Naked Sushi by Jina Bacarr Read Free Book Online

“She—she used to work for me.”
    I cringed.
    This was getting dicey. The stud was giving me the eyeball, his eyes questioning, his heated glance moving over my heaving breasts and then down to my crotch. I should have kept my mouth shut.
    Mr. Briggs turned to him. His voice shook as he said, “I think we should finish our business elsewhere.” He threw down his napkin and then got up from the table and left.
    “I’ll be with you in a minute, Mr. Briggs,” said the stud, nodding toward the quiet customer about to grab a slice of avocado off my shoulder. Without changing his deadpan expression, the man put down his chopsticks, got up and followed Mr. Briggs.
    I couldn’t believe it. They were working together.
    My back stiffened. So what happened now? They roughed up Mr. Briggs in a dark alley? Stole his credit cards? Drove him to the ATM and mugged for the security cameras?
    I wasn’t prepared for the stud’s next move.
    “Well, if it isn’t the sassy redhead from the copy room,” he said with a smirk. He grabbed a spicy tuna roll off my thigh and ate it in a sensual manner, smacking his lips and rolling his tongue.
    “Surprised to see me?” I quipped.
    “I didn’t recognize you without your glasses.” His dark eyes roamed up and down my nearly nude body. The look in his eyes was hot enough to burn the flower petals to cinders. In a low, sexy voice he said, “What the hell are you doing here?”
    “Trying to get my job back,” I shot back at him. “Until you screwed it up,”
    I’d rather die than let him know how seeing him again affected me.
    He slid his chopstick under the flowers covering my breasts in the pretext of grabbing a slice of fish, rubbing my bare skin and sending tiny sparks through me. I clamped my legs together.
    Damn, why did he have to do that?
    “You shouldn’t interfere in matters that don’t concern you,” he said.
    “I wouldn’t be here if you hadn’t seduced me.”
    “ I seduced you? ” He laughed. “You’re the one who tried to convince me you’re as hot as your name.” He leaned over and dangled a chopstick dipped in hot wasabi over my quivering tummy. “Pepper, isn’t it?”
    “I’m surprised you remember.”
    “That’s not all I remember,” he insisted, pulling yellow flower petals off my breasts with his chopsticks, one by one.
    “Hey, sister, talk to me, too,” yelled the disgruntled customer at the end of the table, grabbing his chopsticks out of the rice bowl.
    “The lady isn’t talking to anyone.” The stud jabbed me in the buttock. I winced. “ Anyone , is that clear?” he said. “Or she’ll find herself swimming with the fishes instead of lying with them.”
    “You can’t threaten me,” I said in a clear voice, though I was shaking inside. “If anything happens to Mr. Briggs, I’ll go straight to the police and tell them what happened in the copy room.”
    “Everything?” he said, egging me on.
    “ Everything. ”
    “You want your job back that bad?”
    “Yes. I—I need the money to pay my rent. And to eat. I don’t get to take home the leftovers.”
    He looked surprised. “You’re not kidding me, are you?”
    I shook my head.
    For a moment, a look of tenderness came over his face and I almost trusted him. Almost.
    Then he retrieved a wad of bills that made my eyes bug out, peeled off several and stuffed them into my hand. “Now we’re even. Keep your mouth shut or Mr. Briggs won’t be walking so good.”
    I could feel the crinkly bills filling my palm, tempting me, but that wasn’t my style. I tossed the hundred-dollar bills down on the black velvet table. “I don’t take bribes.”
    “Consider it a tip.”
    “I’m not allowed to take tips,” I said, echoing Cindy’s words.
    The unhappy customer tried to pinch a hundred with his chopsticks, but the stud was faster. He grabbed the wad and stuffed the bills back into his pocket.
    Snickering, he turned and said to me, “I’ll see you around... Pepper .” Then he