Page 34 of Inked Persuasion

Brenna:Was it big?

Brenna:I’m coming over.

I laughed, sank down into my couch, and looked at my phone.

Me:I have work to do, and so do you. And Eliza is waiting on a call from her hubby. We’ll meet up tomorrow as planned.

Eliza:You’re right, but I will have questions. I’ll even make a checklist about it. But are you okay?

I thought about that and bit my lip.

Me:I think so. It just sort of happened.

Brenna:I hear that’s the best way.

I grinned, shaking my head. Eliza was married, the one who still had a little bit of her wild side but had smoothed out the edges when she got with her husband. She was now the calming one on the texts. I knew Brenna had never been in a serious relationship and was a lot of brashness, all wrapped around a soft, gooey center of innocence.

I loved my best friends, and I was relieved that I hadn’t included Paige in this text chain. Mostly because that was my baby sister, and there were things I did not tell her.

Me:We’ll talk tomorrow. But oh my God, I slept with Jacob.

Brenna:I see you didn’t use his last name.

Eliza:It’s because he’s not just the idea of a man anymore. He’s the real deal.

I groaned.

Me:He’s just a deal. Not the real one. Do your things. I’m going to work.

Eliza:Don’t work too hard. And be safe.

Brenna:And make sure you write down every single detail of exactly how it was so you can tell us and not forget a thing.

I laughed, texted my goodbyes, and set my phone down. I hadn’t meant to sleep with Jacob, though there hadn’t been any sleeping going on.

I’d never had sex on a counter before. Never had sex without even a date prior. And I’d certainly never had sex with Jacob.

And now we were going to pretend that everything was normal and maybe do it again.

Somehow, I needed to make like everything was fine. Like I wasn’t emotionally churning inside. And I promised myself that I wasn’t going to screw it up.

I had a feeling that this promise might be one I would end up breaking.

Chapter 10

Jacob

“Dustin, where is Seressia again?” I asked, rubbing my temples.

“Root canal,” Dustin said, wincing.

I looked up at him and grimaced. “Damn. Is she okay?” I inquired, sympathy pouring through me.

“She’s doing fine, I guess. She texted that she was going to murder someone, but I didn’t know if it was because she had to wait because someone wasn’t competent, or because she was in pain. Probably a mixture of both.”

“We’re running on fumes here,” I said, looking at the piles of papers on my desk as well as the emails adding up, one by one, the dings insistent. I didn’t usually have notifications on, but I was becoming so tunnel-focused on my case, I kept missing important emails. My staff was wonderful, but we were really shorthanded right now, and I knew if I had been able to stay down south for a bit longer, it might not be this bad. But I’d had to come up north when I did and had to bring my crew with me. We were making do, but today was one of those days.

“We’ve got it handled,” Dustin said. “Well, at least I think we do.” The phone rang behind him, and he winced again. “I’ll go take care of that.”

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