Page 52 of The Apprentice
Everyone was having sex but me!
“You did, sir.” Ardan’s calm demeanor wasn’t anything new, but it was strange to hear him so controlled when he and Mancini were clearly doing something sexual.
Conall threw me an amused grin. “Mm-hmm. Is he available?”
“He’s currently busy.” It wasn’t much of an answer, but it was the best Conall was going to get from him.
“Aw. Is his mouth full?” Conall chuckled and shifted—I didn’t miss the noticeable bulge growing in his thin pants. I grabbed the chair by the arms and turned it away a little. I didn’t want Sloan coming in here to see me too close to his pet, who was on his way to rock hard.
I doubted my uncle would kill me, but I was smart enough not to test my luck.
I thought I heard Mancini mutter “fuck, baby” in the background, followed by a grunt.
“Something like that, sir.”
I snorted.
Conall poked his tongue out a little. “Now I’m curious.”
Ardan made a humming sound and there was another grunt that didn’t belong to him. “Best to stay that way, sir. We don’t want to upset the boss.”
Conall pouted. “Eh, I suppose not. You and Mancini know Michele Scotti, don’t you?”
“Yes.” A simple answer, but I supposed we were lucky to get anything right now.
“I want his number. Can you text it to me?” Conall was back to business, and he straightened, laying a hand over his hardening erection, hiding it from my view, as though I hadn’t already seen it.
“On it.”
“Thank you, Ardan. I love our witty banter. You’re a man of many words. We should do it again sometime.”
“Good night, sir.” Conall’s entertained voice was met with nothing but an unamused tone. The line went dead.
Conall stared at the phone with an even bigger pout. His gaze slipped to me and he shrugged. “Ardan’s really no fun at all.”
I held in the urge to roll my eyes. I could’ve told him that; although, he was clearly being sarcastic because anyone who’d had at least one conversation with Ardan knew what he was like. He was a no-nonsense, straight to the point guy, and he took his job seriously. So seriously, in fact, that he’d answered the phone when he was having sex with his partner.
A moment later, Conall’s phone buzzed, and he glanced down at it. He made a sound of triumph and shook it in my direction. “Got it. Let me just....” He typed quickly on the screen, then my phone vibrated in my jeans pocket. I kept the ringtone of my Samsung turned down because I hated talking to anyone but Sloan and Daire... and I supposed Conall now, too. “There. You now have Michele Scotti’s contact information.”
I tugged the phone out and checked the message, a knot of anxiety twisting in my stomach as my gaze settled on the digits. I usually liked working with numbers, but these came with expectations that I didn’t know how to handle. From the age of seventeen, I’d found myself enraptured by how smartDaire was, and we had in-depth conversations about topics no one else would care about. When I turned eighteen, my interest turned intomoreand I’d figured out a way to get his attention so he’d have sex with me. After that, I’d spent another eight years in a loop of fantasies that involved me and Daire being in a relationship.Stupid.
This was the first time I’d ever truly considered having sex with another man.
I felt Conall’s stare penetrate my skin and he cleared his throat. “Do you want to tell me about what happened between you and Daire?”
There was a sense of knowing in his eyes, like hesawsomething no one else could. I never imagined I’d want to tell Conall anything, but I didn’t have anyone else to talk to, either. If Sloan found out that Daire had led me on for so long.... Well, I didn’t know what he’d do.
“A lot of things.” I clutched the phone tightly.
“But not like what you said to the men. You and Daire haven’t fucked, have you?”
“We have. We do.” I straightened, my cheeks heated as embarrassment swelled in my throat, making it hard to speak for a moment. “It started when I was eighteen, a few months before Sloan found you.” I needed Conall to know that Daire hadn’t done anything bad, that he hadn’t started anything I couldn’t consent to. “We’ve had sex ever since.Onlysex.”
“Yeah?” Conall’s surprise made me shift uncomfortably in my chair.
“He didn’t even care about me until I threw myself at another man, and I only flirted with the soldier to get his attention. Pathetic, huh?”
Conall shrugged. “You’d be shocked at what I do to get your uncle’s attention. It’s fun, though.” He grinned and a dreamy expression brushed over his handsome face. “I love makingSloan jealous. Not enough for him to kill someone, butjustenough for him to throw me over whatever flat surface is close enough and fuck me in front of everyone.”
