Page 18 of Rum & Coke

“I like when you visit me at work.”

“You can visit me at work too,” Vinny stated.

I laughed, throwing my head back as I moved onto his lap facing him. “I can’t afford you.”

“I’d give you a discount.”

“Oh yeah? You have a friend’s discount?”

“Only for you.”

“I’m flattered.”

“Maybe we can do an exchange,” he suggested.

“How so?”

He shrugged and placed his hands on my hips only to remove them quickly when we both looked down after I’d stopped moving. “Sorry.”

Even for that brief second, his touch felt good on my skin, and I reminded myself once again that we were only friends and couldn’t be anything more. At least not now. “It’s okay. Just don’t let it happen again or I’ll have to tell Titus.”

Vinny grinned. “I’ll try not to.”

I started moving again. “So, Paul’s in love?”

“Apparently. He’s taking his roommate on a date.”

“Who pays for that?” I asked.

He scrunched his eyebrows in confusion. “I imagine he does.”

“I mean since they’re both escorts.”

“Oh.” He laughed. “I’d think he would because there are two things a woman shouldn’t touch on a date.”

“What are those?”

“The door and the check.”

“And whatshouldshe touch?” Because most of the time a man got an erection while I rubbed myself on his lap, I hadn’t realized that Vinny was hard until those words left my mouth. I usually tried not to think about it, but now I was all too aware how turned on he was.

“Don’t tease me like that because my imagination is already fucking you right now.”

I swallowed, not able to respond because I wanted his fantasy to be my reality.

I was playing with fire.

I couldn’t stay away from Tessa. I tried. I really did, but before I realized it, I was pulling into the parking lot of Red Diamond and then sitting in front of the stage waiting for her to come out. I didn’t have to wait long.

When I saw her, I wished I hadn’t. Not because I didn’t want to see her, but because all the other men in the room were looking at her too. I wanted to pick her up off the stage, walk out the front door and never let another man look at her again. But that couldn’t happen because she wasn’t mine. So, I did the only other thing I could think of to get her away from other eyes. I asked her to dinner, but she turned me down. I went one step further, not ready to give up on getting her alone, and asked her to give me a lap dance. And she did. Twice.

Now, I was hard as a fucking rock and on my way home, by myself, thinking about how I’d have solved my problem if it had been a job for S&R. Hell, even if Tessa hadn’t said she only wanted to be friends, I would have been able to fuck her in that tiny room, but shehadsaid that—multiple times. I also got the impression she wasn’t one of the strippers who didextrasbecause the moment I touched her, she’d stilled as though she wasn’t used to men touching her at work.

As I drove home, I made myself a promise that I wouldn’t ever set foot inside Red Diamond again because going home to rub one out, thinking about Tessa, was torture.

I wanted the real deal.

The following Wednesday afternoon, I was at school—my day job—preparing next year’s case load for all the incoming children transitioning into kindergarten. It was only the beginning of April, but a lot went into preparing each child’s education plan. I was so engrossed in the scheduling that I barely heard the faint knock on the classroom door.