“So the banquet went all right?” Sabrina asked, puffing as she increased her level on the fancy elliptical trainer and accelerated her speed.

“Yeah.” Lori paused to even out her own breathing. She’d been working out on the elliptical next to Sabrina now for almost a half hour, and she was hot, tired, sweating, and breathless. “Not exciting but not too painful.”

“Ander didn’t go?”

Lori wiped a stream of perspiration from the back of her neck and steeled herself with the knowledge that she only had fifteen more minutes to go. “No. Be kind of hard to keep my penname a secret if he—” She cut off her words briefly to suck in a few deep breaths. “If he came with me.”

“True.” Sabrina’s long brown ponytail swung with her motion. She was in better shape than Lori and didn’t have to work quite as hard for her requisite cardio time at the gym they both belonged to. “And the rest of the trip was fun?”

“Yeah.”

“You didn’t stay in the hotel room the whole weekend having sex, did you?”

“Sabrina!” Lori tried to scowl at her grinning cousin but she had to focus too much on keeping up her pace. “We did a lot of sightseeing and stuff.”

“What kind of stuff?”

“Don't be crass. We saw a lot of the historical sights and an art museum. He’s really smart about art. And he knows a ton about military history.”

“Really? Was he a history major or something?”

Lori shrugged. “Don’t know.” After a pause to catch her breath again, she continued, “I think maybe his dad pushed military history. Named him after Alexander the Great and everything.” She sneered as she thought about the nameless man she absolutely despised.

“Huh. Interesting.” Sabrina darted a strangely intent look over at Lori. “Have you heard from him since you got back?”

“What do you mean? We have an engagement scheduled this weekend.”

“That’s still on?”

Lori was so confused by the direction of the questions that she slowed down her speed unconsciously. “Why wouldn’t it be? What are you getting at?”

Sabrina gave her a sheepish look. “I had a talk with Belinda Forsythe a couple of days ago. She’s the one who first gave me Ander’s name, remember?”

“Ye—yeah,” Lori replied, feeling a flutter of nerves develop in her belly despite her physical fatigue.

“Do you want to hear what she said?”

Lori understood why Sabrina asked. It was remarkably sensitive of her cousin to check with her to make sure she wanted to hear details about another woman’s experiences with Ander.

The truth was Lori didn’t want to hear about it. She didn’t like to think about Ander with his other clients. In the beginning, she hadn’t felt strange about his professional promiscuity, but lately the idea of him with so many other women made her feel kind of sick. She supposed it was inevitable. As she got to know him better, thought of him more as a person, it would be harder to accept the ways in which he let himself be used. But Lori was fighting the instinct to feel disgusted by the thought of him in bed with anyone else and was trying to ignore the visuals.

It didn’t always work. Sometimes she had random flashes, visualizing Ander having sex with Sarah Jacoby or other nameless, faceless women. She immediately stifled the images whenever they popped in her head, but it was happening more and more often.

She really shouldn’t feed her growing fixation. She should tell Sabrina no and change the subject. But she heard herself saying, “What did she say?”

“She said Ander was retiring.”

Lori felt a sharp kick in her gut. “What?”

“That’s what Belinda told me. That he was retiring. He wasn’t making new appointments.”

For a moment, Lori’s vision blurred over and she felt a sudden burst of angsty momentum, her legs and arms abruptly moving fast and hard on the elliptical. But it only took her a minute to figure out a sensible solution to the bewildering scenario.

The tension eased in her chest as she explained, “He’s cutting back on clients.”

Sabrina’s manicured eyebrows drew together. “Belinda said he was retiring.”

With a shrug, Lori explained, “He probably wanted to let her down easy, and that was his excuse for refusing her appointments.”

“And what is his criteria for keeping some clients and letting others go?” Sabrina frowned as if she remained unconvinced.

“Who knows? Maybe he’s keeping the ones he gets the most money from. Or the ones that aren’t as much work.”

“And he’s keeping you as a client?”

“Yeah. He hasn’t said anything about canceling my appointments. We’ve got the rest of the month scheduled out.”

“Hmm.”

Lori jerked her head over to glare at her cousin. “What does that mean?”

“Nothing,” Sabrina said, feigning innocence. “I was just thinking.”

Gritting her teeth, Lori resolved not to dignify her cousin’s teasing with a response.

