Maddy tilted her head to the side, taking in the rows and rows of toys in front of her. Purely Pleasure’s offices had been outfitted with “The Closet,” as it was called: a full inventory of every product the company had ever made, set on specially designed and lighted shelves that lined the walls of the room.

Which is why Maddy was standing in front of a shelf that contained a veritable rainbow of dildos right now. Just… one in every color. And material. And shape. And size.

“Well, this isn’t something you see every day,” she said to herself, propping her hands on her hips. She’d come in here because she wanted to get some ideas for the company Instagram, which had been woefully neglected by whoever had her job last. Maddy already had her assistant putting together gift boxes of toys to send to certain social media influencers and sex-positive bloggers, and now she had a whole visual campaign to plan.

Now that she thought about it, a rainbow of dildos wasn’t the worst idea. She pursed her lips, looking at the row of toys with new eyes. It could be kind of cute. One for every occasion.

She snorted, shaking her head, laughing at herself. She could’ve never imagined that she’d end up here. But she couldn’t say it wasn’t interesting—and empowering. Where else would she get to work for a sex- and woman-positive company? That was rare in itself. Like a unicorn.

It was nice to feel valued… as if her voice and her creativity and her opinions mattered and were always taken into account. She hadn’t felt that in her work or personal life in a long time.

“There you are!”

Maddy jerked out of her reverie, looking to her right as Nat closed the door behind her and strode into the room.

“What are you doing in here?” she asked.

“Brainstorming stuff for Instagram.”

“Oh, that reminds me.” Nat plucked a black credit card out of the folder in her hands, holding it out. “Company credit card. Charge any equipment you need to it. Zoe has an itemized list of the cameras and software we already have, but Carter said to get anything you wanted.”

“Thanks,” Maddy said. “I went through Zoe’s list and brought my camera and a few portable lights from home, but we’ll need a lot more than the basics as soon as we get back from the retreat.”

“Whatever you’ve got planned will be great,” Nat said.

“I certainly have a lot to work with,” Maddy said, gesturing around her.

It was truly impressive, the toy closet. Purely Pleasure had six different toy lines in total, but within those six lines, there were endless variations, which fit into the company’s motto: A toy as unique as you are.

“It is quite the collection of vibrators,” Nat said. “And dildos. And clit suckers. And massagers. And cock sleeves. And that whole line of aphrodisiac lube Carter created after too many shots of absinthe one night. And…”

Maddy couldn’t keep a straight face, dissolving into laughter as Nat’s mouth twisted, joining in her giggles.

“I kind of love this job,” Maddy confessed to her.

Nat’s smile widened. “Good! Because I love having you here. And because I have really big news.”

Her best friend’s voice was shaking. Not in a bad, scary, uh-oh sort of way. No in the oh-my-god-I-can’t-contain-my-happiness way.

“What, what, tell me!” Maddy urged her.

“You can’t tell anyone yet,” Nat said. “But Carter wants to get back to inventing full time. He’s stepping down as CEO at the end of the summer and handing the company over to me to run.”

Maddy’s mouth dropped open. “You’re going to be CEO?” she whisper-shouted.

“Yes!”

“Oh, my God!” She grabbed Nat’s hands in her own, and the two of them began to bounce delightedly, like they were still freshmen in college, the world stretched out in front of them, everything fresh and new and possible. “You are amazing!” she squealed to her best friend. “I am so freaking proud of you!”

“I’m still in shock, I totally didn’t see it coming,” Nat said, beaming so wide it made Maddy’s heart hurt, she was so happy for her. “But Carter says he’s done running the day to day. He wants to be in his lab, where he ‘belongs,’ as he puts it.” Nat put little air quotes around the word, scoffing a little.

“Well, if that’s what makes him happy, he should—” Maddy started, but then stopped as a triumphant look crossed across Nat’s face. “What?’ she asked suspiciously. She knew that look. It was Nat’s matchmaking look.

Uh-oh.

“You like Carter,” Nat declared.

“Of course I like him,” Maddy said, trying to keep her voice level, but once again, her damn cheeks betrayed her. She could feel them getting hot. “Carter is a really nice guy.”

“Madeline Craine, you have the worst poker face,” Nat said. “You like him.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Maddy said quickly, directing her attention back to the rows of toys on the shelves. “I think I’m going to start with the Pearl line. Do a little luminescent theme. Some iridescent touches.”

“He likes you, too,” Nat sing-songed. “I can tell.”

Maddy shot her a look, feeling like a stern schoolteacher. “Nat, come on. Carter is… well, he’s him. He owns all this. Didn’t he date, like, actresses and models in New York?”

“You are pretty enough to be a model. And tall enough,” Nat said.

