Page 15 of Not Safe for Work
He threw up his hands. “My god, he can be such a huge asshole.”
“No asshole is as huge as his.”
“His asshole could swallow our sun.”
“He sits down with no pants on and our sun is a goner.”
He laughed, at first with a little bitterness, but then less so. Thirty seconds later he was the Abel she was coming to know and like a little too much: rueful and amused and weary.
“I’ll talk to him,” he said with a sigh.
“You don’t have to do that. I wasn’t even going to tell you to be honest—only then I realized that I kind of have to tell you so you don’t accidentally Skype his new assistant while stark naked.”
“You already know me so well,” he said, and she got a little shock of pleasure just thinking about him sending her video messages of him without his clothes on. “But seriously, he’ll listen to me.”
“He won’t. Not about this. He can’t take sexy stuff in stride like you.”
“You think I’m taking it in stride?”
There was that eyebrow again. Only this time it was joined by one other thing: His tongue curled out to lick his upper lip, and suddenly that shock of pleasure was a flood.
“I just told you your male friend of many years has probably sexy feelings toward you and you barely blinked an eye. The most you managed was a kind of amused shock.”
“I’ve probably always suspected on some level.”
“I don’t know how anyone could suspect Hartford has human desires.”
“Well then, maybe I just don’t have many hard limits when it comes to sex.”
She let out a little breath when he said it. She couldn’t help it. She also couldn’t help telling him, too: “That is easily the most amazing thing anyone has ever said to me.”
“Yeah, you like that?”
“I like that.”
“Been thinking about it?”
“Been thinking about what, specifically?”
“Him jerking off over the sight of me fucking you.”
Several things dropped at that: her heart, and her good sense. Even her voice was suddenly a salacious whisper: “You think he really did that?”
“I think there’s a strong possibility, if he got as agitated as you say.”
“He was really agitated. He had to jump up and turn his back to me.”
“Good god. He must have really gone at himself.”
“No way. Not Hartford. He wouldn’t,” she said. But she sounded like the town gossip, reveling in every detail. Her eyes had gone big. Arousal was pooling thickly in her belly. She had a hand on his taut stomach even though she couldn’t remember putting it there.
“You say that, Amy, but I can see you imagining it.”
“I wouldn’t do that when I’m with someone else.”
“Why not? I’m doing it.”
She tried not to gasp over that.
