Shrugging, he turned onto one of the main streets and headed north. “I don’t know about that. But a lot of my friends do.”
If there was a conversational roadblock, she’d just hit it, or created it. She wasn’t sure which. “So Eric is bringing me in some books to borrow. Something about a Story of O and The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty by Anne Rice or something. What do you think of them? Are there vampires in the Anne Rice one? Because I am so tired of vampire books and movies and TV shows.” She realized she was rambling so she shut up.
He let out an exasperated sigh and shook his head. “That’s Eric for you. Right to the point.”
Not knowing what to say, she merely gave him a quizzical look.
Noticing this he said, “I’m pretty sure you probably would not like those books.”
“Why do you say that?”
Brad let out something that sounded like a muffled laugh and mutter at the same time. “They’re erotic books.”
“Yeah, erotic romance,” she clarified.
“No.” His tone was sharp and direct. “Not exactly. You’ll see.”
She decided to change the subject. “Thanks for taking me home. I’ll talk to my mom and my friends and see if they can pick me up most nights.”
“It’s really not a problem at all. We’re almost there,” he pointed out.
He wasn’t lying, a few more turns and they’d be there. That’s when it occurred to her she hadn’t given him an address. “You want to take a right up here.”
“Yeah, I know. Navigation system,” he said pointing to the display on the dash. It had been turned toward him so she hadn’t really paid much attention. “I plugged in your address earlier because I thought I was taking you home before your friend showed up.”
A slow smile spread across her face. He really was one of those types. Brad was the kind of guy who was meticulous and took care of everything.
When they finally pulled up in the front of Amy's, she looked around for the familiar black Chrysler her now ex drove. It was nowhere to be seen. She breathed an audible sigh of relief.
"We'll see you tomorrow at one," Brad said simply, all business again.
She nodded and gave him a shy smile, looking away quickly when his eyes met hers, "Thank you for driving me home."
She didn't notice the pleased grin that fell over his face. Instead, she practically ran to the front door. Something about the way Brad was, just his demeanor, intimidated the hell out of her. He waited until she got in the door before driving away.
Chapter Three
Amy poured herself a cup of coffee from the carafe and sat at the register. She’d been working at By the Book for two weeks now and she loved it. Eric and Brad were great bosses and always good for interesting conversation. They’d even indulged her and discussed business ethics at great length the day before. Today she was tired, and why not? After getting home last night she'd read forty pages and written part of an essay for her business ethics class, hence the previous day’s conversation. Then she'd had class that morning.
Brad was fixing a window display and talking to some women about the latest stream of political books coming out of the most recent presidential administration.
Eric emerged from the back with a box of books. Plopping it on the floor he expertly pulled out a box cutter and had the box open in a few slices. He began piling them on the counter. "Help me sort these into stacks by genre. This is our small press and indie order."
Thumbing through the books she started stacks for fantasy and science fiction, romance, horror, and mystery. Stacking them neatly with spines facing her she caught Eric snickering out of the corner of her eye. "What?"
"You're a compulsive neat freak, aren't you?" He snickered again.
"Am not," she protested with a mock pout.
"I bet if I sent you into the stacks right now, in about an hour those shelves would be the neatest and straightest they've been since we opened this place," he said with a wide grin.
She gave him a playful smirk and swatted at him with a thriller novel called Outer Darkness by some obscure author named Audrey Brice.
He laughed.
Grabbing Blood of the Dark Moon by Adrianne Brennan she quickly realized some of the novels were cross genre. "Horror or romance?"
"Paranormal romance," he said quickly, then moved Outer Darkness from the horror pile into its own, "Paranormal mystery."
She moved them both into one pile. "How about we just say paranormal?"
He shrugged. "I suppose, but you'll have to separate them on the shelf because that's how Brad has the shelves labeled."
"How do you know anyway? Have you even heard of any of these authors?" She grabbed three more from the to-be-sorted stack. "I mean who's Selena Kitt? And I've never heard of Gail Cleare either. Bernadette Marie?"
"The first one is erotica, very popular actually, and Cleare is contemporary magic realism slash romance, and the latter is romance," he said, emptying the box. "I know this because some of it I've read, others Brad and I know the authors, and really a lot of it is popular underground stuff."
Finishing the sort took a few more minutes with Eric's help. Then she sorted them by author last name. "So should I start putting these on the shelves?"
"In a minute. Here, take these home tonight. They're the books I was telling you about when you started. I almost forgot them." He handed her three paperbacks.
"Oh, thanks!" Without really looking at them took them she tucked them away in her bag and got back to the register in time to help a customer check out.
She loved finding time to chat with Eric. To say she had a crush would have been an understatement. Once the customer was gone they sat quietly for a few minutes. She realized Eric was looking at her arms.
"What are those scars on your arms?" he finally asked.
Wondering how long he’d been wanting to ask that, Amy pulled her arms behind her back. "Nothing really."
“That’s not nothing.” Eric caught her arm with his hand, inspecting the small half-moon shaped scars that lined her forearms.
She was uncomfortable. She never expected she'd have to explain them to anyone. Of course that was a long time ago. She hadn't hurt herself in years, but then she hadn't needed to cry for some time anyway. She was a stronger person now.
