Page 52 of Illicit Education
My heart ached with emotion. The story had me so gripped that I’d long ago lost interest in hating Cabot Reed and instead wanted to hug him for giving me the opportunity to read something so utterly beautiful.
I looked up at the sound of familiar laughter, smiling as my new work friends stepped off the elevator. Though my heart pinched at the prospect of breaking for lunch when all I wanted to do was continue reading, my stomach growled loudly and, as if on cue, my bladder throbbed painfully.
“Hey, girl, hey!” Marisa grinned when she reached me. She looked down at my little nook at the base of the tree. “You look like one of the school kids that come here in the afternoon. You ready to go eat?”
I slid the manuscript and my tablet into my purse and rose to my feet, stretching my body after being tucked into the base of the tree structure for so long.
We strode out of Reed Tower and headed down the street, and I listened to the conversations happening around me. There was still so much to learn, names I didn’t recognize, gossip about people I didn’t know… but I was thrilled to have a group of friends at work this early into my internship.
“I need some book recs,” Eloise said as we turned the corner and the restaurant came into sight. “I’ve been in such a reading slump.”
“You literally work at the biggest publishing house in the world.” Marissa laughed. “All we have are book recs.”
“Maybe you need to stop reading about crabs and start reading about sex.”
“Hector!” Eloise’s eyes widened.
“Crabs?” I asked as my brain conjured up an image of Sebastian fromThe Little Mermaid.
Eloise rolled her eyes. “Where the Crawdads Sing,” she explained with a shake of her head. “And I loved that book, by the way. Been hungover ever since.”
Hector opened the door to the restaurant. “You know what cures a hangover? Spicy food.”
“Hector,” Eloise warned.
“I’m just saying… spice things up a bit. Take a page out of Rylan’s book and dive into some Simona Steele.”
“Fantastic idea,” I agreed.
Eloise’s cheeks had turned bright red, and not from the sun.
The hostess greeted us, grabbed five menus, then led us to the same round table where we ate yesterday. “Enjoy your meal,” she said as she left us alone.
“Everyone loves a little kink, Elle, even uptight bookworms like you.” Hector dodged her playful swing.
“You’re a bookworm, too, Hector. And I’m not uptight.” She tilted her nose to the sky, feigning indignation.
“I’m pretty sure it's the uptight ones you have to worry about anyway.” Hector laughed as he sidled up to Eloise and draped his arm around her shoulders.
Marisa leaned forward, lowering her voice conspiratorially as she said, “Speaking of kink…” She glanced at me. “Ellie’s not the one who just got a new job at a sex club.”
My eyes bulged. I hadn’t told Marisa anything about the Rabbit Hole, just that I got a job at the lingerie store, so she obviously already knew about the underground club.
Was I the last person in on the secret?
“Who works at a sex club?” Hector whispered excitedly, looking at them all in turn. “Wait. I’ve got this. It’s not me, because I’d remember something that exciting. It’s not Marcus, because he’d obviously tell me so I could visit him at work.” He looked at Eloise. “And we know it’s not Ellie.”
She rolled her eyes.
Swiveling his head toward me slowly, Hector tilted it. “That leaves only two guesses, and my money’s on the new girl.”
“Yes! It’s Rylan!” Marisa covered her mouth to muffle the volume of her voice. “Sorry.”
“Oooh, do tell,” Hector said, leaning over to nudge my shoulder with his own.
“There’s nothing to tell.” What could I say? Mina had been very clear that I couldn’t speak of anything I saw.
“What’s going on?” Eloise asked.