Fair Game (23 page)

Josie’s fiasco of a day didn’t bear thinking about either, but one bad thought breeds another, and there it was in the front of her mind. First the meeting, then that disastrous conversation with Lydia. And the way the job she’d loved had suddenly started to suck.

“Are you all right?” Faith set her cup and saucer on the table.

“I’m fine.” Except for the panic attack that suddenly threatened. And she was
not
the panic attack type. “Why?”

“You looked like you were about to choke.”

God. Now her turmoil was starting to show on her face. “Work stuff.”

Faith tipped her head, her hair falling across her shoulders, shining with natural highlights of gold and red. Her eyes round, her voice hushed, she said, “You
never
have work stuff bothering you. Not ever.”

Faith was more intuitive than Josie had given her credit for. “Being a manager isn’t as fun as I thought it would be.”

“What’s wrong?”

“People.”

“Yeah.” In the midst of stripping down for another dress to try on, Trinity stopped to add her two cents. “If we didn’t have to supervise people, the job would be so much easier.”

Trinity got her first job at the beginning of the year, Accounts Receivable Supervisor working for her father. She’d had one helluva time in the beginning. Josie remembered hours of consultation over dinners at Vatovola’s, Trinity’s favorite restaurant.

Verna nibbled on a shortbread biscuit. “So what’s gone wrong?”

Josie didn’t know Verna well. Trinity and Faith would forgive her idiocy, but she wasn’t so sure about Verna’s reaction. Of course, the salesladies would hear, too.

What the hell, she needed advice. Or at least to talk her thoughts out before they drove her nutzoid rumbling around inside her own head.

“The whole thing went to crap the very first day Connor promoted me.” As Trinity got herself strapped into another wedding gown, Josie gave them the rundown, from Ernie and Ronson, to Chuck and Lydia, minus any names, of course. She even included how she screwed up getting the dryer back out to Coyote Ridge.

When she was done, Josie leaned forward on her chair. “You know, Trinity, I owe you a big apology.”

Trinity sucked in her stomach and smoothed the dress over her breasts, gazing at her reflection. “Whatever for, hon?”

“I didn’t take your problems with Inga Rice seriously.” Inga was one of Trinity’s employees. “I thought you were making a mountain out of a molehill, but now, when I’m faced with the same kind of crap, I realize I did you a misdeed.”

Hands on her hips, Trinity gave one of her pretty musical laughs. “Besides Faith, you’re the only person I know who would apologize for a teeny-tiny thing you thought
months
ago. Especially when you didn’t even say it out loud.”

“And we never would have known if you hadn’t just told us,” Faith added.

Verna nodded. “That Inga can be a real bitch.”

“Besides, what you told me to do back then was right,” Trinity went on.

“What did I say?”

“I can’t remember, but whatever it was, it was right.”

They all laughed.

“So here’s what you should do.” Trinity sucked in a breath when the helper girls got the last of the seed pearls done up. “This one isn’t going to work.” She grinned at them all in the mirror. “I don’t think Scott’ll have the patience to get all these teeny-tiny pearls undone,” she whispered loudly.

Kyle would have all the patience. He was into teasing, keeping her on edge. Dammit, she needed to stay focused. She needed her friends’ advice.

“Okay, where was I?” Trinity flapped her hand. “Slam down the guy making you miserable because you got the job.”

“I did. I just don’t think I’ve heard the last of it yet.”

“Then that’s all you can do,” Verna said. “He’ll either stay or he’ll quit, or if he goes too far, you’ll have to fire him, but you can’t let him get to you.” She smiled. “I do know that’s easier said than done.”

“Have you talked to Connor about all this?” Faith asked.

“He knows some of it, like the sexual harassment thing, but not the rest. And don’t tell him, okay? I don’t want him to think I’m a total screwup.”

Faith zipped her lip. “You know what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas,” she quipped. “He thinks you’re doing a fine job. He always knew you would.”

It was kind of weird. She’d never known exactly why, but Connor had gone to bat for her with Jarvis, and she’d always be grateful to him for that. “Yeah, but I can’t go running to him with every little issue.”

