Page 11 of Trick
“No hot date?” I teased him gently.
He grinned almost bashfully then ducked his head, the boyish gesture making him look much younger than the mid-fifties I assumed him to be. “No, she was busy, but I’m hoping to have lunch with her this week.”
“Well, I’m sure she’ll love that.”
He blushed – which was oddly endearing on a man his age – and I stifled a laugh as I told him goodnight and headed out to the parking lot.
I followed the directions on my car’s navigation system and drove to the address Ella had given me. The driveway was filled with a few vehicles and assorted motorcycles, so I parked along the curb, taking a moment to admire the house in front of me. I knew from talking to her that she and King had recently bought it, and that Sinner – King’s father and my landlord – lived across the street. I envied the close bond they all had.
I couldn’t imagine living that close to my own mother. Since she didn’t have a maternal bone in her body, I doubted she wanted to live near me, either.
Ella greeted me at the door and ushered me inside, leading me to the kitchen where Molly and Abby were sitting on bar stools pulled up to the large island in the center of the room.
“I’ll warn you now, Lauren, several of the boys are here to watch the football game with King. They’re downstairs in the ‘man cave’, but I’m sure they’ll be up here at some point for more food,” she laughed, gesturing to the platters and bowls of Mexican food covering the top of the center island. “We can go ahead and fill our plates while we wait for my friend, Camille. She’s running a few minutes late.”
We all grabbed plates and began assembling tacos. I had just added a little extra cheese to mine when I heard the front door slam and a voice call out, “I’m heeeere. Bring on the sexy men and margaritas!”
Ella rolled her eyes as Molly and Abby laughed. Moments later, a gorgeous, dark-haired whirlwind charged into the kitchen, snatching a nacho off Ella’s plate with one hand while she grabbed the blender pitcher and poured the frozen, fruityconcoction into a tall glass with the other. Camille was clearly a force to be reckoned with, and I loved her already.
I stuck to iced tea, since I tried to avoid alcohol if I had to record the next day. Abby also chose tea, while the rest enjoyed the margaritas.
We talked and laughed while we ate, getting better acquainted before starting to talk about the book we’d read. It didn’t take long for us to move on to discussing books in general – our favorite authors, hated tropes, and as Camille added, “the panty-melting men”found between the pages.
“I’m just saying, that Ryder guy in this last book had me giving Thor and Samson quite the workout.” Camille fanned herself with her hand and flashed a wicked grin, as Ella snorted and flipped a tortilla chip at her.
“No one wants to hear about you masturbating,” she chastised between chuckles. My eyebrows rose in confusion, and I saw expressions of surprise and curiosity on Abby’s and Molly’s faces, too.
“Thor and Samson are her favorite sex toys,” Ella explained, shaking her head fondly at her best friend.
“Don’t judge me. Some of us aren’t lucky enough to be getting dicked down on the regular by sexy, badass biker gods. It’s just notfair,” Camille whined. “I can’t even remember the last time my lady garden got agoodplowing.”
I almost spit out a sip of my iced tea, and poor Abby choked on the chips and salsa she was eating. Molly helpfully pounded her sister-in-law between the shoulder blades as Camille blithely continued regaling us with details about her sex life.
“The last guy I slept with was a two-pump chump who was convinced the G-spot was just a myth, and the one before that tried a little dirty talk that included the word ‘moist’.Moist, ladies!” She emphasized with a shudder, then downed the last bit of her second margarita as the rest of us laughed.
“Why can’t I find someone like Ryder, or what’s-his-name from that other book…you know the one, El, with the blindfold, and the ropes, and thefeather?”
Ella had been staring at her blankly, until recognition kicked in at the mention of the feather. She nodded knowingly as she informed us, “Alejandro, inNaughty Nights.”
“That’s the one,” Camille declared with a wicked smile.
Abby nodded in agreement as she asked if we’d listened to that one on audiobook. “I can’t remember the name of the guy who narrated his character, but he had the deepest, sexiest, growliest voice. It gave me shivers every time he called her ‘my love’.”
“Jamison Danvers,” I informed her with a grimace. “He’s an incredible voice actor, but unfortunately, he’s also a complete asshole. I met him briefly at the Audie awards gala last year, and he didn’t take his eyes off my chest the entire ten minutes or so that we talked and then promised to get me cast in his next production if I went home with him. When I turned him down, he had the audacity to…, “ my voice trailed off as I realized that all four women were staring at me in confusion.
“The Audies?” Molly asked.
“Sorry, they’re like the Emmy awards or the Oscars, but for audiobooks,” I answered. “Anyway, then he –“
“Wait, back up a minute. Why were you at the Audies? I thought you did radio commercials and training videos?”
Molly’s questions made me remember that I hadn’t been completely forthcoming when I first met them.
“I started out that way, and I still do some in my downtime, but I stumbled into audiobook narration a couple of years ago,” I confessed.
“OK, I’m out of the loop here. Start from the beginning since I didn’t even know what you did for a living to begin with,” Camille demanded. “How exactly does onestumble intodoing audiobooks?”
“Well, I originally studied radio broadcasting in college. I interned for a radio station my senior year, and one day, the on-air talent who was supposed to record an advertising spot for a local business got food poisoning. I was roped into filling in at the last minute because there was a tight deadline. That commercial led to others, and by the time I’d graduated, I had branched out into voiceover work for corporate training videos and online learning modules. Between the ads and the various other gigs, I was making a decent living and decided not to pursue a radio career,” I explained.
