Clifftop Fantasies [BDSM Menage Fantasies] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) by Cassidy Browning

wish the whole thing had never happened. I should have just worked at McDonald’s.”
    “Well, it’s too late for that now,” Brad said accusingly.
    “That’s fine for you to say. Your parents put you through school. My mom could barely afford to feed us when I was home. And I’ve told you what my father said when I went to him. The main thing,” she forced herself back onto topic, “is what are we going to do now? The past is over, but we have a business to think about.”
    He groaned theatrically. “You and this house. That’s all you think about. You don’t care what I think or what would be best for us. It’s all about the house, isn’t it? I’m surprised you didn’t jump at his offer, just for the chance to make some more money to dump into this place.”
    Indignant tears stung Allie’s eyes. “Are you saying you don’t care if we lose the business?”
    He rubbed his temples. “I’m saying that I don’t think it’s worth putting out naked pictures of my girlfriend to do it.”
    “I didn’t say it was!” She jumped to her feet. “This conversation is going nowhere. Obviously you need more time to calm down.”
    “That’s right, go talk to your cowboy. I’m sure he’ll tell you whatever you want to hear. He’d probably hang the pictures up in the front hallway if we’d let him. Especially the ones of you.”
    She stopped, one hand on the door, giving him a warning look. “What does that mean?”
    “It means that I’ve seen the way he looks at you.” Brad’s voice sounded cold and tired. “And the way you look at him. Don’t bother trying to tell me there isn’t an attraction there.”
    Allie started to deny it but stopped. “It doesn’t matter if there is, Brad. I’m with you. I’m not going to do anything with him, even if we are attracted to each other.”
    He snorted a little. “Maybe you should.”
    She shook her head in confusion. “Why would you say that?”
    “He might be better for you than me. You certainly have at least one thing in common—you would both do just about anything to keep this place going.”
    “And you wouldn’t?”
    He sighed. “No. I think this place is bound to fail and it’s going to take us down with it. Sooner or later you’re going to have to face that fact, Allie, and give up this unrealistic dream.”
    She stared at him for a second, the blood draining from her face, then turned and left without another word. She went slowly down the stairs, looking around at the beautiful railings, the wallpaper she and Karl had hung together, the pictures they had chosen. They had worked very hard to make this place perfect, and she remembered with a pang Brad’s halfhearted acknowledgements of the results. He was probably right, she thought. It was going to fail, and there was nothing she could do about it. She took her place at the table with the others, mutely shaking her head when Jane asked if Brad was coming down, and ate in silence.
    Allie lay awake for a long time that night, waiting for the door to open and Brad to slip in and come to bed. She went over and over in her head whether she should pretend to be asleep or jump up and confront him, demanding that they get everything out in the open and decide what to do. If they wanted to stay together, they needed to agree on where they were going and what their goals were. She didn’t know if Brad wanted to stay with her, though. He wasn’t interested in the B and B, apparently, and that was all she’d been living for ever since the house had been given to her. A few times she thought she heard footsteps but, after scooting frantically down in the bed in case she wanted to fake sleep at the last minute, decided she must have been mistaken.
    When she woke up in the morning, there was a pile of tissues around her on the bed from where she’d gotten depressed at three o’clock and had a good cry. Still no Brad—or maybe he’d snuck in while she’d slept and then gotten up early. She jumped up