AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Suddenly, I vaguely remembered him talking about a guy coming to “wipe my memory.” Saying other weird stuff about how he absorbed emotions from people. Telling me about his uneven testicles.
Fuck, we’d gotten really, really drunk.
Thinking about the sheer amount of ice cream we’d consumed was making my belly roil. Exhaling shakily, I shuffled over to the cabinet and got a glass to fill with water. I had to leave in a minute if I wanted to get to work on time, but I stood there sipping it slowly until my stomach settled again.
What the hell had happened? How had I gotten home?
My backpack was resting by the front door, so I swiped it up and left, already dreading the day ahead. I’d never seen Holt before last night, so at least the odds were good that I’d never see him again or have to face the reality of everything I’d told him. Like farting in Chase’s office. Marcus’s weird come noise. The time a spider crawled out of my shoe after I took it off and I screamed so loud my neighbours called the cops.
He’d told me some stuff too. Like the testicles thing. And the time he’d gotten a ball caught between the slats of a sun lounger while he was having sex on it, which was, he firmly believed, the reason for his lopsided nutsack.
I could vaguely remember his assistant, Larkin, telling him that the “memory-wiper” guy was on a cruise. Then we’d both made the decision to get even more drunk to erase our memories of the night the old-fashioned way. We’d thought it was a fantastic idea.
When I reached the parking lot under my apartment building, I saw my car parked neatly in its space. Someone had driven it home, then—driven me home, I was guessing. When I climbed inside, it smelled faintly of unfamiliar aftershave. And rum, which made my hand fly up to my mouth to hold back a bile-tinged burp. The driver’s seat had been pushed way back to make room for someone much bigger than me.
I chucked my bag onto the passenger seat, then paused and glanced into the back. I’d sat in the back seat last night, I suddenly remembered. And Holt had been beside me, passed out with his head on my shoulder for most of the drive, until he woke up when we stopped at my building and smushed his hand into my face, slurring something unintelligible.
Seb had been driving. The big, scary bodyguard. He’d calmly helped me into the building while pink-haired Larkin had got out of the car behind us and tried to herd Holt into it, except Holt had kept wandering off and trying to throw his shoes away.
Oh god. I winced as I started the car and cranked up the AC. We’d been total messes. How humiliating. I hadn’t been drunk in public since my mid-twenties. Would people at work be able to tell I was hungover? I checked my watch as I drove and realised I didn’t have time to stop for my usual coffee. I’d just have to drink the poison at work.
And I hadn’t packed a lunch. Or eaten my usual breakfast of plain oatmeal. Not that I thought I’d be able to stomach anything today, but this was going to be rough.
By the time I got to work, I’d remembered many, many more terrible details of last night. All the embarrassing things I’d told him. All the embarrassing things he’d told me. The stuff you never actually said out loud—it just remained in your brain as a shameful secret.
At least my headache had settled to a low, brain-throbbing roar as I shuffled into the front lobby. I nodded at Yuri, the security guy, then stopped and squinted at him. Had he been working last night? Had he let me into the office? Someone must have, because I had my keys and backpack.
He gave me an odd look, so I quickly moved on, but before I could reach the elevators, I sensed the presence of a very large person walking silently beside me.
“Mr. Hough.”
When I turned my head, I felt what little blood remained in my face drain completely as I looked up at Seb towering over me.
Shooting a nervous glance at Yuri, who wasn’t paying any attention whatsoever, I licked my dry lips. “H-hi. Sorry.”
His dark brows twitched almost imperceptibly. “For what?”
“Um, I don’t know. Last night.”
His granite-carved face grew expressionless once again. “No problem. Holt would like to see you.”
Chapter Eight
Mutual Regret for Bad Decisions
I almost threw up all over the lobby.
Noooo. Why? Why??? We’d made a pact, damn it! I’d told him about the time I slipped in the shower while using my suction dildo and gave myself a black eye on the edge of the bath. He’d told me he once threw his back out trying to suck his own dick. We weren’t supposed to ever see each other again after that. Those were the rules!
“I—” Bile teased the back of my throat, so I swallowed thickly. “I have to get to work.”
“It’ll just take a minute.” Seb’s tone told me, in no uncertain terms, that this wasn’t a negotiation. It was happening.
Still feeling like I might barf, I nodded and watched Seb turn without another word. He didn’t head toward the door to the stairwell, where the basement access was, but instead to a corridor beside the front desk that I’d never been down before. There were only a couple of closed doors leading off it, and Seb led me to the one right at the end.
After a brisk knock, he opened it and stepped aside so I could walk through. The room was dark, all the blinds drawn, but I could see it was a large, airy office with a big desk in front of a bank of windows.
Sitting at that desk was Holt, his long black hair tied up into a scraggly bun on the top of his head, and a pair of black fifties-era sunglasses shielding his eyes. His skin was a standard pale white. The body paint was gone, as were the pointy ears and cheekbone prosthetics, but his nails were still hot pink. He was clutching a giant takeout cup, and there was a bottle of aspirin on his desk.