He gently ran his fingers over her scars. He wasn't stupid, he knew exactly what they were from. "So why were you digging your nails into your arm?"
She chewed at her lip, marveling at how good his touch felt. Focusing she said, "Growing up I was never allowed to cry. My parents weren't the most sympathetic people in the world. They're still not." She shrugged as if it wasn't a big thing. "So it kind of got to a point where I didn't cry because I'd get yelled at for it. I don't know, maybe I forgot how or something. Then when I was a teenager I had so many bottled up emotions that I'd go numb for days and feel like I was drowning inside myself and the only way to stop it was to dig my nails into my arms until I drew blood. The pain - it would help me cry and let it out. I used a razor blade on my leg a few times, but my mom caught me and sent me to a shrink. I went to him for about two years. I'm past that now."
Eric was quiet for a minute. "Sorry if that was an uncomfortable memory. But that explains some things. So what do you do now?"
"I don't cry. But then I don't need to cry," she told him, not exactly sure what he mean by the 'that explains some things' comment. She decided not to ask.
A deep look of concern passed over his face. "What if something really bad happens and you need to cry? Like someone you love dies? Do Brad and I need to be concerned you'll hurt yourself?"
The thought hadn't occurred to her in some time. What would she do if she needed to cry? Would she hurt herself? She looked into the darkness within and shuddered. She knew what she would do, but she wasn't telling him.
"Amy? I asked you a question. Do you ever want to hurt yourself?" Eric took a step toward her.
"I'm not a weak person like that anymore,"
she said simply, forcing a smile. She took a step away from him. "I wouldn't hurt myself."
The statement sounded hollow, even to her. Not to mention Eric looked entirely unconvinced. He knew she was hiding something dark and she wondered how long she'd be able to keep it a secret working here. Brad and Eric always seemed to find ways to get her to open up and relax around them. Sooner or later they’d both figure out there was something really wrong with her. Thank goodness a customer stepped up to the register.
Eric dropped it. He disappeared into the back. Brad came up to the counter, leaning on it. He looked at his watch.
"Bored?" She kind of laughed. She'd never seen the boss look at his watch before. "Or a hot date?"
He smiled. "Unfortunately bored."
She decided to be bold. "So you and Eric are both single?"
Turning to her, a small smile played on his lips, but vanished. "Yeah."
He really wasn't giving her anything to work with, like usual. "I just find that hard to believe."
"Why?"
"Well, you're both reasonably attractive. Nothing really wrong with either of you or am I missing something?"
He chuckled. "It's not like I don't date on occasion. I'm just picky."
"And Eric?"
Brad lifted an eyebrow. "You interested?"
She blushed. "I'm just curious why he's single."
"You're single."
A deep sigh emerged from her lips. "Well yeah, now I am. But I was in a relationship with a jerk up until recently if you remember."
Brad nodded as if to say she had a point. "Eric doesn't really date that often. It's taken him some time to get over his ex. He doesn't want to make that mistake again."
"Let me guess, left him for another man?"
"Not exactly," Brad said. "They were both in the same relationship, but their perception of that relationship was different. Eric was in it for the long haul and Em was just having a good time and using Eric for everything he was worth."
"Ah, he was more serious than she was?"
"Pretty much," Brad shrugged. "It wasn't meant to be. So as a result you'll find Eric has high standards for the women he dates. He's only been out with a couple of women since then and it was only dinner and a movie and he never saw them again. I think he's become an apt bullshit detector in his old age."
She laughed. "Like how old? You're both like early thirties or something?"
A huge grin spread over Brad's face. "Thank you. That's one hell of a compliment. I'm forty-two. Eric's thirty-eight."
Giving him her best look of disbelief she said, "You're pulling my chain."
"Wouldn't that be somethin'?" He gave her a smile. Just then a customer approached him, pulling his attention away from the Amy.
Once Eric came up from the back, he took the register and she spent the rest of the day restocking books and straightening shelves. A lot of customers didn't bother putting books back exactly where they found them, which she found somewhat annoying. Especially when they left the baby care books in the horror novels, which was amusing, but still annoying. By the time five o'clock rolled around she was starving.
"Amy," Brad called out from his desk in his gruff drill sergeant voice.
She jumped, dropping two of the magazines from the stack she had. Setting them down she hurried over to the corner. "Yes Sir?"
His expression softened and his eyes seemed to light up a little when he saw her. "We're getting delivery take-out from the deli for dinner. What do you want?"
Out of the corner of her eye she caught Eric give Brad a certain look. She wasn't quite sure what the look was, but it was knowing; as if they shared some secret or conversation about her. They’d been doing it since she started and it kind of bothered her. She told him what she wanted then went back to work. While they ate a few customers came through and the conversation changed to sports and she tuned it out, concentrating instead on how nice the store was looking.
That's when she walked in. The woman was decked out in black latex pants and patent leather spiked heels and if her cleavage had been any more ample it would have fallen out of her tight black blouse. She had long slicked back auburn hair pulled tight into a pony tail, red lipstick to match her perfect red nails and she was wearing dark sunglasses despite the fact that it was already dark. Some eighties tune, she didn’t recall who sang it since it was before her time, about wearing sunglasses at night ran through her mind. Focusing, she regained control over her expression.
