Page 12 of Some Like It Rough

Julia did as he told her to, her harried breathing echoing in the small space.

“That’s good, Julia. I’ll see you in a while.”

Luke cut the connection so abruptly she almost jumped. She heard voices in the hallway and quickly did up her pants and washed her hands again. Thank God it was the end of the day. She didn’t think she could stand the sexual anticipation for another second.

She emerged from the bathroom and went back to her office. Dave was putting a new file on her desk and he glanced up at her.

“This is the paperwork for Mr. Warner. He said his family owns the old drugstore on the corner of Main and that he’s doing it up. Is that right?”

“Apparently.” Julia gave Dave her most professional smile and dumped the new file in her inbox, ready to send it on to Mr. Glynn for the ultimate approval.

Dave grinned. “Well, seeing as he only deposited five thousand bucks into his current account, he’s not going to get very far. He’ll be tapping us for a loan next.”

“And if he does, we’ll be totally willing to help him out to the best of our professional ability, won’t we?”

Dave walked out of the door. “Yeah, yeah, that’s us, your friendly neighborhood bank, I get it.”

Julia sighed as he disappeared whistling some piece of tuneless drivel. Sometimes working with eighteen-year-olds made her feel ancient. Had she ever been that confident and cocky? Probably not, she’d been too busy trying to get her life together. Now, Paul had always been like that, still was sometimes, to tell the truth.

As if she’d ordered him up from her brain like a lunchtime special, Paul appeared at her door.

“You ready to quit, Julia?”

“The job? No. The day? Definitely. Let’s go.” She smiled at him, picked up the jacket of her pantsuit, and draped it around her shoulders. Paul followed her out to the parking lot behind the bank. She looked down to find her car keys in her purse and he almost bumped into her. He kissed the side of her neck.

“Did you know I can see your nipples through your blouse?”

Julia looked at her blouse and realized he was right. “Sorry about that.”

His soft chuckle warmed her skin. “Not a problem, honey, just makes me want to suck them into my mouth, right here and now.”

She turned around and put her hand on his shoulder, pretended to frown. “Don’t say things like that here. I have to work with these people, remember?”

“Yeah, I remember, otherwise I’d be fucking you right now up against that ATM and to hell with who saw us.” He kissed her nose. “Maybe we should leave both our cars here and walk down to Luke’s. It’ll only take a few minutes.”

“Why don’t you want to go in your truck?”

His smile was pure lust. “Because the moment I got you up in that cab I’d be inside you and I wouldn’t care who caught me.”

She touched his cheek, felt the burn of his unshaven beard. He moved his face so that her fingers brushed against his lips. “You seem pretty fired up tonight. It is because we’re going to see Luke?”

His pupils dilated until there was hardly any blue left. “I saw him earlier.”

“You did?” Julia kept on staring into his eyes. Something was troubling him, something important.

“Yeah, we . . .” He swallowed hard. “We jacked off together.”

“And . . . ?” Even though she knew he’d take his own sweet time to tell her, Julia tried to encourage his reply. “Did you think I’d mind?”

He smiled then and she relaxed a little. “Not when we were both fantasizing about you. But . . .” He took her hand and marched her firmly toward his truck. “Are you okay with all this? It’s happening so fast, but I kind of like that?—”

She put her hand over his mouth. “Yes, it’s fast, but maybe that’s for the best? If it all goes wrong, we’ll be able to move on, get over him quicker, and know that we were finally done with him.”

He drew her hand away from his mouth and kissed her palm. “And if he doesn’t go? If he wants to stay?”

She stood on tiptoe to kiss him. “Then we’ll work it out somehow.”

He kissed her back, crowding her against the side of his big truck, shielding her from the windows of the bank. God, he tasted so fine, a hint of beer, warm saddle leather, and laughter. Sometimes she just wanted to crawl inside him and stay there forever.

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