Page 8 of Battery Operated

Page List


Font:  

“Some men aren’t good at finding the right spot,” Brad said huskily, and I grinned.

“Damn straight. Or they’d just go for the parts they want to touch and ignore the rest. Men, as a whole, seem mostly interested in their own pleasure, not the woman’s.”

“On behalf of my gender, I apologize if that’s how it seemed to you,” Brad said.

“That’s how itis.”

“That’s good,” Colton said, and I turned toward his voice, my eyebrows raised though he couldn’t see them.

“It’s good for us, I mean. If people, especially women, aren’t getting what they need, that means there’s a market for our product,” he clarified. “At the very least, we can sell to women who have clueless men in their lives.”

Waves of pleasure radiating from my lower back made my tongue loose. “Which is pretty much all of them.”

But then my eyes flew open as the banging from the hallway continued. Without thinking about it, I ripped off the blindfold. “What the hellisthat?”

The lights were no longer dimmed, for some reason, so it was a moment before everything started to come back into focus. Colton was over by the door, and Brad was just a few feet away, frowning as he stared at the mask in my hands.

Blinking rapidly, I looked from one man to the other. Neither had an explanation for the noise. Then I focused on the screen of my phone. Squinting slightly, I could just make out some of the comments scrolling rapidly from the bottom of the screen to the top. It looked like the usual mix of questions and comments, but quite a few of the responses were in all caps. Those were the ones that were easiest to make out. To my surprise, the ones I could read were:

OMG!!!

WHAT THE FUCK?!?!

LOOK BEHIND YOU

That last one was from Penny. My heart raced, and my formerly relaxed nerve endings went on high alert. I twisted in the chair, my calm, blissful feeling gone in seconds. The first thing I saw was that the dark curtain was open. As I craned my neck, I could see that there wasn’t anything directly behind the chair. No gears. No levers. No mechanics.

What the hell?

I turned to check the other side and near fell out of the chair as instinct made me flinch even before my mind had truly registered what I was seeing.

A strange man was standing right next to me.

6

LILA

My jaw dropped open as I craned my neck to look up at the man. He was so tall that I had to lean away from him to take him all in, and the muscles in my lower back that had been so soothed a moment ago twinged in complaint.

My stunned mind cataloged his features. Dark brown hair that sat high on his head. A short beard and goatee. Hard blue eyes under thick brows. There was something almost aristocratic about his face. Maybe the shape of his nose or his jaw.

A wave of conflicting thoughts flowed through me as I stared up at him. Surprise, of course. I’d had no idea there was another person in the room. A strange feeling of longing—he was a handsome man. But right on its heels—resentment. That one I couldn’t explain. And briefly, recognition of some sort.

But what the hell was he doing here?

I twisted my neck further, and several things hit me at once. Severalhorriblethings. The dark curtain behind me was open a few feet. Evidently, this man had been back there the whole time. And then there were his hands. He was wearing black leather gloves.

A groan filled me, quite unlike the ones from a few minutes ago. It had been him the whole time. Not a machine. Not the most perfect massage device known to mankind. It had been a person, a man.

But why? Had these guys gotten in over their heads? Promised to show off their new tech and something had gone wrong, so they’d tried to bluff their way through this demo? But that didn’t make any sense. From the messages on my phone, it was clear that this guy hadn’t tried to hide his participation from the viewers.

I grimaced as I realized something. The eye mask! They hadn’t wanted me to know he was there—justme. Which meant these men were not my friends. And whatever they were up to was not something that would help me and my career.

Briefly, I entertained the impulse to hop up and cut the live feed. But then I dismissed the idea. Ending things off now would make it worse—and could even make people worried about my safety.

Of all the concerns running through my mind, that wasn’t one of them. These men were up to something, but it didn’t feel unsafe. It felt cold and calculated, but not unsafe—at least not physically. Professionally might be another matter.

“What’s going on?” I kept my voice as neutral as possible, trying to throw a note of curiosity into it.


Tags: Stephanie Brother Erotic