Duplicity by Kristina M Sanchez

things.” He looked over at Erin, squeezing her hand. “It’s nice, you
know? It’s nice to have someone supporting you, helping you through life.”
    Lilith scoffed. “It’s very obvious how much Nathan would support
my job choice,” she said, gesturing toward the door.
    “You didn’t have to tell him about that.”
    “Oh, yeah. It
sounds like a great idea to start a relationship based on a lie?” She shook her
head. “What the fuck were you thinking?”
    He rubbed the back of his neck. “I think you should try to have
something normal.”
    “Oh, fuck you, Mal. Normal? Just fuck you.”
    For a second, it seemed as though he was going to apologize. Then
his eyes hardened. “Look, can we not do this? Can we not sit here and pretend
what you do is a good thing? It’s not wrong, you know I don’t think it’s wrong,
but it’s not great.
    “This—” he gestured between him and Erin “—is something you should
want. This is something people work for—a relationship, a good future, a real
life. This is something people do everything in their power to have. You take
the crappy little jobs at McDonald’s or in retail. You do whatever you need to
do.”
    “Except have sex. Do
everything else. Suck some asshole’s dick metaphorically as long as you don’t
have to do it in reality.”
    “Mal, Lilith .  . . please
don’t—” Dana started to interrupt, but Lilith cut her off.
    “No, Danes. It’s fine. Whatever.” She got to her feet, swaying.
The room was spinning, but the absolute need to get the hell out of there
helped her keep her balance. “You normal people have fun. Happy
fucking birthday to me.” She fished through her purse because Mal had
the habit of dumping his keys in there rather than keep them in his pocket.
    “Lilith, don’t be that way.” Mal’s voice
was rough as he rose to follow her. “You know you can’t drive—”
    “Look, you’ve made it clear you think I’m an idiot, but that’s not
true.” She shoved the keys in his hand. “I’ll take a cab, or I’ll walk, but you
stay the fuck away from me right now, get it?”
    She didn’t wait for an answer. She stormed out of the club, away
from her friends and into the night alone.

Chapter 7
     
    Lilith was no stranger to athletic sex, but she must have overdone
it this time, because Trey called her on it once he’d caught his breath.
    “ Not that it wasn’t amazing, but who were
you punishing just now?”
    Still a little winded, Lilith lifted her head to regard him. “You
call that punishment?” she asked, ignoring his question.
    “All I’m saying is if you’d chosen professional boxing as a occupation instead of this, I’d
be black, blue, and bloody right now.” He stretched, folding his arms behind
his head. “We’ll just call that one my gain.” He looked at her, his expression
more serious. “Now will you tell me what’s going on?”
    Rolling off him onto her back, Lilith stared at the ceiling.
“You’re not paying me to bitch.”
    She heard rather than saw him turn his head in her direction.
“What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever been asked to do?”
    This question she could handle. She didn’t even have to think very
hard. “Had a guy with a diaper fetish once. He didn’t
want any kind of sex. He wanted me to change his dirty diaper.”
    “ Eww .” She
turned in time to see Trey wrinkle his nose. “Is there anything you won’t do?”
    “I refuse to do anything involving poop and pee.”
    “But you just said—”
    “I said he asked, not that I did it.”
    He rolled over onto his side, propping his head up on his hand.
“Okay. So what’s the weirdest thing you’ve actually done?”
    “I paddled a guy with a hairbrush.” She waggled her eyebrows,
smirking at his shocked, somewhat flushed expression. “You want to talk about
athletic sex—the second that guy was off my lap, he
grabbed me, bent me over the table, and had his way with me.”
    “How exciting.” He
paused for a