I licked my way down his body.
“Emily,” he hissed as my mouth found the head of his dick.
I slicked my mouth over him and felt him buck against me.
“I don’t think it’s physically possible for me to come again so soon,” he gritted out.
“Let’s find out.”
40
Emily
The makeup artist reapplied my lipstick with tiny bird-like brushstrokes.
There were ten of us set up in the lab at AHA instead of the high-security Flawless environment. The educational lab across the hall was swarming with a junior high field trip. Ninth graders were poring over microscopes and the water samples they’d collected from around their homes and neighborhoods.
Lona’s photographers, stylists, lighting technicians, and hair and makeup artists had commandeered the other lab and turned the room into what looked like a high-end fashion shoot.
Except the “fashion” was a lab coat.
I’d kept my connection to the building loose, saying only that the DIY lab movement and hands-on science educational initiatives were causes I was proud to support.
But Lona was smart and more than a little sneaky.
Her interview style was rapid-fire with several easy questions back to back lulling the interviewee into a relaxed complacency. And then she’d strike.
“Why do you own two laboratory facilities?” she said after I told her my favorite place for late night sushi in South Beach.
“Dammit, Lona,” I said, trying not to move my lips. “Not everything is up for public consumption.”
“Off the record then. Call me curious.”
The makeup artist finished his touch-up and bustled off to peer over the photographer and shoot director’s shoulders while they reviewed images from the first hour.
I had a newfound respect for supermodels and how incredibly boring their job was. Hold still. Move a fraction of an inch this way. Now the other way. Look attractive and interesting. I wished I were across the hall looking for lead and microorganisms.
My phone vibrated in the pocket of my coat, and I glanced at the screen. Trey. I ignored the call and leaned against the work table.
“I like science, okay? I don’t get to play in the Flawless lab. So I come here.”
“You own the company that owns this building. That’s quite an investment for a hobby,” Lona prodded.
“I can afford it,” I quipped.
“Hmm,” she hummed noncommittally. “Do you work on new products here before you bring them to Flawless?”
“Of course not. Across the hall is our educational lab. It’s mainly for getting kids—especially girls—excited about STEM. We do field trips, science clubs, that kind of thing. And with our equipment, they can run more complex and interesting experiments than what most high school labs are capable of.”
On cue, a chorus of cheers erupted across the hall.
“That usually means someone found a parasite or something gross,” I told Lona.
“What about this space?” she asked, undeterred.
“Off the record,” I repeated. “This particular space is a DIY lab. Scientists or those with scientific interests can sign up to use the space and share communal equipment. We’re linked to similar cohorts around the country so each lab can be working on its own data sets and sharing them.”
“This feels like a passion project,” she insisted, not put off by my flippancy. “You’re happier here than you are in your office.”
Why did people feel the need to keep pointing that out?
Of course being hands-on in a lab surrounded by other nerds was more exciting than my ass going numb in a meeting about other people’s work. But I was a CEO. I steered the ship, not stoked the engines. I maintained the vision.
“I enjoy dabbling,” I said carefully. Off the record or not, this was a piece of my life that I kept quiet. “But I’m not the focus here.”
“Said the woman on hour two of her photo shoot,” she reminded me.
“What I mean,” I said dryly. “Is the focus here is on education and process. Not who owns what and what her hair looks like today. I opened these doors so kids who want to learn and so fellow nerds who don’t have access to their own state-of-the-art lab space can have a place to experiment and grow.”
“Okay. Fine. Tell me something I can use on the record about DIY labs,” she said.
“Big things are coming out of DIY labs every day. They don’t need grants and funding and can specialize in areas that private companies and Big Pharma aren’t interested in. DIY labs are the future of disease eradication because they can take the business out of science. They can develop a cheap malaria vaccine or study antibiotic resistance