Watch Me (Phoenix #1) - Stacey Kennedy Page 0,10

true. “Wait. What was the guy like?”

Zoey dropped her head back and shut her eyes, swearing she could still feel his breath by her ear, his hands on her body, his cock deep inside her. “Incredible,” she breathed, glancing back to her friends. “I’ve never met anyone like him. He was so passionate. I didn’t know a touch could feel like that.”

“Wow,” Hazel said again, eyes twinkling. “Well, as far as losing-your-virginity stories go, yours wins, every time.”

Zoey nodded with a smile. “Maybe an unconventional way to lose your virginity, but he definitely made the experience memorable. I wasn’t really expecting him to care about my needs; I just figured he’d want to put on a show.”

“But it wasn’t like that?” Elise asked.

Zoey shook her head. “He was just tuned into me. Does that make sense?”

“Total sense,” Elise agreed with a smile.

Zoey grabbed some chips out of the bowl on the coffee table, tossing them into her mouth as Hazel asked, “Did they ask you how you found out about the place?”

She finished chewing then answered, “No, they have nothing more than what I put on the application.” In which, she said she’d heard about the club from a member. In actuality, Hazel was a reporter and had gotten wind of the secret sex club in Manhattan.

“Did they have any idea that I hacked in to get that code?” Elise asked.

“None,” Zoey replied.

Elise owned a private investigation company, which was how they’d learned about the financial gift that came along with doing the show. But she’d also obtained the necessary code to access Phoenix’s portal through the cigar club’s website. After Zoey entered the code, it brought her to the application with the required photographs and intimate details about her life.

The conversation about Zoey applying to Phoenix to confront Jake and Scott didn’t happen all at once. It was a handful of conversations and lots of late-night thoughts. Both Elise and Hazel had been there for Zoey after she graduated and began trying to bandage her life back together again. Two strangers had been her shelter through a fierce storm. Ava and Julie had moved back to their hometowns, and the communication grew silent after that. Zoey hadn’t spoken to them in over six months. She’d never forget what Elise and Hazel did for her, picking up all her broken pieces until she resembled a human again. But one night, after a first date ended with Zoey having a panic attack, she decided this was her way out. Her do-over.

“Well, I’m glad they didn’t suspect anything,” Elise commented, grabbing some chips out of the bowl. “The last thing I need is Rhys Harrington coming after me.”

Zoey nodded. “Yeah, no kidding.” From what she read up on the owner online, he was the CEO of Harrington Finance before he stepped down when he bought the cigar club. The New York City Harringtons were a wealthy family, coming from old money, and were very powerful.

“So, you’re in the clear?” Hazel asked. “All this is over? You can finally move home and start fresh?”

Like a world of pain had suddenly been shed from her skin, Zoey smiled, feeling more honest than she had in a year. “It’s done. Over.” A sudden, unexpected lump formed in her chest, but she cleared her throat and pushed past it. “I can finally move home.”

At whatever crossed Zoey’s face, Elise cocked her head. “That’s good, right?”

Again, Zoey smiled, only this time, it didn’t feel so honest. “It’s good.”

“I’m just so happy for you,” Hazel said, still bouncing on the couch. “And so proud of you.” She jumped up and all but threw herself at Zoey again, hugging her tightly. “That took some balls, to do what you did tonight.”

“I couldn’t have done it without you,” Zoey said, resting her chin on Hazel’s shoulder. “Without either of you.”

Elise gave a rare soft smile from across the room. “That’s why we’re here, babe. We got you.”

And this…this was good too.

Chapter 4

Late into the next afternoon, Zoey was covered head-to-toe in dark-colored dog hair. The veterinary office always smelled somewhere between wet dog and sanitizer, and she never could get it out of her nose. And now, with Charlie, the big brown Labrador on her grooming table getting a blowout, her nose was also covered with fur. The dog pressed his head against Zoey’s chest as she finished up drying him. By the time she was done, Charlie was wagging his tail and he had his tongue out in the