“But, seriously,” Sabrina continued, “You had a good time with him in Quebec? It wasn’t weird or awkward?”

“Why would it be weird or awkward?”

“I don’t know. Belinda told me that she took him on a weekend to London and the business matters kept getting in the way of the sexy thrill.”

Lori swallowed, trying to channel her irrationally conflicted emotions into her workout. It would be far wiser if she just dropped this subject completely. “What business matters?”

“Oh, you know. Sorting out exactly what his role would be. Keeping track of all the sexual activity so she could pay him at the end. Getting a suite with two bedrooms so he could sleep in his own room. All the logistics.”

Lori stopped moving, her legs sliding to a slow, heavy stop. “What?”

Sabrina slowed down too. “What what? Why do you look so gut-foundered?”

Lori didn’t answer. She just stared blindly ahead of her and tried to process this new information.

Apparently, Sabrina could put the pieces together on her own. “Didn’t he do all that with you?”

“Yeah. No. I don’t know.” Unable to get her legs to move, Lori climbed off the elliptical trainer and picked up her towel to wipe off her hot, red face.

“Lori?” Sabrina got off too. “Tell me.”

“We shared a room,” Lori admitted. “And we didn’t spend much time talking about money.”

“Why not?”

Lori felt mortified all of a sudden—for no good reason. She couldn’t even look Sabrina in the eye. “I don’t know. It all just sort of felt...natural.”

“Natural? A weekend with a male escort?” Sabrina’s voice conveyed ironic skepticism.

“I know it sounds weird. But it did. We like each other. I think. I mean, we’ve gotten to know each other. And so it doesn’t feel so much like...like an impersonal business transaction.”

“Oh God,” Sabrina groaned into her towel. “Pretty Woman.”

“It’s not like that,” Lori snapped. “I’m not stupid. But we get along well. And so most of the business stuff just sort of falls to the side and we just have a good time.”

“He has a good time too?”

“I don’t know.” Lori tried not to squirm with embarrassment. “Sometimes I think so. It’s hard to tell—because he has such good instincts about what a client wants from him—but I’m pretty sure he has a decent time with me.”

“That doesn’t sound like a normal scenario with a male escort and his client.”

Lori scowled. “How the hell do you know what’s normal with a male escort? I don’t even know. I’ve never been with another one.”

“Well,” Sabrina said, her face softening with humor. “I guess that’s true. Who’s to know what normal behavior consists of when it comes to male escorts? But it sounds a little suspicious to me. Like things aren't entirely professional."

"They are professional," Lori insisted, "I pay him every evening. He's just really good at his job. He gives women what they want."

"Maybe. But maybe you should dig into it a little to make sure. Have you thought about talking to him about how you are together?”

Stiffening, Lori said a little awkwardly, “No, I haven’t. He’s told me quite clearly that he breaks off the business arrangement when a client tries to go beyond professional boundaries.”

“Oh. I see.” After thinking about this for a moment, Sabrina added, “And you’re not willing to take that risk.”

“What risk? It’s a done deal. He made that more than clear. No more appointments for a client who tries to break those boundaries. I know this thing can’t last forever, but I’m having a good time with him, and I don’t want it to end yet.”

Sabrina studied her—a little suspiciously, she thought. But for once her cousin didn’t say anything.

Lori let out a long breath. Her legs felt weak from the exercise and her face was blazing red.

And she felt strangely uncomfortable in the wake of this particular conversation.

***

Lori lay next to Ander on the bed of her hotel room and stared up at the ceiling. “Are you going to retire?” she blurted out.

Ander’s neck twitched spasmodically, jerking his head over to look at her. “What?”

She found the courage to glance over at him. Saw his expression was still, almost frozen. “I asked if you were going to retire,” she admitted, feeling a surge of mortification at the random, revealing question.

It was almost seven-thirty on Friday evening. Just last weekend they’d been in Quebec. Just last Monday Lori had talked to Sabrina on the elliptical trainers. And both things had been on her mind all week.

When Ander had arrived, they’d talked for a while about casual issues and then had fallen into a silence that felt almost tired. They hadn’t yet touched, and now Lori had been foolish enough to blurt out a question she never should have asked.

Ander replied with a slow, careful sentence. “I assume I’ll retire one day.”

