,” I said.

  And they were gone.

  When I finally looked at the time on my phone, I realized it was still only seven a.m. I had no appointments at the gallery that day, so I tossed my robe aside and slipped under the covers, pulling my down comforter up to my chin. The bed still smelled like my beautiful men—a mix of something spicy and sexy. It was as if they were still right there in bed with me. I balled myself up into a comfortable little knot and imagined their arms around me, wandering, exploring, and making me feel damn good.

  I must have dozed off with a smile on my face because I woke up with one. My phone had buzzed long enough to drag me out of my extra snooze.

  Christ, it was nearly ten a.m.

  I swiped my phone open. “Hi,” I said.

  “Jesus, are you still in fucking bed? Get up you lazy bones,” Blu shrieked.

  I propped myself up on two pillows. “Hi. Yeah, I’m still in bed. I can’t believe it. I went back to sleep for a bit after Ash and Gio left—”

  “Oh. My. God. You were with them both? You little whore!” He cackled so loudly, I had to pull the phone from my ear.

  “Well, yeah. What did you think I was doing, asking them to take numbers and wait in the hall?”

  That really got him. He was howling with laughter so hard, he couldn’t catch his breath. I could just picture his gap-toothed smile.

  And you know what? It was funny. I mean, how in the hell did someone date men who wanted to share? What was the protocol? Did you rotate nights, like on that cable show, Big Love?

  Yuck. I never liked that show.

  Blu finally caught his breath from laughing. “Okay, ho-bag. Get dressed. Let’s have lunch in honor of Smith, and then we’ll going back to Barneys. Juan owes me a favor.”

  Oh god. I could only imagine for what.

  After lunch, Blu and I floated into our favorite store in the entire world. We wandered through, looking at all beautiful first floor merchandise—handbags, silk scarves, and a little Stella McCartney capsule collection. I didn’t dare buy anything, though. I had money in the bank now, thanks to the Kink Lab parties, but I had to make it last. If Devon had his way, I’d not get a penny of our assets after the divorce. I had to be ready for anything that might come my way.

  Blu took my hand. “C’mon. I didn’t come here to look at Chloe handbags. Let’s go upstairs and find Juan. He said he’d hook you and me up the last time I sucked his—”

  “STOP. I don’t need that much detail.”

  Blu shrugged. “Suit yourself, sister. You better be glad I do what I do, because you are about to get some fabulous new dresses.”

  Chapter 26

  SUMNER

  I hadn’t started that week expecting to be making funeral arrangements for one of my oldest friends.

  But Smith’s parents were gone, and he’d been an only child. As far as I knew, he had no other family. I imagined that’s why I was his emergency contact.

  The call I’d gotten from the police was one of the strangest ones in my life.

  “Hello. Is this Mr. Sumner Larlaith?” a voice asked, when the Kink Lab party was in full swing.

  I thought it might be someone calling having to do with my father. Occasionally, the press got ahold of my phone number and called me for a quote. Of course, I hung right up on them after an emphatic ‘no comment.’

  “Yes, this is he,” I answered.

  “Mr. Larlaith, this is the New York City Police Department.”

  So it wasn’t a reporter.

  Holy shit. Had someone made a complaint about Kink Lab? Or stolen my car?

  “Is everything okay? What can I do for you?” I asked, my heart rate picking up. I was surprised by the hum of office sounds on the other end of the line, but then I guessed the police department was a twenty-four-seven operation.

  “Mr. Larlaith, you are listed as the emergency contact for Mr. Smith Edwards. Do you know him?

  “Yes, of course. He’s one of my business partners.”

  I looked around the club. I could swear I’d seen him just a minute ago. Or had it been an hour ago? Anyway, I was sure he was in the gallery somewhere, hopefully making new friends.

  “I’m sorry to tell you, Mr. Larlaith, that Mr. Edwards has been in an accident.”

  I started pushing through the crowd, searching for Smith. Where the hell was he?

