by Lana Dash
I tilt my head at him in confusion.
“I thought that since you are trying to find your voice and stepping out of your comfort zone, you’d be interested in having a session where you audition to be voice talent for erotic audiobooks.”
I stare from him to the front doors of the studio and back again. This might just be the weirdest kind of date I've ever been taking on. And yet, the thought he put behind it, having listened to what I said and trying to help me, is beyond sweet.
"You hate it." Evan's shoulders sag in defeat.
“No!” I grab his arm. “I’m just thinking that if you had given me a hundred guesses to where you were taking me today, this wouldn’t have been one of them. I’m excited to try it out.”
“Good, because Mallory is waiting for us.”
We head inside, and the office looks empty. It's clear that when Evan mentioned that he was calling in a few IOUs, I had no idea the special circumstances he was making for me.
“Hey there,” A beautiful woman in her mid-forties greets us when we walk in. “You two must be Evan and Quinn. I’m Mallory.”
We say our hellos, and Mallory leads us back to the studio. The nerves in my belly aren’t really what I’m about to do in front of Evan, but the excitement of trying something new.
Mallory helps get me situated in the booth with some sample pages for me to read. Evan stands on the other side of the glass in the control room. He gives me a reassuring smile and mouths “good luck” to me as Mallory makes her way back.
I look down at the sheets in front of me. If you had told me twenty-four hours ago that I’d be saying these words, not only out loud but in front of Evan, I’d think you were crazy.
“Whenever you’re ready, Quinn,” Mallory’s voice sounds in my headphones.
I take a deep breath and begin to read out loud. I stumble a bit at first, my nerves getting the better of me, but eventually, I find my footing. The words should feel forbidden on my lips but instead, feel a sexual awakening in me. Each word gives me power that I didn’t know I could possess. The few pages I’m given to read passes quickly and I’m at the end before I know it.
“‘Yes, right there, I breathe out. The pounding rhythm of his cock inside me makes my eyes roll back in ecstasy as my orgasm nears its peak. An animalistic growl erupts from deep inside Hunter’s chest as his body reacts and my pussy clenches around him. I can hold off the pleasure anymore. ‘I’m coming!’ I cry out.”
I flip the page, already invested in this story after only one scene but realize that's all there is. The bubble around me seems to burst, and I remember that I'm not alone. I look up at the control room to see a smiling face on Mallory and a look I can't quite read on Evan’s.
“How’d I do?” I ask nervously, wondering if I overdid it.
Evan seems to snap out of some kind of trance, there is a clicking sound in my headphones, and I can hear him clear his throat. “It was, um, good. You did that very, good, I mean, well.”
Mallory chuckles at him and turns back to me. “Have you done this work before?”
I shake my head. “No.”
“Wow, you could have fooled me.”
6
EVAN
My cock is as hard as a rock, having just heard those words coming out of Quinn's sweet lips. The mix of Quinn’s girl next door personality and now dirty mouth has my mind reeling. I thought I wanted her before, but now with my cock straining against the unforgiving denim of my jeans, I realize I haven’t felt this way before about anyone.
Quinn shakes her head to Mallory’s question, her long dark hair swaying on her shoulders with the movement. Her shy demeanor is returning. I wish there were more for Quinn to read, but I've already asked so much of Mallory coming in on Saturday when the studio is usually closed.
“You are a natural,” Mallory says before she heads back into the booth. She says something to Quinn and hands her a card from her back pocket. I can't hear what she's saying, but whatever it is, Quinn is looking excited about it.
We say our goodbyes and head out into the cool evening air. I hold open the door for her, but she doesn’t get in at first. Her brown eyes dance with excitement when they swing towards me. She bites down on her bottom lip, and my cock twitches at the simple but incredibly sexy movement. Quinn reaches out and runs her hand up my chest, her fingertips gliding over each sinewy muscle.
“Thank you for this opportunity.”
I run my fingers into her silky hair, cupping her cheek in my hand. “I’m glad you had a good time.”
“Did you have a good time?” She asks, leaning forward to press her soft body against my hard one. I know she can already feel my answer, pressing against her lower belly. She bites down on her lip again, and I nearly come in my pants like a horny teenager.
“It’s definitely had its moments,” I chuckle.
"I know we talked about going to grab something to eat afterward, but I thought maybe we could go back to my place and order something.”
“I don’t want you to think that I—"
She smiles sweetly up at me. “Evan, I’m asking if you want to go back to my place and all that it implies.”
She’s careful about her words now. And I like the idea of being one of the few people she shares this naughtier side with.
"Yes," I breathe out when she shifts her hips, allowing some friction to build between us.
We both get in the car, but as soon as the quiet of the city is muffled around us, it's like we are in our own bubble, and we can't wait. I reach for her just as she reaches for me. She swings her leg over my lap and straddles me. The amount of room we have in the car is constricting, but it only makes us press closer together.
She swivels her hips, and my already hard cock grows even harder.
“Was it something I said?” she asks, a teasing note in her voice.