“Yeah. I would imagine so. I meant any time soon.”

“Why do you ask?”

She gave a helpless shrug. Sorted through a few possible responses and landed on the truthful one. “My cousin was talking to one of your old clients. And she said you were retiring.”

Ander’s lips parted slightly, as if he now understood where the question was coming from. But he didn’t answer immediately.

Lori felt her pulse start to pound as she watched the subtle flickers of emotion cross his face—the flutter of a jaw muscle, the tightening of his mouth, the blink of his eyelashes. She unconsciously held her breath as she waited.

She wasn’t even sure which answer she wanted to hear. Part of her wanted him to say yes, wanted him to give up this line of work and find something to do that would really fulfill him, that would make him feel like something more valuable than a piece of meat. Maybe doing this job wasn’t unhealthy for some people, but she was worried it was unhealthy for Ander, so he would probably be better off if he didn’t do it.

But the selfish part of her was terrified that he was going to drop her as a client, that she’d never see him again.

Either way, she was more invested in this answer than was entirely healthy.

Finally, Ander said, “I would have told you if I no longer wanted you as a client.”

Lori swallowed hard. Then let out her breath. “Yeah. I assumed you would. But I guess this former client seemed pretty sure of your retirement.”

Ander cleared his throat. His blue-gray eyes were oddly tentative. He opened his mouth to speak. But then shut it again without shaping a word.

“What is it?” she asked breathlessly, tilting her head toward him instinctively.

He shook his head and glanced away. “I told you I was cutting back on my clients. And I had to tell her something.”

“Yeah. That’s what I told Sabrina. I figured it was just an excuse. I mean, it would be kind of rude for you to retire without telling me, wouldn’t it?” She smiled at him, trying for ironic teasing although she still felt oddly nervous and embarrassed.

He returned her smile easily and Lori relaxed a little. Everything was as it always was between them. There was no reason for her to get so uptight about what Sabrina had told her on Monday.

“Oh, I meant to tell you,” she said. “I’m going to be out of town for a couple of weeks at the beginning of next month.”

“Work trip?” he asked, arching his eyebrows.

It was actually a book tour for her new release but Lori cut off the explanation before she spoke it. Ander didn’t know she was Lucy Anderson, and it might become too obvious if she said she was going on a book tour right when Lucy Anderson’s highly anticipated new romance was released.

“Yeah,” she said vaguely. “Something like that.”

Ander nodded and didn’t pursue the subject.

They lay side by side and both stared up at the ceiling for a few minutes.

“So your new book is coming out on the first of the month?” Ander asked at last, speaking casually and without any prelude.

“Ye—” Lori answered automatically before she realized what he’d just asked. She jerked up to a sitting position with a gasp and stared down at his bland face. “You know?”

Ander gave her a slight, sheepish smile. “Guilty.”

Lori’s heart hammered and her belly twisted—with a collection of emotions she couldn’t entirely work out. “You’ve known all along?” She was dismayed to hear the hint of betrayal in her words.

Shaking his head, Ander sat up too. “No. When we talked about it at first, I had no idea. But I’ve reread some of your books in the last few months, and I kept seeing...seeing you in them.”

“Oh.” Lori felt herself blushing for some reason.

“I thought it must be you. And then, last weekend, it didn’t take too much searching to discover what writers’ conference was being held in Quebec during those days and who the keynote speaker was. It just affirmed my suspicions.”

Lori slumped back on the bed, releasing a long, shaky breath. She should have known Ander was too sharp and observant to hide something like this from.

A tiny little part of her was glad he knew. Glad he knew that she was his favorite romance writer.

Ander reclined back as well, but his face was turned toward her, his eyes resting on her face. “Are you upset?”

“No,” she admitted, turning to smile at him almost bashfully. “I guess not. I mean, now that I know you, I feel pretty safe about a story not appearing in the tabloids about how Lucy Anderson has been using the services of a sex professional for the last six months.”

Ander’s eyes were unusually sober. And after a moment of silence he said, “I hope you believe that.”

“I do. I know you’re not going to the press with the story.”

“The story will never come out through me,” he murmured. Then his lips twitched a little. “It won’t even appear in my true-life confessions bestseller.”

“Hey,” she said, giving him a reproachful look, “Don’t mock the book idea. I was serious about that.”

