A couple of hours later I’m in a slight fog from the wine, but it’s more pleasant than how I felt before drinking my first two glasses. I even have a third glass resting on the ledge of the marble bathtub as I wallow in the bubbles, my hair still up, one of my feet perched on the side as I use polish remover to erase the latest color from my toenails.

I’m whiling away the time while Travis still works in the closed library, and I’m darn sure squeezing out every moment of indulgence I can while I’m still here.

I have the tub’s waterfall on low, and it trickles down the wall, providing the only music I need besides the tune I’m absently humming while rubbing the saturated cotton over my toenails. And that’s how Travis discovers me when he enters.

I look up to find him more relaxed than he was when he left me earlier, his hands stuffed into his trouser pockets while wearing an air of casual curiosity about what I’m up to.

I perk up at his change in temperament. “Did you take care of business with security?”

He stiffens up, and it seems as if his thoughts go dark. Then he huffs out a sigh, relaxing again. “They’ve got everything under control, so no need for you to worry. Forget I mentioned anything.” His eyes get more intense and hungry. “That’s why you’re here, Nova—you’re my distraction.”

I can live with that, although I hope he works things out after I’m gone. “Want more wine?”

Travis doesn’t reply. As he wanders closer to me, my pulse mocks the rhythm of the tumbling waterfall. He looks at my nearly unpainted toenails and the bubblegum-pink bottle of polish near my wine glass.

I finish wiping off the old color then toss the cotton ball at the nearest trash bin. I score. “If you’re wondering what I’m doing, I just thought I’d wear a new color for a new beginning.”

Travis sits on the ledge by my feet. It seems as if there’s still something he wants to say to me, just like in the kitchen before that phone call interrupted him. I wait him out, my heartbeat stumbling.

Then he picks up the bottle of polish and opens it. “What time does your flight leave tomorrow?”

“Four in the afternoon.”

He traces the tops of my toes with a finger, then takes the tiny brush out of the bottle of polish. He paints my big toenail, and a tickle flutters through my pussy.

I clear my throat. “Your assistant arranged everything, so she has all the travel details.”

The only sounds in the room as he continues stroking polish onto one toenail then the next is the waterfall and the loud, uneven thump of my heartbeat. I’ve never seen someone focused so raptly on such a small task, and when Travis is done, he stands. Then he takes the polish as well as my glass of wine with him to the counter where he sets them down.

He wants me now, I think. There’s a twist in my clit, agonizing yet delightful at the same time. There’s an impatient raggedness to my breathing.

He sits back down on the ledge and lifts my first foot so that my leg comes out of the water. As he blows on my nails to dry them, I wiggle slightly in the tub, the bubbles popping on my skin, the water lapping at the marble sides.

I don’t say anything as he places my foot on his thigh, then pays the same deliberate, titillating attention to my other foot.

Now I’m grasping the sides of the tub, sinking down into the water, watching him. When he looks up at me, his eyes are the most vivid green I’ve ever seen. His intensity scorches me.

“Come here, Nova,” he whispers.

A crack of lust tears through my belly, opening something in me, and heat gushes down to my sex. I gradually push myself up and out of the bath with bubbles clinging to me, water dripping. As I wait on my knees in front of him, he sends a long look down my soaked body, and I briefly think that he’s going to miss having me at his disposal.

But how much will he miss me?

As I tamp down my breathing, he rests his hands below my breasts then runs his palms up the sides. The contact is slick and smooth, and I flow with it as he continues to caress me up and down. After a while, he slips his fingers to my nipples, then rubs them between his thumbs and fingers, arousing them. A familiar carnal buzz swallows my pussy whole.

There’s no dirty talk this time, only the mysterious depth in the center of his eyes where there’s still so much darkness. But his irises stay a feverish green as our gazes remain connected.

My temperature rises, and I make a soft, wanton sound, restlessly shifting in the water. He strokes down my breasts and over my waist, then to my back on his way down to my bottom. He cups my cheeks, his fingers kneading me there. His breaths are coming tight, as if he’s fighting his lust, but I’ve already given in to mine, gasping loudly as he separates my legs.

I blindly reach out to grasp his arms, and when he eases a finger between me then pauses before thrusting gently up and into my pussy, I pull at his shirt and bite my lip. It doesn’t stop the stifled moan that ebbs out of me.

As he finger fucks me, bringing me closer and closer to him with each pump, it feels as if I’m the water itself—formless and wet. Everything about me is reshaping itself with each sensual swirl of his finger. Tiny waves splash inside of me, rolling back and forth, getting bigger and stronger.

When Travis pulls out his finger I look up at him, hoping he’s going to stay here and not leave me like this…

Abruptly he stands, pulling off his clothing, never breaking eye contact, and then he’s looming at the side of the tub, all muscle, all male, almost ready to truly fuck me with thick, erect cock.

He steps into the tub, sinking down to his knees, wraps both arms around me—one hand over my belly, one hand cupped under my jaw to bring my face around to his. He kisses me with a passion that’s both a farewell and a hello, and I return his fervor, tangling my tongue with his and devouring him, needing him, never wanting to leave him…

When he coaxes his hand down to my clit, I groan into his mouth, but that only urges him to rub me, to massage me until I have no strength left. I’m all fizz and hum, weakened so badly that I slump forward again, my hands pasted against the wall. The waterfall sluices down my arms like a liquid caress as Travis continues stimulating me.

I feel his tip between my parted legs, probing.

“Yes,” I whisper harshly. “Give me that, Travis. Fucking give it to me…”

With a wet, aggressive thrust, he enters me, and I rise with him. As I give a full-throated moan, he slides his other hand to my pussy, too, using it to push me up to meet his every drive as his other fingers stroke my clit harder, harder…

I can’t take anymore, and the colors rush me once more, blowing apart in a spurt of ecstasy that comes once…again…and fuck again…

A series of gasps escapes me as my hands slip down the wall, my head pressed against it as the water flows over my entire body. I absorb every thrust from Travis, churning my hips as he keeps pummeling me with his cock.

“More,” I whisper over the sound of the flowing water. “More…”

When he comes, it’s with a pulsating series of blasts that hammer me. I cry out with every one of them and, afterward, he stays in me. Breathing hard, he runs his hands up the soaked front of my body then pulls me back from the waterfall.

We both slump into the tub with a splash. I’m resting my back against his rising and falling chest. The waterfall keeps up its trickling patter as the heat subsides in me.

The mild flow goes back to being the only sound in the room, taking the place of everything else.

Travis kisses my ear then wraps his arms over the front of me. As we recover, it feels as if all the time in the world passes too quickly, too ruthlessly.

There’ll be no more Travis after tonight, and numbness takes the place of everything I’d just been feeling. But there’s still something in that empty, black spot that’s faintly beating inside of me, and it urges me to say something. Anything.

“I’m never going to forget this,” I whisper.

It doesn’t even begin to describe what he’s come to mean to me. My first. My only.

Seconds pulse by, but he still hasn’t made a move to get out of the tub. Then he presses his mouth against my ear.

“There’s something I want to do that I’ve never done before,” he says.

I don’t answer right away. We’ve still got hours, and there’s still a bed that’s waiting for us. I’m not off the clock yet, and a crashing disappointment shakes me, because even after everything this is still the arrangement we started with. This is what it always was.

“Even though you’ve never done whatever it is you want to do,” I say, my old anxiety returning, “will you tell me how to do it?”

His laugh is soft against my ear. “All you have to do is clear your calendar until the end of the month, Nova.”

I shift against him. What did he just say?

He slips his hand between my legs, more possessive now than ever. “I want to extend your contract another two weeks.”