Page 15 of Strictly Against Policy

I hadn’t even touched the doorknob yet when Jonathan yelled. “Stop that!”

“Stop what? I’m trying to get us the hell out of here too!”

I turned to look over my shoulder up at him, stepping back from the door and onto his feet again. It took me a second to register it as I bumped into him. But, even through the thickness of our clothes and my white coat, I could feel the shape of⁠—

My lips parted open as Jonathan scowled. His hot palm came up at once and tightly clasped over my mouth.

“Don’t you fucking dare look at me with your mouth wide open like that, Lina Lee,” he muttered, dangerously low, and I shut my mouth.

Piping gasps of air blew over the top of my head as he gently shoved me out of the way again. Before I could blink, Jonathan forced open the door with another rattle.

A stream of bright light spilled into the janitor’s closet one moment, then his shadow was cast over me the next. He headed down the hallway. His heavy, thundering footsteps echoed through the building.

I bolted out to grab my bag and leave, but he was standing in the break room. Heaving huge gulps of air and drenched in sweat as if we had just escaped the surging waves of an ocean instead of a tiny janitor’s closet.

Our eyes locked as I loudly rushed in. Heat seared intensely through my skin before I ripped my gaze from his. Instead of looking away like I should have, my eyes dropped to the third leg he grew. It was tucked neatly to the side of his left thigh, and the black slacks he wore did little to conceal its thickness.

That was what I bumped into the closet earlier. That was also why Jonathan was so desperate to get out.

My lips parted again. Jonathan quickly cleared his throat. I clamped my mouth shut, as if on instinct now. I glanced away as he adjusted himself.

“Your . . . shirt, Dr. Lee,” he mumbled, grabbing my attention. His face flushed red as he glanced at my chest and then away. He waved in my general direction.

I looked down, and my face burned into the same shade as his. My hard, erect nipples could be seen through my bra and cream-colored turtleneck. I quickly tugged my white coat around me. Then, I walked over to the lockers on wobbly legs.

What could’ve been a mere thirty seconds felt like an eternity as I stood there, struggling to retrieve my worn-out, floppy tote bag with shaky hands. Sweat beaded down my back when I finally yanked it out—only for all the tote’s contents to pour out like a waterfall with a loud rip at the seams.

Various items cascaded down the side of the locker and onto the floor; the thuds and clinks were dramatic and violent. As I tried to catch my wallet before it hit the floor, a thin cardboard box slipped out of a long-forgotten crevice in my bag. I almost got a hold of it when my tin of mints hit the floor and startled me, causing me to retract for a mere second.

The only thing I could do was watch the box land on the floor with so much force it popped open. The item inside flew out to greet the world. My body ignited intensely at the sight of it. If I could, I’d rather burn into a crisp than face the aftermath of what was unfolding before me. Jonathan watched as it clicked on and eagerly slid across the tiles to where he stood.

The bright fuchsia pink vibrator my best friend, Mary, got me as a joke for my birthday was now quivering obnoxiously at my manager’s feet.

Mary mentioned she charged it for me so I could learn to let loose, explore my sexuality, and ‘maybe get you to start thinking about dating and finally get laid!’

Well, Jonathan Lo would never be a variable in that equation.

CHAPTER 9

Jonathan

I let out a long and exhausted sigh after twisting the last screw into place. The doorknob—bought this morning after I had painstakingly woken up early—winked in its sparkling new condition.

I scowled at the old, useless one lying in the trash bag next to me. This asshole. If this little fucker had worked properly yesterday, I would’ve slept perfectly well last night without another thought in this world. I would’ve also continued living my life in peace. Now I was mortified thinking about how my cock got hard when Lina Lee’s nipples grazed over my abs just because I hadn’t had sex in over a year.

Or I would have been able to close my eyes without her bright pink motherfucking vibrator flashing across the back of my eyelids.

Life, itself, would have been better if this piece of shit had done its job. But here we fucking were.

I was gathering up trash and placing the screwdriver back in our toolbox when the jingle of keys startled me. Then, Lina waltzed in. Her face was void of any shred of emotion as she looked me in the eyes.

If you had asked me twenty-four hours ago whether Lina had the capacity to feel, let alone show emotion, I would’ve said no. But after last night—seeing her eyes light up with fury, hearing her amused laughter, witnessing the horror cracking the edges of that perfectly symmetrical face of hers—I’d say she was human. To a certain extent.

And it had only been two fucking weeks since she started working here.

The only indication she was embarrassed was the light tinge of pink across her high cheekbones. Meanwhile, I was burning bright red at the sight of her. I was more surprised to see her than she was to see me, despite both of us being here far too early for either of our shifts. No dark circles adorned the underside of her eyes either.

She wasn’t as bothered as I was. Same as always.