Page 29 of Pleading Innocence
Before I could even move two feet away, I heard her say, “Excuse me, Mario, and what do you have to do with this conversation? Where are your manners?”
My cheeks reddened and I spun on my heels to look at her agape, stopping myself from jumping to his rescue when I realized that this was not the place or time.
“I appointed Mario her mentor, Mom. And Bronkers & Associates was one of his contacts who just so happened to call her before anyone else,” Chris said. “I thought that’s what you wanted—for her to get back out there, right?”
“Of course! But not at a start-up. Surely her résumé makes her more suitable for a position at a more established firm. Just because you’re desperate and thirsty doesn’t mean you should drink out of a sewer,” she said, tilting her chin up.
Ugh, this was so embarrassing. Her lack of awareness was disheartening.
“Her résumé is exceptional, Mrs. Levine…,” Mario started.
Groaning, I continued my walk to the bathroom of Chris’s guesthouse. I loved that Mario was defending me and I hated the fact that I was hiding a secret from him. The secret that the company he’d put me on to had assigned me to a case that would not only affect Jared, their best friend, but Crawford & Beam, the company they worked for, the company on which their income relied.
Damn it. Why did my conscience have to be so loud, especially since my body was still tingling from Mario’s touch? I’d waited all this time to see them again and what should’ve been an exhilarating moment of surprise when both him and Anthony arrived at the party became an uncomfortable mix of desire and guilt.
To make matters worse, as I was heading to the bathroom, I glanced over by the set-up bar to see a girl flirting with Anthony. She had her hand on his leg, laughing at everything she was saying, because he didn’t seem to be saying anything. In fact, his eyes burned into me, following my every move, and it was so hot. All I wanted to do was jump both him and Mario’s bones but there were so many secrets between us. I was a ball of nerves.
I was hiding this whole work situation from them, and we were all hiding our connection from Chris and my family, which made me feel so bad because Chris didn’t have to throw me this party. He’d called me and told me to come over for a drink to celebrate my new job. I refused because I was bogged down with too much guilt, but he convinced me and I figured I could have one drink with my brother. It sounded like he needed it more than me.
It was supposed to be a surprise party with dance-type music, and at first it was just me and Chris, grabbing a drink and dancing around. It was fun and it took my mind off stuff—until Mom and Dad showed up. They thought the music was ‘god-awful’ and asked Chris to turn it down to a reasonable volume, which wasn’t good enough in the end, and the music was turned off all together.
And here I was back at square one with all the anxieties around being deceitful slapping me in the face. In the bathroom, I checked the wisps of hair floating around my sleek bun. It wasn’t so sleek anymore and it was hurting the heck out of my head. Coupled with my tired eyes and clothes I’d worn not expecting to see the men I wanted to desire me, I felt so unattractive. One thing was for sure, I was feeling far too tight all around to have this hair pulling on my temples for one second longer. I was in my brother’s guesthouse; I didn’t need to be all put together anyway.
Not that I was anymore with this noticeable stain on my shirt. Luckily, there hadn’t been a lot of wine left in the glass after that large gulp I took to cope with my mother's disapproval of this new job, and most of it spilled onto my dark blue pants anyway. Unraveling the bun made me sigh at the explosive freedom that danced within my scalp, tingling the tendons in my neck and rippling through my back as soon as my hair fell free from its constraints. The holding product I’d used to keep my straight hair slick and in place held the waves in the length of the hair that had remained coiled into a bun for hours, so now it bounced in a sort of wavy curl around my shoulders. It wasn’t terrible. It was maybe even sexy. I looked in the mirror for a bit, running my fingers through my scalp, massaging and fixing my hair until I was satisfied with it.
Feeling myself, I turned my attention to the stain, dampened a piece of paper towel, and applied some soap to try wiping it from my blouse. On one hand, I knew it was futile, but on the other hand, it gave me something to do, something to distract myself as I thought about what I should do next.
The last thing I wanted to do was avoid the guys tonight. They’d managed to get some free time and showed up for me. I was hoping this night would end in me satisfying the pent-up urges that had been driving me nuts for over a week. But if the night ended the way I wanted it to, I was going to have to say something to them. Otherwise I’d never be able to relax and enjoy our time together.
Ugh, I was probably just overthinking everything anyway. They were lawyers. They understood that these types of things weren’t personal. But the fact that I was the one they were sleeping with made me feel like I was doing something wrong by working on this case. I was already pushing through my guilt to work on it because I was determined to prove myself as a capable lawyer. And I couldn’t keep running when the going got tough.
However, that just meant my self-esteem was a little battered at the moment. I didn’t need Anthony and Mario saying something about me coming off the case, because I was afraid that in this moment, I would just listen to them and sabotage myself once again.
But would they do that? They wouldn’t want to sabotage me for a simple case, would they? They wouldn’t hold it against me if I decided to keep the business out of our bedroom, and if I decided not to walk away from the case. That wouldn’t affect our sex lives, would it?
My phone started vibrating as my eyes came into focus on the shredded paper towel that was on the still-very-prominent stain on my now-soapy blouse. I gathered up the pieces of napkin and sighed, tossing it into the step-on rubbish bin and reaching for my phone.
It was Mario. Just the sight of his initial ‘M’ got my heart racing with excitement. But there was that uncomfortable niggling guilt again. He’d sent me a text, and I bit my bottom lip in anticipation as I opened it.
‘Do you need help with that top in there?’the message read before a request for me to join a group chat chimed in. I accepted it.
‘Maybe,’I responded with a smiling face.
‘I can’t wait to taste that wine on your lips, lick it from your waist,’he typed.
I gasped and my lips quivered. My nipples hardened and a gush of lubrication flooded my panties. Maybe the secret could wait a little while longer because I didn’t want anything to get in the way of our sex lives. Especially not tonight. I brushed my hand over the curves of my chest without thinking before I responded to his message.
‘Well, what are you waiting for?’I said in response.‘Come and get it.’
‘Don’t tempt me,’his follow-up message chimed in. I groaned. He was right. We were at Chris’s place, and as much as I wanted him to come and take me in the bathroom, it was far too risky. Moments later, I saw that Anthony had joined the group chat. Within seconds, he’d sent me a message as well.
‘There’s just something about you in that suit that makes me want to be dominated by you—and you know I’m not the submissive type. But you look so damn hot. I’m hard just thinking about you,’Anthony said.
My scalp tingled and I shivered in delight. My already lubricated folds slipped against each other as I started heading out of the bathroom, causing my clit to throb. I wanted to be in view of them, have them in view of me while we sexted.
‘And what would you want me to do to you?’I responded.
‘Why don’t we save that for later?’Anthony said.