Page 14 of The German's Guilty Pleasure
He poured the wine, the only sound to break the silence, and handed me the first glass. I swallowed it in one gulp. I was holding it out for a refill by the time he finished pouring his own. He refilled my glass and lowered the bottle back to the table.
“You were saying that at fifteen your grandmother died.” He brought the glass to his lips as though he was the most innocent fellow in all the land. I knew the truth. He enjoyed stirring things up.
“That was where the story ended. The rest is depression and hardship, but all’s well that ends well, as they say here.”
He motioned around in the air with his wine glass. “Das ist quatsch.”
I rolled my eyes. “Call bullshit all you want, it’s the truth. I had some rough years, but in the end, I graduated with a degree and landed a decent job, if I do say so myself.”
He tipped his glass again and took another drink. “You lucked out when you met the professor. I’m glad he was there to make sure you were successful.”
I was off the chair and in his face before I had the conscious thought to do so. “Listen here,Mr. I was Born with a Gold Spoon in my Mouth. I was successful because I worked my butt off for years! I was successful because I wasn’t going to let the naysayers and newspapers get the best of me! I was successful because I didn’t takequatschfrom anyone, especially notpompösplayboys who think they’re better than everyone else. Maynard and Babette offered me stability, but let me assure you, even if they hadn’t, I’d still be standing here with a degree in my hand working for your desperate backside!”
The smile he wore after my little tirade angered me even more. I lowered myself back to my chair with as much dignity as I could muster.
“Now, there is the German side of yourpersönlichkeit.”
“If you were smart, you’d leave my German personality out of it. As you see, I tend to lose myself when it comes out to play.”
He sipped his wine and stared out over the balcony. “What I saw was passion. What I saw was what I was trying to draw out with my questions. You are excellent at what you do, but you spend a lot of time holding back your true feelings about everything from business to personal matters.”
I curled my legs up under me on the chair. “I still apologize for calling you desperate. You weren’t, and I know that. I don’t want you to think I don’t appreciate the job and the benefits.”
He laughed then, relaxed and happy, as though the wine had finally filtered to his brain. “You were not wrong. My butt was desperate. America, for all its wildness, has a problem talking openly about sex and self-pleasuring. I did not know if I would find someone who could do the job here or not. I needed someone who was as equally desperate for a stable position as I was for a stable hand at the helm. Hopefully, we both continue to benefit from this arrangement.”
The demonstration in the display room popped into my head, and I lowered my feet to the floor. “Speaking of benefiting. Let’s talk about those pictures on your app for theneu spielzeug.”
To his credit, he never looked away or broke eye contact. “New toy? No, dear Serenity. That is not a new toy. That is a piece of finely crafted German engineering that will bring every man who owns one to their knees. I should know. Thirty minutes before I knocked on your door, I was on my knees.”
I swallowed, hard, but motioned my hand at him in fake confidence. “Blah, blah, whatever. You missed my point.”
“Not at all.”
This man. I swear to God …
Dial it back, Serenity. You need this job, whether you want him to think you don’t or not. You do. You have no place to go and no backup plan, so unless you want to be getting your ass pinched at the local cocktail bar, you’d better channel some yin.
That didn’t mean I was taking it lying down, though.
“My pictures. Your phone. Why?”
He blew a breath through his lips, and it was the first time I had ever seen him slightly flustered about anything. “I told you, the app allows the user to add videos and pictures to watch while the aid is in use. Some men useerotisch… err … a sexy video of their lover?” I nodded, and he continued. “Others may use images to heighten their experience, while others may use nothing at all.”
I pursed my lips and wiggled them around. “Nope, I still didn’t hear an actual explanation of why my pictures were on your app.”
He shook his head in frustration. “Serenity, it was for demonstration purposes only.”
“Didn’t feel that way to me, Lars. In fact, you could have used any scantily clad adult entertainment actress for demonstration purposes only. Instead, you had pictures of me. They weren’t even sensual pictures. They were just me doing everyday things. Your reaction told me it was a lot more than a demonstration.”
“That reminds me,” he said, his long, erotic fingers setting the glass back on the table, “we need to talk about your fifteen-dollar garbage aid versus a Kontakt aid.”
I snorted and shook my head. “Not until we finish talking about why you’re using my picture to jack off to.”
He gagged, and for a split second, I thought he was going to vomit. He spun in his chair to face me and grasped my chin. “Never repeat those words. Vulgarity has no place within the confines of Kontakt.”
It took me a moment to sort out what words I wasn’t supposed to say. “Uh, what am I supposed to call it then? That’s what we call it here.”
“Maybe in the adult entertainment crowd.”