Faith patted her knee. “That’s what we’re here for, so you did the right thing. And what you told that girl was actually quite marvelous.”

Josie snorted. “I fobbed her off, told her to go find a friend to talk to.”

“Isn’t that exactly what she
should
do? Just like you’re coming to us?”

“Well, I guess, but—”

“Shh.” Faith shut her up with a Dr. Evil hand gesture. “You are always the hardest on yourself. As far as I can see, you did everything right.”

“Yeah,” Trinity seconded, as she slipped into the third dress on her rack of maybes.

“You talked to the butt pincher. You didn’t ignore it.”

“But I should have checked with HR first.”

“Shoulda, woulda, coulda,” Trinity said. “Didn’t.” She shrugged. “Big deal.”

“But—”

This time Verna shushed her. She was starting to like Verna a lot. “Honey, only God doesn’t make mistakes. You really have to start believing in yourself.”

“But I do.” At least, she’d thought she did. Until she’d lost control of the department and started thinking that perhaps she’d been promoted to the level of her incompetency. So yeah, even her own belief in herself was in doubt.

“The point is,” Verna stressed, “you dealt with the issue. It’s resolved. Unless
they
act up again.”

“You can only control what
you
do,” Faith added. “If they want to act like babies, you can’t do anything but deal with the aftermath.”

“See,” Josie said, “that’s the whole problem. I want them to act like adults and they don’t.”

“Believe me, they never will.” Trinity turned on the dais. “What do you guys think?”

She was gorgeous. The cream satin sheath, overlaid with a delicate lace, left her shoulders and throat bare. Tight over the hips, the dress then flared, cascading down to a two-foot train in the back. Elegant, tasteful, nothing overdone, just like Trinity herself.

“Oh, that’s the one your mama would have wanted to see you in.” Verna wiped at her eyes.

Faith gave a little
ooh
of total approval. Josie wondered if she missed not having the big wedding, the dress, the photographs. On second though, nah. What Faith and Connor had was perfect.

“What do you think, Josie?” Trinity waited, as if Josie’s opinion really mattered.

She’d never had best friends before. Despite being related, Josie hadn’t been close to Faith until a little over a year ago, right after she’d married Connor. And with Faith came Trinity. She’d never been in anyone’s wedding, never been asked for her opinion on the perfect dress. She’d never had friends to talk over her problems with. So she’d never talked. It would be great if you could see all the answers clearly—even all the problems—by yourself. But you couldn’t.

For the first time, Josie began to see all the things she’d missed, such as having best friends to tell her she wasn’t a total screwup. Friends. They were as important as a career. And to have good friends, you had to be one.

“I love that dress, Trinity.” Josie beamed a huge smile. “Bet there’s never been a prettier bride to walk down the aisle.”

 

 

 

JOSIE had dropped off a slightly tipsy Faith at her house, then headed home herself. The scent of bread pudding in brandy sauce still lingered in her nose—Trinity had gotten her hooked on the stuff. She’d clambered into bed, turned off the light, and rolled over when her cell rang on the bedside table.

She flipped open the phone and spoke, knowing it was Kyle. “Are you peeping into my windows to see when I go to bed?”

“I’m like a swami. I sensed you were fantasizing about me licking your pussy, and I had to call.”

“I was not thinking any such thing.” Actually, she’d been planning his next challenge. Bits and pieces of it had come to her throughout dinner while the conversation flowed over her. “I was thinking about sucking your cock.” Oops, she shouldn’t have said that.

Because he immediately took her up on the invitation. “Let me come over.”

“Are you going to be this pushy when you’re actually working at Castle?”

“Only in non-work hours.”

She doubted it. The man would probably try to cop a feel in every nook and cranny he could find. She didn’t trust him. Yet she felt herself inexorably pulled in. As if he were the mesmerist he claimed.

“It’s a work night. I need my beauty sleep. Hang up the phone.” She should have cut the connection herself.

“You at least need an orgasm so that you sleep well.”

“I don’t need you here for that.”

“I don’t have to be there. You can do it for me right now.”

“Over the phone?” Not that she hadn’t done phone sex before, but with Kyle it was yet another escalation in a long line of them. “No.”

