“How so?”
“It’s like performing a mating dance every time I meet a new client, and anytime you see them after that, there are smiles and hugs and ‘how is the misses?’ But a lot of it is only for show.”
“A lot of wank is what it is,” Tiff added.
“I mean, it’s not that bad,” I couldn’t help adding defensively.
“Auds, please.”
I relented. “Ok, fine, yes, it can be terrible. At a certain level, the niceties aren’t real, and if you aren’t careful, it can lure you into a false sense of friendship with people, which can backfire big time. But as long as you remember it’s a professional relationship, you can avoid problems.”
“You’re right; that sounds exactly like working on TV.” Jackson gestured between Tiff and me. “You two seem to be friends, though? Actual friends, I mean.”
“Hard not to be after how we met,” Tiff said, and Jackson looked at me, curious.
I felt my ears heat up as I explained. “I caught her naked in the office with the delivery woman. I came back the next day because I still needed some paperwork signed, and she looked like she wanted to fight me—”
“I thought you were going to get me fired,” Tiff interjected.
“And I was so afraid of her that I told her with an ass like that, I didn’t blame her for wanting to get in their pants.”
Jackson’s head tipped back as he laughed, and a new wave of heat passed through me.
“And we’ve been friends ever since.”
My smile was wide. “Tiff was the first person I’d ever met who was fearless at being herself. At first, I think I just wanted her to rub off on me.”
Tiff leered across the bar. “The storeroom’s free, wanna go for it?”
I leveled a look at her. “I’m not fucking you in the storeroom. It’s disgusting in there.”
Beside me, Jackson coughed out a laugh. Damn, that sound was addictive.
Tiff feigned offense. “Oh, I see, you only have eyes for the pretty boy now, do you?” She cocked a brow.
Embarrassed, I cleared my throat. “Don’t you have something to clean?”
Tiff’s giggle and wink as she walked away did not go unnoticed but were quickly overshadowed by the deeply interested look Jackson was sending me.
It left me unmoored.
His hair, almost brown in this dark light, fell in a disgustingly charming way. I imagined I wasn’t the first to picture how soft it would be between my fingers, which pushed other images into my mind, of both gentle and filthy measures.
Again, it seemed from the gleam in his eyes that he could guess where my thoughts were. “You two seem pretty close, are you …?”
“No,” I assured him. “No. Tiff is bi, but I’m not, and she might like to make jokes, but we’d never …”
“And do you have eyes for … what did she call me?” He was teasing, feigning innocence, but wow, that mischievous glint in his eyes made me want to kiss the grin right off his face.
“Pretty boy?”
“Right. So do you?”
Beneath the litany of nerves, a spark flickered on in me. An urge to be bold. Maybe it was adrenaline. It was so unlike anything I’d experienced before. And here was my chance, right? To have that night of casual sex that I’d been wanting?
A thousand tingles scattered across my skin as his hand brushed against my arm. Maybe I’d be embarrassed tomorrow, but right now, I wanted to get out of my head and take a chance.
To new adventures, right?