Maddy laughed. She loved Nat for that, truly. “Nat, I’m not putting myself down, but I am not a model.”

“You better not be putting yourself down—you’re incredible,” Nat said, scowling. “You’re beautiful and you’re sweet and you’re smart as hell. Carter would be lucky if you looked his way. And I’m pretty sure he knows that.”

“Nat, I’m not going to date my boss,” Maddy said. She didn’t want to admit the little thrill in her stomach every time Nat insisted Carter was interested. She’d been telling herself she’d been imagining the expression in his eyes, the way sometimes she’d catch his gaze and he’d smile a little bashfully, looking away quickly.

“Didn’t you just hear what I said? He won’t be your boss in like, five minutes. Well, more like five or six weeks.”

“Is that when they’re doing the transplant?” Maddy asked.

What Carter was doing for his little sister humbled her. And it brought back memories. While donating bone marrow wasn’t as risky as donating an entire organ, she could still remember how scared she was—not of the operation itself—but what might happen if it didn’t work.

“Most likely,” Nat said. “And that’s another thing you two have in common. You’re wonderful, self-sacrificing siblings. It’s a match made in heaven.”

“Nat,” Maddy protested, laughing. She needed Nat to be joking. Because the alternative…

Well, it would get her hopes up. Carter was, well, he was the whole damn package and then some.

She didn’t want to admit it to Nat, but the last year of her relationship with David had done a number on her self-esteem. She could’ve handled the nearly constant rejection if it hadn’t been accompanied by the shame he seemed determined to make her feel. Add in losing her job, and her self-worth was a lot lower than normal. She felt so far from the confident, self-assured girl Nat remembered from college. Maddy wanted to get back to that woman. She wanted to feel that again, but every time she felt like she had her in her grasp, David’s cruel words would float back in her head, bringing her down again.

Wasn’t that always the way? A woman could get thirty compliments and one insult, and it’d be the insult that haunted her. But knowing that wasn’t helpful—actually rerouting her thinking was a whole other ball game.

“I’m not joking,” Nat said, tucking her riotous curls behind her ear. “The only reason I never introduced Carter to you when you visited me in New York was because I knew you two would hit it off in a big way. But I also knew you’d never leave Portland. I didn’t want to dangle the perfect person in front of either of you only to go ‘Sorry! She’s never leaving the Pacific Northwest!’ Because, frankly, that seems like a crappy thing to do. But now, there’s no distance and there’s no problem, and if you two would spend a little time together, you would realize you are perfect for each other.”

Maddy felt a deep wave of love for Nat. Her best friend really was just… the best. Someone who was always on her side, who wanted everything for her, who wanted her to have the happily ever after that Nat so fiercely believed in.

Nat was a romantic, for sure. And Maddy had been. She really had.

But now?

She wasn’t so sure. Maybe she was her own kind of romantic. One that involved a lot fewer glass slippers and fairy tales and a lot more steadiness and the kind of love that just wasn’t true, but trustworthy.

“Don’t tell me you’re not interested, because I know you are,” Nat continued.

“I don’t think any single woman with eyes could resist a man who is that smart and that handsome.”

Nat laughed, waving her hand. “Well, except me. Because he’s like the brother I never had.”

Maddy grinned. “Okay, yeah, I get that.”

“Just talk to him some more,” Nat said. “See if sparks fly. Anyway, I’ve got to get back to my office. Are we still on to carpool up to River Run tomorrow?”

“Yeah, I’ll pick you up at seven.” Nat made a face. She was not a morning person. “And I’ll bring you a whole bottle of my special cold-brew coffee,” Maddy added.

Nat’s eyes lit up. “The kind you made in college with the cinnamon coffee ice cubes?” she said, looking rapturous.

“Mm-hmm,” Maddy said. The vat of cold-brew coffee she kept in their dorm room fridge at all times had gotten the two of them through many a hangover back in the day. She brewed it extra strong.

“Oh, my God, I love you,” Nat said. “I’m naming my firstborn after you.”

“You are a gigantic dork,” Maddy called after her as she left the toy closet.

She turned back to the shelves, venturing deeper in the closet, examining the Hourglass line. She had one of the massagers from this line herself, and it was one of her favorites. Smaller toys usually didn’t pack as much of a punch, but Purely Pleasure’s always did.

She heard the door open again. “You aren’t going to beg me to make cinnamon rolls for the drive tomorrow too, are you?” she asked, assuming Nat had ducked back inside.

“I’m not one to beg,” said a voice that was decidedly not Nat.

Maddy’s eyes widened with embarrassment as she whirled around. A tall blonde man with deep-set eyes was standing there, a slick, self-satisfied smile on his face.

