Page 40 of Spooked

“Me too,” Charlotte said, and pushed the plate into my hands. “Happy work anniversary!”

“Are you working downstairs tonight?” Selena asked her, and my eyes bugged.

“Downstairs?” Was she moonlighting as a server or something? “In the restaurant?”

“No,down-downstairs.” She pointed with a finger. “That’s where I started, but then I met a guy I liked, and I figured I should get a more respectable job and, you know, do the monogamy thing, so Brax found me a role here in the office.”

I stared at Charlotte in a whole new light. It was obvious she was pretty, but she workeddownstairs? She wasn’t joking?

“Your face.” She began laughing. “Don’t look so shocked. The guy dumped me for a cheerleader from UCLA, and I missed all the fun I used to have. So now I fill in on the weekends.”

“I…I…”

“You’re shocked?”

“Well, yes? It doesn’t…” I lowered my voice to a whisper. “Creep you out?”

“I enjoy my job, Meera. Both of them. This evening, one of my regulars is coming, and he’s…” She fanned herself. “He’s hot in a ‘daddy’ kind of way. And he has a kink that’s also my kink, so I’m gonna sleepverywell tonight.” Charlotte took a step back. “I need to go finish the management accounts, then find an outfit.”

“See you on Monday!”

Selena waved as they both hurried out of the room, and I closed the door behind them and leaned my forehead against it, trying to recover from yet another Dunnvale surprise. I knew I shouldn’t judge, but when you’d been brought up to believe that sex was for procreation, not for pleasure, and that all pleasure was dirty, it was hard to adjust.

“Blow out your candles, Meera. We don’t want an unscheduled fire drill.”

My breath hitched, and I whirled to find Mr. Vale standing in the doorway between our offices, watching me with his hands in his pants pockets.

“Sorry, sorry.”

“Just for your information, this door isn’t as soundproof as it might appear.” All I could do was groan. “Although now I’m curious who Coraya’s sister’s friend is.” He gave a weighty sigh. “Those were the days.”

Before I could regain my faculties, my gaze dropped to Mr. Vale’s package, and although I snapped it back up to his face in one stuttering heartbeat, I knew he’d noticed. That smirk wasfilthy.

“I’m sorry,” I muttered again, because staring at the CEO’s genitals was probably forbidden in the company handbook. “I just need to…” Need to what?Think, Indi.“Uh, there’s a package at the desk downstairs.”

Mr. Vale was chuckling as I ran out of my office. When I came back, ten long, long minutes later, the candles were out, and there was a small box with a note sitting by the cupcake.Happy work anniversary, Meera.

Now I had the earrings to go with my necklace.

* * *

“You sound happier,” Meera commented on Saturday evening. “Has your new boss stopped acting like a douche now?”

Yes. Yes, he had.

Which should have been a good thing. I mean, hadn’t I longed for a friendly, approachable boss who didn’t molest me? But now I was confused. Mr. Vale was a mercurial mix of taskmaster and testosterone. I’d asked for the morning meetings, but every day they were taking longer, and I kept getting distracted. By his sly smiles, by the way his shirt stretched across his chest when he leaned back in his chair, by the glasses he’d worn instead of contacts this morning. The lunches were worse. They didn’t happen every day, but when they did, they were always three courses with no wine. I was very insistent on the no-wine part.

And Mr. Vale was surprisingly easy to talk with when he relaxed. Both about business—I was learning more details of his various investments—and life in general. Although every conversation seemed to involve a game of innuendo tennis where he hit ace after ace and all of my serves ended up in the net. He didn’t mean anything by it. Did he? Charlotte said he was naturally charming, and he also owned a sex club. That was probably just the way he spoke with everyone.

“He’s mellowed out in the past few weeks.”

“That’sgreat.”

But if I sounded happy, then Meera sounded sad. I asked the question I’d been dreading.

“How are things with Alfie?”

She burst into tears.

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