Naked Sushi. Jina Bacarr
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I was going to get even.
* * *
It all started weeks ago when I was working late, preparing to copy the cue sheets for a commercial spot due in the morning. No big deal. Five minutes of slaving over a hot copy machine, and I’d be heading home to my studio apartment with Chinese takeout.
A single girl’s best friend, next to her rabbit vibrator.
The office manager had gone home, so I decided to do the job myself, though I wasn’t familiar with how the new machine worked. I was a computer research analyst programmer for a video game company, better known in the world of corporate acronyms as CRAP.
It was a private joke among programmers. No corporation could run without our snappy codes and erratic symbols splashed across pages of files that looked like Jackson Pollock got stuck inside a computer.
I liked my job.
I analyzed and edited clips of our company’s ads and video games and then recoded the video and audio files and converted them for various media. I also did postproduction, including sweetening the videos with music. When I got bored, I’d get creative and do fun things, like embed hidden erotic poems into corporate microdots in PowerPoint presentations. Easy as texting if you knew how.
All you had to do was create a new text box on a slide and type in sexy stuff like, “Did your last date speak French without an interpreter?” Then change the font color to the background color to make it invisible before shrinking it down to a small, dot-sized box. Add a grid, note the box’s location, and then send that to all the programmers. The clued-in ones without computer anxiety knew how to read the sexy message. Made Tuesday morning meetings a lot more fun.
I also added sexy French words to the background tracks on test video games. I was good at picking up languages. And I loved messing around with spy stuff, which was why I’d applied to the CIA, FBI, DEA and ATF.
I never got past the written exams.
I found out sporting anchor-girl glasses didn’t place me high on their list of qualified applicants. I was saving up to get Lasik surgery before I got canned, but I could never get the cash together.
Then there was the matter of my questionable background. I was a security risk because I didn’t know who my parents were. How could I? Officer O’Malley found me when someone dumped me at the 16th Street Mission BART Station while I was still in diapers. He gave me his surname and called me Mary Dolores after the mission nearby, but the guys knew me as “Pepper.” I started calling myself that in the eighth grade to rev up my sex quotient.
Since it was doubtful I’d make it as a covert operative, I was determined to be the best at my job. I was really comfy at my last place of employment. You could call me an arty techie, which was why things like outdated office furniture and dirty bathrooms, leaky ceilings and vermin of the four-legged kind bugged me.
I found out you can’t escape the two-legged ones no matter how cool the decor was. I worked at one company with a gang of programmers who thought using soap was for girly men. Worse yet, I could hear rats scurrying above me. When a ceiling tile came loose and I saw a tail and two little feet dangling over my head, I bailed.
At my last job we had airy working spaces, bathrooms with cut flowers and a lunchroom with a junk food menu to die for. Unlike a lot of software companies who dip their sticks in Silicon Valley, my ex-boss took over a restored Victorian house in San Francisco and turned it into a first-class company facility.
I loved discovering the secrets of the old house, including hidden cabinets, desks with locked drawers, even a concealed entrance.
And I had my own office. No backseat surfers peering over my shoulder and trying to tell me how to write code. Add to that a steaming-hot mocha latte on my desk every morning and I was stylin’.
Damn, I wanted my job back. That place was cool.
It was the why I got fired that had me pissed.
I had sex in the copy machine room. My cheap surrender over the copier, buttocks thumping, my rear end overexposed.
I admit it took two to fandango, but it wasn’t all my fault. I was hungry—and not just for Chinese takeout. I spent way too much time alone. It wasn’t easy keeping a man interested when you get excited by new software programs and he had a hard-on. My last boyfriend dumped me because I worked late nights stressing over things like audio warping.
I noticed guys didn’t dig chicks who knew more about their computers than they did. Consequently, my dating life consisted of hanging out at a virtual world website and having an orgasm while I watched my flashy avatar have all the fun.
So who could blame me for taking advantage of the situation when I cornered a stud in the copy room?
Not just any stud, but my dream guy.
For years, I’d pined over the bad-boy type. Bare chest ripped to please and tease. Cute butt. And a lazy swirl of black hair that covered one eye at just the right angle. Daring a girl to go further into the dark with him...
And not look back.
Maybe it was because I was tired of Chinese takeout or because I forgot to buy new batteries for my bunny vibe. Or maybe my new underwear was too tight in the crotch. Whatever the reason, I was feeling extra horny that night.
It all seemed surreal.
Midnight. Quiet offices. Dark shadows everywhere. Beckoning me like black holes you could fall through and land in an alternative universe.
I could almost hear the creepy Rocky Horror Picture Show music guiding my every step as I tramped down the empty hallway.
Then I noticed a light coming from under the copy room door.
I stopped. I wasn’t alone. Who else was here, then?
I should have minded my own business, gone home and copied the damn thing in the morning. But the snoopy part of my personality that was convinced I had the makings of a spy wasn’t about to walk away.
As soon as I opened the door, I discovered a guy I’d never seen before, making copies. I didn’t think it totally strange since Mr. Briggs, the owner of the company, recently hired an up-and-coming video game designer to boost sales in new media. I figured he was copying the Playmate of the Month to hang up in his locker. All the guys did that.
It never occurred to me to slam the door and run for help. I was too involved in eyeing his hard butt.
And those shoulders. Yum.
He was wearing a black baseball cap and black sweats, which should have alerted me that something was wrong, but it added to my fantasy of getting locked in here with him after hours.
I burst out with a cocky, “Copying corporate secrets?”
He spun around and my breath quickened. My eyes fixed on the bulge in his sweatpants with both apprehension and desire. Spiky black hair covered his dark eyes like the mane of a wild animal; his mouth curled into a snarl that relaxed when he saw me.
“Who are you?” he asked, with a teasing smile. The dark shadow of a two-day beard heightened the cut of his angular jaw. “Security?”
His hand edged toward his pocket, a movement that didn’t escape my eye. What was he reaching for? His smartphone?
I laughed in a casual manner, trying to keep the conversation light. “Who needs security with you around?”
He grinned and then took his hand away from his pocket and cupped my chin. When he stared into my eyes, my knees turned to honey, all warm and melty. A shiver went through me.
“What’s your name?” he asked.
“Pepper.”
“Are you as hot as your name?” he wanted to know, bumping his hip into mine, his hot breath steaming up my glasses. His tough, sexy talk took me to a place I’d only dreamed of going. His voice gripped me, making me squeeze my pubic muscles in a delicious manner and then