Page 60 of Audacity

‘Jesus fuck,’ Sophia says, peering in for a better look. ‘You jammy bitch.’

‘Please tell me he dresses up as a priest for you,’ another Seraph, Claudia, pleads. ‘For the sake of women everywhere.’

I manage a laugh. ‘No—I haven’t—he hasn’t dressed up. It’s still a big deal for him, I think—he’s still very much in transition to being a lay person.’

‘Hiring yourself a Seraph would be an effective way to speed up that transition, I should think,’ Claudia says.

‘You need to get your kink on and explore the priest thing,’ my friend Talia pipes up. ‘Claudia’s right. Think of the stuff you could do! Oh my God, it could be so hot.’

‘I don’t want to offend him,’ I protest, ignoring the fact that I profaned his sacred little prayer room without a second thought—and he let me. I’m aiming to convey discretion. I feel odd discussing my working relationship with Gabe here, with these shrewd, exacting women, and I’m not sure why. I never had any problem regaling them with outrageous tales about Anton or moaning about how boring Steve was. I tell myself it’s because Gabe is new to this world of… sin, essentially. He’s a good man undergoing some serious shifts in his lifestyle.

He’s not fair game.

Not like the others.

Bree cocks her head and surveys me, her expression shifting from amusement to concern.

‘Any other recent fucks you want to fill us in on?’ she asks with a gentleness I don’t like. The vast majority of us are in non-exclusive contracts with our bosses, which means they, andwe, are free to screw around as long as we use protection and get tested fortnightly. We can even have boyfriends, if we like. I definitely enjoyed the benefits of no-strings-attached sex when I was working for Steve Goodall, but it hasn’t even crossed my mind since I’ve started with Gabe.

‘No,’ I say weakly. ‘He keeps me… busy.’

He keeps me so awash with orgasms that I have no need to go looking for D.

It was the same with Anton, I remind myself. When you’re in a sexually gratifying dynamic with your boss, there’s no need to go looking elsewhere.

I’m aware of the girls exchanging some concerned glances.

‘It’s okay if this one’s different, honey,’ Bree says now. ‘You know that, right?’

‘It’s—he’s not!’ I splutter. ‘I’ve only been there a few weeks, okay? The first few weeks are always intense.’ There’s intense, and then there’s the memory of Gabe looking up at me as he ate me, claiming his “prize” after our successful meeting about the foundation, but nobody here needs to know that.

She pats my knee. ‘Of course they are. You do you, okay? Now, let me tell you about my most recent trip to La Perla with Robert. They closed the place down and smuggled us in the back.’

Bree works for a very senior Member of Parliament, a man who holds the nation’s fate in his hands and has such a penchant for dressing his beautiful EA in expensive lingerie that they go to underwear stores at least once a week. Or so it seems, anyway. As she talks, I allow myself to relax, grateful for the elegant way she’s steered the conversation away from Gabe.

I may be enjoying my time with him a little too much, but I’m barely capable of admitting that to myself. There’s absolutely no way the topic of me and him is open for discussion among thisgroup of badass women whose brains, looks and ambition have them unabashedly, systematically, sleeping their way to the top.

The hilarious banter continues, interrupted only when a group of what look like crypto bros at the bar send a server over with a bottle of Dom Perignon, complete with sparklers, to our table. They’ve been leering all night from a safe distance. There’s much cheering from them when the cork is popped, and a couple of decorous nods of acknowledgement from us, but not much more.

We don’t want to encourage them, after all.

One, we’re here strictly for girl time.

And two, they could never afford us.

CHAPTER 28

Gabe

Ifeel like a schoolboy.

I’m sitting at my desk, earbuds in and pen at the ready and a snowy-white new page open in my notebook.

I’m ready to learn.

The meeting I’m about to jump into is a Zoom the Alchemy team is running to brief its members on the protocol for their upcoming Prima Nocta event. I have no intention of letting Athena overhear a word of it—I want to preserve as much of the mystique as I can until Saturday night comes.

While my desk faces away from my windows and towards the glass partition between my desk and hers, hers is at a forty-five degree angle in the direction of the outer door. As I wait for the hosts to start the meeting, I gaze at the mass of glossy waves that tumble down her back, at the glimpses I catch of her profile whenever she turns her head. She must feel my eyes on her, because she twists around so she can smile seductively at me.

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