The Great Panty Caper

CHAPTER TWO

Lori

Fine, I’ll admit it. Not to my sister, of course.

But it’s possible JJ has a point when she accuses me of being a drama queen.

Texting the word Help!!! to my panic-prone older sister may not have been the best way to request her advice in deciding whether to sleep with Rob. That became evident when I got up to study a painting on the wall beside the bar, leaving my phone behind for just three quick minutes.

Okay, I wasn’t really studying the painting. It’s just that the painting was next to a cluster of women sipping neon-colored drinks in a corner booth, and I noticed from across the room that one of them was carrying my Mosaic Madness clutch from the spring collection. Naturally, I had to check it out.

When I returned to the table, Rob stood like a perfect gentleman. He gave me a smile that showed off his dimples, causing my girl parts to tingle pleasantly.

“Lori,” he said. “That color is absolutely stunning on you.”

I touched the neckline of my kelly-green wrap top, letting my fingers linger long enough to seem tantalizing and seductive. Or maybe he just thought I was petting the cashmere. Either way, it had the desired effect, and I saw Rob swallow hard and forcibly tear his eyes from my cleavage.

“Thank you,” I said. “It’s sure been nice meeting you in person.”

“Absolutely. After two years of working together via email and phone, I already felt like I knew you. Now I see the real thing is even better.”

He smiled again, then reached for his drink. His knuckles brushed mine, and I resisted the urge to leap into his lap and ask him to touch me all over with those hands.

Then I considered not resisting the urge and just going for it. I was still contemplating when I felt my phone buzz in my handbag. I grabbed it and felt a pang of guilt. Crap. I’d forgotten about my frantic message to JJ. In the three minutes since I’d texted her my urgent plea for sisterly advice, she’d phoned six times, texted eight messages, and probably formed a search posse with the aid of the hotel cleaning staff.

“Will you excuse me a moment?” I said to Rob, tucking the phone in my evening bag as I pushed in my chair. “I need to visit the ladies’ room.”

“Of course,” he said, standing like a perfect gentleman once more and giving me the opportunity to check out his ass. “I’ll wait right here.”

I scurried to the restroom, dialing my sister’s number en route.

“JJ, I’m fine,” I said before she could even say hello. “Just chill a second, okay?”

“Chill?” she asked, her voice pretty much the opposite of chill. “You text me the word Help!!! with not one, not two, but three exclamation points, and now you want me to chill?”

Her voice was practically a shriek by the end, so I held the phone away from my ear ’til I was sure she’d finished. Putting the phone back, I adopted the sheepish-little-sister tone I generally reserved for the times she caught me borrowing her favorite shoes.

“I’m sorry, I know,” I said. “I didn’t mean to worry you. I just needed some advice.”

“Then how about coming right out and asking for it, instead of making me think you’re dead in a ditch somewhere?”

“I wouldn’t have texted anything at all if I’d been dead in a ditch,” I pointed out, then realized I was getting off track. “Look, I just want to know if I should go back to Rob’s hotel room with him.”

“What for?”

I rolled my eyes. “To play Parcheesi. For sex, of course.”

“He asked you to go back to his room for sex?”

“Well, not exactly. He mentioned his room has a Jacuzzi and I said I’d like to see it and he said I was welcome to take a look and I said I might take him up on that.”

“Okay.”

“But then later he mentioned seeing if he could get a late reservation at this cool restaurant I wanted to try, and he asked if I’d like to join him. So now I’m deciding.”

“Between seducing him in his Jacuzzi or making him buy you an expensive dinner?”

“I’d go dutch. It’s the professional thing to do.”

“You’re contemplating a fling with the guy, and you’re worried about being professional?”

I sighed. “I’m serious, JJ. I can’t decide. I know I said I wanted a cheap fling, and Rob seems like a good guy for it. But I’ve really wanted to eat at that restaurant and I hear they have this great dish with fried squash blossoms and maybe it would be better to just do that and call it a night.”

“You’re deciding between squash blossoms and a one-night stand?” She was quiet a moment. “That is a tough call.”

I rolled my eyes. “You’re no help.”

“Just be careful, okay? You’ve got the pepper spray I bought you?”

“Yep. And I remember everything we learned in that self-defense class the other day.”

“Good. That’s smart. You don’t know this guy all that well.”

“I know. I mean, we’ve been business associates for two years, but—”

“Exactly.”

Neither of us said anything for a minute. Considering both our last boyfriends had held us at gunpoint on separate occasions, it wasn’t like we were batting a hundred. Or is it a thousand? I’m not really a baseball fan. Still—

“I’ll think on it,” I said.

“Good idea. Don’t do anything rash. And if you really want to play Parcheesi, I’m pretty sure I can find an app for it on my phone.”

I grinned, feeling warmly toward my sister. “Thanks, JJ. I’ll let you know what I decide.”

“Call if you need anything.”

“I will.”

I hung up the phone and glanced in the mirror a moment, considering my decision. Option one, I go to dinner with Rob. It would be an awesome meal, I was sure of it, but it would also run very late. No time for a fling afterward, and maybe the fling wasn’t the best idea anyway. There were the squash blossoms, after all.

But I really wasn’t that hungry, having filled up on water and carpaccio and the two cocktails I’d nursed for the past hour and a half.

Which led me to option number two: seduce Rob.

Call me a wanton hussy, but I really like sex. A lot. And I just wanted some with no romantic entanglements or commitments or emotional angst. I knew I’d be careful and I knew I’d make it very clear to Rob that I was only in it for the quick fling. I had the sense that was all he was after, too. Surely he’d be okay with the arrangement. I knew I would be.

So what to do?

***

Authors' Note:

In The Great Panty Caper, Lori’s considering a weekend fling and YOU get to decide just how far she goes with tall, dark, and handsome. Dinner and flirting, or more? It’s up to you! In the meantime, JJ needs a little help figuring out which of her boyfriends to call for some sleuthing tips. Can she resist the urge to phone her hot English man? Or will the all-American hunk fulfill her needs?

Now is your chance to VOTE! What should Lori do? Pick Choice A or Choice B and comment in the section below. The choice that receives the MOST votes by next Thursday will be posted here on Wattpad.

Choice A: Lori seduces Rob. 

Choice B: Lori goes to dinner with Rob.

***

If you'd like to read both paths, you can purchase a copy of The Great Panty Caper here: 

http://www.coliloquy.com/productscat/shultz-sisters-mysteries/