Page 43 of My Brother's Bad Best Friend

“That, and he couldn’t last very long.”

Lane laughs. “Young guys get too excited, but older guys…” She trails off and shrugs. “Anyway, just practice some more. That good dick is out there, waiting for you.”

“Yeah,” I say. “I bet.”

She laughs as I blush again and waves, heading to the door. “See you later. Thanks again.”

“Bye.”

I go back to counting, alone in the café for the first time ever. My mind keeps drifting back to what she said about older guys and good dick, and the image of Jonas wearing nothing but a towel keeps flashing through my brain.

I can barely keep count. I have to stop and start a few times before I finish. When I’m done, I go through the usual task of finishing up the cleaning and straightening, although there’s not much left to do. I’m done maybe ten minutes later, a stack of cash in my hands as I head down toward Jonas’s office with the day’s deposit.

He looks up as I knock. He’s always the first one in and the last one out. His eyebrow arches as I walk over, cash in hand. “Today’s register,” I say.

He takes the stack, thumbing through it. “Lane usually does this,” he notes.

“She had a hot date.”

“Really?” He arches an eyebrow. “Good for her.”

“Yeah, I figured I could close out. I’ve seen her do it enough times.”

“How do I know you didn’t steal anything?”

I roll my eyes. “Because I’m not a total scum, that’s how. And the cash matches the receipts.”

His eyes flash a little bit and that grin slowly crosses his lips. I haven’t seen it in a little while, that intense and mischievous look like he’s thinking about doing something bad. But the harvest finished this morning and he’s been in an exceptionally good mood all afternoon.

“You know what they do in drug houses?” he asks me.

I shake my head. “I’m sure it’s not something a boss should say to his employee, though.”

He ignores that. “They make them work naked, maybe just a pair of panties and a hairnet. That way, they can’t steal anything even if they want to.”

“You think I should work naked?” I arch an eyebrow at him. “I doubt we’d get much work done.”

“We’d double our customers, I know that for sure.” He pushes his chair back. “No, you don’t have to work naked. But I know the next best thing.”

He walks around the desk toward me, that light and cunning grin getting bigger.

“What are you doing?” I ask him.

“I think I need to strip search you. Make sure there’s no money stashed away on your person.”

I take a step back, heart beating fast as he comes closer. This is what I’ve been wanting so badly all week, but I can’t tell how serious he’s being. If he tells me to strip, get down on my knees, and to suck his cock, I know I will, I just can’t tell if he’s serious or not.

“Don’t joke around,” I warn him. “That’s sexual harassment.”

“It absolutely is.” He stops in front of me, head cocked to the side. “I won’t make it mandatory. We’ll call it an optional strip search.”

I bite my lower lip. “Can’t see why anyone would submit to anything so invasive, especially when you’re the one doing it, asshole.”

“You know why you’d submit to me.” He laughs softly. “Fuck, little rose, it’s been a long and trying week. I know I should be nice, but I can’t help teasing you sometimes.”

I let out a breath and smile along with him. He is just kidding, which is good, I guess. We’ve been avoiding this for a reason. Although Ezra’s been coming into work, at least a little bit, he’s still selling drugs on the side. He’s not getting any better.

He sighs and turns away from me. I watch as he opens a safe and tosses my little stack of money in there before shutting it again and turning to me. “Want me to walk you out?”

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