Indulgent Pleasures

Stephanie felt sick to her stomach. Here she was pouring her heart and soul into these articles and Caleb was writing merely to provoke. And Zoe was eating it up with a spoon.

“You two are still in stiff competition for the column, you know. Keep up the good work.” Zoe turned and walked away, her skinny butt sashaying in the form fitting black dress she wore and Stephanie wanted to aim a sharp pencil right for it.

Maybe she should find another subject. Not actually experience the sex but interview people instead. That way it wouldn’t be a first person account of her sex life but a fact-filled, informative article about the various fantasies people had.

Yeah hello, boring. Zoe would give the column to Caleb in a heartbeat if she went in that direction.

She needed to figure out a new angle. A hotter angle. Yes, the oral sex article was sexier than the first one but she needed to top even that.

Nibbling on her fingernail she stared blindly at the monitor, her mind flooded with memories of Justin. It had been three days since they spent the night at that horrible little hotel and her body still ached from the extreme workout he’d given her.

They’d gone at it all night long until she’d essentially begged him to take her back to her apartment. He’d seemed reluctant, waiting, as if he’d wanted her to ask him inside when he dropped her off but she had her roommate to deal with.

No way did she want that shrew Sia to find out she was having wild crazy monkey sex with Justin Hawkins. Plus she really didn’t want him to see how pitiful her apartment was.

And he was the one who lived in the big fancy house. Not that she knew that for sure but come on. He was wealthy and he had to live in some sort of outrageous mansion.

She was dying of curiosity to check it out but she didn’t push. She didn’t believe their relationship was that deep for her to demand something like that.

Ha. She wanted to snort. Couldn’t even consider what they had as an actual relationship and she definitely wouldn’t call it deep. It was fun, it was hot, and it was passionate. Combustible. All consuming.

And that was why she was glad for the break from him. He’d traveled with the Miners to an out of town game and when he’d told her his plans she hadn’t asked any questions. She wondered if he had difficulty letting go of his team.

He’d been with them since the start of his professional career, a career that had lasted over ten years. She could understand his reluctance to stop traveling with them.

She wished she felt comfortable enough to ask him those questions.

“Yo, Shaw, is that your fan mail?” Caleb stood at his desk, staring at her over the waist high partition that separated their cubicles.

Stephanie glanced at her stack of mail and withheld the urge to roll her eyes. The guy was thirty going on twelve. “What do you care? Go read your own mail.”

“Yeah well, that’s a problem since there’s so much of it.” He picked up a stack three times the size of hers and let it all fall on top of his desk. The envelopes scattered everywhere, sliding off the desk and onto the floor and he laughed. “You should see my inbox. The emails are out of control.”

“All of it hate mail no doubt,” she muttered, turning her chair so she wouldn’t have to look at him.

God, she couldn’t stand him. And his constant smugness and overall arrogance only made this column contest that much worse.

She sighed. That’s exactly what Zoe had turned this in to. A freaking contest and though Stephanie loved a challenge, she hated that she was neck and neck with Caleb the jerk off.

“Oh, I have a few fans. Guys who are glad I’m finally speaking the truth via a public forum.” Caleb gathered up all of his mail and stacked it back on top of his desk. “Your fluff is good, I’ll give you that Shaw, but you need to ratchet it up a couple of notches.”

Show off. “Thanks for the advice Caleb but I think I have it under control.”

“Whatever, I’m just trying to help you out.” His shrug and nonchalant manner did little to disguise his shit attitude.

Her cell phone rang and she grabbed it out of her purse, glancing at the caller ID and her heart rate doubled.

It was Justin. They’d traded cell numbers before he’d left with the Miners but he’d yet to call her.

“Hello.” She hoped she didn’t sound like a breathless, mindless idiot.

“Hey. How are you?” Justin’s deep voice sounded in her ear, low and intimate and arousal seeped through her.

“I’m great. How are you? How’s Colorado?” She glanced up and caught Caleb watching her blatantly, listening to her phone conversation no doubt. She turned so her back faced him, rolling her chair closer to her desk so she was even farther away from Caleb.

Last thing she needed was for him to figure out the identity of her secret lover.

“It’s going good. We won last night so we ended the trip with a bang.” He paused and she waited, curiosity filling her.