“I know you were.” For just a few seconds, his smile looked almost tender. Then the softness disappeared in his easy irony. “Although it was a rash suggestion, since you don’t even know if I can string together two sentences.”

Lori sniffed disdainfully. “Please. Someone as intelligent and articulate as you? Of course, you can write. Besides, you don’t have to be a brilliant writer. Just interesting and basically coherent. You’d have an editor to clean things up.”

Ander chuckled. “You’re serious about this.”

“Yes. I am. Why shouldn’t I be? Just say the word and I’ll do anything I can to help.”

That softness flickered in his eyes again, disappearing just as quickly as before. “I appreciate it. But I’m not sure I’m a project worth pursuing.”

Lori hated the resignation she heard in his last words. It was worse than the bitterness she heard far more often. She opened her mouth to argue but then changed her mind.

Nothing she could say would change his mind about himself, would make him believe he had true value.

She reached over and turned his head toward her again, keeping her palm on his cheek. Then she leaned forward and pressed her lips against his.

She had no delusions about the powers of her kiss. It wasn’t going to change anything about his attitude toward himself. Couldn’t reshape his whole world. But it was the only thing she could think of to do to express how she felt at the moment.

And she needed to do something.

Ander responded immediately to her kiss, but he let her take complete control of it. His mouth opened and his tongue moved at her urging. But he didn’t roll over or reach out to touch her.

They kissed for a long time, joined only by their mouths and Lori’s hand on his cheek. It felt sweet and oddly innocent, and Lori felt both her body and her emotions responding. But eventually she wanted more, so she slid her hand down to his chest and then lower to his abdomen. Ander wore a slate blue dress shirt and she stroked his belly through the expensive fabric.

She loved the feel of the flat, firm muscles there, rising and falling with his accelerating breathing.

Then she slid her hand even lower. To the front of his trousers. Realized he was already getting hard.

Lori wondered why he wasn’t making any moves, why he just lay on the bed and let her kiss and caress him.

Sometimes Ander was so unknowable she wanted to scream.

She wanted to know how he was feeling. She wanted him to feel as deep and overwhelmed as she did at the moment. She wanted him to react to her with genuine pleasure and affection.

She wanted him to respond to her in a way he did with no other client. No one else but her.

And suddenly she knew what she wanted to do.

Her hands moved to his belt and started to unhook the buckle. Then she unfastened his trousers and untucked his shirt. Started to slowly unbutton it, baring his chest to her view. She slid his shirt off his shoulders. And then she started to push off his trousers.

Only then did Ander help by lifting up his hips. His eyes hadn’t left her face the whole time she undressed him, and his gaze was quiet and questioning with a depth she didn’t understand.

“Ander,” she said at last, surprised her voice came out so unsteadily. “Can I ...?”

Ander found and held her self-conscious gaze. “Lori, you can do whatever you want.”

The words made her belly twist at the same time they reassured her. “I wanted to...I’ll need to add some money to the envelope, but I ...”

“Lori, just tell me what you want.”

“Oral sex,” she managed to choke out, her cheeks burning hotly. After all this time, it was silly to be embarrassed. But she was. Not so much by the act but by the vulnerability of saying she wanted it.

Ander’s brows drew together and he started to turn on his side and push himself up. “Of course. I can—”

“No,” she interrupted, realizing he’d misunderstood. “I wanted to do it.” She swallowed hard. “On you.”

“Oh.”

“Can I?”

Ander froze for a moment. “Yes,” he said softly. “If you want.”

“I do.”

For a minute, they just looked at each other. Then Ander rolled off the bed and walked over to his case, where he pulled out a foil packet. “This condom will be easier for you to use. It’s slightly mint flavored, and it will taste a lot better than latex.”

Lori nodded and watched as Ander rid himself of his boxers and returned to the bed. He was already almost fully erect.

He handed her the condom and lay back down on the bed on his back. He stared up at her face and waited.

Lori really wanted to do this, but she was also getting very nervous. “I’ve never done this before,” she said, “I won’t know what I’m doing. You’ll have to help.”

“Of course. Anything you want.”

She scooted down on the bed until her face was in range of his groin. She stared down at his erect cock, a deeper shade than the rest of his body. She thought she saw it twitch as she watched.