“Yes.” He groaned. “Don’t make me jerk off alone.”

“Are you stroking your cock?” She said it with an appropriate level of disgust, yet she was already getting hot and wet beneath the sheet.

“I’ve been stroking it the whole time.” His breath picked up the pace.

“You’re such a perv.” She wanted to touch herself, too, except that would be giving in.

“All night I’ve been imagining my face buried in your pussy and your lips wrapped around my dick.”

A perfect sixty-nine. “We agreed to once a week.”

“That was for a date.” She could hear the stroke of his hand in his voice now, the slightly harsh breath, the space between his words. “But we can have phone sex any time.” A pause, a groan. “Except during work hours.”

The sounds he made shivered over the air. God, she wanted to touch herself. She wanted to ask him how good it felt with his hand on his cock and her voice in his ear. “No phone sex.” But would he notice if she gave herself one tiny orgasm?

“Killjoy.”

“We had rules for this whole thing.” She wanted to break them all, except that would give him the power, especially after she’d failed to call quits to their arrangement when he took the FI&T job.

“Come with me, Josie,” he murmured, voice guttural, intense, drawing her in.

She pinched her nipple and moaned.

“That’s it, baby. Touch yourself. Tell me how wet you are.”

“I’m not touching myself.” She slipped her hand down, tunneling beneath the elastic of her panties.

“Liar. I’m so fucking hard knowing you’re fingering your clit for me.”

She did just that, shooting an electric shock straight up inside. “I’m lying here listening to you be a total perv, that’s all.” Yet she dipped her finger down to her pussy, so wet, gliding it back up. In her college dorm room, she’d learned to masturbate without making a sound, her roommate fast asleep, never the wiser.

“I want you here, now, riding my cock.”

“I’m going to hang up now.” She pushed her head back against the pillow, arched her body into her hand.

“Don’t go yet. Hear me.”

“I’m going to fall asleep if you don’t hurry up.” She kept her breath normal, steady, and just the effort in that drove her higher, closer to the pinnacle.

“Christ, you know how to torture a man.”

“You called me, remember. I’m not doing a thing.” Except getting herself off, his voice, his breath, the man himself pushing her as much as her own touch.

“Ah fuck.” He groaned, then let out a gust of breath. “Fuck, fuck.”

She could hear him, she was with him, right there. Oh shit. She almost cried out, almost moaned and thrashed as his groan washed over her, then his low cry brought her to the edge and dumped her over. Oh God, oh God. The need for silence, the effort of holding it in intensified the orgasm almost as much as wailing. She rode the crest forever until she heard his long, satisfied sigh.

“Fuck, that was good. We can do this every night.”

“It didn’t do a damn thing for me.”

“You had the best orgasm since I fucked you on Thursday, and you know it.”

True. Admitting it, though, would put him on top again. Since he would soon be her boss, he’d have all the power anyway. He kept drawing her in, slowly, inexorably. She hadn’t called either of her other buddies in weeks. Every occasion she did Kyle, each time she talked to him, even if she just freaking saw him in a meeting, she took another baby step in the wrong direction. Wrong for her career, wrong for her desire to keep her relationships on a friendly, casual, emotion-free basis.

There was a way. She’d thought about it, planned how to make it happen, considered the consequences, decided it was worth it in this little game they had going.

“Cat got your tongue?” Kyle murmured.

“I don’t have a cat,” Josie answered literally.

“Then maybe you’re just overcome by your climax and can’t think right now.”

“Oh, I can think, all right.”

Kyle had to admit he was having trouble thinking. Aftershocks still quaked lightly through his body. Damn, she’d been quiet, barely a quickened breath, but she’d come, he knew she had, no matter how much she wanted to deny it. He’d bet it was fucking good for her, too. Phone sex had never been so hot, maybe because she fought him as well as herself.

He’d left the window open and the night breeze trickled over his nerve endings, almost like fingers. Her fingers.

“I’ve been thinking about our next date.”

Good. She’d called it a date. “And?” He rose, headed to the master bathroom to wipe the semen off his stomach, the phone still to his ear.