Presque Vu

Chapter 19

With shaking hands Raina untangled herself from the remainder of the ropes and began redressing. She felt heavy and slow, held down by the weight of her regrets. She had hoped to make this last a little longer, hoped for a better outcome, but she knew the possible consequences when she started this game. She had gambled, and she had lost. All that was left now was to try to get out of here before she completely fell to pieces. Once she had her clothing back on she regarded her heels, still sitting on the brown chair. Wearing them gave her an air of confidence and authority that she didn't feel entitled to at this point. She hooked her fingers into the toes of the shoes and carried them down the hall with her.

When she came back out of the bedroom she could hear Shannon and Jared talking softly in the living room. She knew they were waiting for her to reappear, presumably with additional admonishments about her poor choices. She didn't think she could handle any more. She didn't want to face them again. Quietly she tried to slip past them and leave through the kitchen.

"Hey, where are you going?" Jared noticed her trying to sneak out and was quickly on his feet, running to catch her before she could make it to the door.

"I'm sorry, Jared. I really don't think I can sit through a lecture right now," she told him dejectedly. "Can't we just let this go? I know what I did was wrong. I promise I won't bother either of you again."

Jared frowned at her. "That's not why I want you to stay." He slipped his arm around her waist and turned her back towards the other room. "I'm not happy with the way you went about things. But we still need to talk."

Jared brought her back into the living room and sat her down on the smaller sofa before taking a seat next to his brother. "Well," he began, "I know that was a little extreme but I figured one good surprise deserves another. Imagine our shock when I tried to make plans for Shannon to bring the girl he's been seeing over to join us for dinner tonight Raina."

Raina tried to keep her breathing even as she flexed her fingers and stared at her lap. "I thought there weren't going to be any more lectures."

"No more lectures," Jared said. "I'm just trying to make sure I drove my point home. Honesty. Trust. In order to move forward, we can't have any more secrets and lies..."

"I never lied," Raina interjected. "There were things I should have told you that I didn't, but I never lied."

"Well, prevarications then. Whatever you want to call them, we can't have any more of them."

Raina was confused. He had said moving forward. Was it possible that somehow she hadn't just been summarily dumped by the two of them? A tiny flicker of hope ignited in her chest. "I don't understand. Don't you want me gone?"

It was Shannon that reached over to her, setting his hand on her knee reassuringly. "Please, just listen."

"I didn't want to continue this conversation in the bedroom," Jared continued. "I didn't want you feeling you were at a disadvantage. Bound and naked on my bed is too vulnerable of a position for you to be in and have this important of a discussion. I need to know that this is what you want, that you're agreeing freely."

Raina looked from Jared's face to Shannon's. Both looked serious, but not angry. This was not at all going the way she had expected. She wanted to ask questions but held her tongue and waited for Jared to explain just what the hell was going on.

"You've been making a lot of assumptions, Raina. And I know I haven't helped that fact, there's a lot of talking that we should have been doing that we weren't," Jared admitted. "But I'd like for us to continue this relationship. All of us. With certain provisions, of course."