Hot Sauce (Suncoast Society #26)(44)

Yes, he had been. Not only had he recommended her for his job, he’d been the area manager when she’d first been hired in as a part-timer and had asked him how she could best go about advancing in the company.

He’d helped guide her every step of the way. And he’d been one of the few people she’d invited to the funeral service. He’d driven in from Jacksonville for it.

“Believe it or not, I did spend a good chunk of the weekend with friends,” she shot back. “I even went out on a boat Saturday for the first time. In the Gulf. Fishing.”

“I don’t believe it.” He smirked. “You? Do something fun?”

“It is possible.”

“It’s also possible I’ll hit the lotto but it’s not very damn likely.”

He knew her too damn well. He was right, she couldn’t fake things with him. “I’m going to take some time off and visit my parents.”

“When?”

“Not right now. I’ve got an inventory cycle coming up. I refuse to be out of town during that. Once the reports are finalized, I’ll make the arrangements, depending on my parents’ schedule.”

He pulled out his phone and started tapping into it.

“What are you doing?”

“Making myself a calendar reminder to check on you.” He arched an eyebrow at her. “Middle of August, I’d better see some time off in your schedule when I check, or I’ll be hounding your ass about it.”

“I can’t guarantee it’ll be then when I go.”

“I know. But by then you should have an idea of when you can and have put in for the time off.” He finished and laid his phone face down on the table. “So it’s a reminder to me to start going through your schedule to make sure you’ve put in for it.”

She picked up her menu. “Is that why you brought me out here? To bug me about that?”

“No, I brought you out here because I know how tough you try to be in front of everyone else and I needed to talk to Vanessa, not Regional Manager Riddick.”

She glared at him, making him laugh. “Again, I have three girls. Try that shit on someone else, because it won’t work with me, kiddo.”





For the first time that she could actually remember, she was eager to get out of work that evening at what was supposed to be her scheduled time. Usually, she had “Just One More” syndrome, where she’d start to get ready to leave at her scheduled time, handle one more e-mail, one more voice mail, one more phone call, and an hour later she’d look up and realize she was supposed to be heading home.

Lyle and Reed would be coming over around seven.

She stopped by a drugstore on the way home and found herself growing red-faced in the condom and lube aisle. Remembering her name tag, she pulled it off and stuck it in the pocket of her white uniform shirt that all management wore when they worked in stores.

After hemming and hawing, she tossed two boxes of condoms and a bottle of lube into her hand basket, then also grabbed some other sundries, like deodorant, toothpaste, and tampons, things she didn’t really need but it made her feel a little less self-conscious than simply going up to the register with an “I’m getting f*cked tonight” shopping haul.

She was on the pill, had been for years, because of migraines and pain. So that, at least, wasn’t an issue.

And she’d made sure at her first doctor appointment after she’d ditched “desperate fat chick easy sex” guy to get herself tested for STDs. That had been eight months after the fact. Since she hadn’t been with anyone since then, she figured she was probably okay.

God, I hope they’re not man whores. That might just break her heart.

Then again, if Tony had thought they were, he likely wouldn’t have been playing with them. While he wasn’t a prude by any stretch of the imagination, he also wasn’t into meaningless hookups. That much had been clear both by the actions she’d seen after his divorce and his own words in his journal. She could get how play wasn’t sex. It wasn’t a contradiction to her.

Tony trusted them, she repeated to herself as she drove home. If he trusted them, that means I can trust them.

Even better, Jenny and Eliza seemed to trust them, as did ferocious Tilly.

And they’d passed the Carlo test.

What more could she ask for?

A few more orgasms would be nice.





Chapter Seventeen


The men arrived a little before seven. Carlo was ecstatic to see his new friends, immediately coming after them with loud mumbles and a mouth full of wubbie. Then he dropped that one for a different one when they headed for the kitchen with the grocery bags in their hands.

“What did you get?” she asked.

“Well, we knew there’d still be fish left, so we planned for that,” Lyle said. “Time for me to cook you one of my specialties.”

Once they had their hands empty, the grocery bags on the counter, first Reed, then Lyle grabbed her and kissed her, hard, leaving her breathless.

“And then for dessert,” Reed said, pulling out a can of whipped cream, “there’s this.”

“What’s it going on?”

He waggled his eyebrows. “Wherever you want it to go.”

She felt herself growing wet.