“I’m on the pill.” I shrugged. “Endometriosis. If we both get an A+ on our tests, I guess we could try it without. You know, eventually, down the line.”
There was a weighty silence between us, just for a moment, and then a knock at the door interrupted us.
“Yes, one moment,” Neil called, checking his watch. “Damnit. That will be the editor... I’ve forgotten his name.”
“One of our editors?” I squeaked.
“Don’t give anything away,” he warned confidently, as though he knew I was capable of playing this game. He reached for a plate on the desk. “Here, take this with you, if you’re still hungry.”
Put entirely off my game by the unfinished erotic encounter, and the fear of being caught, I stumbled away in a daze. I popped the lock as quietly as I could, but when I opened the door, Jake stood there with a peculiar expression.
“Locked door lunch?” he asked, his gaze dropping to the square black plate.
“I ordered a bit too much,” Neil answered for me, cool and casual as ever. He was back behind his desk, eating his lunch as though I hadn’t just been sitting in front of him with my legs wide open. “Please, come in... Jake?”
I saw the annoyance at not being remembered flash across Jake’s face, and high-tailed it out of the room.
* * * *
I started reading The Big Book of Kink on the train home.
I missed my stop and had to backtrack on another train.
Most of the stuff, I knew about already— God bless the internet— but I’d never considered actually doing any of it. And true to his word, Neil had added notes to the margins. Copious notes. It was one of those that had caused me to miss my stop.
Beside an essay about spanking, he’d practically written an essay of his own: Have you any idea how many times I’ve jerked myself off fantasizing about you, and this? I can still feel my palm smarting from slapping your cute, tight little ass. The way you licked your lips before asking me to spank you. I’d like very much to do it again.
By the time I got back to the apartment, my blood was pounding in my veins, and I hated, hated, hated the real world for intruding on my sex life. I opened the door and Holli called, “Hey!” from the couch. She was watching and old episode of Blind Date. “There’s a package for you.”
I went to the little dinette set against the wall, where a medium-sized shipping carton sat. I didn’t recognize the company that had sent it.
Frowning, I opened the envelope in the plastic bag sealed to the outside of the box. There was a packing slip with a personal message: A little something to congratulate you on the new job. Do let me know if you find a use for them. Neil.
Maybe it should have bothered me that he was spending so much money on me. But I love presents. Shamelessly, and without reservation. I used my apartment key to break through the tape on the box as Holli came to stand beside me. She picked up the note. In a dementedly cheerful sing-song, she said, “Someone’s got a sugar daddy.”
“Oh, shut up.” I was grinning like an idiot as I pulled out a black box with a picture of a makeup bag, brushes and product arrayed around it.
“What new job?” Holli asked, looking up from the note, her brow creased in confusion.
I was equally confused. I had no idea what the hell Neil had sent me. Makeup? Was this some kind of test for the beauty department? And then my eyes fell on the product description on the box.
“Oh my god,” Holli giggled. “Are those sex toys?”
I opened the lid and pulled out a facsimile powder brush with thick, rubbery bristles. The base twisted open for a battery. I couldn’t believe how something so funny could also be so sweet, and so sexy.
“Yup.” I laughed as I held it out to her. “Vibrators, the lot of them. Oh, no, wait...” I dug through the box. “No, there is also naughty stuff to put on your junk to make it tingle.”
“I need somebody to make my junk tingle,” Holli sighed, carefully dropping the brush into the box. “Tell me about this new job!”
That took some of the wind out of my sails. Despite the promotion, I felt more success in my sex life than my working life at the moment. In fact, I wasn’t entirely comfortable telling Holli the truth about my new job, now that she was already as excited for me as if I had gotten it on my own. “Neil offered me assistant beauty editor.”
“That’s fantastic!” Holli caught me up in a celebratory hug that was almost too enthusiastic for my weary bones. “When were you going to tell me?”