MidnightInk-epub

by MI

  The hurt was obvious, but he couldn’t show that he cared.

  “Tucker’s busy,” she said shortly. “I’m sorry to take your time, but I wanted to tell you I was in town.”

  “Why should I care?” he asked, trying to put distance between them.

  He ignored the gasp from Veronica and cursed himself for being so rude. He’d forgotten they had an audience. The news of this confrontation would be all over Holiday’s grapevine as soon as Honor walked out the door.

  Honor rolled her eyes and smiled. Hell, he’d never understood this woman. “Whatever, Jackson. Play the stoic man if you want, but I wanted to tell you anyway. Bye.”

  She turned on her heel and walked out of his practice, her hips swaying, leaving him breathless.

  He forced his gaze to Veronica and frowned. “I take it there’s no way I can make you keep this between us?”

  “Huh?” she asked as she looked up from texting on her phone.

  He shook his head. “Never mind. Let me know when my next appointment shows up.”

  Jackson left Veronica to her gossip and closed himself in his office.

  Honor was back.

  What the hell was he going to do now?

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  For the rest of this story, check out Carrie Ann’s website to find your local retailer.

  www.CarrieAnnRyan.com

  Excerpt: Elemental Pleasure

  by Mari Carr and Lila Dubois

  The small foyer was exactly as she remembered. The room was small enough to be mistaken for a closet if anyone who was not a member found their way in. The walls were paneled wood, the floor covered with the same carpet as the outer room. An empty book cart took up a third of the space. Turning to her right, she examined the panels. Numbers were etched into the wood, seemingly at random.

  The Grand Master’s instructions said she was to open box thirty-one. Pressing her finger against the number, she felt a click. When she pulled her hand back, a small tray popped out of the wall. Reaching in, she retrieved a key and a piece of paper.

  You’ll find garments in Room C. Right hand corridor.

  Wait until you hear the bell.

  -Grand Master

  The note was written by hand. Carly shivered a little. The Grand Master was the head of the Trinity Masters and a man of unspeakable power and influence. No one knew who he was, though there were plenty of rumors. At the Trinity Masters annual gatherings, meetings hidden inside library benefit galas, Carly had done her share of gossiping about who he might be.

  Now she wasn’t curious, she was afraid.

  Note and key in hand, she moved the cart out of the way and—with another push—opened the door hidden in the back wall. It revealed a narrow elevator. When she pressed the button, the door opened and Carly stepped in. She took a moment to gather herself as the small elevator took her down to the sub-basement. When it stopped and the door slid to the side, she bit the inside of her cheek to center herself.

  A long marble hallway stretched out in front of her. Columns supported the double-high arched ceiling, which was a smaller replica of the grand hallway above. Her footsteps rang as she made her way along the hall, the sound bouncing off the walls to echo down to the grand double doors at the far end. There were no books here to muffle the sound. At the midway point, there were openings in the walls, one to the right, another to the left. She’d been down the left hallway before. There were changing rooms there, elegant as the locker rooms in a fancy spa. For ceremonies, all members wore robes to protect their identities, and those with the most need for secrecy had private dressing rooms.

  As she turned right, she wondered if that was where she was going—to a private dressing room. Now that she had been called to the altar by the Grand Master, she supposed she’d earned a private dressing room.

  After all, she was about to meet her husbands.

  Or maybe it would be husband and wife.

  Her hands shook, and it took her a few tries to get the key into the lock on Room C. Once in, she found a small, but well-appointed room. A white robe waited on a hook. Normally they wore gray.

  Setting her purse on the vanity, she touched the robe. “It’s like a wedding dress,” she whispered to herself.

  It would be the only wedding dress she’d ever wear.

  In exchange for the Trinity Masters’ help, she’d given up her future, specifically her choice of whom she would marry.

  Throughout history, the world had been secretly controlled by relationships that defied societal standards. Some of those relationships had come to light, the most famous of which had been Vice-Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson, who’d been in a relationship with Lady Emma Hamilton and Sir William Hamilton. The gossip papers of the nineteenth century had called it an affair between Lady Emma and Lord Nelson, but it had been so much more. The three-way union between them had helped end the Napoleonic Wars, and both Emma and William had mourned Lord Nelson after his death.

  The Trinity Masters believed that when three people were united, it created a bond far stronger than the pedestrian two-person marriage, and that these triads—if made between those with power and intellect—had the capability to change the world.

  Carly slid out of her clothes, leaving on the corset-bra, panties and garter set she’d bought especially for today. She closed her eyes, trying to still her nerves.

  She’d joined the Trinity Masters at nineteen, when the idea of some crazy secret ménage marriage had seemed exciting, elicit. In her twenties, she’d enjoyed herself, knowing there was no need for her to worry about falling in love or getting married. By the time she was twenty-eight and her friends were married, some expecting children, she finally understood what she’d really given up in her quest for success.

  However, the consequences of crossing the Trinity Masters were too dire to contemplate, and so here she was, waiting to meet the people she’d share the rest of her life with. That thought sent another shard of panic through her before she beat it down.

  She checked her hair and makeup in the mirror, then raised the hood and tugged the chain out from under the robe so it lay on her chest in plain sight, the triangle glinting in the low light. Carly had never shirked from a challenge…or a commitment. She wouldn’t begin now.

  Taking a seat on a velvet chair, she breathed deeply, trying to calm herself.

  A bell rang, the deep sound vibrating through her. She looked up as a door in the wall opposite where she sat opened.

  Rising to her feet, Carly threw back her shoulders, lifted her head and walked through.

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