“No!” I said, panic making my inflection go up at the end.
Sean paused, the ballistic noise had caught him so off guard, and I used the opportunity to fill him in with an explanation. “If we go back together, everyone will be wondering where we went, and I can’t handle that kind of an inquisition.”
“Six—”
“No. I will not waste that kind of interrogation on mediocre sex,” I snapped. I didn’t choke on the lie, but it was close.
Sean’s eyes widened almost impossibly as he stuttered.
I was beginning to enjoy shaking his confidence. With his manwhore, cocky as fuck reputation, he kind of needed the reality check even if he really didn’t need the practice, and I liked reaping the benefits—pleasure-filled orgasms—of making him try so hard.
Clearly, with each passing time we got together, he tried even harder. Harder to make me come faster, harder to make us do it together. He tried different things and invented brand-new techniques gleaned from, I knew, studying all of my bodily reactions. It was as fun as it was evil, and honestly, I didn’t really feel all that bad about it.
Maybe I should have, but the orgasms. Good God, the orgasms.
Plus, I was all for female empowerment and it was about damn time women held some of the power.
I leaned forward quickly and touched my lips to his to ease the sting, and then I slid out the side door.
I left him behind and moved quickly across the parking lot, eager to put a great deal of distance between us, should we come under scrutiny upon our arrival.
I knew I didn’t exactly look well put together, but my clothes were all in their proper places—I’d checked and double-checked—and my hair was always wild. My skin was too dark to really show a red glow, and I was good at talking my way out of things that were awkward. Hell, half my videos on my YouCam channel were just one-woman disasters as I tried to talk my way out of some kind of trouble I’d gotten myself involved in.
Firemen swarmed the crowd, and radios screeched as security placed everyone in a single file line.
I winced at what that could mean and hurried my pace when Cam spotted me in the distance. “There she is!” he shouted, turning the heads of everyone there. My step stuttered, but as security ran toward me, I tried not to be such a coward.
“What’s up, fellas?” I asked casually as they closed in like SWAT. “Have I done something wrong?”
“Ma’am, we need you to confirm your name for us and join the line. It’s protocol in an alarm situation like this to exit to the evacuation area and stay put until a proper count can be confirmed.”
Yikes. Sounded like Sean was going to be in big trouble. Me? I wasn’t worried. I wasn’t an actual employee, and no one had given me a notebook with a written notice of instructions. I had the whole pretty and dumb thing working for me in a big way.
“Sorry, Officer.” I batted my lashes. “I wasn’t aware.”
“I’m not an officer, ma’am. Just search and rescue. What’s your name?”
Eek. “Oh. Sorry. Six Malone.”
He pointed over his shoulder and sighed. “Go join the line.”
I did as I was told and followed the indication of his hand, squeezing beside Teeny when he beckoned me. He was munching on a bag of carrots. “Hey, Teen.”
“Hey, Li’l Shawty. Where you been?”
I shrugged and grappled for a second before landing on a tried and true female response. “I had to pee. Needed to find a private spot.”
Teeny laughed and nodded. “You got one of them little fucking bladders, huh?”
I bobbed my head dramatically. Anything to get him to believe me. “Yeah. Something like that.”
“You see Sean while you were out there?” Quinn asked from my other side, a suspicious brow raised. I didn’t like the look of it, and I didn’t trust Quinn. He was too smart, too invested, and just cunning enough to pull off following me without my knowledge.
He might have known the truth, but he also might have been trying to get me to admit something, so I went with the old standby of lying my ass off. I shook my head and gave my best face of plausible deniability. “Hmm. No. Haven’t seen him. Is he missing too?”
“Yeah,” Teeny confirmed, munching away on the orange crunch. “Mr. L’s losing his shit too. You guys were the last of the count, and we can’t go back into the building until we have the whole number. Funny as hell.”
“Mr. L losing his shit is funny as hell?” I questioned.
“No,” Teeny denied. “But thinking about him taking it out on Sean is.”
As if on cue, Sean came jogging up to the group, a wide smile on his face. I winced and turned, trying not to look directly at him for fear I’d give my guilt away. But looking toward the pavement didn’t take away my ability to listen. No, that sense was keen and willing, and I opened my ears to full volume.
“Phillips!” Mr. Lancaster yelled over the din of excitement as everyone noticed who’d finally arrived.
Teeny offered me a carrot, and I declined but asked, “Where’d you get those anyway?”
“Gotta be prepared, mama. I keep a stash in the office fridge right near the exit. You never know, you know?”
I laughed and discreetly turned my attention back to listening as Mr. Lancaster laid into Sean. “You know the process! We’ve done it enough in the last six goddamn months, haven’t we? Jesus Christ. It’s like starting all over again every time.”
“I, uh, saw a…”
“You saw a what?” Wes questioned. “It better have been a mirage of Jesus Christ himself calling you home if you open your mouth to finish that statement.”
“No, sir,” Sean said as seriously as possible. “Not Jesus Christ.”
I had to bite my lips, fully sucking them into my mouth, to keep from dying.
Wes’s voice drifted out as Sean’s eyes came to mine, and despite the distance, I could see everything he had to say as clear as though I’d heard it.
I might not have seen Jesus, but Six sure was calling out for him.
And I had. Several times and without prompting, I’d called out to Jesus Christ to help relieve me of my orgasm.
It wasn’t religious, but it sure was something.
Fucking hell, I was in trouble.