STORY 2: SHARED WITH MY HUSBAND’S BOSSES

Chapter 1

The restaurant was too loud and the wine was too expensive.

I sat beside James in a black dress that felt tighter than it had when I put it on. The firm had just closed a major deal. Everyone was celebrating. Partners, senior associates, a few clients. I smiled when I was supposed to and laughed at the right moments, but my mind kept drifting somewhere else.

It had been three weeks since James last made me come.

Not that he noticed. Most nights he finished in under ten minutes, rolled over, and was asleep before I even caught my breath. I had gotten used to waiting until his breathing evened out, then slipping into the bathroom with the small toy I kept hidden under the sink. It never felt like enough. It just took the edge off so I could sleep.

Tonight the edge was back.

Across the table, William was watching me again.

He didn’t smile. He never really did. Mid-forties, silver just starting at his temples, the kind of quiet that made people lower their voices when he spoke. His eyes moved over my bare shoulders, down to where the dress cut across my chest, then back up to my face. He held the look a second too long before turning back to the conversation.

Charles sat two seats down. He was the charming one — always smiling, always saying the right thing. Right now that smile was aimed at me while he listened to someone else talk. When our eyes met he raised his glass slightly, like we were sharing a private joke. The look in his eyes didn’t match the polite expression on his face.

Henry was the most obvious. Broad, blunt, already a little flushed from the whiskey. He stared at my mouth when I drank, then at the line of my throat. When I shifted in my seat he tracked the movement of my legs under the table without bothering to hide it.

James noticed none of it. He was busy laughing with one of the junior partners, hand resting lightly on my knee like a claim he didn’t actually feel.

I crossed my legs. The movement made my dress ride higher. Henry’s eyes dropped. A slow pulse of heat went through me that had nothing to do with my husband.

I hated that it affected me.

Dinner dragged on. Speeches. More wine. Someone ordered champagne. I smiled through all of it while the three of them kept finding reasons to look at me. Every time William’s gaze settled on me I felt it between my legs like a physical touch. Charles’s polite smiles started to feel like promises. Henry’s open staring made my skin feel too warm.

I pressed my thighs together under the table and tried to focus on my plate.

Near the end of the night James stood up to take a call. He stepped away from the table, phone to his ear, already half-turned from me. That was when Charles leaned in slightly, voice low enough that only the people closest could hear.

“Your husband must be very confident,” he said, still smiling. “Leaving a wife who looks like you sitting alone at a table full of men.”

William glanced at him, then at me. He didn’t comment. He just watched my reaction.

Henry set his glass down. “He’s leaving tomorrow, isn’t he?”

I blinked. “What?”

Charles’s smile widened a fraction. “Six-week site visit. Dubai. He mentioned it in the partners’ meeting this morning. Did he not tell you?”

The words landed hard. I looked toward James, still on the phone near the bar, laughing at something the person on the other end said. He hadn’t mentioned any trip. Not once.

A familiar, tired disappointment settled in my chest. Of course he hadn’t. He never told me things until the last possible moment. I was used to being the last to know.

“I see,” I said carefully.

William spoke for the first time in a while. His voice was quiet, measured.

“We’re going to need extra help in the office while he’s gone. Temporary executive assistant position. You already know the firm. It would keep you occupied.”

I stared at him. “I have a job.”

“Freelance graphic work,” Charles said smoothly. “Flexible. This would be better paid and more structured. We insist.”

Henry’s eyes moved over me again. “James already said you’d be perfect for it.”

Of course he had.

James came back to the table before I could answer. He sat down, still smiling, and kissed the side of my head like nothing was wrong.

“Everything okay?” he asked.

Charles answered before I could. “We were just offering Nora the temporary assistant role while you’re away. She hasn’t accepted yet.”

James looked at me, surprised for half a second, then pleased. “You should take it. You’ll be bored out of your mind in the apartment by yourself for six weeks. It’ll be good for you.”

He said it like the decision was already made. Like my opinion was a formality.

I felt all three of the older men watching me. Waiting.

William’s gaze was steady. Charles still wore that polite, knowing smile. Henry looked at me like he was already imagining me in their office.

My husband kept talking about how convenient it would be, how the partners would look after me, how I shouldn’t worry about a thing.

I sat there with my thighs pressed together, pulse ticking between my legs, and the heavy awareness that the three men across from me had been looking at me all night like they already knew what six weeks alone with them could turn into.

And the worst part was the quiet, traitorous part of me that was already wondering the same thing.