“I miss this,” I said, covering the mark I’d made, pressing down on it. “All the time.”

She nodded, said my name. I could hear the frustration in her voice as she reached for something to hold on to, her other hand moving down between her legs.

“That’s right,” I said, watching her touch herself. “Get there. Make yourself come.”

It must have been what she needed because she cried out, spine arching as she pushed back against me. I was close, could barely think and so f**king hungry for it I could hardly breathe. My legs burned, muscles protesting as I thrust into her over and over. The legs of the bench scraped against the stone floor; the leather creaked beneath us.

“Bennett. Fuck, Bennett,” she said, and heat pooled low in my stomach, building and building until it was pulsing through me, my vision going dark and fuzzy around the edges as I came.

Every part of me seemed to give out at once as I collapsed, panting and exhausted, gripping the bench for support.

“Holy shit.” The room was spinning and so quiet that my voice and even our breathing seemed to echo off the marble. I wondered how loud we’d been.

She stood, wobbling the slightest bit as she straightened her clothes and moved to a stall to clean herself up. “You know I have to walk around after this?”

I grinned. “Of course.”

“You did that on purpose.”

I rolled to my back and blinked up to the sparkling chandelier. “At least I let you come, too.”

I knew I should straighten my clothes and find the boys, but right now all I wanted to do was sleep.

She moved to stand over me, leaning down to press a soft, lingering kiss to my mouth. “You need to go get some dinner or you’ll be drunk by midnight.”

I groaned, trying to pull her down to me, but she escaped by shoving her finger between my ribs. “Ow! Isn’t that the point?”

“I’m sure they’re wondering where you are.”

“I told them I had an ulcer to get them to go on without me.”

“And they believed you?”

I shrugged. “Who the f**k knows.”

“Well, go convince them that you’ve recovered from your completely unbelievable illness and I’m going to meet Sara.”

“Fine,” I said, standing to pull up my pants. I watched as she leaned forward, smoothing out her hair in the mirror. “Where is Sara?”

“She’s meeting up with a friend who lives here. A dancer, I think? Some sort of cabaret or stripper thing at Planet Hollywood.”

“Now that sounds interesting,” I said.

She met my reflection with raised brows before continuing. “Anyway, I had a feeling I was being stalked and told her to go on without me.”

“A feeling?”

She shrugged, applying her lipstick. “A hope.”

Snapping the cap back on her makeup, she closed it up in her purse and I followed her to the door, lifting a hand to her face. “I love you anyway,” I said.

“I love you anyway, too,” she said, leaning in to kiss me before slapping my ass, hard.

I could still hear her laughter long after she disappeared through the door.

Four

Max Stella

I watched out the rear window as Bennett’s long, purposeful strides carried him down the sidewalk. He looked back over his shoulder and hailed a taxi as soon as he thought we were out of sight.

Bloody hell. For someone known for being so absolutely unflappable, he was a mess. He hadn’t even kept up that flimsy charade of an illness long enough to see us down the end of the street and ’round the corner.

I turned back in my seat, watching as the lights and tourists roaming the sidewalks passed by in a blur, and let my thoughts move to Sara. She’d said she felt hollow with how much she wanted me, and Christ, just the memory of those words was enough to wreck me all over again. She was so rarely demanding, and even during our busiest weeks when we hardly saw each other, she was the patient one out of the two of us, always insisting we’d make up for lost time on the weekend, or on a Wednesday. For her to tell me she needed more tonight made it almost impossible to deny her. But I could see, in her eyes, the way she’d immediately regretted it, as if by telling me that she knew I’d be torn.

With her eerie sense of timing, my phone buzzed with a text from her: I’m fine, honestly. I’m sorry I distracted you.

I smiled as I typed my reply: Alas, you’re my favorite distraction.

Have fun with the boys tonight, she wrote back.

A loud pop drew my attention and I blinked over to where Henry and Will had uncorked a bottle of champagne. “Show of hands for those of us who think Bennett just needed to rub one out in the bathroom,” Will said, offering me a glass of champagne. I waved it off, waiting instead for a real drink at the restaurant.

“We did just leave a strip club,” Henry said, protective-brother mode in full force. “Cut the man some slack.”

I worked to keep my expression neutral. Will and Henry didn’t know the girls were here, but they were eerily close to the mark.

“Henry’s right,” I cut in, surprised to find myself defending Bennett for deserting us to go shag his fiancée during the first night of his stag weekend. “Maybe he just needed a moment. The man is notoriously ruled by his dick.”

“Ha!” Will barked. “I love the implication that you’re any different.”

It didn’t matter that he was right, and since meeting Sara I’d thought of practically nothing else beyond what she was doing, what she was wearing, and of course, where I could f**k her. The side of me that loved to argue with Will couldn’t resist responding. “I’ll admit that Sara takes up a great deal of my thoughts—” I began.

“Understandable,” Will interrupted, giving me a knowing glance.

“But,” I continued, ignoring him, “I’m perfectly capable of keeping my head in the game when necessary.”

Unfazed, he hummed and topped off his drink, settling back into the supple leather seat. “Yes. Clearheaded businessman like yourself, never dream of shirking responsibility or, let’s say . . . friendship, for a woman.”

I nodded warily, sensing a trap.

“And when you missed picking me up after my flight back from China because you had an ‘emergency,’” he said, using air quotes, “which of course means getting sucked off by Sara in the back of your car in the airport parking lot, that was keeping your head in the game.”

I felt the weight of Henry’s congratulatory slap across my back. “You sly son of a bitch,” he said.

I winked at Henry, knowing Will was far from done.

“And when you ditched me with three of the most boring clients on the planet for two hours because you were f**king Sara in the library at James’s house—that also was keeping your head in the game. Yeah, Ryan could really take a lesson and stop thinking with his cock.”

“I think you’ve got it about squared,” I said, laughing.

“Just making sure,” he said with a charming smile, lifting his champagne flute to his forehead in salute.

We stopped at a light just beyond the Palazzo and although I was looking forward to the meal, I wished I’d had the idea to run to the “pharmacy” before Bennett did.

“See, if you kept a better schedule,” Will continued, “you wouldn’t be so desperate to shag whenever you get a free second.”

“Schedule?” Henry asked.

I sat forward, smiling. “He means his calendar of women. Our Will here might not be attached or f**king everything in a skirt, but he’s certainly never at a loss for company. He keeps his ‘relationships’ neat and tidy and in regular rotation on his calendar.”

Will frowned while Henry looked between us, obviously confused, and asked, “Wait. Are you telling me you schedule your booty calls?”

“No,” Will answered, glaring in my direction. “It means the women I’m involved with each know about the other. They also know I’m not interested in anything more for the time being, which works perfectly because neither are they. Everyone gets what they want.” He threw his hands up and shrugged. “You won’t find me running to the pharmacy, or banging a girl in the middle of a work meeting because I can’t find any other time in my schedule.”