L. Marie Adeline- S.E.C.R.E.T

“You’d also be surprised,” I said, sitting and gathering up my dress. I felt vulnerable
and a little angry that Matilda had told him anything about me.
“Has it been everything you thought it would be?” he asked.
“S.E.C.R.E.T. has taught me a lot,” I said, securing the bodice, adjusting the back
myself.
“Like what?”
“Like that it might be impossible for one man to fulll all of a woman’s desires.” Why
was I being so insouciant?
“You might be wrong about that,” Pierre said, sliding into his boxers and then his
tuxedo pants.
“Oh?”
He reached across the seat, put his hand around my wrist and tugged me towards him,
until I was kneeling in front of him. His eyes held mine for a few moments before he
plunged his face into my neck and buried a rm kiss in the place where it curved into
my shoulder. Just then the limo pulled up in front of the Spinster Hotel. He reached into
the pocket of his tuxedo jacket and took out a gold charm. My gold charm.
“Ah, let me see. A Roman numeral six, with the word Confidence on the back.
Very … charming.”
While he grinned at his play on words, I reached for the charm, but Pierre dangled it
farther away from me.
“Not so fast,” he said, the light in his green eyes now ablaze. “I want you to know
something, Cassie. When you’re done with this … thing you’re doing, I’m going to come
and nd you. And when I do, I’m going to show you that one man can fulll all your
desires.”
I didn’t know whether to feel overjoyed or overwhelmed, but I carried his good-night
kiss, and my shoes, up the stairs and past Anna’s door on the second oor, where I
noticed that her light was still on.