“I promise not to show you my ass.”
“That’s your idea of mercy?” I glanced at her as I turned out of the parking lot and she pushed out her bottom lip. “Okay, tell me.”
“The captain decided he wanted to role play.”
“Oh?”
“Yes, and you know me, I’m down with that.”
“Right up your backhoe,” I said with a grin.
“Are you ever going to let me live that down?”
“Not likely, please continue.”
“So, I’m expecting like dirty French maid and millionaire boss or something juicy like that.”
“Okay.”
“And I was right.”
“Sounds good.”
“Except what the captain really meant was a role reversal.”
My eyes widened. “Oh?”
Her lips were trembling as she fessed up. “He came out in heels and a frilly frock.”
“Oh, my God!” We both burst into hysterical laughter as Jasmine shook her head with her hands covering her face. “I had no idea what to do. I just stood there while his crooked penis poked out of the apron. I’m telling you as blunt as I am, I lost it. I completely lost the ability to speak.”
“What did you do?”
“I ran. I picked up my purse and RAN!”
I pulled over at a gas station and face planted into my steering wheel. “You have got to be kidding me!”
“Nope. I walked it off until I could think to call a cab and went straight to the wine bar. There I met Mark and only let him get to first base before I passed out in his hot tub.”
I couldn’t contain myself, tears were pouring from my eyes as she wiped her own away.
I sighed, my laughter subsiding slightly. “Poor baby,” I said, leaning over to hug her to me. “You are something else, lady. And you should have called me. I would have come to get you.”
“I’ll never be the same,” she said mournfully.
“It’s probably for the best.”
“This is weird,” Jasmine said, noticing the missing key from the lockbox at the Harper rental. “They should have left it at checkout.”
She knocked on the front door and when she got no answer, she looked at me with a shrug.
“You don’t have the master?”
“I haven’t been home,” she said sheepishly. “Or to the office, remember?”
“That’s right, you were up late watching the Discovery Channel.”
“Shut up, or you’re fired,” she snapped. “Crap. Let me see if I can hop the deck. This is my bad.” We walked the side of the cliff house and I stood in the driveway as she made her way toward the upper deck. There was only a narrow margin for her to get her footing on the ledge.