Her eyes darted back to his face and he gave her a little smile. Oddly comforted, she laughed nervously. “I’m not going to be any good at it—just to warn you. And I hope you’re not going to expect anything fancy. I mean, you’re not going to go down my throat or anything, are you?”

Ander’s lips twitched, although his gaze was still that quiet, intense one. “Of course not. I’ll just lay here and let you do your thing. Just tell me if you want anything different.”

Lori snickered at his choice of words. And then she inhaled a long, shuddering breath. She took his cock in her hands and stroked it for a minute, running her fingers up and down the shaft and then twirling the tip a little.

She liked how he sucked in his breath very slightly at her touch. And how she could feel his erection twitch and harden under her fingers.

Since he was plenty erect already, she opened the condom packet and carefully rolled it on. He’d always taken care of the condoms before, so she made sure she got it on securely and didn’t nick it with her fingernails.

Then she adjusted her body on the bed, leaning over so her face was hovering above his pelvis. She held his cock upright with her hands and experimentally licked a line in a circle near the top of his shaft.

She heard Ander’s breath hitch, and she smacked her mouth around the taste of the condom. It wasn’t great, but it wasn’t terribly unpleasant. She imagined it would be better without a condom at all, but that was out of the question, of course.

Looking back up at Ander’s face, she saw his handsome features were tense and unreadable. Again, she wondered what he was thinking. Whether he really wanted her to do this to him.

She wondered whether it would please him. She wanted to please him. The way he’d always pleased her.

She took a breath and then licked his cock again, this time going from the bottom to the top. Then she took the head in her mouth and started to suck.

On the first hollowing of her cheeks, Ander gasped and his hands shifted slightly on the bed. Assuming this meant he liked it, she took more of him in her mouth and sucked again.

It felt like his cock was pulsing, even through the latex of the condom, and the more suction she applied, the tenser his body became.

She knew there was more she should do as part of a blow job, and she tried to focus her scattered thoughts on the scenes she’d read in books for something to add to the sucking. Landing on a couple of ideas, even through the blurred excitement of her mind, she wrapped one hand around the bottom half of his shaft and used the other to stroke one of his thighs.

She had a little trouble coordinating the squeezing with the sucking. She fumbled around for a minute before she let his cock slip from her mouth.

Her eyes met Ander’s. She sensed rather than saw a tension coiled tightly beneath the surface of his expression, of his body. But he’d been as good as his word. He hadn’t moved at all.

“Aren’t you going to help me?” she asked thickly. Only then did she realize that she was aroused as well. Her nipples were tight beneath the red lace of her chemise and she was already wet between her legs.

“Of course,” he murmured, his voice unusually low and textured. He moved one hand to the back of her head. “But you were doing great.”

She wrapped her hand more firmly around the base of his erection and lowered her mouth again, taking in as much of him as she comfortably could. She started to suck again, and this time Ander applied gentle pressure, guiding the bobbing of her head and helping to create a pleasing rhythm.

His hand curved around the back of her skull, his fingers tangled in her hair, and the pressure felt reassuring rather than bossy. She hollowed out her cheeks to the tempo of his soft urging, and her motion became more confident as she progressed.

With her free hand, she caressed up his thigh and then dipped it below her face so she could find his balls. She cupped him, feeling him gently. Then she applied a little pressure.

Ander grunted and his pelvis twitched up just a little. It startled her momentarily but she managed not to fall out of rhythm.

She trusted Ander. He was skillful and considerate. He knew this was her first time, and he’d never let her down before. He wasn’t going to try to fuck her throat.

She shifted her hips restlessly, more aroused now than ever as she processed Ander’s reactions to her ministrations. She intensified her rhythm and felt his body tighten even more.

Using her thumb she stroked his sac, squeezed the base of his cock and bobbed her head. Ander’s free hand had started to fumble around in the bedding, and his head jerked uneasily on the pillow.

She hummed around his hard flesh at these signs of how she was pleasing him.

It felt so good to please him. Better than anything.

“Lori,” Ander said thickly, his body so tense now he was almost shaking.

She hummed again as she worked over his cock the best she could, adjusting her body to get better leverage.

Ander’s hand tightened at the back of her head, fisting in her hair until he made himself loosen it again. “Lori.” His head was propped up slightly, and his eyes never left the sight of her mouth around his cock.

Humming out another response, she felt her intimate muscles clenching instinctively, as if she were trying to pull him inside her.

