Flawless Ruin

JULIET

“If you’re goingto hurl, give me some warning, and I’ll pull over.”

“I’m fine!” I protest.

I look over at Mara, who, behind the steering wheel of her tiny Mini, looks absolutely adorable in a little knit beret as we hurtle down a winding country road, way out in the middle of nowhere.

“You don’t look fine.”

“That’s more about the thought of seeing Caleb today—not motion sickness,” I assure her. “I have an iron stomach. Promise!”

“Well, if you say so.” Mara grins. “Glad you won’t be missing out today, the food at these shindigs is always amazing.”

“Uh huh,” I murmur, my stomach churning. “Food. Great.”

She—and most Sterling Cross employees—have been waiting for this day for ages, but I’m not so sure.

It’s company retreat day, on the grounds of yet another Caleb Sterling residence, this one upstate, near the Finger Lakes. “How much further?” I ask.

She checks the GPS. “Just twenty minutes.”

I shiver at the thought of coming face-to-face with Caleb again. He’s barely looked at me since his big confession—and jumping to conclusions about me and David. I’ve been happy for the distance, but now my brief respite is over. “So what goes on at these retreats?” I ask, trying to distract myself. “Team-building exercises? I’m not going to have to do a trust fall, am I?”

“No. Mostly just drinking and eating and schmoozing. But it’s fun, anyway, just to get a change of scenery. Eeek!” She pounds the steering wheel excitedly. “I can’t wait. You’re going to love it there.”

I don’t think so. For the past two weeks, I’ve been doing a great job of ignoring all the men in my life and throwing myself into my work. I volunteered to go into the archives and do a project digitizing old company lookbooks. It entailed ten-hour days of painstaking, eye-crossing work, but it was all worthwhile because it kept me out of both Caleb’s and David’s way.

But now, both of them will be at the retreat.

And there will be no avoiding them.

My stomach flips as I say, “I don’t get it. How many houses does the Sterling family have? Don’t they have one in The Hamptons, too?”

I’m playing dumb, obviously, since I’ve been there. But no one at Sterling Cross knows that. At least, I don’t think they do.

“Yeah. This one upstate is their old family home,” Mara replies. “It’s beautiful. They’ve been having company retreats there since before I was born. I hear their other places are nice, but this is like a palace.”

“Wow,” I say. I can’t imagine anything more palatial than the estate in Southampton. There, I needed a trail of breadcrumbs just to find my way to the kitchen from the bedroom.

Hisbedroom . . .

He fills me up, so deep I almost can’t take it, but I have no choice. His hands are tight on my wrists, his weight driving me into the mattress, his mouth biting down on my shoulder in a sharp nip. He’s everywhere, all around me, inside me. Totally overwhelming me. There’s no room to think, or even breathe.

All I can do is take it, every last inch—

“Yoo hoo?”

I’m broken from the memory of the first time Caleb and I had sex, when Mara waves her hand in front of my face. I look around. We’re not on the highway anymore. “What’d I miss?”

“We’re here. This is the exit.”

“Oh.” I peer out the window. “Nice.”

The ma and pa gas stations and roadside motels give way to bigger and more beautiful homes, and soon, as the lake comes into view, so do the gorgeous mansions. Each one is more palatial than the next. Of course, Mara pulls into the biggest one, with a wrought iron fence around it.

The driveway is choked with cars, so she eases behind a Mercedes and smiles. “Are you ready to see the sparks fly?”

I’d pulled down the visor mirror to check my face one last time. I snap it up and look at her. “What do you mean?”