Sylvie skimmed over the documents quickly, which did in fact appear damning. “Tee-John, your Dad is going to kill you if he finds out these papers are missing,” she pointed out.
The boy lifted his chin proudly. “I ain’t stupid. I made copies down at Kinko’s and put the originals back.”
“You did well,” Luc said then, patting his brother on the back. Then he walked over to Tee-John’s backpack and proceeded to empty the garbage he’d taken from it directly to a trash can. “You shouldn’t be eating so much candy,” Luc chastised him.
“I’m not the only one eating candy around here. I threw those jelly beans away that fell out of your jeans last night. They were on a hook behind the bathroom door, and the pockets accidentally dumped out when the jeans fell.”
“Jelly beans?” she and Luc both exclaimed as one.
“Don’t tell me you didn’t get rid of those JBX samples you took from my lab,” she declared.
Luc’s face flushed guiltily. “Well, I intended to get rid of them.”
“They were all sticky and had lint on them,” Tee-John went on, waving a hand airily, “or I woulda eaten ’em myself.”
Sylvie groaned, and Luc just shook his head.
“Well, no harm done,” Sylvie concluded. “Where are they now?”
“I threw them outside, and some ducks gobbled them up.”
“What?” Sylvie was beginning to think this nightmare was never going to end.
Luc was grinning at her. He murmured in an undertone, low enough that Tee-John couldn’t overhear, “Do you think ducks get hard-ons? If so, you may have a bunch of Daffy Ducks trailing after you.”
“It’s not funny,” she said huffily.
“Yes, it is, Sylv.”
“So, do you two do oral sex?” the kid asked out of the clear blue sky, which caused Luc to practically fall off his stool and Sylvie to put a hand over her face in mortification.
“John Joseph LeDeux!” Luc choked out. “Where do you get such ideas?”
“The news. All the TV news shows talk about oral sex. President Clinton does it, and I was just wonderin’ if…” He batted his eyes with fake innocence.
Sylvie figured this would be a good time for her to slither off to the bathroom and wash her hot face. The last thing she heard was Tee-John asking a stunned Luc, “Exactly how do you do oral sex? Huh? Huh?”
The little brat probably knew exactly what oral sex was and was setting his brother up… deflecting attention away from himself.
“Coward,” Luc called to her back with a short laugh as she slipped inside the tiny bathroom. It had no tub, just a shower stall, commode, and small sink with a mirrored medicine cabinet above it. There was also a long, narrow mirror that hung from the back of the door.
Sylvie turned to glance in that big mirror, did a double take, then sank to the floor by the far wall and started to cry. Why hadn’t Luc told her how bad she looked? No wonder Tee-John snickered every time he looked at her!
Her hair was a mass of snarls. Her lips were puffy and red. Her neck and chest had brush-burns on them. What appeared to be a bite mark marred her inner thigh, up real high. She was a poster girl for sex on the hoof… a walking advertisement that could very easily read, “Horny Males Apply Here.”
She felt an anxiety attack coming on… the type that had often debilitated her during her younger years as she’d struggled with shyness. Tears streamed down her face. Her skin was hot to the touch, and yet a clammy chill swept over her. She drew her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around herself trying to get warm. No luck. She was shivering uncontrollably. Even her teeth were chattering.
Every time she thought about what she’d done the night before… heck, all night long… she cringed with embarrassment. And this morning was the worst of all… having a ten-year-old boy come upon her when she was behaving with uncharacteristic wantonness. Oh, she wasn’t ashamed of having made love with Luc, but she did wince with self-consciousness about her playing such an exhibitionist role. She feared appearing foolish, or pathetic, in her neediness.