“I have everything you need.” Terrie nodded as she smoothed her hand over the plastic. “I wish we had schooled together, Tally. Perhaps I could have made things easier.”
Tally shook her head shortly. Nothing could have made it easier; nothing could change the parents who never knew how to love the wild little girl they had given birth to.
“It’s really shouldn’t be that big a deal,” Tally said softly. “I’m a grown woman, Terrie. Not a child. I should have faced this a long time ago. I don’t know why I’ve fought as I have.”
“Perhaps because nothing was worth the risk until now,” Terrie suggested gently. “You’ve changed since going to Lucian’s office, Tally. You’re like this bright flame; where before you once glowed, now you sparkle. Love changes you. I told you that before. Perhaps, Lucian and Dev merely gave you the strength you needed to face it.”
Tally smiled rather mockingly. Was that true? At this moment, she had no idea. All she knew was that suddenly nothing mattered more than changing the course her life had taken.
The empty, cold apartment. The loveless life. The chill she felt when darkness fell and she realized how empty her bed was. When she realized she could only envision two men within that bed with her. Lucian and Dev.
“They’ll be there tonight?” she asked Terrie quickly rather than replying to her previous statement.
Terrie nodded, a smile of conspiracy crossing her lips.
“I just talked to Jesse a few minutes ago. He’s meeting them for drinks this evening after work. He’s been doing that a lot lately.” She frowned. “What the hell do they do there anyway?”
“Fuck each other’s wives?” Tally asked her with an amused grin. “As I understand it, the married Trojans can only f**k their own women there, never anyone else’s. House rules.” She rolled her eyes at the thought.
Not that she wanted Lucian and Dev to ever touch another woman. She would have to commit murder if that ever occurred, but the rule seemed designed to keep the married members in a constant state of lust while within the hallowed halls of their cherished Club.
Terrie snorted at that thought. “Jesse better never suggest such a thing. I don’t think he could stand it himself.”
“He doesn’t share you any longer?” Tally knew she was desperately delaying the moment she would have to uncover that damned uniform.
Terrie frowned. “Not in a while. He threatens to.” She shrugged. “He seems to enjoy it. But he’s been busy I guess…” Her voice trailed off.
“Men get complacent, I told you,” Tally warned her distantly.
“Hmm. We’ll see about that,” Terrie said thoughtfully, though her eyes were glittering with the light of battle.
Score another for Tally against Jesse, she snickered silently. So far, she was still ahead and Jesse was far, far behind her.
“Tally?” Terrie’s quiet voice drew her gaze from the uniform and back to her friend.
Terrie watched her with an edge of compassion, of concern. Tally could see the worry in her eyes now, the knowledge that Tally had to gather her courage to even touch the clothes, let alone put them on.
“I must really love them,” Tally mused with a self-deprecating little smile. “Because only love could get me in those clothes.” She looked up at Terrie, arching her brow mockingly. “What do we do if the clothes get ripped off me?”
Terrie shrugged in unconcern. “I would consider it a worthy sacrifice then,” she laughed. “The uniform has no meaning to me, Tally. Burn it when you’re done if you need to. Consider it a wedding present.”
Wedding present. Tally swallowed tightly. “One step at a time here,” she breathed in deep and hard. “One slow step at a time here.”
Chapter Seventeen
“You’re so f**ked!” Jesse took a seat at the small table on the far end of The Club’s main room and stared at Lucian and Dev in sublime amusement. “You know, I would feel sorry for you if I didn’t think you had brought it all on yourselves. Didn’t I warn you about her?”
Lucian finished the drink he had ordered earlier and shot his friend a brooding look. Beside him, Dev grunted in obvious ill temper. Tally hadn’t shown up at work and hadn’t answered the message they left on her machine or the one they left with the cell phone’s messaging service later that day. Neither man was in the mood for Jesse’s mocking laughter.
“Don’t you have better things to do than harass us?” Dev asked him. “I thought you had a wife to keep f**ked. Go home and do your job.”
Jesse laughed softly at that. “I’ve had mine today, have you had yours?”
Lucian gave him a look filled with the promise of retribution.
“What the hell are you doing here anyway?” Dev growled. “Marriage suddenly staling on you?”
Jesse laughed again as he shook his head. “You two are like bears with a sore paw. I have it on the highest authority she’s going to be home later tonight. You should go back and teach her a lesson. The right lesson this time. She won’t be so eager to make trouble then.”