Page 22 of Daddy's Princess

“Why would meeting the boss—sexy as he is—have you drinking tequila? You swore off alcohol after—”

I raise a hand to stop her right there. I don’t need a reminder oflast time. “Seriously, let’s not rehash that night.”

Alice gives me a sympathetic look. She was just as sick as I was that night. Everyone else laughs teasingly. “Fine. Tell me all about this meeting with Mr. Titan.”

“Yeah, tell us,” Jen and Nikki say in perfect harmony, their elbows on the table in front of them as they lean in to better hear me over the music. Alice gives me an encouraging smile.

I take a deep, steadying breath, then tell my friends the whole sordid tale. Starting with Britney, who is definitely raising higher on my friends’ shit lists. Not that I care. She’s horrible. I tell them about stupid Jeff Thompson and his coffee comment. I ramble on about the god-awful storyboards he tried passing off.

Candace, Jen, Alice, and Nikki all commiserate with me. Candace goes on her own rant about how they should have me on the design team, not doing stupid office busywork. A slightly more encouraging version of what my mother told me this morning. Candace fully supports my wanting to be an illustrator, unlike my mother.

I polish off the rest of my margarita and signal to Carlos for another refill. If I’m going to tell them the rest of the story, I’m going to need extra liquid courage. I can admit that I started with the easy stuff because I don’t really want to talk about last night. Nor do I want to confess to kissing my boss, who happens to be the very same guy that had me stretched out over his lap for the spanking of a lifetime. Not to mention the orgasms. All the orgasms.

I plan to just tell them the basics. They don’t need all the nitty-gritty details of spankings, orgasm denial, and forced orgasms. They also don’t need to hear how the second Oliver laid his hungry eyes on me this morning I lit up like the Fourth of July. Oh, and the kiss that fried my synapses. I really did intend to keep my confession to the bare minimum… it doesn’t work. I end up word vomiting the whole sordid tale.

“What are the chances that Mr. Oliver Titan would bemyOliver?”

Candace’s eyes practically bug out of her head at the whole dom from last night is my boss thing or maybe the fact that I referred to him as my Oliver. I’m obviously experiencing a full personality transplant via tequila infusion because sober me would never speak so candidly. Maybe with just Candace, but never with Alice, Jen, and Nikki.

“Can you believe he kissed me?” If I wasn’t fully immersed in my tequila-fog, I would be completely embarrassed by my whininess. “Then he had the audacity to stare at me throughout the whole meeting!”

Alice opens her mouth to say something, but I’m not done… not even close…

“And after? After the meeting, he had to go and be all bossy McBosserson. Looking straight into my soul with those sexy green eyes of his. Asking me questions with those stupid kissable lips. How the heck was I supposed to use my filter when he was all,” I wave my hands around, “overwhelming and—and…”

Candace grabs my hands before I can knock over my empty glass. “Let me get this straight, you’re upset because your very single, very sexy boss kissed you then asked for your honest opinion about a work-related project?”

I scoff. “It’s inappropriate! Especially after last night. I mean, I still have beard burn on my thighs from him. And you know I hate confrontation! What am I going to do?”

“I’ll tell you what I would do,” Jen eyes us each in turn like she’s about to impart some great wisdom and wants to make sure none of us miss it. “If I had a man like Oliver Titan on the hook, I certainly wouldn’t be sitting in this shitty restaurant eating crappy tacos and drinking crappier tequila with you bitches. Why the hell aren’t you at B&B with someone who sounds like your perfect match?”

Candace looks at me with a raised brow. “She does have a point. Why did you run from Oliver today?”

“He’s my boss!”

“So? That’s just an excuse and not a good one,” she counters.

“I’m not looking for a relationship.”

Alice gives me an almost sad look. “Sugar, hon, the sooner you let yourself admit that you aren’t someone who can do casual, the sooner you’ll find what you’re looking for.”

“I can do casual!” I practically shout. “I’ve done plenty of scenes with people casually over the years.”

“You scratched the ‘need to be spanked’ itch casually because you didn’t have any relationship prospects. You can lie to us all you want, but at least be honest with yourself. Even when you did a casual scene, you were picky with who you chose to play with. Subconsciously you were looking for someone that you could see yourself with, even if it was on a superficial level.”

I glare at Alice and her making sense self. The jerk. “I thought we agreed that you wouldn’t psychoanalyze on tequila day.”

She laughs. “Sorry, hazard of the trade.”

Candace bumps my shoulder. “All things considered. You shouldn’t be discouraging free psychological advice.”

We all devolve into a fit of laughter at that. Thankfully, the conversation moves away from my man problems. With the help of my good old friend tequila, I’m able to let the stress of the day go, at least temporarily. I’ll worry more about the real-world tomorrow. For now, I’m going to enjoy my tequila buzz and friends.

10

Sugar

I rub my temples,not for the first time. My head is freaking killing me. Not to mention the nausea. Why, oh why, did I drink so much? I almost called in sick today, but I manned up and drug my hungover booty to work. Even though I’d rather be in bed sleeping off my headache, I’m glad I came in.

---