The woman, who oozed a great deal of confidence, breezed to the counter and only regarded Amy with a brief glance. "Hello, Brad, dear."
"Kali," he greeted.
Amy almost rolled her eyes, but stopped herself. It figured the dragon lady would go by a name like Kali. Wasn't that a Hindu goddess of destruction? She wondered. She'd have to look it up online later.
The woman let herself back behind the counter and gave Eric a wordless hug. "So do you have my full order?"
"I left you a message saying I did," Brad said, still cool and composed. He got up. "It's in the back. Should be enough room for you to try it all out."
She pouted. "Too bad I didn't bring Mike. Any takers?"
Eric put up his hands in mock surrender. ""Don't look at me. Only in your wildest dreams."
She threw her head back and laughed then gave Brad a narrowed look.
Brad shook his head. "Don't look at me like that woman."
Kali turned and looked expectantly at Amy. At that point, Amy felt outnumbered and intimidated and wished there was a place she could hide. "No?" Kali asked. Then she turned to Brad and Eric with a raised eyebrow.
Eric had one of those don't-talk-about-this-around-her looks on his face. Brad shook his head. "No. Amy is our shop assistant and she only deals with the books."
"Pity," Kali said, looking Amy up and down again. "Oh well, I suppose I can give it a go without a test subject."
"Come on back." He and Kali slipped into the back.
Eric visibly relaxed. "Dommes," he muttered under his breath.
Amy gave him a puzzled look. "What?"
"Nothing," he gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze. "Don't pay any attention. Some of our private collectors and special customers are a bit eccentric. If any of them ever give you any trouble and one of us isn't right here, just tell them you only deal with the merchandise out here and then immediately grab either me or Brad, okay?"
“Okay.” Her mind raced with what they could possibly be selling in the back that first off, required testing, and second, would bring in interesting characters like Kali and that motorcycle gang looking guy from last that first night she’d worked here. Since she couldn't come up with anything she decided to ask. "So what exactly are you guys selling in the back rooms?"
He gave her a look that told her she was treading on forbidden ground.
She gave him a smile, knowing Eric wasn't nearly as scary as Brad, and if she could charm him enough he'd at least give her a clue. "Okay, so it's clearly not books. Neither of you look like drug dealers and neither do your clients but they do look a little," she paused, searching for the right word. "Scary," she finished thoughtfully.
He laughed. "Actually, some of it is rare, out of print books. Some of it is imported merchandise or specialty stuff."
"What's she here for then?" She looked at the door leading to the back room when she heard a pop noise.
"Furniture and specialty items," Eric said carefully. He handed her a phone order sheet. "Here, go pull these books for this order. The woman is going to be in for them tomorrow."
She took the list just as the door to the back swung open and Kali breezed out.
"It's perfect, Eric. You and Brad always take care of me." She kissed him on the cheek, leaving a little red lipstick there. She wiped at his cheek. "So here is my receipt. Brad is taking it out the back and loading it in my car. Where did you find it?"
Amy buried her nose in the list and pretended to look it over.
Eric went to th
e cash register and started ringing Kali up. "We have a guy in Bridgeport who makes it all by hand. That will be thirteen-hundred-forty-two and sixteen cents."
Amy thought she was going to choke on her own disbelief but held herself steady, regarding the list even longer. Once she was certain she was lingering too long, she cautiously made her way out from behind the counter and went into stacks to pull the books on the list. Concentrating on her task was easy. The first two books were on the erotica shelf and both were in stock. She flushed red when she realized the rest of the books were in the bdsm non-fiction section. She pulled each title carefully, curiously sneaking a look into the books only to see pictures of women bound by ropes and suspended in air, along with pictures of sex toys. A male customer was browsing the political section in the next aisle. Swallowing, hard, she closed the book she was looking at in a panic realizing the pictures of the bound women inside excited her.
Not seeing them bound per se, but imagining being bound up like they were. After a few minutes she was able to compose herself, finish pulling the rest of the list, and take it back to the counter. By this time Kali and her furniture were gone. She stifled a smile. Books and made-to-order specialty furniture, it was an odd combination.
Going through the list quickly, Eric checked to make sure everything was there. Once again, Brad was behind the desk looking at the computer. "Eric, take a look." He turned the monitor toward Eric.
"Oh, nice," said Eric.
She rolled her eyes when she saw what they were looking at. "Custom built saw horses? Seriously? Why is the top padded?"
Both men burst into laughter.
"To keep the wood from getting scuffed," Brad said with a chuckle.
Eric broke out laughing again.
Men. It always amazed her how seriously they took their tools and shop equipment. She shook her head and went back to the non-fiction section to straighten up a shelf she noticed earlier that someone had already messed up.
Nine o'clock came quickly. Since she still had no one able to pick her up, tonight it was Eric who drove her home. He drove a restored '65 black Mustang with a leather interior.
Training Amy (BDSM Erotica) Page 3