I groan with the move she makes. I don’t know how much more I can last. I’ve dreamt of this moment for so long that a part of me can’t believe this is even happening.
“Your hard cock is making me so wet,” she breathes out.
My grip on her hips tighten. I want to guide the pace of her movements. She thrust once, twice, three times, and I can't hold back much longer. My hands glide up the soft flesh of her thighs, grateful that she’s wearing a dress. I run my fingertips over the damp lace of her panties, and she continues to move over me. I pull aside the fabric and run my thumb over her sensitive clit.
She cries out my name, and I grow harder for her. Her hands move from my shoulders down my chest to my belt. She unbuckles it in record time, and her hand grips the shaft of my cock, stroking it up and down. Her thumb brushes the tip and spreading the beads of precum around the head.
She runs her thumb across her bottom lip slowly, and I swear I nearly come right then. But her hand returns to me, and she lifts up, lining me up with her entrance and sliding down on top of it. The warm sensation of pushing deep inside her is unlike anything I’ve felt before. It feels like we were two broken pieces that have finally been pieced back together and are whole again.
“Don’t stop,” she moans, her head thrown back and as both move with the other.
The pleasurable friction builds between us, and I can't hold out much longer. I want to feel her come with me. Together. I find her clit again and rub until I feel her tighten around me, and I allow myself to let go. We lose ourselves in this moment but never let go of the other. I can't ever imagine after sharing this moment with her that I would ever let go.
Slowly we find ourselves again, our grip just as tight on the other.
“That was,” I breath out, trying to find the right word. “I don’t know. Nothing seems like it’s enough to capture what I felt.”
“You don’t have to say it.” She kisses me softly. “I felt it too.”
7
QUINN
The following Monday, after spending most of the weekend in bed together, Evan picks me up to take me to work. He said it didn’t m
ake sense that I take the bus every day when he could drive us both since he got his car back from the shop.
We get to the office and walk together to our desks. I don’t miss the sneer that Claudia gives me when she notices Evan holding my hand. She storms away from our cubicles. I was all prepared for the jokes she had prepared for me about what happened on Friday, but for once, she had nothing to say—to me at least.
I didn't find out until later that she'd stormed into Mason's office until I got a call from Mason to come and speak with him privately.
“Do you think he already knows about us?” I ask him.
Evan shakes his head. “He’d only know if someone told him. Besides, we planned on disclosing our relationship to HR today anyway. I wouldn’t worry about it.”
Easier said than done. I’m not really one that can just flip a switch in my head and choose not to worry about something. Besides, I had an uneasy feeling in my gut from the moment we walked in. Call it a lifetime of waiting for the other shoe to drop, but I knew I was too happy this morning not to have something go wrong.
“Have a seat, Quinn.” Mason gestures towards the lone chair on the other side of his desk.
I sit down and prepare myself for whatever it is Mason's about to say to me.
“I want to talk to you about what happened on Friday.”
Despite the strides I've been making over the last few days, I find myself suddenly reverting to my old self.
“You left work early without giving me any notice.”
“Something happened—”
He holds up his hand to stop me. "I heard what happened. Many people around the office heard what happened, and I have to say that this is alarming behavior from you."
“Leaving early without asking?”
“No,” he shakes his head like he's frustrated that I'm not following what he's trying to say. "I'm talking about the inappropriate material you played on your phone out loud in the office."
“It was an accident.”
"Accident or not, I'm surprised by this behavior from you. I thought you were a nice girl.”
I sit back in my seat, shocked at his words. “I am nice.”
He frowns. “Not from what I heard you played. Nice girls don’t read that smut.”
Is he trying to shame me?
The old me I’d been reverting back into when I walked in here dissipates like vapor and gets blown away with the breeze coming in through Mason’s open window.
“Now I’m going to have to write you up for this,” he says, opening a manila folder in front of him. “I think that you should take this as a lesson to reevaluate your behavior both in this office and outside it.”
Okay, that’s fucking it.
I've never felt more confident in my voice than I do at this moment.
"Listen up, Mason. I'm not going to sit here and let you pass judgment on me and call my behavior inappropriate. I've seen the way you stare at the women in this office and only show them a favor when they play to your ego. There is nothing wrong with my behavior. And if you have a problem with how I act, then let me be the first to tell you that I'm no longer your problem anymore."
His brow creases in confusion. “What does that mean?”
I stand and slap both my palms against the table against his desk so hard he flinches back in his seat. “I quit.”
“You can’t quit.”
I turn and open the door and say over my shoulder without looking back. “I just did.”
The adrenaline pumping through me makes me feel like I can lift a car over my head without breaking a sweat. Evan stands up from his desk when he sees me approaching.
“What happened?”
“I quit,” I say, grabbing any personal items I have on my desk that I can carry.
“You what?” he asks incredulously. “You can’t.”
I swing my angry gaze at him. “Oh good, another man who thinks they can tell me what I should do and how I should behave.”
