Chapter 18
Shortly before one o’clock, Cami pulled herself away from her laptop where she’d been fiddling with some coding for the back end of Lenny’s website.
They had toyed with the idea of setting up a website for Sex on the Beach back when Cami had first started at SMC, and ever since, she’d been using that as a baseline for how much she’d learned.
Every time a new concept cropped up in her education, she’d try to implement it into this website, which for the moment, wasn’t available to the public.
Maybe once she’d finished her degree, she would put it up if she could convince Lenny to invest in setting up an online storefront.
Besides, she had better, sexier things to worry about now.
She didn’t know what time Des had left, but she had a foggy memory of gray lighting the color of his eyes, a quick goodbye kiss, and snuggling up to his pillow.
She’d woken up like that sometime later, wrapped around the cushion like Wyle E.
Coyote clung to a cartoon telephone pole.
Then, sore in places she didn’t know it was possible to be sore, she’d taken a long, hot bath, and decided to try to function like a human instead of sulking that she hadn’t woken up to a morning erection.
Maybe he’d panicked. She supposed she could understand that; their arrangement had been as clear-cut and simple as they could make it—toys only. It had been about testing sexual enhancement devices, not spending time together, or truly being intimate.
Just the memory of last night made her feel adrift. It was possible that he had had second thoughts in the middle of the night, when they were both sated and their brains weren’t clouded with lust. Maybe he needed to clear his head.
Or maybe he just had to go. He had a life, and a busy one at that.
He probably didn’t have much time to spend on unplanned sleepovers with retail associates.
She couldn’t expect him to hang around for snuggles.
They weren’t dating, and nothing he had said to her at all over the past few months made her think he was even interested in the concept.
So, freshly bathed, she’d poured herself a cup of coffee and re-immersed herself in coding.
It did an incredible job of distracting her until the alarm on her phone went off, signaling it was almost time for her shift at the store.
She took a moment to stretch and scarf down a day-old croissant from the bakery a few doors down.
Then she left through the back door that led to the store through a claustrophobic staircase.
Lenny was finishing up a sale to a middle-aged Indian couple.
She wished them well, and they headed out the door, the chime above it tingling merrily.
Then she turned to Cami, propping herself up on the stool behind the counter.
“Hey, kiddo.” She reached for a large green smoothie in a disposable plastic cup. “Eventful night?”
The phrasing stopped Cami in mid-step, her eyes narrowing on the older woman. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Nothing,” Lenny said, voice high and overtly innocent.
Holmes gave a whuff of interest at the tone, and the office door swung open as he shoved it aside, lumbering into the storefront so that he could crowd Lenny and lay his head on her knee.
She stroked his ears absently, looking for all the world like Ursula the Sea Witch with one of her eels.
“You know, I was out for a walk pretty early this morning.”
The non-sequitur made her even more suspicious, but Cami forced herself to check the store cleaning log and see what Lenny had neglected to do this morning. “Oh?” she prompted, almost certain she didn’t want to know where this was going.
“Mhmm,” Lenny hummed into her smoothie. “There was a motorcycle leaving the parking lot.”
Ugh, of course.
Cami struggled to sound nonchalant. “Interesting.”
“It is, isn’t it?”
When she got close, Holmes gave a thump with his tail and Cami petted his nose, doing her best to avoid looking at his mistress.
“What was Des doing sneaking out of your place at quarter to six, Cami?”
“Um...” Determined to carry on as though this was everyday conversation, she shrugged. “I don’t know what you mean. Maybe he was robbing the store. Have you checked the safe?”
“You little liar.” Lenny tossed her head back and laughed heartily, and Cami couldn’t help but smile at the sound. “Fine, keep your secrets. But your employee discount doesn’t apply to condoms.”
She rolled her eyes, but, remembering last night’s dilemma, she did cast an evaluating glance at the tiered display of prophylactics a few steps away. It might not even happen again, but it never hurt to be prepared...
“I can see you eyeing my merchandise, you little hooker.”
“One: rude,” Cami chided. “Two: the appropriate term is sex worker, you fossil.”
Lenny scoffed, then made a show of mimicking Cami like a five-year-old trying to irritate their sibling.