  “I think there must be a mistake, officer. He’s here with me, at a party in Soho.”

  “He’s been in a car accident on the West Side Highway, sir. He was rushed to the hospital, where they did everything they could. I’m sorry to tell you, he didn’t make it.”

  Was that supposed to be a joke? “Officer, he’s here with me.”

  “Mr. Larlaith, he may have been with you earlier in the evening where he became intoxicated, but he unfortunately got behind the wheel of his car.”

  I continued pushing through the crowd and climbed the stairs to the loft, where I could get a bird’s eye view of the party. Could he actually have left? And when would he have left?

  “Are you there, sir?” the officer asked.

  I didn’t see Smith anywhere. My stomach churned and I sank into a chair in a dark corner, forcing a couple deep breaths to see if that might help my shaking hands.

  “Yes. Yes, I’m sorry I’m here. I was just running around the party to see if I could find him. But he’s not here, like you said.”

  “Mr. Larlaith, we’re going to need you to come to the hospital to identify him and make arrangements for his remains.”

  What. The. Actual. Fuck.

  And that was where the odyssey of putting Smith to rest began. And even though I was exhausted from having been up all night and then going directly to work, I was in an Uber on my way to pick up Gio and then on to Avril’s. She’d invited us over for dinner—all four of us guys—because she wanted to talk to us about some things.

  Things, she’d said.

  Since she left it kind of vague, I asked Gio when he’d hopped into the car, if he knew anything. I knew he and Ash had taken her home the night before. And probably spent the night.

  Which I thought was hot as hell. But I couldn’t focus on that now, as much as I would have liked to.

  “Gio, how’d things go last night? Our girl okay? I’m dying to know what she wants to talk about,” I said.

  “Well, amico, she was making noises about selling the gallery, if you can believe it. But Ash and I tried to talk her out of it. Not sure we’ve convinced her yet. Looks like she told Blu the same thing. He called, thinking I didn’t already know.”

  The streetlights flashed over Gio’s face as we drove across the city. Bright, then dark, then bright again.

  “Well, it’s her choice,” I said. “But I don’t want her to be hasty about any decisions.”

  “Si. We can always find another place for Kink Lab. I just hate to see her walk away from her passion. She loves art.”

  We arrived at Avril’s, and the doorman let us in.

  I had to wonder for a moment what he thought of the men who’d been visiting her recently. New York doormen were a famously discreet group. They saw a lot and said very little.

  Exactly how it should be, and why they received huge Christmas bonuses.

  “Hey, have you heard the latest about Avril’s ex, Devon Crane?” Gio asked once we were in the privacy of the elevator on our way to her penthouse.

  Discreet doormen aside, there were just some things you said only in a very private space.

  “Yeah. The bastard’s going down. Can’t say I’m sorry,” I said.

  “Well, the man’s innocent until proven guilty, but yesterday’s indictment does not bode well.”

  Our conversation screeched to a halt when we saw Avril waiting for us in her doorway. And to be honest, all thoughts about her dickhead ex, and even those about our poor friend Smith, were washed away.

  Her hair was bunched into something I didn’t know the name for, at the back of her
neck. The effect reminded me of a painting of a Flamenco dancer I’d seen last time I’d visited the Met.

  But what really got me was the dress. It was a pale beige, most likely silk, so close to the color of her skin that from a distance, she looked nude. But close up, it was breathtaking. The dress bared one shoulder, was fitted over her breasts, and cinched at the waist with a wide belt. It hit just above her knee, and her sky-high heels made her legs look a mile long. She wore a deep red lipstick that somehow remained just as red after she kissed both Gio and me.

  When she turned to walk us into the apartment, I watched her ass jiggle just the tiniest amount under the fabric hugging her hips.

  Apparently, our girl was going commando.

  “Hey, guys,” I said to Chase and Ash, who were already camped out on her sofa with drinks in their hands.

  Avril had scurried off to the kitchen to check on dinner.

  I was thinking of helping her…or something like that.

