I cock an eyebrow. “You mean ‘rehearsal’?”

She blushes prettily. “Yeah.”

I close my eyes again. “Well, the coffee isn’t usually by the pool. It’s in the kitchen. If you head that way, someone can help you.”

More giggles, then silence, although I can still feel their presence. I hear a whisper, then a hand sliding on my arm.

“Hey, if you haven’t had breakfast yet, why don’t you join us?”

I open my eyes at Blondie’s suggestive tone, to find her face sultry and expectant. It’s blatantly clear that she’s not talking about food.

Oddly enough, the face that I found to be tired and smeared a moment ago suddenly seems almost tempting, or at least doable. My sexual proclivities are rearing their ugly heads. Two girls willing to do anything to please me? The opportunities are endless.

“What do you have in mind?” I ask, my interest piqued.

The brunette pipes up. “We could be your breakfast. If you want,” she adds, almost shyly.

Her friend nods in agreement. “I hope you have a big appetite.”

I smile wolfishly, definitely interested now.

“Well, have you ever heard the phrase ‘my eyes are bigger than my stomach’?”

One girl smiles and the other nods. I nod back and lean forward, speaking quietly as if sharing a secret.

“I like to watch,” I tell them.

Brunette immediately stands up, gently pushing my shoulders backward until I’m reclining again.

“Then watch this,” she tells me confidently. She grabs Blondie and pulls her onto the lounger next to me. “I’m Erika,” she announces, as she pushes Blondie onto her back. “And this is Meghan.”

“It doesn’t matter,” I mumble.

But they don’t hear me. Brunette is sliding Blondie’s shorts off, pulling them down over her hips and then licking each place that her fingers touched. As she moves to the girl’s tits, taking off her shirt and then pulling one of those lush little nipples into her mouth, my dick gets hard and I pull it out of my pants.

There is something wrong with me.

I get off on watching other people’s pleasure. Or I get off when pain is involved. Or I get off when something is far, far over the line of normal. I don’t get off by my own participation. That’s fucked up in a million different ways, but I’m not going to analyze it now.

For now, I’m going to watch the girls’ tight little bodies sliding together, because that does it for me.

Watching their tongues tangle, their tits press together… that does it for me, too.

And when Brunette’s mouth burrows between Blondie’s legs and then Blondie comes into Brunette’s mouth… I’m a goner. I stroke myself, not caring that any number of the staff inside the house could glance out and see me getting off on the lounge chair.

Before long, Brunette shoves my hand away, replacing it with her mouth. Blondie kneels over my balls, licking them like an ice cream cone.

“Pull on my balls,” I instruct Blondie. She grins devilishly and does as I ask. “Harder,” I say firmly. “Harder.”

Pain shoots through me as she complies, and she pulls ever harder on my ball sack. I like the pain. It blocks out reality.

I smile and take a sip of coffee, as they bob and dip and pull and suck in front of me.

Turns out, this Monday isn’t so bad after all.

Jacey

I glance at the clock in the dingy, hot office. Ten thirty-seven A.M. We were supposed to be here at Joe’s Gladiators thirty-seven minutes ago.

I actually showed up early, not wanting to get on Joe’s bad side right off the bat. The bailiff had said that any little thing could give Joe grounds to not sign my card. Dominic Kinkaide, however, apparently doesn’t worry about such things. He’s late.

Very late.

To distract myself, I pick up my phone and call my best friend. Who better to commiserate with, right?

Maddy answers on the second ring.

“Hey girl,” she chirps cheerfully. “What’s up?”

I scowl. “Don’t pretend you don’t know,” I tell her grumpily. “I know that Gabe told you everything. I suck. It’s common knowledge.”

Maddy pauses. “You sometimes suck,” she agrees. “But not most of the time. You messed up. Big deal. You’re fixing it now.”

“You’ve got that right,” I agree, staring around Joe’s cluttered office. “I’m at the gym waiting to start my community service. It’s disgusting here. And those boys out there. Oh my god. They’re so intimidating. They look like they might shiv someone in the shower.”

Maddy chuckles. “You’re not intimidated by anyone. That’s one of the things I love about you. Suck it up and do your time, Jace. Then you can get your ass out here for a visit. I miss you.”

“I miss you too,” I reply. “And I’ve got to come out while you’re still pregnant. It’ll be the only time that I get to see you fat.”

Maddy laughs at that, and I laugh too, because I’m sure that even now, my best friend isn’t fat. She’s gorgeous, like always. But before we can say more, Joe lumbers back into the office, having only been gone for ten minutes.

“Gotta go, Mad,” I mutter quickly. “I’ll call you later.”

I hang up quickly and stare at my new boss. He’s a huge man, gray hair, gray whiskers, square jaw, wide shoulders. He actually looks like he could be found on a fisherman’s wharf or something. He’s maybe sixty or so and he has no tact. As in, none.

“Who the hell does that kid think he is?” he grumbles to me. Or maybe to himself, because he doesn’t even look up at me as he drops heavily into his office chair. “I don’t give a flying rat’s ass if he’s famous. I’m only going through your orientation one time. If he’s not here in five minutes, we’ll start without him and he can just go someplace else to do his time.”

Joe looks at me sternly now, his steely blue eyes firm. “I don’t put up with laziness or tardiness, Ms. Vincent. You should know that right now.”

“Yes, sir,” I stammer. For some reason, he just seems like a person I should address as sir. He smiles though, for the first time since I met him. It crinkles the corners of his eyes and spreads to the rest of his face, lighting up his wrinkles.

“Sir. Ha! That’s a good one. Sir was my father. Or my drill sergeant back when I was in the Army. I’m just Joe, young lady.”

Finally. Something to break the ice with him. Relief washes over me.

“You were in the Army?” I grab at that straw quickly, before he changes the subject and the topic gets away from me. I don’t want to go back to staring at the clock, waiting for Dominic in uncomfortable silence. “My brother was, too. He was a Ranger. He just got a Medal of Honor, as a matter of fact.”

Joe stares at me now, sufficiently impressed and curious.

“You don’t say? That’s impressive. It takes a lot to get one of those. What did he do?”

“His Humvee got bombed in Afghanistan, and according to the president, he acted with extreme valor in the face of peril, above and beyond the call of duty. Basically, he risked his own ass to save someone else’s.”

“You don’t get more salt of the earth than that, missy,” Joe drawls sincerely, nodding. “You should take some pointers from your brother. What does he think about you being here?”

My shoulders slump at the mere thought of what Gabe thinks about it, and Joe laughs.

“That bad, huh?”

I smile and he smiles back. Thank god. The ice has definitely been broken.

“Don’t worry,” he tells me, his tone softening just a bit. “My bark is worse than my bite, as long as you stay on the straight and narrow and do your job. These kids here…”

He pauses, staring out the window of his door at the teenagers punching at bags out in the sweaty gym.

“They don’t have much, see? If they don’t come here, they would get into trouble on the streets. And I don’t want that. It’s our job to keep them on the straight and narrow. To do that, you’ve got to be there, too. Capisce?”