Page 61 of Semantics

“The house?”

“I’m the one paying the rent.”

“What do you mean?”

“There’s a reason I was asking you to lower the price for Cerebral. It wasn’t just because I liked arguing or I’m a shrewd businesswoman.”

Violet took the spoon on offer, dipped out a bit of the ice cream, and ate it, which gave her a moment to stall. She hadn’t wanted to tell Stella anything about the business or her life, for that matter, but here she was, after a few great orgasms, about to spill her secrets to the woman responsible for them. Part of her wanted to hold back, but the other part of her actually wanted to tell Stella because she didn’t have anyone else. She couldn’t talk to her friends without them worrying, and if she tried talking to her parents, they’d only suggest that she stop this silly charade, as her mother had once called it, and work at a real company.

“The business is primarily funded by me. We all live in the house together not just because it gives us a place to work, but because we’re not profitable yet and rent is expensive here, so we all share the house and split the cost.”

“You said you pay the rent, though,” Stella replied as she took the spoon from Violet and dipped it into the ice cream.

“I pay them from my trust fund that I’ve moved into the business account. That’s the only thing keeping us afloat now. They then each pay their share of the rent, so it’s like I’m paying myself.”

“A lot of companies aren’t profitable for years.”

“We’ve been at this for ten. Well, eight, really. I worked on it part-time while I was getting my MBA. But even still, it’s just not happening for us. I don’t know if the idea is original enough. I don’t know if I can keep using my trust fund to finance us. I can’t get any more money out of the old investors, and no new ones will even talk to me, so pretty soon, I might have to tell my friends that our dream of working together on our own business is about to come to an end.”

Stella passed her the spoon and said, “Can I help somehow?”

“No,” she replied.

“I know some–”

“No, Stella. That’s not what this is. I’m already buying your software, and we’re having sex. That’s a weird mix. I don’t want any favors, okay?”

“Okay. Fine,” Stella replied.

“Should I just go home? Have I ruined the rest of the night by bringing up personal stuff?”

“What? No,” Stella said, taking the spoon and pushing it into the ice cream. She then set it aside and climbed off the counter. “In fact… If you want to lie down, I could help take your mind off things for one or two seconds, at least.”

Violet laughed and said, “I’d rather go back into the bedroom and do that other thing you were talking about earlier.”

“Oh, really?” Stella teased, running her hands up and down Violet’s thighs.

“That would get me three to four seconds, at least.”

Stella laughed, and Violet liked the sound of it, which was confusing because whenever she had heard Stella laugh back in school, she’d always kind of hated it.

A few minutes later, though, Violet wasn’t laughing any longer. Stella was behind her, buried inside, and giving her a lot more than four seconds of tension relief.

CHAPTER 18

“I think I like it when you sleep over,” Stella said when Violet stood up fully in front of her.

The water from the shower sprayed over Violet’s face, and she rubbed at it before she opened her gorgeous hazel eyes. This woman was ridiculously hot, and Stella got to have sex with her. It was almost as if she could separate the Violet whom she used to hate from the woman standing before her, the one who’d just given her yet another mind-blowing orgasm, this one was from her mouth. Shower sex hadn’t ever really been Stella’s thing. It was fine for an occasional quickie here and there, but her orgasms were never amazing in there. This one had been, though. Violet’s tongue had a way of finding just the right spot and paying it attention over and over again until Stella was putty in her arms, and Stella didn’t even mind that at all, which was also a change for her.

“I like it, too, but I can’t do it again tonight,” Violet said before she tilted her head back and ran her hands through her hair.

“Why not?”

“Because I’ve hardly slept in three nights, and my body could use a break. Besides, I signed your agreement before I came over here. I just need to hit send on the email, so I suspect I’m going to be pretty busy helping Arlowe implement your wildly overpriced and difficult-to-use software.”

Stella laughed, gripped Violet by the hips, and pushed her gently yet still firmly into the shower wall.

“It’s underpriced for you because of your discount, and it’s not hard to use. You just have to learn it first. That’s how it works.”