  “This place is the shit, isn’t it, Sumner?” Ash said, admiring the view through the floor-to-ceiling windows revealing half of Manhattan.

  Avril returned to the living room, this time wearing a frilly little apron. My heart rate picked up, just thinking of what I wanted to do to her in that thing.

  “Do you think you’ll get to keep this place?” Ash asked.

  She joined us, sinking into a plushy chair. “That remains to be seen. A lot of things remain to be seen,” she said, staring into her flute of something bubbly.

  “What’s this about your selling the gallery?” Chase asked.

  So he’d heard too. I guess with a group like ours, word traveled fast. Just as well. We didn’t need to be keeping secrets from each other.

  “Let me get everyone to the table first. We’ll talk over dinner.”

  Well, she didn’t need to convince me to come to the table, with the incredible smell of meat filling her place. She served us steak au poivre, with some sort of pan sauce, and roasted asparagus. Christ, I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. There was at least a full five minutes where no one at the table uttered a word.

  That’s what you get when you feed a bunch of guys.

  “To get back your question Chase, yes, I’m thinking of selling. As successful as the Kink Lab parties have been, I don’t think keeping the gallery open is sustainable. The space is too large and the rent too high.”

  She looked around at each of us. She clearly had more to say.

  “But the main reason I invited everyone here tonight was to tell you how…” her voice cracked, “grateful I am you’ve come into my life. It was at the perfect time, and each of you has been perfect for me in your own individual way.”

  Shit. What was she getting at? We were getting the heave-ho? I put my fork down. Suddenly, my filet didn’t taste that great anymore.

  Chapter 27

  AVRIL

  I stood at the head of the table and as I spoke, my four guys put down their forks and knives and looked at me.

  Chase looked scared. Was he afraid of being left again? Gio looked amused. I guess nothing could faze you when your father was an arms dealer. Ash looked curious but also a bit sad. He’d just lost a good friend, and even though he’d not said much, I saw it weighing on him. And Sumner looked at me with his poker face, like a true politician’s son, giving nothing away.

  Of course, my voice cracked. Because it always cracked when I wanted to look like I had my shit together.

  “I want you to know I feel I can only be with one of you. I hope to know soon which of you that will be. Of course, whomever I end up with has to feel the same way about me. It’s hard, though. The last thing I want to do is hurt any of you.”

  “Now, Avril, no need to make a hasty decision—” Sumner said.

  “I’m not. I’ve been thinking hard about this.”

  I didn’t tell him Blu had told me the same thing—not to be hasty, and that he thought I’d be an idiot for letting any of the guys slip through my fingers.

  But I had to figure out what my new life was going to look like. And it might not include the gallery, sex parties, or the four men who’d worked their way into my heart.

  And it certainly wasn’t going to include my ex-husband, or the bitches with Hermès bags who I’d thought had been my friends.

  That night, after dinner, the guys all went their separate ways. I needed time to myself, and I think they wanted to process both what I’d said and face what had happened to their friend Smith.

  They’d talked about him over dinner.

  “Did anyone see him leave the party?” Sumner asked.

  We all shook our heads.

  Except for Chase. “You know, I’d stepped outside to call Ruby’s nanny and check in. I thought I saw him walking up the street, but when I shouted after him, he didn’t turn around. I just assumed it wasn’t him and went back to my call,” he said.

  “Was it like him to not say goodbye?” I asked.

  Sumner pursed his lips. “Hard to say. He was a pretty independent guy. Always had been, having grown up an only child.”

  “Well,” Ash said, “I’d like to know more. I wonder if we could find anyone at the party who spoke to him. Or saw him.”

  “I’m not sure how we would do that. I mean, we’re pretty careful about respecting peoples’ privacy. We can’t really ask people who they have and have not spoken to,” Sumner said.

  “Yeah, but we can ask a few of the guests we know well. If that turns up no info, then we’ll drop it,” Ash said.

  I felt for them. I knew all too well how it hurt to lose someone close. But the worst part was, I was scared to death I was about to hurt them more.