“Lori!” Ander rasped, his back arching slightly as he visibly fought to keep himself still. Both of her hands had tightened with her clench of arousal, squeezing his cock and his balls simultaneously.

Her mouth worked ceaselessly. She’d generated a lot of saliva, and the flavor of the condom was dissipating. But at this point she was too into the moment to care. While it was a little sloppy and inexperienced, her blow job appeared to be having a good effect.

She could feel tremors run through Ander’s body. Both of his hands had fisted now—one in the bedding and one in her hair. His hips were rocking very slightly, involuntarily. And his face was flushed and twisted with what looked like effort and pleasure.

“Lori,” he choked out, his head jerking to the side. “Lori, I’m going to come. If you don’t stop, I’m going to—” His words broke off in a guttural exclamation as she squeezed his balls again.

She knew he was trying to warn her, in case she wanted to make further use of his erection. But that was nonsense. Of course, she wanted him to come. So she sucked as hard as she could, fondling his sac one more time.

His body pulsed as a choked sound escaped his lips. Prepared in advance, she listened carefully to hear the words, but he’d fully stifled whatever it was he said, biting his bottom lip so hard it whitened.

Then the tension in his body shattered beneath her. His hips gave a few clumsy jerks against her mouth and his free hand groped frantically on the mattress beside him. With a series of thick gasps and exhalations, he rode out the spasms of his climax. She could feel his cock pulse in her mouth.

The condom prevented her from having to swallow his semen, but it felt like he’d released inside her just the same.

She finally let his cock slip from her lips and she sat on her knees, staring at his flushed, damp face.

Lori was gasping just as desperately as Ander was.

His climax seemed to have wiped him out. His body had softened so completely he looked limp and boneless. Feeling a swell of both pride and tenderness, she carefully removed the condom and tied it off so he wouldn’t have to get up right away.

She managed to stand and walk to the bathroom to throw it away. She stared into the mirror for a moment and processed her appearance. Her cheeks were just as red as Ander’s. Her nipples were standing out visibly through her lacy chemise. And, every time she moved, she was conscious of her hot, wet arousal.

But she’d wanted Ander to come just now more than she’d wanted to herself.

When she returned, Ander was still sprawled out on the bed. But he turned his head toward her as she approached. “Thanks,” he said hoarsely, “You didn’t have to take care of the condom.”

“Why not?” she asked with a shrug, climbing back onto the bed. She slanted him an anxious look. “Did I do all right for my first time?”

Ander choked on a laugh. Then another one. For a minute, his whole body shook with helpless, ironic laughter.

Lori frowned at him. “I know I didn’t do that bad.”

“Lori,” Ander gasped, “Are you blind? You saw the way I came. You really need to ask if you did all right?”

“Oh.” She squirmed a little, in pleased embarrassment. “Well, I didn’t know. I mean, maybe I did a bad job but you came just to boost my confidence.”

He shook his head, looking strangely tired. “You really think I’m that good an actor?”

“Aren’t you?”

“No.”

Lori’s belly twisted again with that same jittery emotion, and she lay down next to Ander, turning on her side so she could look at him.

She didn’t know what to say so she just remained quiet. Ander’s breathing was leveling off now, but his body looked loose and relaxed. Absolutely sated. She’d done that to him.

She hadn’t expected Ander to react the way he had to her blow job. She hadn’t expected to feel the way she did about his reaction. She hadn’t expected to be so turned on afterwards. And she hadn’t expected to experience this chaotic churning of emotions—confusion, pride, pleasure, embarrassment, discomfort, and bone-deep fear.

Suddenly, her swirling emotions became so intense she wasn’t sure she could handle them. Since looking at Ander had intensified them, she turned over onto her other side so she was facing away from him.

Trying to talk herself out of her foolishness, she breathed deeply and sorted through her confusion.

Before she had a chance to figure out anything else, Ander’s voice came from behind her. “Lori? What’s the matter?”

“Nothing.” She was pleased when her voice was mostly natural.

Evidently, Ander didn’t believe her. She heard a rustle of the bedding as he moved closer to her. Then she felt his warm hand on her bare shoulder. “Lori? Did you not like it after all?”

His voice held just a hint of hesitance, and it made her turn her head back to look at him over her shoulder. He’d propped himself up on one arm, and his gaze was sober and intent.