Cami ignored her and changed the subject: “When’s Tristan in?”
“An hour. He’s only scheduled for the mid-shift, but he wants the hours, so he’ll stay until closing.
” With her attention redirected to store-related topics, Lenny’s tone had taken on a thoughtful air, and when Cami glanced over, she was studying a makeshift column of books they’d set up after the shipping delivery last week.
“See if you can get him to take a crack at that display. Make it look like we put it there on purpose.” She nodded at the books.
“He’s got an eye for that sort of thing. ”
“Sure.”
Lenny gave Holmes a shove, heaving the giant dog off her lap, then stood. “Now that you’re down here, I’m going to head to the back and look at the paperwork.” She sounded about as thrilled at the prospect of administrative duties as Cami felt about trying to explain Des’s hasty exit this morning.
Lenny headed into the back. Cami busied herself dusting displays and righting boxes that didn’t need to be straightened.
The chemical dampened dust-wipe she used made her fingers feel pruny after a few minutes, but the sense of accomplishing a mindless task was comforting.
Until she found herself dusting a familiar box containing a now-experienced object.
The Lulu stared at her twenty times over as she wiped down the display, taunting her with memories of Des’s breathing, the texture of his thigh against the inside of her knee as he pressed the toy against her.
He’d given her orgasm after orgasm, both with and without toys, and proven that she wasn’t broken—at least, not in that way.
That was worth celebrating, regardless of what his early morning departure might have meant.
She hadn’t had a chance to overanalyze what her initial problem was, between work and class and their not-dates, but she wasn’t a doctor anyway.
How could she figure out why she had struggled so hard to orgasm?
She’d thought maybe she just needed toys to push her over the edge, but Des had disproved that multiple times last night.
He hadn’t seemed to do anything unusual when he’d used his fingers on her than when she’d tried on her own, but somehow, it had felt all too different, and the results had been.
..well, earth-shattering. Had he unlocked something within her?
Opened the cage that housed all her orgasms, and now they flowed freely within her? Was that even a thing?
She supposed she could ask him. He had gone to med school for a while.
But bringing that up with him would be mortifying.
She was sure he didn’t care about her previous sexual partners, but meeting his gaze and telling him, “I thought I was incapable of coming,” made her want to die.
Even with an actual doctor paid to examine her, it would be horrifying to explain all the ways she’d attempted to orgasm.
It didn’t matter now anyway. Des had proved her wrong, heartily and repeatedly, and with no difficulty. She and her previous partners had all just been slamming the wrong button and wondering why the rocket wasn’t going off.
Or, a voice in the back of her head whispered, it’s just Des. Only he can get you off.
That would be an entirely different problem to handle, and wasn’t one she wanted to contemplate while she was working.
She set the dusting aside for Tristan to finish and slipped behind the counter.
She made a pit stop in the office to steal a bottle of water from the staff mini fridge, then settled on Lenny’s stool near the register.
She helped two customers—one young man, who bought a cock ring, and a woman in her forties who needed new lingerie to impress her husband on their anniversary—before Tristan’s shift started.
He swept in carrying a cardboard drinks tray in one hand and a bag of donut holes in the other.
“Bless you,” Cami exhaled, and abandoned her water bottle in favor of the iced coffee Tristan set in front of her.
“I aim to please.” He scooted around the counter to the staff side, and poked his head into the office to peek in on Lenny. “I brought garbage.”
“Is it the kind you can eat?” Lenny’s voice spiked.
At his affirmation, she appeared, grabbing a handful of donut holes and shoving one into her mouth.
“I made up the schedule for next week and submitted the next stock order. Now I’m getting the hell outta here.
The Great British Baking Show ain’t gonna watch itself.
Try not to burn the store down while I’m gone. ”
“No promises,” Tristan quipped.
Cami grinned.
Lenny rolled her eyes, murmuring under her breath. “Hooligans.” Then she snapped her retractable leash on Holmes and headed for the door. It was only when they were walking past the windows that Cami noticed Holmes was carrying a Kong dog toy in his mouth. Or was that a butt plug?
“Has he been eating the merchandise?” she gasped.
“Don’t be stupid, Cami. Of course he has.”