“What is happening!” Paul yelled.
Helena rolled her eyes. “I bought Corey a sex toy that he shoved up his ass in public.”
“You what?”
“It’s okay,” Helena said. “I have Amazon Prime, so I got free shipping.”
“That doesn’t mean anything!” Paul shouted at her.
Yes. Paul was on my side, though he didn’t know it. With our powers combined, we could take on the Queen. It was the last level. The final boss fight. We had this. “Yeah! That doesn’t mean anything. And it’s not my fault that I came up with the idea to use it in public! Jeremy was supposed to be in control of it on my phone, but he gave it to Nana instead!”
Paul stopped yelling.
They both turned slowly to look at me.
I frowned. “What’s going on? What’s happening here? Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Baby doll,” Helena purred, tapping her nails on the desk in front of her. “Can you say that one more time?”
I squinted at her. “It doesn’t mean anything? And it’s not my fault? Because Jeremy was supposed to be… in control… of… oh no.”
“Yes,” Helena said, eyes glittering. “Oh no indeed.”
Paul looked shocked. “Why the hell would Jeremy be in control of—wait. Hold up a minute. Jeremy was in control of your sex toy? Which means he knew about it. Which means you talked about it.” He gasped dramatically. “You two are fucking!”
I panicked. “No we’re not! There’s been no fucking! There has been no insertion of any body parts ever!”
Helena was on the hunt. She leaned forward, pressing her hands flat against the desk. She bared
her teeth at me. “Really. You expect me to believe that?”
She was trying to hypnotize me. Well, too bad! It wouldn’t work! She wasn’t going to get my secrets. “We haven’t. The only thing we’ve done is kissed once and then dirty talked to each other while we sat on opposite sides of his office door as we jerked off!” I inhaled sharply as I extended a trembling figure toward her. “Witch! You are trying to enchant me!”
“Holy sweat balls,” Paul breathed. “You were right.”
“I know voodoo! And Krav Maga! I will fight you both until you die and—” I stopped in the middle of my very serious threats as I replayed Paul’s words in my mind. “What did he mean you were right?”
Helena stood upright, the top of her head almost hitting the ceiling. She shrugged. “I thought you and Jeremy were already fucking but trying to keep it a secret because he’s your boss and it’s a stupid thing to be doing.”
I groaned as I put my face in my hands. “How the hell did you figure that out? We were so careful.”
“Really,” Helena said dryly. “That’s what you’re going with. Careful. After denying it directly to our faces for so long. How precious you are.”
My throat started to constrict, and my eyes burned. I dropped my hands and looked away from them, trying to regain control. I didn’t know why this was affecting me as much as it was. But all I could hear in my head was her words repeating: it’s a stupid thing to be doing.
“Oh hey, no,” Helena said, dropping the act. She came around the desk and wrapped her arms around me. I buried my face against her bosom as she stroked the back of my neck. “Corey. Come on. We were just playing. I’m sorry if we took it too far. It’s okay, I promise.”
I nodded against her chest, breathing heavily.
Paul came around the other side of the desk so that he stood behind me. He rubbed a hand up and down my back. “Yeah, I’m sorry too. I mean, I’m not sorry for freaking out about the whole laying an egg thing, but the other stuff? Sure.”
“It’s a stupid thing to be doing,” I managed to say.
“Yeah,” Helena said gently. “It is. If it’s just fucking around. Because that could backfire, and I would hate to see that if it happened. You’ve worked so hard to get this far.”
“And if it’s not just fucking around?” I whispered.
“Talking about if it’s more than that?” Paul asked. “Like, feelings and junk?”