Gabriel sighed into the phone. “I’m doing what I can, Des, but you know this guy’s not happy if he’s not knocking down buildings. We need the ink dry on this one.”
“I know.” From across the parking lot, his eyes drifted to the storefront of Sex on the Beach. It was a nice day; Lenny would be out on the beach with her dog. “I need… maybe another three months? Seaver needs a soft touch, or?—”
“Des,” Gabriel cut him off. “Adrien’s giving us thirty days.”
The stomach acid rising in the back of his throat hardened into a rock and sank, hard, back into his gut.
“A month?” he repeated. “That’s not enough time, I can barely get Lenny to talk to me?—”
“That’s the time we have.” Gabriel’s tone was still friendly, but there was a finality to it that told Des all he needed to know. If he couldn’t pull this off in the time allotted, they would losethe contract. He could kiss his bonus check goodbye. “You’re fine, Des. You’ll have this one in the bag in no time, and then you can wave your big fat bonus check in your dear old dad’s face.”
His mouth tightened with his rising anxiety, but he didn’t bother redirecting the conversation. He’d let Gabriel distract him, for now. “I’m not going to do that.”
Ever since they’d started Calogistics, Gabriel had been fond of teasing Des about doing it just to ‘stick it to Dad’. He’d learned to shrug it off, but it wasn’t far off the mark. After he’d left med school, his primary goal had been to get a job that would pay enough to pay his parents back for his tuition. When he’d accomplished that, it became more about showing them that their version of success wasn’t the only one.
It wasn’t about showing anyone up. It was about proving what he could do.
“You should, though,” Gabriel exclaimed. “But first, come by the office, and on your way in, stop and get me a green tea.”
“I’m not doing that either,” he said flatly.
“Come on. If you don’t get over your fear of green tea, you’re doomed to be alone for the rest of your life.”
“I’m not afraid of green tea.” It was just that the smell of it made him want to drive his bike into a brick wall. A holdover from his green tea-obsessed ex. “And I like being alone.”
“A likely story. Go talk to Seaver, and then get your ass in the office. See you when you get here. Bring tea!”
Gabriel hung up.
Des glanced back at the storefront of Sex on the Beach, the dark privacy coverings on its windows a tinge more ominous now.
Thirty days. He had thirty days to get the Snack Stop and Sex on the Beach to sign on the dotted line, or the last four months of work would go right down the drain.
He had to focus. No more flirting with Cami when he was on the clock. Just business. Get in, ask for Lenny, get out.
In spite of himself, his mind conjured the familiar image of Cami’s hips swinging as she rounded the checkout counter, the way her jeans hugged her ass.
Okay, maybe a little flirting with Cami. But absolutely no funny business. He’d already blown one career. He couldn’t blow this one too.
By the timeher shift was finished, Cami was more than ready to retire to the apartment she rented above the store. She’d been on the closing shift, so after Des left she’d had another five hours of retail work to live through with the knowledge that there was a vibrator in her purse. She worked around sex toys all the time and it never bothered her, but now that there was one that a gorgeous man had basically written her name on, she couldn’t focus.
She left the store through the storage room exit and climbed the staircase to her apartment, her purse bumping against her hip with her steps—an insistent reminder of its contents. When she unlocked and pushed open her door, she was already toeing her shoes off. She kicked them off in the vague direction of her shoe mat and then dumped her purse onto the arm of her secondhand sofa.
Right on top, tucked into a brown paper bag for discretion, was the vibrator. She withdrew it from the bag, letting the hard plastic packaging cool her fingertips. The cardboard advertising insert was brightly colored and friendly. The plastic even had neat little pop tabs for easy removal. Everything about it screamedgreat for beginners!
Could she? The idea alone was preposterous, staggering with the impropriety. She should leave it in the package and give it back, insist Des get a refund or at least take this to use with… whomever.
But if he had a whomever, would he have insisted she take this?
What are friends for?His words echoed through her mind, the hint of promise in his accompanying smile making her skin too warm.
He knew she wanted him. He had to. Buying a vibrator for her was probably a tease.I could use this with you, but I won’t.And thank God for that, because if Cami found this mortifying, she probably would have died on the spot if he’d offered to give her toy lessons. Death by spontaneous combustion.
She popped the easy-open tabs and pulled the little vibe from the packaging. It slipped easily onto her middle finger, fitting snug against her fingerprint with an easily-thumbable on/off switch.
Would this tiny little thing solve her incredibly embarrassing problem? Was it possible that the only missing ingredient in her orgasm recipe was a scrap of purple silicone?
Frowning, Cami divested herself of her name tag and took a moment to rinse the vibrator off in the bathroom with soap and water. Then she unceremoniously shoved her jeans and panties off and clambered onto her bed in the corner of the studio apartment.
