Chapter 17 Sex Magic
SEX MAGIC
When I get to the office, Aaron isn’t there, and I start to worry.
He never showed last night or this morning.
I had my coffee alone, watching dog walkers saunter by the front windows of his bungalow.
I send a text—Everything okay?—but don’t get a reply.
So, when he sails into work an hour later and skates over to my desk, I practically double over with relief.
He and Brennan were plenty cozy last night, but something in me has been buzzing with doubt ever since that impossible wave of bubbles coursed through the bar, leaving me unsettled.
I don’t think Brennan would hurt anyone, but the truth is, I don’t know what he’s capable of. Any of them.
“Someone’s in a good mood,” I grumble when he nears, but the ridiculous smile on his face only grows.
“It’s our mutual friend,” he says with a wink. “He’s magical,” Aaron gushes, swooning as he leans a hip against my desk.
“W-what?” I stammer out. Surely Brennan hasn’t lost all prudence.
Aaron glows with post-sex dopamine. “The things he can do with his tongue … It’s positively mystical. Why didn’t you introduce us sooner?”
I will my heart rate to settle, realizing he’s only talking about Brennan’s skills in bed, which I would know nothing about. “Oh, umm … like he said, we’re still getting to know each other.”
Aaron leans in, whispering, “Well, we got to know each other very well last night.”
“I figured as much,” I say with a tight smile.
“Don’t be angry, pussycat.” His bottom lip juts out. “I didn’t mean to miss our coffee date this morning.”
“It’s fine,” I tell him, a little sharper than intended, the “pussycat” nickname getting to me. I’m already Arla’s “kitten.” What about me screams baby feline? “I was just worried about you.”
“Well, you should be,” he says. “I could barely walk in here this morning.”
I give him the side-eye.
“I’m not kidding, Jude. He’s next level when it comes to sex. Next. Level.”
“Okay, okay. I get it,” I tell him, flattening my hand and waving it to indicate he should pipe down. I glance around to make sure no one has overheard us.
But Aaron’s eyes bore into mine like they’re trying to speak. “I don’t think you do,” he tells me. A choked sort of laugh emits from his throat. “He does things I didn’t even know were possible,” he says with emphasis.
The way he says it sticks in me, turning my stomach. “Aaron, what do you mean?”
“I know,” he says to me in a furtive whisper. “I know all about it, Jude. Your little group…” He beams like a kid who’s just bought his first backstage pass to a concert.
Whatever he thinks he knows, it can’t be that. Because Brennan is not that stupid, would never … But I can’t shake the dread stealing over me. “What do you know, Aaron?”
His eyes settle over me, flashing. “Sex magic.”
I sputter out a cough. “I’m sorry, what?”
“Not that light-a-candle Wiccan shit people talk about either. Or all that breathy tantra. It’s real, Jude. Real magic. REAL.”
I take a slow breath in, let it out. Try to calm myself. Grabbing his elbow, I stand and tug him back toward the wall behind me, turning him away from the rest of the office. “Aaron, what are you talking about? What did Brennan tell you?”
His grin, already a mind-numbing glare of flashiest white, brightens further. “It’s not what he told me. He showed me.”
For a moment, I can’t believe what I’m hearing, can’t believe Arla was right, can’t believe I got my friend all mixed up in this. “What did he show you, Aaron?”
A sneaky expression takes over him. “We levitated, Jude. I didn’t imagine it either.
I know I didn’t. We were humping like angels in midair, lofty currents skimming over every inch of skin like someone blowing your whole body.
To be that weightless, free, held only by your lover’s embrace …
It changed everything, made it all so much more, gave us this phenomenal reach.
You wouldn’t believe the contortions that were possible.
I’m telling you, I went to another world last night, Jude.
I’m not making this up—it was ecstatsy!”
“Keep your voice down,” I scold him, wary of the many prying eyes and ears of Pacific Creative. Aaron’s so high on hormones it’s like he swallowed truth serum. Damn these open workspaces.
“What? We’re all adults,” he says to me, crossing his arms. “I don’t believe you’re as much of a prude as you pretend you are. Not anymore.”
“I’m not a prude,” I say reflexively. “I just don’t want everyone at work knowing our business.”
Aaron’s eyes narrow. “I knew it was a kinky sex cult. What else have you been keeping from me?”
“What do you mean?”
“I know you can do it too. Brennan said as much last night,” he replies.
“Not exactly,” I counter with a frown. “But what else did Brennan say?”
“There wasn’t a lot of talking, Jude,” he says now.
“Aaron, I’m serious,” I tell him, pinching his arm. “What’s he saying about me?”
