Refreshing. That’s the word.

Getting to know Phoebe Pink after all these years is refreshing. I’m typically surrounded by a certain type of person. Flashy, wealthy. Privileged, elite. Phoebe is none of those things. She’s laid-back, wholesome.

Hell, she even answers the phone when her mother calls.

“Yeah, Mom…” Phoebe looks at me with an apologetic wince. “That sounds amazing…” She mouths that she’s sorry again and I wave a hand as I dip the last bite of my steak in yummy mustard.

“Mom, I actually have to get going but I’ll call you back…” she exhales, “I said I’ll call you back. Because…” Her eyes flick at me. “Because I have a date.”

I grin, chewing softly.

She rolls her eyes. “No, you can’t talk to him.”

I laugh and take a sip of my wine. I glance around her loft, taking in the little bits of her personality stashed in bits of clutter all around.

“No, I haven’t heard yet,” she says. “I’ll know by next Thursday. Yes, you’ll be the first person I call, Mom.” She twitches with impatience but her smile stays on. “Mom, I love you, but I have to go. … Okay. … Bye.”

She hangs up and sets it down.

“So, that was Mom,” I say, smiling.

“I am so sorry,” she says. “I should have called her back before but I just forgot…”

“It’s okay. My mother can also be very… aggressive.”

“That’s one way of putting it,” she jokes. “She calls almost every other day now ever since I told her I might get that promotion.”

“Oh, yeah,” I say, playing dumb as if I hadn’t been dreading the thought of it all weekend. “Are your parents excited about that?”

“They couldn’t be happier, actually. Every parent wants their kid’s wildest dreams to come true, right?”

I nod. Her wildest dreams. Three-thousand miles away from me. “Right.”

“What about you?” she asks. “Is your dad still… that shouting guy?”

I chuckle. “Yes, he is. Don’t think that’s likely to change anytime soon.”

Her face twists with sympathy. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. It’s my own damn fault.”

She pauses. “Why?”

“Because…” I flex my jaw, stalling a few seconds while I think about how much to say. “Because I take it. There isn’t a damn thing stopping me from walking out but I don’t. I just take it because it feels safer than the alternative.”

“Which is?”

I look at her and her big, knowing eyes. “Starting from the bottom,” I answer.

She nods. “Fighting for promotions, arguing salaries… like the rest of us.”

“Yeah.”

I feel stupid saying this all out loud. To Phoebe Pink especially. The voucher girl.

“Well,” she says, “I don’t really blame you. If I could skip ahead, I would, too.”

“Every school I got into. Every job I’ve ever had. Even my damn condo…” I shake my head. “All because of my dad. I’m not a person, I’m an extension of someone else, but you…” I look to her again and she smiles. “I admire you, Phoebe. You’re a bright and confident woman who took your own path through life instead of blindly following what someone else planned for you. You’re the person I’m too scared to be.”

Phoebe inhales a deep, quivering breath. “Wow…”

“What?”

“Nothing. Just…” She finishes off her wine. “Fifteen-year-old me just had a massive stroke.”

I laugh. “You think she’ll make it?”

“I don’t think so.” She chuckles. “She’s out cold.”

“Will a little mouth-to-mouth do the trick?” I ask.

“Not unless you want sixteen to drop, too.”

I reach for her hand across the table. “Then, we’ll compromise. How about that?”

I kiss her hand and her cheeks turn pinker.

“That’s good,” she says.

“Is sixteen still with us?” I ask.

“She’s a little woozy,” she jokes, “but I think she’ll pull through.”

“Excellent.” I hold her knuckles against my lips for a moment. “I’m sorry I can’t stay.”

“That’s okay…” she replies. “Just means I can’t exhaust you as much as I want to.”

I chuckle. “There’s a bit of that fun Phoebe Pink again.”

“Yeah, well…” She leans an inch closer. “I guess you just bring that out of me.”

I feel the brush of her toes against my thigh beneath the table and I drop my head, laughing as she does. “You know…” I reach for my wineglass. “I have to admit something to you.”

