“How many girls, TJ?”
“I don’t know. I don’t keep track.”
“So you’ve been doing this for a while, huh?” She picks up some of the panties in the drawer and holds them out. “Collecting panties from girls so you can get off?” she sneers.
“I was going to tell you …”
“When?” Her voice is so high I swear it could break glass.
“Soon. Once you’d … softened up to me.”
“Softened up? Really?” She grimaces. “I’m not your fucking couch, TJ.”
She throws all the panties at me, and I take it like a man. But fuck, this is humiliating. Still, I ignore the panties scattered all around me and focus on her.
“That came out wrong. Look, I was going to tell you, I swear. I just needed to know you were okay with it all before I—”
“No. I see why you were sleeping with me now.” She grabs the other panties that I took from her on the night we first slept together and holds them up along with the pink ones. “This is what you’re doing it for? Sexing me up, so you can get my panties and pretend you don’t have them?”
I don’t know how to respond, so I shrug. “I can’t lie to you, Lesley.”
“You were doing it pretty fine all this time!” she yells, tears welling up in her eyes.
“And I’m sorry for that …” I hold out my arms. “Please, don’t be mad.”
“Why? Are you afraid?” She grinds her teeth. “Think I’m going to tell someone?”
“Please don’t,” I beg.
“Tsk … like you’re in the position to ask me for anything right now.”
“I’m not, but I’m begging you. Please don’t tell anyone,” I plead with her. I hope she’ll see me because this is not a lie. This is the god’s honest truth. I am terrified. So damn terrified…
“If this gets out—”
“It won’t. Like I’d ever wanna talk to anyone about this,” she spits. Like a venom-laced knife, it stabs me in the heart. “Am I just another one of your conquests? Just another girl you can snag panties from?”
“No, of course not. Out of all the panties I bought from girls, you’re the first I’ve actually met,” I reply.
“Oh, well, that’s a relief,” she scoffs in sarcasm. “Were you keeping this from me to test me or something? To see if I was trustworthy enough to keep your dirty secret?” She shakes her head. “Never mind. I know enough.” She barges past me.
“No, it’s not like that.” I turn and watch her run down the stairs. “Wait!”
“I thought I could trust you, but guess what? Apparently, you don’t trust me. And I completely understand why because you are one lying sack of shit, TJ Morrows.”
“I didn’t lie to you,” I say, following her down the stairs, but she’s so damn quick.
“Yes, you did. You could’ve told me about your obsession the moment you slept with me.”
“C’mon, wait. We have to discuss this,” I say, grabbing her arm to make her stop.
“No, we don’t. You could’ve talked to me all this time, and you didn’t. You smell those panties, don’t you?”
I nod, not wanting to admit my fetish that easily, but I know I have no choice now.
“Then you knew these smelled like me, and you knew they belonged to me.” She jerks herself free from my grip. “Now let me go. I’m done here.”
As she walks toward the door, I say, “I’m sorry, Lesley. I wanted to tell you when the time was right.” But it’s no use.
I couldn’t even tell her about the sale. How I didn’t know it was her until it was too late. How I tried to resist and refused to hire her but then did it anyway because I felt bad. How I kept fighting the urge to kiss her, despite knowing damn well what it would cause.
I knew I was wrong to begin with. I just wish I could’ve told her the truth before it was too late.
But that time has passed.
The last words she utters from her mouth before she runs out the door ruin me. “Should’ve thought of that before you slept with me.”
Chapter 20
Lesley
Pantysniffer3000.
Panty sniffer can kiss my ass.
I keep scrolling past his name, going through all the emails and Twitter PM’s we exchanged, and with every passing second, I feel more rage boiling up. It comes to the point where I’m screaming out loud, wanting to throw my laptop out the window, but I settle for smacking it down on my bed.
“Asshole!” I yell at the screen.
There he is, pretending to be all innocent, buying my panties and shit. Did he know it was me? Did he know I was applying as his intern when he bought those? Did he know when he hired me that it was me he bought them from?
But more importantly … has he been sniffing all those panties when I’m not around?