“Ow, nothing. Just, you know, that you’re all basically The Craft meets midlife or whatever, and that he’ll take me down into your spooky ritual basement and show me how the Kool-Aid gets made next time. But only if I blow him first, which I then did with aplomb.”
My jaw unhinges and my hand drops from Aaron’s arm. I can’t believe what I’m hearing. Why would Brennan say all that? Why take such risks? Aaron’s attractive, of course, but he’s hardly sell-the-family-Bible hot.
“You went to Medusa?” I ask, realizing my mistake. Of course Brennan took Aaron back to Medusa. He lives there.
“No,” he insists when he sees how upset I am. “We got a room at the Four Seasons. Brennan says he never takes dates home, something about his possessive landlord. And I didn’t want to wake you. I’m going back at lunch for a little afternoon delight.”
At least I can relax about that much. I lift a hand to my head, try to keep the room from spinning.
“Don’t worry,” Aaron says with an exaggerated tone, thinking he understands my concern. “I’m not gonna tell your little secret.”
I scowl at him. “I don’t levitate, Aaron,” I tell him. “Or do sex magic. Whatever Brennan told you, he’s lying.”
“Why would he do that?” Aaron asks, unconvinced.
“My question exactly,” I reply. I had every intention of going by the condo after work to check in since Kerry the maintenance man told me tear-out would start today after the plumber leaves, but maybe I’ll take an early lunch instead.
Use the condo as my excuse and go track Brennan down before Aaron shows up for more horizontal refreshment.
Aaron is about to respond when Jessica from HR rushes over. “Jude, hi. Can we talk?”
He backs away, our private moment over, and makes a yawning gesture behind her back as I sit back down at my desk.
“Uhh, Jessica, I actually still have a lot of work to catch up on. I was out the other day with food poisoning. You may have heard? My nurse called.” I turn and begin straightening papers on my desk unnecessarily, lifting them in stacks to tamp against the cheap wood.
“Yes,” she says too pertly. “So glad you’re feeling better. I just want to go over some figures with you.”
“Figures?” My heart begins to pitter-patter in my chest, anxious.
She scrunches her nose. “Mystery numbers we can’t quite make heads or tails of.”
“O-okay. But I don’t deal directly with accounts, so…”
She plops into a nearby chair. “It’ll only take a moment.”
I can’t really refuse, so I watch as she pulls out one expense report after another with my name attached to it. Not only the whiskey I’d seen before, but dinners, hotel rooms, even a Movado watch.
Men and their timepieces, I think. It seems after I covered for him the first time, Calvin decided to use my name on his doctored reports again. And again. And again.
I look at Jessica. “Why would I buy a Movado watch? These are wrong, Jessica. I didn’t make these purchases.”
She purses her lips to one side. “Sure, sure. I hear you. No one’s accusing you, Jude. But Eric in accounting says he went over these with you already and you cleared them.”
Eric in accounting—the wormy little guy with bad breath who asked me about the Scotch. But he never came to me about the others. And now he’s throwing me under the bus to cover his own ass. I inhale. How do I explain without making myself sound more suspicious?
“I don’t recall ever speaking with Eric,” I lie. “He must be confused.”
She laughs nervously. “It’s funny, because it seems that just before all that money was left on Sue’s desk last week, someone withdrew a large amount in cash from the company card listed on these reports.”
“Okay.” I play dumb, unsure what else to do.
“And your name is on some of those charges. Specifically these. So, you can see how we’d draw a connection here. And that’s all we’re doing at this stage, Jude—connecting the dots.”
I smile flatly, playing along. “Well, is anyone else’s name connected with purchases on that card? Another dot you’ve overlooked, perhaps?” Maybe I can spoon-feed it to her. Calvin is bound to be in a lot of those reports.
Her laugh is short this time, more like a bark. “Due diligence, Jude. We’re just covering all our bases. I can assure you we’re speaking with everyone involved.”
“Yes, but I’m not involved, Jessica. That’s what I’m trying to tell you. Maybe check with whoever was originally given the card. Maybe they withdrew the funds.”
Her leg begins to kick aggressively. “That’s the other funny little piece of this puzzle. It seems the card has gone missing. Just vanished.” She releases a high-pitched laugh and her eyes fall to my purse. “Anywho, I thought we could clear some things up with this little chat.”
“Sorry to disappoint you,” I tell her. “I really know nothing about these.”
She rises, gripping the papers chastely in front of her skirt. Her knuckles, I notice, are whitening around the edges. “Okay! Well … I guess it’s back to the drawing board.”
I nod encouragingly. “I’m sure you’ll get to the bottom of it.”