She pauses, along with her probing toes. “What?”

I look down, my eyes falling from her lips to her neck and chest. “At the restaurant, I… I really wanted to fuck your brains out on that table.”

Her eyes grow wide with delight. “Really?”

“Oh, yeah.” I take a sip of my wine as her toes continue along my thigh. “I couldn’t, obviously… especially if I ever wanted to set foot in my favorite restaurant ever again.”

Phoebe studies me with a soft and warm stare. Her eyes wander my face, searching for a question she’s not sure she can ask, but she wets her lips and asks anyway. “How would you have done it?”

“I’m not sure,” I answer.

“Well, you must have had some kind of idea in your head…” she says. “Or else, you wouldn’t have mentioned it.”

“Okay.” I clear my throat as I set my glass down. “Let us recreate the scene, shall we?”

“We shall.” She grins and watches as I look to the table.

“My cup was here,” I say, positioning my wineglass to the side. “We’ll just pretend this is saké, okay?”

“Right.” She nods with amusement.

I reach across the table. “Your cup was about… here…” I slide it a few inches to her right. “And we hadn’t gotten our food yet, so we’ll just…”

I take hold of my dirty plate and push it down the table. Phoebe’s face flashes with a bit of nerves but the plate stops long before it’s in danger of falling off. She does the same with her own plate, her lips twitching as it grinds along the table to rest next to mine.

“I sat here,” I say, “and you sat there.” My eyes fall down her chest. “You wore that gorgeous black dress and I remember wanting to…”

She digs her toes into my groin, fueling the need deep inside of me.

“Wanting to what?” she asks.

I rest a hand on her ankle beneath the table, holding her firm rub in place as she awakens my cock. “I wanted to stand up, walk over, and kiss you. Must have thought about it at least twenty times…”

Her head tilts slightly. “Why didn’t you?”

“I wasn’t sure you wanted me to. Seems pretty silly now…”

She smiles, her foot still working me beneath the table. “I wanted you to,” she says. “I want you to.”

“Well…” I stand up slowly. “I’m not one to make the same mistake twice, so…”

I walk around the table and rest a hand on her cheek. She tilts her head up, her skin gently buzzing against my fingertips. Her throat bounces as she swallows in anticipation but I don’t lean in just yet. Her cheeks flush. Her mouth quivers. She waits on pins and needles, almost as if she expects me to turn back. To change my mind about her. To leave and never come back because it’s all just a sick prank.

I bend down and kiss her.

Fuck that.

I’m not going anywhere.

Phoebe trembles as she kisses me back. All hesitation melts away as she reaches up to rest a hand on my chest. I take her wrist and pull her out of the chair, forcing her closer so I can kiss her even harder.

I feel down her body, sliding my hand all the way down her thigh to draw her skirt up. “I wanted to sit you down, like this…”

I nudge her body into the table and she gasps as my erection presses against her hip. She sits down and I force her knees apart with one hand while I unzip myself with the other.

“I wanted you to open yourself to me,” I say. I kiss her, hard and fast. “Would you have?”

“Yes,” she sighs, spreading her legs a little wider and pulling me closer.

I grip her panties, holding back the urge to take her now, as I slide them down to her ankles. She kicks them to the floor and grips my shirt to yank me back to her, immediately kissing me with rough and warm lips.

“Do it,” she says.

I take hold of my swollen cock and guide it blindly into her dripping pussy. Phoebe’s jaw drops as I slide my length as far as I’ll go. Her nails dig into my arms and she presses her mouth into my shoulder as she lets out her first moan.

I take hold of her hips to keep her in place as we fuck. I lose myself completely in her tightness. Somehow, I always forget how sublime she feels on the inside. No woman has ever felt this good and I honestly don’t want to bother trying to find another one who does…

I pound her harder and the table shakes beneath us. Red wine rolls behind her from a fallen glass but neither of us reacts at all as the glass tumbles to the hardwood floor and shatters. The siren call of her moans blocks out everything else. Nothing else matters.