“Lori,” he prompted softly. “You need to tell me if there was something about what happened that made you uncomfortable.”

“I’m not uncomfortable,” she began. At his look of obvious skepticism, she hurried on, “I mean, I liked it. I really did. It’s just that I didn’t...I didn’t expect ...” She trailed off, realizing there was absolutely no way for her to tell him the whole truth.

“What didn’t you expect?” His face had become oddly still, in the unsettling way it sometimes did.

She found the least disturbing part of her feelings to admit to him. “I didn’t expect to get so turned on by doing that.” She blushed a little, even though her admission didn’t come close to the true nature of her reactions.

Ander’s face relaxed. He gave her a smile that was almost naughty. His hand moved from her shoulder and stroked down her bare arm. “Well, that’s definitely not a problem,” he murmured.

She smiled back, feeling better now that the mood between them was more familiar. She straightened her head, no longer looking back toward Ander. And she let him settle himself behind her, pressing the lean lines of his body against her back and stroking her breasts, belly and hips with one skillful hand.

After just a minute, she was breathless with arousal again and wriggling back against Ander as he gently fondled her nipples. “Oh, God, Ander,” she gasped, “I want you so much.”

She felt a new sensation then against her bottom. After a moment, she realized what it was. He was growing erect again—far more quickly than she had expected.

“Already?” she asked, looking at him over her shoulder and shamelessly rubbing her bottom against the hard length poking into her from behind.

Ander made a guttural moan in response to her squirming and he lowered his mouth to the hollow of her throat, mouthing her skin and nipping a little.

Then, with strong, gentle hands, he turned her over onto her stomach and started gathering her chemise into his hands so he could pull it off over her head.

She let him undress her, loving the feel of his weight on top of her, the way it pushed her into the mattress. She groaned in helpless pleasure as he squeezed the flesh of her ass and mouthed the nape of her neck.

He reached over for a condom from the nightstand and quickly rolled it on. Then he raised her hips, sank two fingers inside her to test her readiness and, finding her sopping wet, aligned his cock at her entrance and then eased into her from behind.

She let out a long, wet sigh, enjoying both the feel of his body and the way he wasn’t making her handle all of the decisions. She braced herself on folded arms and bumped her bottom back against his groin.

He grunted at the impact, but then he followed her silent urging and began to thrust.

Lori was incredibly aroused, and the fast, pleasing rhythm he developed sent jolt after jolt of sensation to a quickly building orgasm at her center. She huffed at each of his deep strokes, and her body instinctively followed the tempo, eagerly rocking back against him to intensify the sensations.

Pretty soon, the feelings inside of Lori became so intense that she couldn’t remain quiet. She started to make little grunts on each of his in-strokes, and then the grunts transformed into breathless exclamations.

“Good, Lori. So good,” Ander gritted out, his thick voice proving he was already pretty far gone, despite his earlier climax. His speed had accelerated, and his fingers dug into the flesh of her ass, guiding her frantic motion. “Come for me.”

She was already close. So close she sweated as waves of heat slammed into her. Her breathless exclamations turned to sobbing sounds. “Coming,” she choked, “Yes, Ander! Gonna come.”

Then she did come, hiding her face in the pillow as she screamed out the intense spasms of pleasure. Ander made a strangled sound as he kept thrusting.

Before Lori was through riding out her first orgasm, she felt another one swell up on its heels. Her whole body shook frantically, her breasts and the flesh of her ass and thighs jiggling with her shameless motion. And she came again. Hard.

This time, she didn’t have time to hide her face in the pillow so her cry of release was loud and naked.

“Oh fuck!” Ander gasped, his hips pistoning wildly against her ass. Then he choked out something she was too overwhelmed to hear properly.

He came. She felt his body shuddering behind her, felt his cock pulsing inside her, felt his fingers grip her body so desperately they would leave bruises.

Lori was panting hoarsely as her body slumped forward. Ander fell with her, and for a moment his hot, sated weight rested on top of her again. He panted too. On each exhale, he made a sound like a moan.

And Lori would be perfectly happy for them never to move from this position, from this visceral satisfaction.

But he did move. Without speaking, Ander eased his softening cock out of her wet passage and heaved himself up off the bed.

