“If you do it for free, that makes it better?” Justin didn’t understand. He didn’t want her to back out, but making her work without getting paid hardly seemed fair.
“Not completely for free. You’ll promise me that, when this whole thing is done and the board has seen how brilliant it is and signed off, and I’m out from under the contractual obligations, you’ll find a way to make it up to me.”
He should accept her offer and leave it at that. Why wasn’t he? “That could be a long-term gamble.”
“I can’t explain my reasons any better than I have. Not because I’m trying to keep something from you, but I don’t know if I understand them myself. If you’d still like my help, leave it at that?”
“We’re working in the kitchen.” He couldn’t ask for a better explanation, when he didn’t completely understand his motivations. It wasn’t fair to ask her to own up to something he wasn’t willing to do the same with.
* * * *
MANY HOURS LATER, ASthe sun dipped behind the horizon, they had wrapped things up for the day. The deployment went smoothly, and Justin felt more confident about the PP project than he had in months.
“Help me understand why you’ve got this obsession with Batman.” Emily sat on one end of his sectional, feet tucked beneath her, looking as if she’d always been a part of the scenery.
Antonio lounged a few feet away, arm draped over the back of the couch. “He’s always been like that.”
“It’s not an obsession.” Justin sat in the chair across from them, enjoying the evening and the company, including the lighthearted ribbing. “I don’t understand the appeal of the guy. His super power is money. And being emo. I can do that.”
“You mean you don’t already?” Emily stuck out her tongue. “Or are you jealous because he has the emo bit down, and you’re simply not any good at moping?”
“He’s really not. He’s all about the moving on and getting things done,” Antonio said.
Emily seemed to ponder this. “Batman gets things done. Is it the utility belt? The car?”
Justin had no idea how they ended up here, but it was a reminder of why he enjoyed her company the night they met. He could be himself tonight, and that was wonderful. “I’m not jealous. In real life, even Bruce Wayne would have to answer to investors. And seriously? Fuck that.”
“Okay, okay, okay.” Emily held up her hands. “Tangent. I heard the most ridiculous story Thursday afternoon.”
“Was it when you were riding him on the couch?” Antonio asked. “Because if he told you that was first time he’d done that there, it might be true.”
Pink dotted her cheeks, and she ducked her head. Entirely too alluring. “No, it— Wait. Really? Two leather couches, and you’ve never...?” She looked at Justin.
“Contrary to—I was going to saypopular belief, but I don’t talk to a lot of people about my sex life, so—yourbelief, I’m not some kind of manwhore. No, I never had sex in my office before two days ago.” Justin kept the teasing in his voice.
Antonio scooted forward in his seat. “Is this the tangent? Or was there more to the original statement?” he asked Emily.
Emily furrowed her brow, and then smiled. “Yes, there was more. He”—she nodded at Antonio—“told me you call the project Promiscuous Perks because you have a client who’s got a porn website, and it’s kind of a joke. Why do you really call it that?”
“He told you the truth. You haven’t figured out yet that Antonio is shit at lying?”
“I’m not— All right. I am.” Antonio grinned.
Emily fiddled with a loose strand of hair, watching her lap for a moment before she spoke. “Pardon my naiveté, but what kind of rewards program does a porn site use? And how did that partnership even happen?”
“Technically, their advertising firm is our client, but it’s the same kind of rewards as any other site.” It didn’t matter that they’d been working with Andrew for five years; Justin still had an urge to giggle like a child when it came to discussing sex and business. He didn’t have an issue with it, but the six-year-old inside liked the innuendo and implication. “Buy so many subscriptions, get one free. He’s more of a data-gathering spot for us though. We go back a long way with the owner, and he’s got a human knack for predicting the same things our engine does. He lets us test our algorithms against him.”
Emily raised her brows. “Wow. Selling sex has never sounded so dry. You buried the lede, though. You and he go way back? Who’s he? How far back?”
Though she helped them with the deployment today, she knew she was working on R&T servers—Mercy’s company. They never gave her Andrew’s information, because it wasn’t needed for what they were doing.
“Here’s a thirty-second history of us,” Antonio said. “We met in Brazil, while we were backpacking around South America. Another one of the guys we knew went on to found a tiny little startup called Smut Central.”
“In other words, when you sayporn site, you mean a series of the largest in the world? And you know this guy? Did either of you star in one of his movies?” Emily’s eyes were wide, and the pink on her cheeks darker than before.
Antonio shook his head. “Now you disappoint. That’s the question everyone asks when they find out.”
“Together?” Emily tacked onto the end.