She hurried through the main lobby. There wasn’t another soul in sight, save for the two front desk clerks who waved her goodbye.

Outside, posted against one of the tall, Romanesque columns holding up the reception area, Mr. Hayes waited for her silently. When she finally saw him, after almost walking past without a second look, her heart sank. She didn’t want him to find out like this. There wasn’t even enough time for her to process what Gordon told her, let alone enough for her to find the right words to say to him.

She could only imagine what he thought, seeing his girlfriend come out of another man's hotel room late at night. There was really only one thing he could think and it broke her heart.

"What is going on, Tracy?" His voice was soft. There was a pain there that made her throat tighten.

She stopped a few feet away from him and lowered her head.

"We need to talk," she said. “There's some things you need to know.”

He swallowed hard and nodded, eyes dark and sad. The two walked to his car silently and got in. As soon as the door shut, he turned to her.

"Why are you here?" The calmness in his voice surprised her. If their situations were reversed, she would have been screaming by now.

"What do you know about John Tice?" she asked, unsure of where to begin.

“What does John Tice have to do with you being at Gordon's?” He sighed and ran a hand through his hair while his eyes closed. “Why would you do this me?”

"Gordon has been spying on us and giving the information to John Tice." She put her hand on his knee, hating the way he flinched at her touch. “I went to find out why. Nothing more. I wasn't with him.”

“You weren't?” Relief flooded his features, though it was quickly replaced by shock. “But, John Tice? What does Gordon have to do with him?”

“I don't know,” Tracy replied. “All I found out was that Tice hired him. That pretentious fuck has been watching our every move and relaying it back to Tice. There's something going on and I don't like it.”

Mr. Hayes looked genuinely shocked by her accusations. He turned away slowly and roared the engine to life. He shifted into drive and guided the car out of the hotel’s parking lot, his brows furrowed as he considered her words. She let him think.

Finally, he asked, "Why? Why would Tice use Gordon? What does he want?"

"I don’t know. I don’t think that even Gordon did,” Tracy replied. She put her hand back on Mr. Hayes' leg and let out a silent sigh of relief when he didn't pull away again. “Gordon didn’t plan on becoming a part of all this. He was just a tool."

"Tool or not, Tice is a dangerous man.” Mr. Hayes shifted the car into a higher gear, his hands light on the steering wheel as he drove. “He has a lot of power and money. Influence. This information is concerning.”

What could she possibly say to that? She sighed and looked out the window. Everything seemed like a blur, a giant smudge.

“I want to tell you exactly what happened up there,” she said after a moment. “I want you to know everything.”

Mr. Hayes glanced over at her, the streetlamps catching his eyes. “Okay.”

She proceeded to tell him how Gordon offered her a drink at his place, and how she had gone with him to find out his secret. She told him just how she tied Gordon up. She told him where Gordon touched her and what she had allowed, hating the way his jaw tightened. But she told him all of it. The phone number, the slap- all of it. She didn't want there to be any secrets.

They rode in silence for the fifteen minutes it took to get back to the Hayes estate after that. By then, it was almost four in the morning and all the inside lights were dark. Tracy had to feel her way through the foyer and up the stairs. The whole way, Mr. Hayes stayed close behind her with his hand placed lovingly on the small of her back.

Once inside the massive bedroom, Tracy kicked her shoes off blindly into the darkness. Mr. Hayes went into the bathroom and flicked on a small light, flooding the room with a soft, yellow glow. He watched her carefully as she stripped off her dress and cast it aside almost angrily.

"So how did you find out about him?" he asked. His face was masked in shadow.

Tracy froze. She couldn’t tell him about her dreams, about the visions of Gordon's crescent-shaped scar that broke everything wide open. And, yet, she hadn’t considered what she would say when confronted.

"I'm not really sure," she said honestly. "There just was something that wasn’t right, so I went and found out what. Something about him recently was off. I just had a feeling I couldn't trust him."

Mr. Hayes raised his eyebrows.

“Plus, he started hitting on me. Asking me to come to his place without you. I couldn't let that stand,” she added. “I'm yours and I want to stay that way.”

Mr. Hayes seemed to reluctantly accept her answer. Tracy walked over to him and wrapped her arms around his neck.

He whispered to her, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," she said breathlessly. “Scared. Concerned. But, okay.”

Mr. Hayes pushed her toward the bed, planting gentle kisses against the side of her neck. The mounting tension of the night immediately took her over, creating an all new hunger for him that she never knew existed.

Tracy immediately wrapped her legs around him, pressing her body against him with an eager groan. He felt right against her, like no one else ever had. She felt like a missing piece of herself was in place when he was with her.

"I love you," he sighed onto her neck.

"I love you, too," she said. The words came easily and without her even realizing that she had said them. Yet, she meant it. Truly and completely.

He paused for only a moment before kissing her gently.

"Now, why don’t you make love to me?" she asked, peering up at him. He laughed a knowing chuckle and threw her onto the bed. She flipped over and pulled her knees up under her, elevating her round ass to him. Mr. Hayes to yank her panties down, then slapped her ass with a loud pop.

Tracy sucked the air through her teeth and wiggled her rear at him, begging for more. After everything that she had been through, the shocking sting was the only thing that could bring her back down to earth.

Mr. Hayes spanked her again, this time hard enough to make her yelp. Her body instinctively lurched forward and fell back toward him, where she was met by another brutal whip.

