Anticipation. JENNIFER LABRECQUE
big…” Maybe he was in worse shape than he’d thought, he couldn’t say the word breasts without choking. “You know…and she—they brushed against my back.” And he wouldn’t even mention how good she’d smelled and how sweet her breasts had felt against his back. He didn’t doubt that AJ had slipped her—the prettiest waitress with the biggest tatas—a twenty to squeeze behind him.
“He’s sunk,” AJ said.
“A goner,” Tim seconded.
“Your hands are shaking, you poor slob,” Matt added.
“Hey, is that drool coming out of his mouth?” AJ said.
“I don’t know why I waste my time with you,” Nick said. He upended his beer.
“Because we’re your best friends,” Tim pointed out.
“Don’t depress me.”
“You know you love us.” Matt punched his shoulder.
AJ shook his head. “Easy, Matt. I wouldn’t get too close, Nicky might be getting desperate.”
“Damn right I’m desperate if you three are the best I can do for friends,” Nick said. They all knew they were just mouthing off. When he’d lost his mind and embezzled the money and then it had hit the news, he’d found out who his true friends were. Most of the guys he’d known no longer gave him the time of day. But AJ, Matt and Tim had stuck with him through thick and thin.
“C’mon, Nick. You know you’ll miss us next week.”
“Can’t say that I will. I’m looking forward to not being around.” And that was more than the truth. He could use a change of scenery—even if it was only the other side of the city. It’d be better not to be around the familiar. Like when he’d quit smoking a couple of years ago and it’d been a matter of not lighting up when he was used to. A change of scenery would probably curb his wanting a woman around. And if that smacked of habit and addiction, well, these guys didn’t have to know.
“How long are you gonna be gone?” Tim asked, bringing the conversation back to where it had been before Polly had brushed against Nick.
“Three days.” Long past were the days when he worked around money. He’d blown that career when he’d embezzled funds. His prospects had looked dim to dismal until he’d heard about this job through a friend of a cousin’s friend. Amazingly, Mack Enterprises was willing to take a chance on a guy with his history. Nick knew he was damn lucky he’d stumbled into anything better than scrubbing toilets at Fenway Park. Actually, he enjoyed his job as a booking agent for Mack Enterprises. And he was good at what he did. But for the past couple of weeks…it wasn’t anything he could put his finger on…
“So, you’re gonna be in Boston, but you’re staying in a hotel?” Tim frowned. “Man, that doesn’t make any sense.”
“I’m a company man and that’s where they want me so that’s where I’ll be.”
“Seems like this trip came up pretty sudden,” Matt said.
Nick shrugged. “It was a little last minute, but apparently the guy they were going to send was needed somewhere else. Me? I go where I’m needed.” And he’d keep his eyes and ears open. Crazy as it sounded, the people at Mack were too nice, too trusting considering his recent history. It simply didn’t feel right. But the best thing to do was to keep a low profile and his eyes and ears open. Maybe he was imagining things.
“We thought you were road tripping, so we all went together and got you a little going away present,” AJ said.
They were grinning like a trio of monkeys and Nick knew major grief was about to come his way.
AJ pulled a box wrapped in plain brown paper out from beneath the table.
“It’s a little something for your trip. When you’re sitting in your lonely hotel room,” AJ said. “Go ahead. Open it. It won’t bite.”
The three of them cracked up at that. Oh, boy. Nick tore off the paper. The vacuous grin of a blow-up doll stared up at him from the cardboard box.
“Meet Sheila. She’s got thunder from Down Under. We didn’t want you to get too lonely,” AJ said.
“Triple E’s in a box,” Matt said. Matt had a serious obsession with large breasts.
“Notice she’s a blonde.” Tim pointed out the obvious. “And she even comes with prerecorded messages, personalized just for you.”
Matt snickered. “We know how important deep conversation is to you.”
“If you don’t like Sheila, we can return her for you. She had a sister in the box next to her,” AJ said.
He looked the box over. “On no. I’ll keep her. I have a feeling Sheila and I are going to get along just fine.”
FIVE DAYS LATER, Nick set up his laptop on the small table in the corner of the hotel room. He put his underwear in the dresser, hung his shirts and slacks and stored his suitcase in the hotel closet. He crossed the room to the box sitting on one of the chairs next to the table.
“Okay, Sheila, my love, time for you to come out of the box.” Nick opened the box, laughing. He wasn’t giving AJ, Matt and Tim the upper hand with this joke. No way. He’d brought the lovely Sheila along. Now he planned to blow her up, take a digital photo of them together and e-mail it to the guys.
Sheila turned out to be five foot three and all plastic woman. Nick shook his head. He’d managed to make it to almost thirty without firsthand knowledge of a blow-up doll. The lovely Sheila should at least put on a shirt. That’s all he needed, to be arrested for Internet porn involving a blowup doll. He pulled a button-down out of the mirrored closet, crossed the room and slid one of her arms into the shirtsleeve. He grabbed her hand to pull it through.
“Ohhh, Nicky, would you like me to talk dirty to you?” said a tinny, pseudo sexy voice with a distinct Australian accent, startling him.
He’d forgotten. The well-endowed Sheila came with personalized recorded messages. Apparently the key to conversation with Sheila was squeezing her hand.
What the heck. He might as well hear what she had to say. Nick squeezed again.
“Oh. Nicky, you’re so big.”
He laughed and listened to the next message.
“Nicky, big boy, I’d really like you to put your big rod inside me.”
“Nicky, you make me so hot.”
“Nicky, I’ll do whatever you want me to do. I’m your personal love slave.”
“I’ve been so lonely without you, Nicky. Come to Mama.”
“Oh, Nicky, you’re too much man for me. Maybe I should invite my hot, horny friend over, too.”
“You’ve been a very naughty boy, Nicky. Do you need a spanking?”
Okay. Sheila’s prerecorded messages offered a little something for everyone. He pulled her other arm through the shirt and smoothed it over her shoulders, encountering a switch on the back of her neck. He flipped the switch and Sheila, the Aussie lass, took off like a plastic doll possessed, vibrating wildly from the waist down, her triple-E’s bobbing like water balloons in a juggling act. Laughing, Nick reached beneath the blond hair and turned her off.
Sheesh. He had to hand it to his buddies, when they bought a blow-up doll, they bought the top of the line.
And despite all of her attributes, Sheila didn’t do a thing for him. It’d been so long since he’d had any kind of contact, if you discounted Polly’s breasts brushing against his back, he was relieved Sheila wasn’t doing a thing for him.
He set his digital camera up on the table and positioned Sheila into a seated, semireclined pose in one of the chairs. Setting the timer, he ran over and perched on her lap, one arm draped