  “Darling,” Blu said, floating into the gallery with a bunch of new Barneys bags on his arms.

  I hope he didn’t plan on telling me what he’d done to get his latest discount. Although I was the happy beneficiary of…well, whatever he did with Juan.

  We did the air kiss thing. “Make yourself at home. I need to say goodbye to my clients.”

  He craned his neck, always nosy. “Hey, I know those dykes,” Blu said with a big smile.

  Ugh.

  “Would you be quiet? Act like you have some manners, please.” He’d always had a big mouth on him, and he was so cute he could usually get away with it, but not when I was working.

  I took down the two paintings my clients were purchasing and made arrangements to deliver them later in the week. The two women were, by any measure, the lesbian power couple of Manhattan and were amassing an art collection for their Hamptons home.

  And I was lucky enough to know them and sell them art.

  I found Blu in my office, picking through his shopping bags. “Look what I found you!” he shrieked.

  I had to say, the guy had great taste. He held up a pair of wide-legged palazzo pants in a silver-grey silk charmeuse and a black silk blouse with gathers around the neck. It was stunning.

  But not something I needed if I were getting rid of the gallery and my role in the Kink Lab parties.

  “I like them,” I said, kicking off my shoes and rubbing my sore feet. For some reason, the gallery had been unusually busy. ‘Course it had been hard to run the place since my assistant Dagney had split with my husband. But what was the point of bringing in another assistant if I was closing?

  “What do you mean you like them? You would love them if you had any brains. You know how much this stuff cost? And what a discount I got thanks to Juan and our—”

  “STOP,” I said. No need for details…

  “Well,” he huffed, folding everything neatly and put it back in the bags. “It’s all returnable,” he said with a sniff.

  “C’mon, Blu. Of course I love them. They are beyond gorgeous. But I am making some changes in my life and am not sure I’ll be needing clothes like this.” I reached into the bag that Blu had tried to squirrel away as punishment for my lack of enthusiasm and pulled out my would-be clothes. The silk pants did feel pretty damn heavenly. I s
tood and held them to my waist.

  “Girl. You are gonna slay in those pants. I might even get myself a pair,” he said, snatching them from my hands and holding them up to his own waist.

  I plopped into my desk chair, and Blu buried our treasures back in the Barneys bags.

  “So what’s up with Devon?” he asked.

  “We’ve met with lawyers, and now I’m just waiting. If not for the prenup—”

  “WHAT! You signed a prenup? OHMYGOD.”

  Oh shit. I hadn’t meant to tell him that. “Yeah. I did.” I held my hand up like a STOP sign. “And I don’t need to hear about it from you,” I added.

  I looked down at my chipped manicure. I needed to get my act together. “He keeps digging at me about getting a car. I never knew the man I married could be so cruel.”

  Blu studied me. “You never drove again after Lisette was killed, did you?”

  Those words still stabbed at my heart. Maybe they always would. Actually, I hoped they would. I felt like I deserved a cross to bear. Killed my sis, suffer the rest of my life.

  Seemed only fair.

  “You know, someday you’ll stop blaming yourself. It was an accident. The same thing could have happened to you, had she been driving.”

  I thought back to my dream, where we’d gotten in the wreck, but she’d survived. It was like I was punishing myself, over and over, even in my sleep. I couldn’t stop.

  And now, this betrayal by Devon.

  I couldn’t get involved with Sumner, Chase, Gio, or Ash. I was a fucking mess.

  “I know that intellectually,” I told Blu. “But my broken heart doesn’t seem to listen. And then with Smith dying…”

  “I’m sorry, baby. You’ve been through a lot of shit.”

  That was all I needed to hear. The tears started streaming down my face, carrying mascara and makeup with them.

  Blu ran over with a tissue.

  “Ugh. Sorry,” I croaked.

  “Girl, how many times have I seen you cry? And how many times have you seen me? This is what besties are for.” He held a tissue under my nose, and I blew.