Page 8 of Curiosity

Immediately, the car took off, before I could even gather my thoughts. We were back in a familiar area of the city before I could pull together enough brain cells to open the envelope.

It was a check.

Fortwicethe amount of the contract I’d signed.

“Holy shit,” I whispered, reading the numbers over and over, until they, along with the steady hum of the car, lulled me to sleep.

Next thing I knew, I was being dropped off at my front door. The car lingered until I was safely inside before pulling off.

I dropped everything – my cell phone, keys, the check, off at the table by the door, frowning as I glimpsed myself in the mirror.

Ilookedlike I’d just cooked for a party of thirty.

I immediately started stripping stuff off, heading to the shower as I replayed everything in my head.

That shit had to be a dream.

There was no way any of that craziness had actually happened — maybe all of that was from my nap on the way home.

That made a helluva lot more sense than… literally anything else.

I took a deep breath, settling it in my mind.

It was just a dream.

It was just a dream.

It was just a dream.

If only there weren’t such clear handprints bruised on my ass in the bathroom mirror.

If it weren’t for those… maybe I could’ve believed it.

Two

There was a service request burning a hole in my inbox.

I should answer it.

Neededto answer it.

I was running a business, and needed to make sure I was professional.

The idea of virtually ignoring a repeat request from a client who’d written one of the biggest checks of my life wasludicrous.

But it would be even more absurd tonotbe hesitant, considering what happened that night.

The public sex.

The private spanking.

Thebiting.

I was still trying to convince myself I hadn’tactuallyseen or experienced what I thought I had, that it was just some elaborate fantasy created in my mind.

And then the new service request appeared, forwarded to me by the team who managed theSomething Blueco-op I was a part of, making it much easier for me to focus on the catering over the scheduling and vetting and all that. The vast majority of the jobswere wedding related, and then there were the corporate events. Private parties.

Only occasionally was there one like this.

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