Page 17

Everything was a lot more low key after that.

Shaun and I ate and talked a bit about our day, though I glossed over Slade’s conversation.

I wasn’t ready to talk about that yet, I think.

Finally, we put our plates in to be washed and wandered outside, hand in hand.

I turned to him and drew him in for a kiss, long and lingering.

“So, my place or yours?” I said with a grin.

Oh, no , I thought when I saw his face. It was that all too familiar look of guy apprehension that came from the knowledge that they were going to have to disappoint me, and they were really hoping there wouldn’t be a scene about it.

I swallowed, I’d been so sure… He was happy to see me, held my hand during dinner, had returned my kisses. I took a step back, then another.

“Jules…”

“It’s OK,” I said, hearing a quaver in my voice and hating myself for it. I ground my teeth, determined to keep my cool, at least until he left. “I shouldn’t have assumed.”

“Jules, I’ve got to work. There’s a bunch of houses…”

“You don’t need to explain,” I said. “Go, and I’ll catch you some other time.” He sighed, glanced down at his feet and then shook his head. He walked off towards the admin sector and disappeared into the darkness. “What are we going to do, Bud?” I asked, kneeling down and scratching his chest.

“Julie?” I looked up and saw Finn was coming over. “Everything alright?”

“Yeah,” I said quickly, then realised I was heading back to my bungalow with just my dog and my clothes for company. I couldn’t even head out for a drive, I had no idea where to go. “Actually, is there any way to get a TV or a magazine out here?”

He smiled, “Come this way.”

“Now,” Finn said, standing outside the front of a building I’d never been to before. “Just know you’re always safe here.” I looked at him and the building behind him, listening for the thumping sounds of music and was that…?

“Oh, yeah, fuck me harder…” I heard someone call in a muffled whimper.

I narrowed my eyes. “Just what is this place?”

“It’s the social club. Don’t worry,” he said, and he opened the door and walked in.

I stopped short of peering around the doorway, but was in every other way entering the room with serious trepidation.

It looked like a converted shed with a bar along one side and a woman I’d never met serving beers, a couple of pool tables, a dartboard, small TVs on the walls showing various sports and races, and a huge flat screen TV showing hardcore porn with a semicircle of couches surrounding it.

All full of men. I looked at the screen briefly and sure enough, there was one woman and whole lot of erect penises.

This is beyond a way to keep the peace , I thought, this is the norm here .

As if by magic, all heads turned our way, almost at the same time.

I felt the need to go straight back out that door, the combined gazes of twenty-odd guys and one chick more intimidating than I would have thought.

“Don’t worry,” Finn said. “It’s through here.

” He held out a hand and I took it, kinda wanting the moral support right now.

He pulled me past all the punters over to another doorway on the far wall.

Once we slipped inside, the bow chicka wow wow soundtrack dropped away, and instead of beer, I could smell musty books.

“Sorry,” he said. “It’s the only way to get here.

This is our library. The magazines tend to be a bit out of date, but beggars and all that.

Anyway, pick something out, and I’ll show you the borrowing procedure. ”

“Wow,” I said, moving towards the stacks without even thinking.

It was a tight space, but there were shelves upon shelves of books.

I walked past westerns and military and around to my favourite, romance.

I ran my fingers along the spines, smiling.

There were a lot of old faves there that I could totally re-read, but I was looking for something new.

The erotic romance shelves seemed to be overflowing with books, I noticed with a smirk.

I picked up a few I hadn’t read and put them in a pile without too much thought.

It was only when I had a whole bunch I wanted to borrow that I realised I was going to check them out in front of my boss.

I looked down at the books. They always had to make it real obvious what was inside the book, black covers full of pictures of rippling muscles and gasping women.

Why couldn’t they have something nice and discreet?

I thought darkly. I don’t exactly want to advertise that I’m going back to my place to read mummy porn to my superior.

Though we did just walk past a bunch of blokes watching orgies together so…

I squared my shoulders and walked up to Finn, holding the books out, the top one had a cover with a naked woman writhing with pleasure sandwiched between two naked guys.

Right now, I figured this could work as a training manual for this place, help me understand the dynamic here.

“I’d like to grab these, please.” Finn’s eyes flicked down to take this in for a moment, but he only smiled politely.

“Over here is where you book them out.” I followed him, weaving between the stacks until we arrived at a lending desk where Brandon, the guy I’d met at Nerida’s, was sitting, feet up on the bench, reading a novel with a very similar cover to my choices.

