My eyes are open now in a way they weren’t before.

I was looking, but not seeing. I could walk through the door, but I wasn’t free to leave.

Gabe grunts with that sexy, mysterious smile as he pushes open the door to our bedroom. He asked me to put on a black lace thong and bra, and told me to stay home while he went out to pick up some sushi and warm sake.

It feels good being taken care of. I was so used to taking care of other people.

Sometimes, it was because I wanted to. I stayed by my dad’s side until the very end, and it was wonderful, bittersweet, and infuriating to be there for him. I wanted to remember the good times we had together, and I did, until I lost my job as a file clerk at the library and had to go to work at the massage parlor. That’s when the bills started piling up, even with that very generous advance from the massage parlor.

And then when I started working there, and working on my massage therapist certification, I liked it at first, as I recently explained to Gabe. I liked taking care of people, making them feel good. And I’m good at it.

But I’m just now realizing I should be as generous with myself as I am with others.

I kneel on the bed as Gabe closes the door behind him and starts unbuttoning his shirt, revealing that impossibly gorgeous body beneath the impeccable clothes. He pulls his shirt off and tosses it onto the floor as I feel my body heat in anticipation.

“Get over here, baby,” he says, pulling his undershirt off and tossing it to the floor.

I crawl across the bed and my fingers fly to his belt, and I lick my lips and look up at him.

“No, love,” he says, pushing my shoulders away gently. I fall back on my elbows and he kneels between my legs, crawling toward me as I scoot backwards on the bed.

Just having him so near me is making me wet, making my clit jump when his lips come down on my inner thigh.

“Ohhh…”

His fingers slip under the thin black fabric at the sides of the panties he’d selected for me. I can feel the sticky sweet moisture between my legs, and as he glides the sides of my panties down, they stick to my body. He leaves the panties there as he grins up at me wickedly, and my mind spins as he licks against the edge of the fabric and I throw my arm over my forehead, gasping and smiling and closing my eyes when my head falls back onto the bed.

“Bad baby girl is already so wet for her man,” he growls, hooking a finger behind the soaked fabric, grazing his finger against my clit as he moves.

I exhale shallowly, squeezing my eyes closed tight. I will never grow used to his touch. He knows just what to do. And it always feels like the first time.

He pulls the fabric aside and sweeps his tongue sweetly against my clit, the broadness pressing hard against me. He tugs on the thong so it presses snugly against my skin, driving me crazy.

“Gabe, that’s so good,” I moan, bending my knees instinctively.

He stiffens his tongue and swirls it against my clit, making exquisite circles against the most sensitive part of my body.

“You taste fucking amazing,” he says, pulling his tongue away and breathing in slowly. “God, I am so happy I have you.”

He spreads me open with his fingers and darts his tongue against my clit, sweeping around it in faster and faster circles, making me so close to cumming.

And when I’m about to, he pulls away and stands up, unclasping his pants. I can already see the outline of his big dick in his pants and he pulls them down, finally pulling himself out for me.

“You know to be patient,” he says, “my sweet Avery. You know waiting until you are really wet is what I like.”

“But I want it now,” I moan, bucking my hips against him.

He takes care of me. He took care of me when no one else would.

And I’ve learned it was no one’s fault but my own. I didn’t know how to ask for help.

I was so used to taking care of other people, and I neglected myself for too long.

“Come on Gabe,” I say, practically clawing at him. I feel so wet for him, and my pussy clenches up and it’s so unsatisfying for him to not be inside me still, but that just makes it all the better when he finally gives me what I want.

“What is it, baby girl?” he growls, yanking my hair, taking it in his fist.

God, that always makes me so wet.

“I want it. Give it to me.”

“What is it, baby? You want my big cock to pound at your bad girl little pussy until you cum?”

“Oh god, something like that,” I say, partially laughing, partially begging.

He slowly kneels in front of me - he is still a big crazy tease, but then again he accuses me of the same thing - and tauntingly yanks his pants down, scratching the stubble on his cheek, that little cleft in his chin so freaking cute and sexy.

And then he dives into me as he slips his arm around my back, cradling me, kissing me, and pushing deep inside me, making my lips spread open for me.

And then he bites down on my bottom lip and pulls gently, and the fierce jolt of sweet pain hits my brain like a drug. It’s that little something extra that pushes me forward, and I just love the way he makes me feel.

“I love you, Gabe,” I breathe against him, muttering into the air, pressing my lips against his.

He crushes his mouth against mine as he takes my cheeks into his hands, caressing the sides of my face.

He told me he loved me the first night we met. I told him he was crazy. I told him there was no way he could know that. That didn’t deter him from telling me it over and over, deep inside the walls of passion and in the long, dark corridor of mystery he pulled me into. My brain swam with questions and deep down inside, somewhere deeper than my gut, somewhere I still don’t know that I can unlock, I already knew it, too. I knew it from the moment he looked at me at the club.

