CHAPTER 46
Carrie
“Nia?”
“Yes?” Nia asked, looking a little out of it.
“I was hoping you could ask Gage if she’d want to be with me tonight as well. Not sure if that’s still a requirement; it seems everyone’s already basically paired off, but I wanted to respect your rules.”
“Thank you,” Nia replied. “Let me check with her, and I’ll let you know.”
“Okay.” Carrie nodded. “Are you all right? You seem… I don’t know.”
“I’m just tired,” Nia said. “I didn’t sleep well last night, but I’m all right. Thank you for checking.”
“No one really talks to you on these things, do they? Outside of the events you’re running for us, no one’s really talking to you as anything but the host. I noticed that during cocktails and stuff.
You help start conversations when we’re all nervous sometimes, but mostly, you stand off to the side. ”
“I observe,” Nia returned. “Part of the job.”
“Right,” she said. “You don’t know me very well, but if you need to talk or something, just let me know.”
“Carrie, you’re the client. I’m here for you. That’s the job, and I enjoy it.” Nia smiled. “But thank you very much for your consideration. I appreciate it.”
“Of course,” she replied and watched Nia walk out of the kitchen.
“Hey, did she say it was okay?” Gage asked, walking in soon after Nia walked out.
“She’s going to talk to you about it.”
“Still? Obviously, I want you. You just had your hands all over me outside.”
“I did not.” Carrie laughed.
“Yes, you did. Your hand was on my thigh. Sometimes, it was on my neck. You had it on my back for a minute, too. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you like me or something.”
“Will you go track Nia down and talk to her so that we know for sure that we’re okay for the night?” Carrie said and continued laughing.
“I’ll do that, but we’re not required to be back out here until noon. It’s just after ten. Any chance you–”
“Yes,” she interrupted.
Gage winked at her and hurried off to find Nia.
“Can I ask you something?” one of the two caterers in the kitchen said.
Carrie hadn’t even noticed that they weren’t alone in the kitchen. She had gotten used to the caterers milling about at various times a day, setting up, serving, or cleaning up. She was so used to it, in fact, she’d forgotten that they were even there.
“Sorry?”
“I don’t want to get fired or anything, but what is this thing?” the woman asked her.
“This thing?”
“The reason you’re all here. Sorry, I’m just covering for someone, so it’s my first day here.”
“Oh. A women’s retreat.”
The woman nodded and said, “And you do what, exactly? Sorry, it just seems like you’re all enjoying yourselves. I wondered if it was something I might be interested in.”
“I’m not sure what I’m allowed to tell you. It’s a private event.”
“Right. Yeah, sorry. Please don’t get me in trouble.”
“I won’t.” Carrie smiled at her.
“Thank you. I can’t lose this job. I’m saving up to move.”
“You’re leaving this beautiful place?” Carrie asked, not able to come up with a single reason to move away from this town.
“I need something a little more exciting. I’m Daisy.”
The caterer held out her hand for Carrie to shake.
“Carrie. Nice to meet you.”
“You too. I should get back to work. Sorry if I asked anything I shouldn’t have.”
“It’s okay. You didn’t.”
“Babe!” Gage rushed back into the kitchen. “We are good. Bedroom?”
“Gage!” Carrie’s cheeks flushed when she saw Daisy smiling at her.
“What? Oh, hi,” Gage said. “Is something wrong?”
“No,” Carrie replied. “It was nice meeting you, Daisy.”
“You too,” Daisy repeated with a chuckle.
Carrie then took Gage’s hand and walked them out of the kitchen.
“What was that about?” Gage asked her.
“She was just asking what we were all doing here.”
“I thought they were not supposed to do that.”
“She’s new, I guess. I told her that it was a women’s retreat, like Nia told us to do if anyone asked, and she dropped it.”
“And you know her name now?”
“She introduced herself, so I introduced myself. Problem, Gage?” she teased.
Gage pressed her to the hallway wall and replied, “Yes, definitely. I want you again.”
“Why is that a problem?” she asked.
“Because I don’t want Daisy to have you,” Gage said. “I want to be the only one.”
“Is this a territorial thing now that we’ve been together? You want to be the only woman to touch me? I thought we already agreed that–”
“Territorial, yes, but probably not how you’re thinking. Well, maybe a little bit how you’re thinking.” Gage winked at her. “Mostly, I just love the idea of being your only.”
