Bad Girls by Brooke Stern Page A

fucking. Pete liked me. I had no doubt.
    After we’d rested for a few minutes I went to the bathroom, peed, and wet a washcloth to wipe the spermicide off his cock so I could suck it.
    When he got hard again in my mouth I rolled a condom down his cock and straddled him. The second time he lasted longer and really had to fuck me hard to come at all. I don’t come from fucking very often, but he gave me plenty of time to come twice. He was behind me and I touched myself while he was doing it. Afterwards he cuddled until our sweaty bodies got chilly, and then we pulled up the covers and went to sleep.
    The alarm went off frighteningly early the next morning. By the time I had stumbled into the bathroom and put on his robe, he’d set a place for me at his table and made me an omelet. It was the first time I’d had anything but Poptarts for breakfast since I stole that proscuitto.
    â€˜What are you going to do today, Nicole?’
    It was an innocent enough question, but I don’t think he meant it that way. He knew that bankrupt shoplifters didn’t usually make the right choices. It was his way of cutting to the chase. I was too scared to go where I knew he was going to take it, though, so I lied.
    â€˜I’ve got a job interview coming up. I’m going to go home and prepare.’ I tried to be vague and ambitious, in hopes it would discourage further inquiry.
    â€˜Nicole, I’m a prosecutor. I spend my whole life taking apart people’s lies. But I don’t start work for another two hours. Just tell me the truth. What are you going to do today?’
    â€˜I don’t know.’
    â€˜That’s better.’
    â€˜I need to figure out what I’m going to do about repaying my debt.’
    â€˜You should get a job.’
    â€˜Duh.’
    â€˜No, I mean you should get a job today.’
    â€˜It’s not that easy, Pete.’
    â€˜I’m pretty sure it is that easy, Nicole.’
    â€˜Come on, Pete. I was thinking I really should go back to law school. Anyway, I haven’t even updated my resume in eight months. Plus, I need to get resume paper and envelopes before I can even send any off.’
    â€˜You mean steal resume paper and envelopes?’
    It sounds mean, but it wasn’t. He said it with a bit of a smile because he knew he was right, and I didn’t deny it.
    â€˜Get a job by the end of the day and I’ll buy you dinner and make you come twice as many times as I did last night.’
    â€˜Do you even know how many times I came?’
    â€˜Four times. I like fours.’
    He was right.
    â€˜And if I don’t get a job today?’
    â€˜Then I’ll spank you and send you home without dinner or sex.’
    â€˜What?’
    â€˜I warned you: I won’t accept you the way you are.’
    â€˜But…’
    â€˜But what, Nicole? You didn’t expect me to be so true to my word? Or is it the spanking thing?’
    â€˜It’s… well, it’s both. It’s everything.’
    â€˜Look, Nicole, here’s what I believe. We’re all nuts in our own ways. Your way is no worse than my way, except your way is going to get you thrown in jail and my way is getting me paid well to do something I like. In spite of our nuttiness, we exist in a world that rewards certain behavior and is intolerant of other behavior. Typically, behavior that creates value for oneself and others is rewarded and that which sucks value away is prohibited. Thus, putting criminals in prison, rewarded; stealing from gourmet food shops, punished. The better the system can reward the good and punish the bad, the more effective it is. At the societal level the system tends to be clumsy and ineffectual, but at the micro level it can work quite well. I can give you immediate feedback, offer a transparent and just system of punishment and reward, and enforce it fairly as long as we continue to like each other, which I expect we will for quite a