“Hey,” Brandon said with a wide smile, tabbing his page and putting it down.

“Got some stuff to borrow out? ‘Sheets of Fire’? Nice! There’s a great scene in there where the alpha…

Sorry, I don’t want to spoil it for you.

What else have we got? Some Felicity Blaze, she’s great, good characterisation as well as smoking hot.

Ms Walters is always good if you want something sweet.

Bree Carter, Highlander’s Whore … Just hang on, I reckon I have something you’ll love.

” He disappeared through the shelves as I tried to make an intensive study of the patterns on the concrete floor.

I was conscious of Finn standing beside me and couldn’t be sure he wasn’t chuckling quietly.

Brandon arrived back with a book and put it next to my pile.

It was called The Vixen’s Pleasure , and had a beautiful red-haired woman sitting on a throne with a smug smile on her face, a cluster of hot looking men lounging indolently by her feet.

“Reverse harem, so plenty of guys and not like the old love triangles, she keeps them all…” He took in my wide-eyed look and stopped mid-spiel.

“Look, I’ll sign it out to you, no pressure. So will two weeks be long enough?”

It was either going to be plenty of time, or not enough if I went full bonobo and decided I needed to get some vixen’s pleasure myself.

I could film it and reduce the company’s porn bill.

I rolled my eyes, only I could go to a smaller community and feel more like a provincial noob. “That’ll be fine,” I croaked out.

“Well, if you need more time, let me know,” Brandon said with a wide grin.

He had a longer, leaner, more graceful look than many of the guys here, but that smile…

He was still one of the hot guys. Belatedly, I realised I was discussing my guilty pleasures with men I worked with.

Hot men I worked with. I watched him scan each book and then bundle them into a brown paper bag, just like liquor or porn.

“Thanks,” I said, dully.

“Not sure if you’d be into it, but we run a book club every Thursday.

We sit and talk shit about the book of the week.

This week is Vixen’s. Shaun comes sometimes.

” His voice sounded hopeful, but I was busy trying to imagine a room full of muscly guys discussing the gender politics and geopolitical implications of erotic romance books.

Though if that was where Shaun had learned his tricks…

Fuck , I thought, wanting to smack myself in the forehead, maybe I just needed to walk around blindfolded so I could start treating the fellas here like normal guys.

“Sounds interesting,” I said politely. “I’ll let you know.”

“While we’re here,” Finn said, perfectly calm, the smug bastard. “Can we organise a TV and set top box for Julie? She has nothing at the moment at her place.”

“Zeke was supposed to have sorted that before she arrived,” Brandon said with a frown, jumping on his computer and shooting a quick email. “Probably was hoping she’d be forced to come down to the social club and watch the crap they got playing there.”

“The woman getting it in every hole?” I said. “No thanks, I’d rather go and stare at my walls.”

“I keep trying to tell them. If they made things appealing to women, other than Daisy behind the bar, they might actually get some feminine attention, but y’know. Be good to have more chicks down here.”

“Why do guys do that?” I asked, feeling bolder.

I couldn’t very well get any more embarrassed, could I?

“Watch porn together? Like, I understand if it was gay porn and you wanted to bone the guy next to you, but an extraordinary amount of straight guys seem to like watching girls getting fucked as a group. Aren’t they uncomfortable, all those hard dicks around them?

” I looked from Brandon to Finn and back again, and was cheered by the fact they seemed to be looking embarrassed now.

“I got nothing,” Brandon said with a shrug. “Never something I’ve been into.”

“Company, I assume,” Finn said. “Guys get lonely here.”

“Well, thank you for the books, Brandon.”

“Anytime, I’m here most nights,” he said handing me my bag, his fingers lingering over mine. “If you ever want to talk books or need another recommendation…”

All of a sudden, the mood in the room changed.

One minute he was this geeky book nerd, happy to help me find something to read, then the next those grey eyes grew hooded as they bore into mine, his fingers hot against my skin.

Almost involuntarily, my gaze dropped to his lips, full and soft, and as if in response to my gaze, his tongue flicked out to lick them.

For a second the walls, the library, Finn all dropped away, and I felt an almost full body flashback of the way Shaun’s tongue felt inside me last night.

“Thanks,” I forced myself to reply.

“Lemme know if you get into Vixen,” Brandon said with a smirk, nostrils flaring slightly.