Page 32 of Pure Recklessness

‘Debatable,’ Dana replied. ‘If your last one did his job, you wouldn’t be so⁠—’

‘Uptight,’ Joe suggested. Ouch. This guy really didn’t hold back. ‘C’mon!’ Joe picked up a bright pink shopping basket. Jeez. They even had shopping baskets? How much of this stuff did staff buy?

‘You should definitely get the Lip-Stick.’ Dana winked.

‘And the Tempting Tentacle Dildo,’ Joe added, dropping it in the basket before I had a chance to protest. ‘I can personally vouch for that one.’ He wiggled his brows.

‘Ooh, what about this?’ Dana held up piece of dental floss with some material attached that was masquerading as lingerie.

‘It has holes in it!’ I gasped. ‘There’s no fabric covering the nipples or vagina area.’

‘That’s the point, sweetie.’ Joe rolled his eyes. ‘Easy access.’

Dana held it up against my body, shook her head, then went through the rack.

‘This looks more like your size, right?’ she said as my cheeks heated.

‘Don’t look so embarrassed, darling,’ Joe said. ‘We’ve seen it all before. Once you’ve worked here a while, there’s not much that can shock you.’

Minutes later, Dana and Joe strode back over to Maeve who scanned the products, including ones I hadn’t even noticed being put into my basket (but thankfully not the lingerie), and declared it was logged and approved on the system. Then she thrust the pink tote bag, which had ‘The Pleasure Is All Mine’ printed on it, into my hands.

‘Have fun!’ She flashed a devilish smile.

‘Thanks,’ I replied, despite knowing this was a waste of time.

‘Now to the library!’ Joe declared.

‘Yes!’ Dana cheered. ‘You’re gonna love it.’

She took my hand and they led me down a corridor which had silhouettes of couples in different sexual positions on the walls. Some of them were so explicit I almost covered my eyes.

‘Here it is!’ Joe said as he tapped his security pass on the reader and two grand red double-doors opened inwards.

‘Wow!’ I said as the bookcases came into full view. I stepped inside in a trance.

When they’d said there was a library here, I’d kind of pictured a few little bookcases, but this was really like a proper library. I should’ve realised by now that Sated didn’t do things by halves.

‘This has all of the novels Sated has ever published, plus there’s a section with some other bestselling romance and erotic novels that the bosses thought would be good to have.’

‘That’s… interesting,’ I said.

‘You can borrow three books at a time. But if you’re working in the press office, you can probably get advance copies for research. I’ve got some books left over from an event last week, so tomorrow I’ll bring you a few. Even though the books here all have plastic covers, they can get a bit sticky…’

I grimaced.

‘Yeah.’ Dana winced. ‘Once I borrowed a book and when I got to a spicy scene the pages were stuck together.’

‘Oh my God!’ I wrinkled my nose. ‘Surely that’s not hygienic!’

‘When you start reading these books, the last thing you’ll be thinking about is hygiene, darling.’ Joe chuckled.

‘We should get Ellie set up with the audio and ebooks too,’ Dana added.

‘Definitely!’ His eyes brightened. ‘The press office can give you access to the company drive where you can access digital content and listen to the audiobooks for your research.’

‘Okay,’ I nodded, still doubting I’d do that.

‘And you’re all set!’ Joe stated proudly.