Free IllicitImpulse by Alexa Day Page B

He couldn’t tell over the phone.
    “No, not that.” He pressed his palms together and found them
slick. “I meant about moving our meetings.”
    “Oh. Like moving them earlier?”
    In the background, a man’s voice asked, “Is that your
friend?”
    It wasn’t what he’d thought Tal would sound like. Not that
he’d imagined anything in particular.
    Grace’s muffled voice broke into the muddle of his thoughts.
“I am on the phone.” Then, more clearly, she said, “Sorry. Did you want to move
them earlier?”
    “Actually, I was thinking we could do it here. At my place.”
    “Right.” She chuckled. “And you mean the interview, and not
the threesome.”
    John laughed in spite of himself. “That’s right.”
    “You sure? I still think it’s a good opportunity. You know,
scientifically.”
    He could imagine her teasing smile. And then he imagined
Tal, right there, watching her as she teased her friend about a threesome he’d
never have.
    Well, at least he wasn’t freaked out about the audit
anymore.
    “No threesome. So do you want to meet at my place?”
    “Sure. Same time and all?”
    “Same time.”
    “Cool. I’ll be there. Night.”
    * * * * *
    What were they doing?
    Very much awake in bed, as he was sure Tal and Grace were,
John stared at the shadows on his ceiling. His thoughts had organized
themselves into a neat little circle, starting with the audit committee, moving
through the risk management analysis of his arrangement with Grace and finally
winding up with what she and Tal might be up to. The third leg of his mental
relay race was the longest, now that his mind had seized the image of the two
of them putting on their live sex show in front of Tal’s office window. The
idea of watching them excited him with its subversive novelty.
    No holds barred. No questions asked.
    John turned over onto his side. No, no, no. That was
definitely crossing a line.
    So what were they doing now?
    John flung off the covers and stomped into his kitchen for a
glass of ice. He sucked a slim cube into his mouth and crushed it between his
teeth. Much better. He started on another one as he sat on his couch.
    Damn Neil. If it hadn’t been for him spreading rumors about
an audit, he’d probably be asleep by now. John chewed the ice cube until
nothing was left. Good thing Grace hadn’t given him her usual hug. Nosy jackass
would have had a field day with that.
    He raised the glass to his lips and shook another ice cube
into his mouth. He slid it back and forth with his tongue, hoping the chill
would distract him from the holding pattern of his thoughts. Instead the
combination of the cold and the obstruction in his mouth pushed his mind back
toward Grace.
    She’d thought the Impulse wasn’t working when she took Tal
into her mouth. It had taken its time, he supposed, especially after working so
quickly the first time. It definitely hadn’t been an hour from Bank to Tal’s
place, if John was right about where Tal lived. So what had she done
differently?
    He swallowed what remained of the ice. Of course.
    He took the rest of the ice to the bedroom and sat on the
bed. Eager to share his discovery with Grace, he reached blindly toward the
nightstand for his BlackBerry. The screen came to life when he thumbed the
center button. He pulled up the string of his text messages with Grace and
typed, Figured out why pills were slow .
    He stopped without sending the message and stared at the
screen until it faded to black. If he was right, he could just tell her to make
a couple of changes to her routine with Tal and then wait to hear how it went.
Or he could tell her to make a couple of changes to her routine and watch to see how it went.
    She’d invited him to join them, right? No, she’d dared him
to join them. They probably never thought he’d take them up on their little
dare, much less have ideas about how to heighten the effectiveness of the
pills.
    He pressed the center button again to reawaken the screen
and