Nobody But You

She was nearly boggled right out of her hangover. “You’re kidding, right?”

“I never kid about business.”

“But…people don’t say any of that stuff in a real life, do they?”

He just laughed. “Look at it like it’s an acting job, all right? It’s all just a gig. Like playing Fifty Shades with your boyfriend. And don’t even try to tell me you haven’t done that.”

If Lucas had tried to play Fifty Shades with her, she’d have killed him and no one would have ever found his body. And thinking about Lucas reminded her that even thinking of phone sex as a job was all his fault, making her groan.

“Yes!” Jimbo said with glee. “Just like that, only a little louder. Also, it helps if you pant a little. And add in a soft, helpless whimper once in a while, like you’re totally into it.”

Sophie sighed and nearly fell overboard when Jimbo laughed and yelled, “Yes! That’s it, baby, just like that. Come on, give me just one little ‘do me harder!’ and I’ll know you’re ready for the big league.”

There was no way she was going to do this, but she had to laugh at his enthusiasm for his job. Must be nice to love what you did for a living. “People can’t be serious about this.”

“As a heart attack.” But he was laughing, too, teasing her. He knew she wasn’t going to really take this job.

And because he was being a good sport, and because she was hungover and feeling a what-the-hell ’tude, she teased too. “Oh, Jimbo, I’ve been a very, very bad girl,” she said in her best frog-in-throat, can’t-catch-my-breath voice, throwing in a ragged, broken moan that might have sounded like a cat in heat. “Please, sir, I need a spanking.”

She waited for his laugh, but it didn’t come. In fact, there was nothing but static. “Hello?”

“Da-aaaamn, woman.” He sounded seriously impressed. “You’re a natural. You sure I can’t talk you into this? I mean, there ain’t no insurance coverage with this gig or anything, but I could get you some good, cold, hard cash.”

Sophie managed a laugh that hurt her aching head, and disconnected. That’s when she felt it, a disturbance in the force field. She’d felt it the other day, too, an odd tingle of awareness as she slowly turned and, yep, found Jacob standing on the dock only a few feet away, staring at her.

He was in board shorts and a T-shirt, snug across his shoulders, loose across his abs, looking like an ad for Hot Lake Living. If she hadn’t known better, she’d say he looked surprised as hell behind his dark lenses and stern but sexy mouth, but she did know better. Jacob Kincaid didn’t do surprised.

What he did do was stealth. She hadn’t even heard him coming. “How do you do that, walk on the dock without a sound?”

“‘I’ve been a very, very bad girl’?” he asked.

Shit on a stick! Her brain raced for something to say, anything. “Wow,” she said. “I didn’t peg you for having a drug problem.”

He arched a brow. “So you didn’t just also moan, ‘Please, sir, I need a spanking’?”

“Okay,” she said. “Fine, you caught me. I’m a porn star. I know, it’s a huge disappointment, right? Get in line behind my mother.”

He smiled.

“Hey,” she said. “I could totally be a porn star if I wanted to be!”

At that, he out-and-out laughed. And if she hadn’t been hungover as shit, hot and sweaty from the walk for food, and maybe still a little turned on from last night, she might’ve been able to find the humor in this. Instead, she narrowed her eyes. “Was there a reason you were eavesdropping on me?”

“Is it eavesdropping when you’re having public sex?”

“I wasn’t—” She cut herself off and took a deep breath. “I wasn’t having public sex!”

“Asking for a spanking, then. I especially liked the ‘please, sir’ part.” He shifted closer and then closer still, so that he blocked out the early-morning sun with his broad shoulders and she could see nothing but the dark of his eyes. “I’ll be happy to put you over my knee,” he said in a voice of pure sex. “If you asked real nice.”

“Bite me,” she said, even as her pulse raced.

“That too.”

“Argh!” She slapped a hand against his chest. “You’re annoying as hell—anyone ever tell you that?”

His lips twitched. “Not exactly the ‘thank you, sir, may I have another’ type, I see.”