Dirty Little Secrets (Dirty Little #1)(20)

“Nothing?” Ben says. “Come on, there’s got to be something.”

Caleb’s warm hand slides down my back, instantly easing my tense muscles. “Ben, she-”

“No spring break stories, I’m afraid,” I admit with a smile. “I never actually went on spring break. No, I mean, I went on spring break, of course, because school was out and everything. I just never went on a trip for it.” Caleb’s hand continues its soothing circuit up and down my spine, and I squeeze his thigh under the table as a silent thank you.

The way Caleb looks at me…yeah, he knew why I hesitated.

Ben and Felicity are looking down at their plates, obviously uncomfortable. I’m desperate to break the tension, and now that there aren’t three pairs of eyes trained on me waiting for an answer, I feel like I can breathe.

“I did put my spring break to good use though,” I say, and with those words, I can see the tension fall right out of Ben and Felicity’s shoulders. “My friends and I would raid their parents’ liquor cabinets during the daytime hours, and we’d see who could come up with the best boozy party treats. Mostly we used Easter candy to do it, since it was around that time, and we usually had a ton of it at our disposal.”

“What kind of Easter candy?”

I shrug. “Depends on what we were doing. Candy covered chocolate eggs, jelly beans. We’d make Peeps cocktails.”

“Peeps cocktails?” Ben asks curiously.

“Yeah, those marshmallow bunnies and birds?”

Ben and Caleb look at each other like they have no clue what I’m talking about. Felicity looks like she’s about to bust out laughing.

“Did you guys not have Easter baskets?”

“We did,” Ben begins shyly, “but-”

“No Peeps? Oh my god, you guys missed out. Note to self: find you some Peeps. They weren’t so good in the cocktails we made, but they’re great if you open the package and let them get stale.”


Now everyone at the table is giving me a vaguely horrified look. I can’t help but laugh.

“Fine,” I say. “More for me, then.”

After we are finished with dinner, and working on our second bottle of wine, Ben asks me what I do for a living.

I look over at Caleb and narrow my eyes, because I’m fairly certain that he put Ben up to this. If that’s the case though, the whole evening would have to be a setup, and I’ve been having such a good time that I don’t want to believe it. Caleb shrugs innocently, like this is all a complete surprise to him. Stupidly, perhaps, I believe that it is.

“I’m a software developer,” I tell him. Because I don’t want him to get the idea that I’m looking for a job, I quickly add, “I freelance.”

Ben’s eyes light up, like he’s a kid at Christmas. Unless he’s a really good actor, no way was this a set up, and that realization makes me relax back against Caleb’s arm, which is slung across the back of my chair.

“Do you have a lot of projects lined up?”

“I’m booked out until December,” I lie. Well, it’s not a complete lie; I do have a few projects that I’m working on, but I’m not completely booked out. I just don’t want Ben to know that.

Ben nods. “I’m always looking for talent at my company,” he says, as he reaches into his jacket and pulls out a card. “If you ever decide you want to try something other than the freelancing, give me a call. I’d love to take a look at your work.”

I take the card, and get a look at the name. Ben Williams? Oh god, I’m a huge fan of his work. His firm has been involved in some truly cutting-edge development. It’s all I can do not to squee, and tell him I’ll drop everything for a chance to learn from him.

“Always selling something,” Caleb says, shaking his head.

I slip the card into my purse, because maybe someday I’ll be able to…

“Don’t tell me you don’t have a stack of cards in your jacket,” Ben says accusingly, before taking a sip of wine. “If you say no, I’ll know you’re lying.”

All Caleb says is, “I have more sense than to pull them out at dinner.”

Ben rolls his eyes. “You’re acting like I pulled out my-”

“Mia,” Felicity says loudly, turning to me to distract the two of us from the testosterone that seems to be on overload tonight. “Why don’t we go out for lunch soon? Maybe do a little shopping after?”

I smile at Felicity. In the background, Ben and Caleb are going on about something else now, thankfully. “I’d like that.”





CHAPTER THIRTEEN





When we get back to Caleb’s apartment, the first thing I see when we walk through the door is my bag safely resting in the corner of the foyer. Caleb jokingly put it there, teasing me about how it would be the first thing to welcome us back when we returned. And here it is. Safe.

“Feel better?” he asks, an amused lilt to his voice.

“I do.”

Caleb slides his arm around my waist, pushes my hair over my shoulder, then starts kissing and sucking the back of my neck. My back is pressed against his chest, and I lean against him as his hand snakes across my ribs before it cups my breast. I gasp when his thumb slides across my nipple, all the while feeling Caleb smiling against me.