He walked silently to the bathroom. She heard the water run in the sink. And she didn’t hear it go off.

After a minute, a jolt of sharp curiosity propelled Lori out of her sated stupor. She climbed off the bed and hurried over toward the bathroom, determined to find out what Ander did in there when he took extra time.

The door was halfway opened, so she could peer in. Ander stood in front of the sink full of running water. Ander was leaning over, bracing himself with both hands on the counter. His shoulders were slumped, his eyes closed, and his head bent. His face and head were streaming wet, from where he’d evidently splashed water on his face.

And he appeared to be taking deep breaths.

Lori gaped for a minute. He looked exhausted. Overwhelmed. And strangely aching.

“Are you all right?” she asked without thinking, her voice breaking with her concern. Her heart started to hammer in anxiety and apprehension.

Ander’s whole body jerked clumsily as he whirled around toward her. “Yes,” he said hoarsely, recovering himself quickly. “Just catching my breath.”

It had looked like he was doing more than that. In that moment she’d seen him vulnerable, he’d appeared almost...battered.

Her eyes started to burn as she wondered whether using himself in this way took a bigger emotional toll on him than she realized. Maybe having sex with her ripped him to shreds. “You didn’t like it?” she asked in a wavering voice. She cringed at her needy, childish tone

Ander made a huff of sound and put his arm around her as he urged her back toward the bed. “Don’t be ridiculous, Lori. Of course I liked it.”

She liked the feel of his arm around her, and her heart unclenched at his answer. As they crawled back into bed and under the covers, she said shyly, “You didn’t wait for me to tell you to come.”

“I know.” He gave her a rueful half-smile. “Sorry about that. You probably could have come a few more times if I'd managed to hold out.”

“Don’t be sorry. I prefer you to come when you want. Really.” She peered at him and saw that he was genuinely unsettled by his involuntary climax. Keeping her voice light, she added, “I’m amazed at the control you usually have. It’s quite remarkable. In all these months, that’s the first time you came without asking me first.”

A flicker of expression on Ander’s face reminded her of something.

“It wasn’t the first time,” she said slowly.

“No. It wasn’t.”

“When I came back from Hong Kong.”

Ander nodded moodily. “Twice now. Not a good record. I’m not normally so weak.”

She made a dismissive gesture. “Now you’re being ridiculous. I want you to come when you want.” Despite her confident words, she darted a nervous look over at him. “So you’re really all right? It's not that you don't like it?”

Ander’s mouth twisted and he stared at the ceiling. “I told you so already. I like it. That’s the problem.”

His words washed her with a flood of warm pleasure. She wasn’t sure if she should believe him. After all, his job was to please women in any way he could. He’d spent years telling his clients exactly what they wanted to hear. Maybe that was what was happening here.

But instinct told her something different, and his words made her feel really good.

***

The next day Lori sat in front of a computer and pulled up a database of articles from major Seattle newspapers over the last three decades.

She shouldn’t be doing this. The idea had crossed her mind more than once over the last several months, but she’d always ignored it—knowing that Ander’s personal life was his own and it was far healthier for her to keep her relationship with him purely professional.

But here she was anyway. She began to type in a series of search terms, various combinations of the words “Ander,” “Alexander,” “bald,” “hair,” “son,” “businessman,” and “disinherited.”

It took her less than ten minutes to find the information she sought. She pulled up a brief article from a local publication that focused primarily on business news. The article, from twelve years ago, mentioned how twenty-two year old Alexander Milton—the son of a very wealthy, notorious man—had refused to join his father in business and had been legally disinherited.

Lori stared at the story on the monitor. Stared at the picture of a very young Ander, as bald then as he was now. Stared at the name, printed there in black and white.

It all made sense. Everything Ander had told her about his father and about his early life. And everything she had sensed about the way he’d been emotionally victimized as a child. The truth of his identity closed the final gap in her understanding.

And she had no idea what to do about it.

No idea if she should tell him. How she should tell him. What she would say. What kind of difference it would make.

She had no idea what she was doing with Ander anymore. While she was still trying to ignore the confusion of her feelings, she was honest enough to admit to herself that she’d gone way beyond the professional with him.

But one thing she now knew.

For the last six months, she’d been fucking the estranged son of Peter Milton—who was CEO of one of Seattle’s largest corporations and very likely a white-collar criminal.