“Max,” she says my name and I smile. “I’m—”

I kiss her hard, silencing her. I already know what she’s going to say but I don’t want her to tell me she’s about to come. I can feel the tight twisting taking over her snatch myself. I sense that gentle pulse of her inner muscles along my shaft. It won’t be long now.

I maintain my pace but I fuck her as hard as I can.

Phoebe slips down onto her back, giving me a view of her writhing body. Her breasts bounce from the momentum of my thrust shaking her up and down. They nearly spill out of her top while her nipples play peek-a-boo. I lean over to sink my teeth into the mountainous peaks and she moans so loud, the neighbors will surely complain.

Her hands snap to mine. She holds onto me with a strong grip as she comes for me. Her back arches off the table and I feel a fresh, wet deluge overwhelm my cock inside of her.

“Max…” she whimpers, her eyes barely open.

I raise her hands and pull her up to kiss me. Moans slip from her throat with every breath she exhales. I swear, if I were to die right now, I wouldn’t mind her little voice being the last thing I ever heard.

“Phoebe…” I whisper.

Her gray eyes flutter open. “Hmm?”

“I want you.”

She laughs. “Well, I think ya got me…”

“I just wanted you to hear it,” I say, “because I’m still not sure you believe me.”

“I don’t,” she whispers with a smile on her lips, “but I’m starting to come around.”

I cup her face and kiss her, focusing hard on committing everything about this moment to memory.

There’s no way in hell I’m going to forget this one.

* * *

I’m not sure how many lattes it’s going to take for me to act normal in the morning but every single drop will be oh-so-worth it.

“Don’t fall asleep!”

I force my eyes open as Phoebe cries out. I look across her loft, catching sight of her head poking out of the bathroom doorway.

“I’m not…” I lie.

She steps out wearing nothing but an over-sized shirt. Her hair is brushed and she wiped the lipstick off her cheek. All cleaned up after an evening of fucking and here I am… naked and covered in sweat.

She nudges my knee as she sits down on the bed. “You told me not to let you stay tonight,” she says, pointing a finger.

“I did no such thing,” I claim, reaching out to caress her thigh. “I told you I shouldn’t stay tonight.”

“And I took it upon myself to be the official enforcer of that behavior.” She bends over and grabs my pants off the floor. “You should go. It’s after midnight.”

I frown. “Exactly how long after midnight?”

“Forty-five minutes.”

“Oh, that’s nothing.” I wave a hand. “This time of night, it only takes about fifteen minutes to get from here to Beverly Hills, so—”

“Max.” She smiles. “Don’t take this the wrong way… but get the fuck off my bed and go home.”

I feign a gasp as she tosses me my pants. “Is that how it is?”

“Just making an honest lawyer out of you.” She stands up and wanders around the room to gather the rest of my clothes scattered on the floor.

I laugh and lie back, stretching my arms over my head. “Okay, okay—”

My hand brushes along the posts of her headboard and something soft runs through my fingers. I pause to feel the long, thin strap of material that’s instantly familiar to any well-dressed man.

I look back over my shoulder as I try to pull it free but it’s knotted off on one of the posts.

A man’s tie.

With a red and black checkerboard pattern.

Thad?

“Honestly, Max…”

I drop it and turn back around to face her as she returns to the bed.

“You can stay if you want to, but…” She sets my shirt and shoes down. “I’ll feel like crap if your meeting goes south because you didn’t get a good night’s rest beforehand…”

I smile. “I suppose that is the polite thing to do…”

“It really is,” she says.

“You’re right.” I sit up and throw my feet to the floor. “I’ll go, get a good sleep, and wake up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.”

“That’s a good boy.”

Phoebe bends down and kisses the edge of my mouth.

I pause for a moment, staring deep into her gray eyes. She’s always had the most innocent and trusting eyes. Or so I thought. I’m good at reading people. That’s my job. Innocent. Guilty. I can usually tell but right now…

I can’t.

Was Thad here?

And if so, why didn’t she tell me? Hell, why didn’t he tell me?

I kiss her back because, strangely, part of me just doesn’t seem to care at all.