“Libby,” he says, “I need to talk to you.”

I honestly didn’t expect him to come here. My mouth is open and I’m staring, but I can’t seem to make my body function.

“Can I come in?”

Cosette looks back and forth between the two of us, and I know that if I give her any sign that I’m uncomfortable, she’ll stay with me. But this is Julian, and my heart is beating so fast, and even though it feels like everything is falling apart, it feels good to look at him. I took his advice last night, and talked it out with Cosette. It made things better. I need to talk to him too. “Come in,” I say.

Cosette grins at me. “Guess I’ll see you later then.” She closes the door softly on her way out, and then Julian and I are left staring at each other. I gesture for him to come in further, and he follows me to the living room.

“Libby,” his voice sounds desperate. “Please tell me what’s going on. Last night, I thought you were shaken up, but now you’re quitting the club, and I’m not sure that you even want to see me. I just don’t understand.”

“I just took a lot of time today to think, and this is for the best.” I take a deep breath and begin to explain. I explain to him how I realized that Cosette was jealous, and how we’re better, but not perfect. That I’m not sure how much of this is my own blind selfishness. How I was so happy, only to find out that everyone around me was miserable. “You didn’t tell me that you used to tip the other dancers. That you used to spread it around. Now because you don’t, because the patrons like me and I get all the attention from you, they all hated me.” I take another deep breath. “And after that, I wasn’t sure if it was all real. We talked about it, but we never actually left the club together—aside from last night—and if an entire group of dancers was able to fool me into thinking they liked me…I just thought…I don’t know.” I can’t bear to finish the thought out loud, to admit what I thought.

Julian sighs, crossing the room to me. He pulls me into his arms, and I let him do it. “I’m so sorry you thought that. Not for one second was my intention to make people hate you, or to use you.” He cups my face with his hands, making me look at him. “All I ever wanted was you. I still do. I want you inside the club, outside the club, wherever. If you end up on the fucking moon, Libby, that’s where I’ll want you. Being at the club was just convenient for both of us, but if you think that I wouldn’t want to see you just because you’re not dancing at the club, then I don’t think I’ve done a good enough job showing you just how badly I want you. All the time.

I feel that thing in my chest, that pleasure and pain emotion that’s too big and makes me feel like I might cry. Julian kisses me, gathering me up in his arms, and after today it feels so damn good to be kissed like this. It feels oddly like coming home. Welcoming and warm and so much more than that. It’s a relief to know that my worst imaginings weren’t true and that the best month of my life was in fact, real.

“Where’s your bedroom?” Julian asks. “I’ll show you just how thoroughly I want you. If you can’t already tell.”

I glance down at his tented pants and laugh. “I can tell.”

“Good. I’m still going to show you.”

I pull him down the hall towards my bedroom, but it takes us forever to get there. Julian keeps interrupting our progress with kisses that set my skin on fire, shedding clothes and taking mine off too. By the time we actually make it to my bed, I’m only in panties, and he’s naked. I can very much tell how much he wants me. He puts a condom on and I push him down on the bed. My bed, my rules, and this time, I’m going to be on top.

Taking his cock in my hand, I guide it to my entrance. I sink down onto him slowly, and I love it. I love it so much, and it’s absurd how much I missed it like it’s been two years and not two days. Julian runs his hands over my stomach, my legs, anywhere he can reach me. He teases my clit, and my breath catches, eyes fluttering closed as he toys with it. He’s using tiny, staccato strokes. Back and forth, up and down, around and around. Over and over again until my hips start thrusting on their own. Suddenly I’m riding him, fucking him, letting him plunge deep into me with every roll of my hips.

The look on his face is perfect, lips parted, eyes glazed with pleasure. I ride him harder, seeking that sweet pleasure that I know he can give me, desperate to feel that closeness that we had just a couple of days ago. Julian’s hands are on my hips, slowing me down, moving us together, and I let him guide us. He’s right, it’s too fast, and the way he’s pulling me down onto his cock is damn near perfect. I lean down and kiss him, tangling my tongue with his and loving the taste of him.

He starts to move his hips with mine, pushing up into me while I’m still fucking him and I cry out. There it is, that rising tide of pleasure overwhelming my senses and making me feel like I’ll never get enough. Julian fucks me faster, pulling me down against him and holding me against his chest as he thrusts hard and fast. He doesn’t slow down, kissing me desperately. I kiss him back. We both need this—the release, the assurance, and he breaks open a second before I do. His cock jerks inside me and he thrusts again, deeper than before and it sends me over, gasping into perfect bliss. My thighs are shaking and I can’t seem to catch my breath and it’s all so fucking perfect that I want to cry.

I kiss him again because how could I not kiss him? Cosette was right. I am absolutely, one-hundred percent falling for this man.

We come down together, breathing each other’s breath, holding each other. Julian pulls out of me, tucking me down onto the bed before cleaning himself up and returning to me. He pulls me into his arms again, my head tucked under his chin and leaning on his chest. We fit like we were made for it.

“I hope I convinced you.”

“You did,” I say, “though I didn’t really need convincing.”

He presses a kiss to my temple and I close my eyes, content.

“Are you really going to quit?” he asks. There’s no judgement in his tone, only curiosity. “Even with the salary?”

I laugh a little. “The ridiculous salary that you probably should never have offered me? Yeah. I mean, I can find another job. Relationships are one of the only things that matter, and no job is worth losing my best friend. Or my boyfriend,” I say, as I look at him and he grins.

“I understand why you’re doing it,” Julian says. “But as a businessman, you’re too talented for me to let you go without a fight.”

“If you offer me more money I’m going to smack you.”

He laughs, rich and full. “Fair enough. What if I could offer you something different? Something that wouldn’t make you compete with Cosette but would still be worth of your salary?”

“You’d create a position just for me to stay?”

“Of course not,” he smiles. “Well, maybe I would. But I don’t have to. If I recall correctly, we’re now short a talent manager.”

“Randall’s job? You think I could do that?”

He gives me a look. “You’re a brilliant dancer, and I have no doubt that you’d be able to see talent in others. You’re brave, and fearless, and have the biggest heart of anyone I know. Those all seem like good qualities in a position that’s managing people.”

I crawl on top of him again, straddling his hips, and I feel his cock stir underneath me. “You’re crazy. And it’s perfect and I hate job hunting so yes, absolutely, I accept.”

He laughs through my kissing him. “Be careful, I might start to think that you actually like me.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I say, trailing my kisses down onto his jaw. “I clearly hate you. These are hate kisses.” I flex my hips against his cock. “This was hate sex.”

He catches my face and pulls my mouth back to his, lips achingly soft and gentle. Again that stirring in my chest. I feel so full of this feeling that I know it’s going to burst out of me. “You sure you haven’t gotten hate and love confused?” He asks, kisses growing more intense. “I hear there’s a fine line between them.” He flips me over, pinning me to the bed and taking my mouth in a kiss that leaves me dizzy. “I know where my kisses are coming from, and it certainly isn’t hate.” He pulls back and looks me in the eyes, no trace of a joke anywhere on his face. “I love you, Libby.”

I feel like I’m cracking open, breaking with the force of this emotion, my voice unable to rise above a whisper. “I love you, too.”

He kisses me again and again and again until I’m breathless and aroused and ready for him to take me again. “I hope you know that I make an excellent breakfast.”

“Does that mean you’re spending the night?”

He laughs, rolling on a condom. “Tonight, and every night. Your place or mine, we’re going to be together.”

I groan as he pushes into me, filling me to the brim. “I like the sound of that.”

“I thought you might.”

And then there’s no more thinking, only sweet, sweet pleasure.