He didn’t know where the time went. Their long weekend was already over, and yet that plane trip across the ocean seemed like ages ago.

Connor held Sam close as she slept, their bodies curved into each other. Four days just isn’t enough, he thought to himself. She stirred and murmured in her sleep. He leaned down and smoothed her hair while he kissed her forehead.

The sex was amazing, there was no doubt about that. But he’d had fantastic sex before.

This was more. Deeper. There were little signals he shouldn’t have ignored going into this, but he’d thought it was just infatuation.

Connor wasn’t used to being wrong.

He carefully untangled himself from her warm body and slipped onto the balcony. Connor closed the French door behind him and slumped into the wrought iron chair with the plush down cushion.

He lit a cigarette, a rare occurrence and one of the few bad habits left from his high school days. As he inhaled deeply he watched the full moon as it lit up the evening waves—and the nude couple in the waters who thought nobody watched.

Someone’s always watching, he thought to himself.

Connor leaned forward and looked at Sam, belly down on the bed with one thigh hiked up high. She was an absolute vision. And the strangest part was, he didn’t think she faked it. She seemed to really like him, regardless of his fortune.

You need to break this off, he told himself. First thing in the morning, a serious talk needs to happen. Fuck. If you were going to screw her at all, it should have just been the once.

He knew that was just hopeful talk though. Once would never have been enough.

Connor turned his phone off of airplane mode for the first time on the trip and watched the emails, texts and Snapchats come through. A girl whose name he didn’t even remember had sent him a selfie of herself topless. Her breasts were painfully swollen with silicone.

Another girl had sent him an email which he didn’t even open. The subject line read, “I’ve been thinking about you…”

None of them did anything for him. He scrolled through a few more texts from women he’d taken out once or twice. Some of them he’d slept with, others had done a shit job of acting like they were more modest than that. All the photos were charged with sex, from the lingerie-clad selfies to the ones who pretended they didn’t know their tits practically fell out of their dresses.

None of them were Sam.

He groaned and rested the cigarette in the ashtray. I’m not ready to feel so deeply for someone, he thought. Especially the girl he’d hired to be his fake fiancée. No matter how deep these feelings were, he needed to put an end to it. It’s for the best.

And it started right now. He looked to Sam again, but couldn’t be the guy who woke her up in the middle of the night while she was still naked to break it off. Connor had at least a little more compassion than that.

Instead, he opened up his favorite “dating” app and started swiping. It was a joke people even called it a dating app, but it had made his life a hell of a lot easier when the app was developed. For a little while, he’d toyed with making some of the girls he met up with think he was average in every regard. Average job, average income, average family and average cock.

But they always found out the truth. Only twice had he used a completely fake name so they couldn’t look him up, and he’d felt so slimy he never did it again. Just one of those girls he’d slept with had ruined it for him. Hearing her shout, “Curtis!” over and over was a real buzzkill.

He’d discovered that while his money and background certainly sped up the process, it wasn’t necessary to lead with. Connor was popular with women online and in real life. It was his looks, the way he’d learned to tell women what they wanted to hear, and of course what he packed in his jeans.

Still, the app was like a shortcut. He still loved the thrill of the hunt, and there was something about meeting a woman in a bar. The way they looked like prey, like little white rabbits that begged to be cornered.

However, in recent years, he’d noticed women had increasingly approached him. He appreciated it, sure, but it definitely dulled the excitement. Also increasingly, the women were older. Connor didn’t mind cougars, in fact before Sam they’d been some of his best experiences—but it was also off-putting.

What are you going to do? Walk down to the hotel bar right now and pick someone up? He couldn’t be that shitty.

Connor turned his back completely to Sam. He almost wanted her to wake up and catch him as he swiped right over and over. Then it would be easy. She’d be the one to break things off. He didn’t even register any of the women’s photos, let alone their bios. All he could think about was Sam.

How bad would it be to wake her up to fuck her just one last night? Too bad, he decided. That was almost his father’s level of disgusting. Still, he knew she wouldn’t mind. What if she woke up already close to orgasm? No, too creepy. He just couldn’t do it.

He wanted her more than anything. No matter how many times they had sex, it just wasn’t enough. More like a temporary satiation that they both knew wouldn’t last. And still, in between those sessions, it was fun. Relaxed. Comfortable even. Is this what it’s supposed to be like?