He continued his assault, beating each side in turn until two bright red circles were left behind. When he was satisfied with his work, he wedged his hands between Tracy’s thighs and pushed them apart.

"Mr. Hayes," she cried out. Every fiber of her being vibrated with unfulfilled need. “I want you now!”

He pulled back, frantically fumbling with his belt and pants. Tracy rolled onto her back and looked up at him, watching his every move. She looked on as he stripped off every article of clothing in a manner of seconds. Even then, she wished she could help him move faster.

There was a hungry desperation there that Tracy could easily recognize. It matched her own.

She pushed herself up with her hands behind her and kissed him, their greedy tongues exploring each other like it was their very first time. Mr. Hayes grabbed her waist and pulled her towards him.

Tracy spread her legs, letting him sink into her in one easy movement.

"Fuck yes," she gasped and arched her back toward him.

The way that he filled her would never get old.

His girth pushed her tingling walls open wide, massaging every nerve ending with precision. Tracy watched on as he stood there, pounding into her, thrusting her body up and down with his powerful movements.

Mr. Hayes put his thumb on her clit, massaging the pink flesh surrounding it. Tracy threw her head back and cried out his name. He knew exactly how to please her.

"I’m…"

She couldn’t even finish her sentence. Instead, she gasped and closed her eyes as the tight grip of release took over her body. Deep inside, the walls of her pussy contracted around Mr. Hayes’ shaft in hard, commanding pulses. Both of them could feel it.

Mr. Hayes dipped both hands beneath her bra, pushing it up to expose her bouncing breasts. For a minute he just watched, but the lure of her sexy curves drew his mouth in.

His tongue explored every ridge and bump of her nipples, one after the other. The sensation made Tracy shiver with joy.

His thrusts grew more insistent as his tongue explored her skin. Every inch of her body was on fire with desire and the need to be filled by him. She didn't want him to slow. She wanted him hard and fast. Her hips pumped with his, coaxing him ever higher. Her body craved to feel his release, and with every thrust she felt him grow until she knew he was going to explode.

He pumped his orgasm into her a few last times before falling by her side with a sigh of pure exhaustion. Tracy wrapped her arm around his shoulders, forcing him to rest his head on her naked, glistening chest. In that moment, she felt like she could stay there with him forever. She let herself have the moment. She needed a release after the events of the day and night. For a moment, she considered simply rolling over and falling into a blissful sleep.

Unfortunately, there was still some business to attend to.

Without much of a break, Mr. Hayes got up and grabbed his pants from the floor next to him. He took his phone out of the pocket and unlocked it.

"What was the number Baxter gave you?”

He dialed as she spoke, looked over to her and pushing the green ‘call’ button. Even though it was pressed to his ear, Tracy could hear it ringing. Though she wasn’t even the one making the call, it felt like her stomach had leapt up into her throat and was trying to choke her.

Someone on the other end answered. From there on, Tracy couldn’t make out anything that he said. She listened as Mr. Hayes negotiated, but it was difficult to understand when she could only hear one half of the conversation.

"No, you listen to me you son of…" Mr. Hayes paused and huffed air through his nostrils, listening carefully to whatever John Tice had to say. To Tracy, it felt like a lifetime before the garbled voice fell silent.

She tried to listen, tried to stay awake to hear what was going to happen. There was enough adrenaline in her system that she felt like she should be able to keep her eyes open for months, yet the bed was just so damn comfortable her eyes kept sliding shut.

"Fine, but I’m expecting some serious fucking answers from you, John. And you’d better be alone,” Mr. Hayes said loudly, startling her from the light sleep she didn't even realize she had drifted into.

She rubbed her eyes as Mr. Hayes hung up and put down the phone, falling back onto the pillows and turning so that he and Tracy faced each other.

"He wants to meet,” he said. “He didn't even try to deny Baxter. This carefully constructed web of his is going to unravel. I'm not going to stand for this."

Tracy, so full of emotions that she could barely manage an intelligent answer, clenched her fist into a tight ball. She wanted to hit something. Or cry. Possibly both.

"When I see that little…" she growled.

"No," Mr. Hayes cut her off. "I can’t let you go with me. I'm meeting him alone. I don’t know what I would do if something happened to you."

"You can’t trust a man like him." She reached for Mr. Hayes, pulling him closer to her. “I wouldn't if I were him.”

"You're probably right,” Mr. Hayes agreed, wrapping his arms protectively around her. “But you are my world now and I won’t let you be around him again. We’ve seen what he can do, how far his reach can go. I won't risk you."

His protectiveness warmed Tracy inside. It had been a long time since someone cared so deeply about her.

“I don't care,” Tracy replied stubbornly.

"Promise that you won’t go.” He tightened his arms around her, but was obviously waiting for her to say she wouldn't.

"I won’t," she said. It was a lie, of course, and the guilt immediately hit her like a brick wall.

"Because if you…" Mr. Hayes started, but Tracy reached up and rested her index finger across his lips. She didn’t know if she would be able to lie to him if he asked again. Once was enough for her to have to live with.

"Mr. Hayes," she said softly. "You can shut up now."

He smirked at her playfully-snide comment and let her settle back into his arms. The pillows enveloped them in softness and darkness. There were, in the end, no more words that needed to be said in that moment. The feeling of electricity between them was enough.

In spite of the uncertainties in their past, both of them knew what they wanted for the future and, as they lay there with their sticky bodies entangled with one another, each one silently resolved to do whatever it took to make it work.