“You’re sweet,” Carrie said with a smile.
“Don’t tell anyone else. I don’t want the secret getting out.”
“God, why would I tell anyone?” She wrapped her arms around Gage’s neck. “I want you all to myself.” She looked down. “Are you–”
“Yes,” Gage said and moved into her more. “I put it on after talking to Nia. This one for the day, but I can definitely wear another one tonight, if you want.”
“Oh. I thought we were going to the bedroom.”
“We are. I’m keeping it on during. In fact, I might just stay dressed. I will make you come as many times as you want. I’m thinking that today, if you want, you could drive me totally crazy.”
“How do I do that?”
Gage kissed her neck and said, “You find opportunities to graze, touch, press, and do anything else you can think of, making me need you, and I can’t have you until we’re dismissed for the night.”
“Oh, I see,” she said and reached down between them to cup her. “Like this?”
“Yes,” Gage replied. “And when we go into the bedroom, I’m not going to let you touch me. When you make me come tonight, I’m going to explode after all this wanting.”
“Fuck, Gage,” Carrie said, feeling completely turned on as she continued to rub her.
“Bed. I have plans for you,” Gage stated.
“Hey,” Sharon greeted as she entered the hallway. “Oh, sorry.”
“It’s okay,” Gage said. “We’re in public, right?”
Sharon laughed and replied, “Yeah. And you were last night, too.”
“What?” Carrie asked, shifting her hand to Gage’s hip.
“We heard you; we didn’t see anything. It was too dark, but Debra and I were outside last night. We went for a walk, and we didn’t know it was you two at first, but… Then, we did.”
“Oh, my God.” Carrie put her hand over her mouth and then immediately removed it. “You heard us having sex?”
“Yes. We left shortly after, but, honestly, it was kind of hot. You two sounded good together.”
Sharon looked over at Gage, who nodded.
Carrie knew Gage had been with someone here before their first night together.
If on the second night, she hadn’t had sex and had needed to take care of herself in the bathroom, that meant that someone had been Sharon.
Gage and Sharon had had sex. Carrie knew she had no right to be jealous, but there it was, that jealousy.
Her hand moved back to cup Gage, who looked down in surprise.
Sharon followed the movement but didn’t say anything.
Her facial expression did the work for her.
“We were just going to our bedroom,” Carrie said.
“And I’m taking a shower. I’ll see you at lunch, I guess,” Sharon replied as if she really couldn’t care less that Carrie was holding on to Gage’s crotch and that she’d just said our bedroom when referring to her own.
“Um… Babe?”
“Huh?” she asked.
“Your hand is now inside my jeans,” Gage pointed out.
“What?” She looked down and saw that she had somehow, without realizing it, unbuttoned and unzipped Gage’s jeans. Her hand was inside them, massaging the toy between Gage’s legs through her boxer briefs. “Oh, shit.”
She went to remove her hand.
“No, keep it there. It feels good.” Gage’s lips moved to her neck. “You are very sexy when you’re jealous.”
“I am not. And I’m not jealous.”
“Yes, you are. You know I was with Sharon on the first night.” Gage licked her neck. “It was just sex.”
“I know. I just… She looked at you.”
“She does that sometimes. I look at her sometimes. It’s polite to look people in the eye when you’re talking to them.”
“She wasn’t looking into your eyes, Gage.” She rubbed harder. “She heard us having sex. She heard your sounds before that, and she was looking at you.”
“She’s already in love with Debra. Can’t you see that?
” Gage whispered. “If she’s not, she’s at least well on her way.
They can’t take their eyes off each other.
In fact, I bet Debra is about to follow her into that shower.
They’re probably just trying to pretend that they’re not about to get it on in there, like Helena and Becky tried to get away with last night. ”
“Okay. I am jealous.”
“Yeah. And I’m lucky.”
“What? Why?”
“Because I have no one here to be jealous of,” Gage replied and pulled back a little to look into Carrie’s eyes. “You weren’t with anyone the first two nights. If you were, I’d be very jealous right about now. God, I’d be throwing eye daggers around this house. You have no idea.”
“Oh, yeah?” Carrie laughed a little. “Eye daggers?”
“Yes. Aimed at whoever got to touch you and hear your sounds.”
“Do you want to hear those sounds right now?”
Gage nodded.
“Then, let’s go.”