Part of him also wondered how much of this she was faking, if any of it. After all, he’d propositioned her to be a contractor for him the day they met. And he’d been a raving lunatic that day over Sandra. Maybe she’s pretending with all of this. Maybe she’s going to blackmail me!

Connor looked at her again at that thought. No. You’re just being paranoid, he told himself. Nobody was that good of an actor. In bed, she was wild, and he knew she wasn’t just making up the whole story about him nearly being her first time. He’d never felt anyone that tight before. Not even when he’d been in high school himself.

Clearly, she was genuine. But if that was the case, what did she want with someone like him?

He forced himself to actually look at the photos at least before he swiped. Sure, some of them were cute. Some of them were hot. However, even without taking rampant photo manipulation out of the equation, they just didn’t get him hard the way Sam did.

What are you up to tonight? One of the women had already messaged him. He realized it was just early evening back in DC.

Sitting on a balcony in Monaco with my fake fiancée naked in bed a few feet away. That certainly wouldn’t go over well. Shit, you can do this! What’s your problem?

Looking at your gorgeous pictures while I’m away on business, he replied after ten minutes.

He got a winky face in return. This one was already in the bag. She was young, curvy and blonde with a bachelor’s degree in communications. She mentioned in her bio she was an administrative assistant at some tech company he’d never heard of. And obviously, she had no qualms about making the first move at what was an early Friday evening for her. Easy. Damn, your friends are right, he thought to himself.

“Come back to bed.” Sam’s voice shook him out of his inner struggle. He glanced behind him and she was propped up on the bed with the blanket draped across her legs.

He looked back to the app and saw the woman had started to type more. Connor clicked it off, set the phone on airplane mode, and went back inside.

“What were you doing?” she asked sleepily.

“Watching a couple of people fuck in the ocean,” he said.

“Ew, were you smoking?” she asked and wrinkled her nose.

“When in Monaco,” he said. Connor pulled off his shorts and got into bed with her.

“You didn’t shut the doors,” she said as he kissed her neck.

“So then you might not want to scream too loudly,” he replied. Hell, one more time couldn’t be too terrible, right? He reached up and turned the lamp on.

“What are you doing?” she asked. Sam squinted as her eyes adjusted.

“I just want to see you,” he said. She smiled that sleepy smile at him.

Connor worked his way down her entire body. He memorized every freckle, every curve and every taste. He wanted to remember the exact saltiness of the inside of her elbows, and how the tiny birthmark at her ankle looked vaguely like a horseshoe.

“Am I getting the romantic treatment now?” she asked when he kissed his way back up and lingered at the widest part of her hip.

He didn’t reply. Instead, he moved away and flipped onto his back. “Here,” he said, and gestured to his lips. “Sit here.”

Sam pushed herself up and straddled his face. He had the perfect view as she grasped the bars of the bed frame and started to ride his face.

Her juices began to pour out of her, covering his cheeks and chin. He lapped her up, thirsty for more. From her swollen clit to the pink folds to the sweetness of her opening, he adored every inch of her. You need to remember how she tastes. And how she looks in this moment.

Sam’s hands were clamped tight around the frame. Her breasts bounced just above him. He reached up to caress them and she moaned at his touch. When she looked down at him, her smile was bright enough to burn into his memory, just as he’d wished.

“I used to imagine this,” she said to him. He didn’t remove his tongue from her.

The dim lighting from the lamp complemented her exquisitely. “I’m getting close,” she whispered. He grasped her hips and held her down. When she came in his mouth, he drank her all in.

Exhausted, she fell beside him. “Your turn,” she said as she reached for him.

“No,” he said softly. “It’s all about you tonight.”

“You’re in a generous mood,” she said as she worried her lip. “But I want to.”

“In the morning,” he said gently. They were three of the hardest words he’d ever said.

She didn’t push any farther, but turned her back toward him and spooned against his chest. Connor draped his arm over her and listened as her breathing turned steady in sleep.

He knew he should at least try to get some sleep before the flight tomorrow, but he just couldn’t. Every moment was precious. Instead, he held her tight and watched as the sun rose over the water. At first, it was just a hint of dawn, but it slowly became evident that the day had fully arrived.

And he knew exactly what he had to do.