Dillon. The guy who had acted like an ass at the manager meeting.

Maddy shifted a little, making sure her feet were steady as she assessed how to brush past him in the narrow space to get to the door. “Sorry,” she said, with a quick, impersonal smile. “I thought you were someone else.”

“Pity,” Dillon drawled, adding what he clearly thought was a charming smirk, but really just made him look kind of constipated.

“I need to get back to work,” Maddy said coolly, moving forward just as he leaned against one of the shelves, conveniently blocking her way to the door. She raised an eyebrow. “You’re in my way,” she said.

“I just want to get to know our latest hire,” he said.

“Here’s a tip: trapping me in a room with you isn’t the way to go about it,” Maddy said. “Please get out of my way.”

He laughed, a long, drawn-out condescending sound that made her skin prickle in irritation. “You’re feisty, aren’t you?”

He was going to find out how feisty if he didn’t get out of her way. Maddy knew his type. Dillon was your typical Ivy League frat boy who never grew up, casually and hurtfully dismissive and sexist, always thinking his voice was the most important, always talking over everyone else. He needed to feel like he was on top, like he was powerful and in control at all times. And anyone that threatened his fragile world-view had to be cut down to size. His type was one of the reasons she had left advertising. She preferred to keep her life as free of that kind of narcissism as possible.

She was just thinking she might have to “accidentally” step on his foot when the door swung open again.

“Carter,” she mentally winced when it came out a lot more panicky than she’d like. Being cornered like this made her heart beat too fast and her palms sweat. “I was just looking for you!”

Carter’s green eyes—normally so warm and friendly beneath the silver frames of his glasses—were cold as ice as he took in the scene: Dillon blocking Maddy’s escape route, her flushed cheeks and panicky breath.

“You’re going to go,” Carter said to Dillon, his voice like a scythe, cutting through any bullshit. It sent shivers down Maddy’s spine. “Right now.”

“We were just getting to know each other,” Dillon said, pasting a forced smile on his face. “No worries.”

“Out,” Carter said, and it was much more an order than a suggestion.

“Yeah, whatever,” Dillon said, brushing past him, knocking their shoulders together. Maddy watched with some satisfaction as the blow didn’t even budge Carter, who was much larger and who raised one eyebrow at Dillon as he slunk away.

“Was he being inappropriate with you?” Carter asked immediately.

“It’s fine,” Maddy said automatically, because that’s what you did when you were a woman who worked. You shrugged off stuff. You dismissed it. Most of the time it was easier, because someone like Dillon? He had a lot more money and power than her.

“No, it’s not fine,” Carter said, his voice going from cold to concerned. “That guy is an entitled asshole who doesn’t know proper boundaries.”

“I’ll say.”

It made that killer smile of his flash across his face. “Seriously, though. He bothers you—hell, he shows up again—let me know, okay? He’s being banned from the building as we speak.”

“He was just invading my space the way jerky guys like him do,” Maddy said. “But I’m glad you’re dealing with it.”

“He’s not going to be around anymore,” Carter said firmly, a mix of concern and anger playing across his face.

“That’s probably for the best,” Maddy said.

“Are you getting some good ideas for the new campaigns we talked about?” he asked, gesturing to the shelves behind her.

Maddy could feel her cheeks heating. “Yes!” she said, aware of how squeaky her voice had gone. You are in a room full of sex toys with the man you have an enormous crush on. This isn’t awkward at all. “I should have some basic mockups by next week, when we get back.”

“Perfect,” he said, and his glasses slipped a little down his perfectly straight nose, making her heart flutter. “I can’t wait to see what you’ve come up with. I bet it’ll be great. I’ll let you get back to it.”

“Thanks for the rescue,” she said.

“Any time,” he said, and was it her imagination, or was there a glint of a deeper promise in his eyes?

Maddy took several deep breaths after he left, focusing on the shelf of clit stimulators in front of her. There were so many of them, some designed to suck, some designed to lick, to flutter, to pulse; there was even one that nibbled.

Were the rumors true? Maddy tried not to think about it, but when faced with the array of toys designed to bring you to all sorts of kinds of orgasm, she had to wonder: Was Carter really that good of a lover?

You had to be devoted to build something like this—to build all these. Her eyes took in the different lines of toys and the dizzying array within each line. One of Purely Pleasure’s selling points was the vast array of their products. They weren’t just about getting people off—they were an entire experience.

I bet that’s what they say about Carter, said that naughty little voice in her head.

She turned her gaze back on the shelves and on her plans. She was gonna kill it at this job, and that meant being on top of everything. Fantasizing about being on top of Carter instead wasn’t going to help her.

She pulled her notebook out and began to write, an idea forming in her mind.