Evan shakes his head in confusion. “What? That’s not—”
“Save it. Maybe it’s best that whatever this is between us ends before we get in too deep.”
He holds up his hands to stop me. “Whoa, slow down.”
“Miss?” I turn and see one of the security guards from the front desk. “We need you to come with us.”
“Fine by me. I was leaving anyway.”
I don’t look back as I’m led away. My mind is racing so fast at this moment that my brain isn't fully taking in all that is happening. It doesn’t feel like I take in a full breath until I walk in the door of my apartment.
When the adrenaline finally leaves my system a few hours later, I crash hard. I don’t hear my phone ringing or all the text messages that Evan sends me.
It isn’t until the next day that I wake up feeling regret about my behavior. Surprisingly I don’t feel remorse for quitting the way I did, but the fact that I lumped Evan in with Mason when they are nothing alike.
I spend most of the morning trying to find the right words to say to Evan before I call him. But in the end, it doesn't matter because he shows up at my door around lunchtime.
"Hey," I say when I open the door.
He looks up from staring at the floor, and I see from the bags under his eyes that, unlike me, he had a sleepless night. “Hey.”
“Do you want to come in?”
He shakes his head. “I can’t stay long. I just wanted to check and see if you were okay. You didn’t respond last night.”
“I didn’t get them until this morning.”
I can see him working through trying to figure out what I did last night that I couldn't respond, but he doesn't say anything.
"Well, like I said. I just came to check on you, and now that I know you're okay, I'm going to go." He turns to leave.
"I'm sorry," I blurt out, realizing that sometimes the most straightforward words are the best ones to get the point across. "I'm sorry for what I said yesterday. The way I acted towards you. I was caught up in the moment and wasn't thinking clearly."
“I wasn’t trying to tell you—”
“I know.”
"I really care a lot about you." He stops and seems to think better of what he's saying. "No, I don't just care about you. I'm in love with you, and I don't want what we have to end."
I rush towards him and throw my arms around his neck. His hands grip my waist and pull me close.
“I don’t want what we have to end either. I promise. I’m in love with you too.”
Evan cups my face in his hands and studies my face. “Are you sure? I don’t want you to say anything you don’t mean.”
“I mean it. I promise.”
He smiles. “Then say it again.”
I laugh, happy to use my voice. “I love you.”
“I’m glad everyone was able to make it back this week for the first official meeting of The Nice Girls’ Naughty Book Club," I say to the group as we all sit around one of the tables in The Story Brew.
I hold up my entire mug of cocoa in a toast. Jess, Michelle, Courtney, and Fiona all lift their drinks as well, and we clink our mugs together. There is a note of excitement at our table like we all already know that this group of romance reading enthusiasts is something special.
“Well, what did everyone think of Sordid Whispers?” Jess asks.
“So hot,” Fiona sighs and then grabs Courtney’s arm. “And that yacht scene.”
“I told you,” Courtney chuckles.
Michelle nods. “What about the part where Sebastian is away on a business trip, and he calls her so that they can have phone sex?”
We all agree with her.
“I can’t wait to try that out one day,” she continues.
We break down Gabriella's journey to find her voice and eventually love. We talk about how the author made Sebastian's arc from billionaire playboy to a one-woman seem plausible given the circumstances. We laugh and disagree on some things, but we are all open and willing to hear each oth
er out. This is the kind of open discussion I was looking for when I first joined The Romantics Book Club but never ended up getting.
As we start to wrap up the meeting, we decide as a group to let Fiona pick the next book.
She tries unsuccessfully to hide the smile on her face, and it’s clear that she has one in mind.
“I was searching online last night for a list I books that we might be interested in.” She holds up her phone so that we can see the cover of the book.
A young woman in her early twenties is wearing a shirt with two large red cherries on it. Her bubble gum bubble is big enough to cover part of her face. A guy stands behind her without a shirt on. One of his hands is resting on her hip while the other lifts the hem of her shirt to show off part of her toned stomach. Cherry Pop is printed across the image in cursive font.
“Okay, then,” I lean back in my seat. “Cherry Pop is the next book we will be reading.”
Epilogue
QUINN
After quitting my office job six months ago, I wasn't sure what I would do. The grind of corporate work and the anxiety of office politics weren't for me anymore. I decided to take some time to think about what I wanted to do. I wasn’t eager to jump into the next job that came along if it wouldn't be a good fit. Luckily, I’d saved some money to give me that cushion.
I’m so glad I waited because about three weeks later, I got a call from Mallory. One of her voice talents had to cancel at the last minute, leaving her scrambling to find a replacement. She thought of me and asked if I'd be interested in coming in. The money turned out to be better than what I was making before, so I jumped at the chance.
Twenty-six books later, and I’m here in the studio. My popularity amongst the indie romance authors looking to turn their self-published babies into audiobooks has increased so much that there is a waitlist for my services.
I'm just finishing up the end of an exhausting session when I notice Evan walk into the control room. He gives me a quick wink when I see him.