I remember how it felt when he brought the cold in with him that day. He was looking for something, and in some ways he found exactly what it was, and in some ways finding it wasn’t possible, and couldn’t have been possible, because he was looking for me all along, he’d told me, and he could never have imagined something as good as me. He told me it was the the precise combination of me and him together. The chemicals between us and the moment we shared, the confluence of factors that lead us together on that day behind the bars. We were both hiding something. He held the key to unlock everything. He just didn’t know where it would fit until he walked into that place he rescued me from.

He said he was looking for a long, long time. He quit his job as a public servant because he wanted to find that ever-elusive thing, the thing that evaded his mom for so long because his dad had walked out on both of them, choosing to marry his assistant after having an affair. He told me he was sickened at how freaking cliche it was, at what a walking stereotype his father was.

And then when his father passed, the money that landed in Gabe’s lap was like a joke; he’d told me that, too. He said he actually laughed when his father’s estate attorney called him. He didn’t even know his father was freaking loaded. He knew basically nothing about the man. He’d been a brilliant computer science professor at a large public university upstate, but Gabe never imagined a life in academia would bring his father the riches he ended up acquiring. Turns out, he didn’t either; he’d quit his job at the university to work on some tech start-up, and he’d struck gold.

That’s when Gabe quit his job at the DA’s office, when he received that inheritance. The money came with a letter and a lesson; a letter from his father telling him not to waste his life. And although Gabe certainly did not want to take advice from a philanderer, he’d decided that the man happened to be right, and it was then that Gabe decided to invest the money on his own.

He called it the ultimate irony. He called it a bittersweet lesson in the cruelty and humor of the universe. He told his mom that he wouldn’t waste a minute of his life toiling away in an office he didn’t care about, and he wouldn’t waste a penny of the money pursuing anything that did not matter.

It’s only been in the last month that he sold his share of Club Skin and went back to work at the DA’s office.

I almost never think about my old life, the one in the massage parlor. The one where I was hanging off the edge of danger with just my little finger, not knowing that there were sharks circling just beneath my feet.

Right now, I’m just enjoying reading and cooking every day. Taking bubble baths, as silly as I feel sometimes doing it. He’s kept me spoiled. I know I’ll have to get a job sooner or later because I’ll go crazy sitting at home, but for now I’m just enjoying some me time.

When he told me he loved me, I didn’t have the depth of experience to understand that he could really mean it. But understanding wasn’t necessary. I could feel it on a visceral level, inside my body, inside my bones, in the way he looked at me, the feel of his touch against my skin.

And it didn’t take me long to tell him it right back.

“I love you too,” he says. I close my eyes and allow myself to be given over to him in every possible way.

I feel like I’m dreaming.

“Sweet Avery,” he growls, kissing my forehead, my lips, my neck, “you are still so perfect. So pure. So beautiful.”

He pushes into me over and over, his hands roaming over my body reverently and with care and precision until I shudder under him.

“Yes girl, make your pussy suck up every last drop of me,” he growls, and I become intoxicated, pushed over the edge as we cum together.

The room hangs heavy in the silky blue evening and he showers me with kisses, and love, and everything I ever wanted but didn’t know where to look.

I didn’t have to look. He found me anyway.

He rolls away from me carefully, reaching over to pull the blankets over us.

“Avery,” he starts, “I have to tell you something because I don’t want you to look at the news tomorrow and be surprised. I want to tell you before you hear it from somewhere else.”

I feel a knot form inside my throat as my body heats, anxious energy suddenly pumping through me. But I try to push it away.

“Gabe, what are you talking about?”

He reaches for my face and pushes my messy hair behind my ears. My skin tingles at his touch.

“I’m not really supposed to tell you this, but the DA’s office is handing down indictments tomorrow morning for the people who run the massage parlor. Apparently this thing goes pretty high up, and there’s some important people involved.”

“W...what?” I ask, completely puzzled.

I thought that place was so hidden, so shrouded. So off the grid

“How?” I add.

“The DA’s office has been building a case against them for a long time. And it’s not just political opportunism for once, either. I mean, granted, the head DA is looking for this to be a career-maker. He’s going to run for governor. But this is going to be a huge victory for the state. And for us.”

“Gabe,” I start, the corners of my eyes prickling with tears, “that is wonderful news. I...part of me feels guilty for being able to get out. There are still girls there. So many girls still there.”

“We are going to get them out of there,” he says, taking my face in his hands. “We are going to get them out of there.”

“Are they going to get into trouble?” I ask, my heart thrumming. I feel frantic almost. Almost. But the look in his eyes tells me it is going to be okay.

“No,” Gabe says surely. “They are survivors, not criminals. The arrests have already been made. All of the girls are going to have immunity. They are being offered counseling and services if they want them. And you did nothing wrong, my Avery. None of the girls did. You remember that.”

I swallow thickly and press my face into the crook of his neck.

“Gabe, how can I ever thank you?”

He wraps me up, and I feel warm. And safe in his arms. And I feel everything good in this one moment.

“Avery, I only need one thing from you. Only one thing in this world. Just be mine forever.”

“I will,” I breathe as he kisses my forehead. “I will be yours forever.”