I can’t take Harlow off the elevator and into my suite fast enough. The sight of her on her knees while spreading my cum over her delicious tits was too much for me to take, and the minute the doors open, I carry her straight into the shower — but not to fuck her. Things aren’t going to go that far. Yet, once I turn on the rainforest waterfall showerheads, I have to fight my urges once again.

I have to keep my head clear in order to keep my sanity.

As she faces the marble wall, I wash her slender back with a bar of the oak moss soap that I have custom made for me. My hands inevitably wander over her waist, then up to her round, heavy breasts. As I cup and rub her slick tits, she falls forward to plant her forearms against the wall. Desire throttles me, yet somehow I stay in control.

“I would have never guessed you were inexperienced,” I say casually.

“Why?”

“The clothing you wear — especially that crocheted top and short skirt you had on when you arrived.”

“You think that, just because I was wearing a hippie chick outfit, I was easy?”

Instead of answering, I squeeze her tits gently.

She gives me one of those little mewls that always gets me going. “Well, at least now you know I haven’t been so easy in the past. I’m just a little innocent lamb who wandered in to the lair of the dragon.”

Her joke makes me grimace a little. I don’t want to ruin her forever, but then again…I do.

I slip my hands to her belly. I think about all her worn dresses and why she signed up to be a mail-order bride in the first place. Does she even have a nickel to her name?

Before I can start thinking about my own past and how we might have more in common than just our sexual chemistry, I start to draw figure eights on her skin. She wriggles a little beneath my touch.

“How experienced are you?” I ask. “Because a serious boyfriend would know how many exes his girlfriend has.”

She’s silent for a moment as the water pounds down on us. Then she says, “I’ve had a few flings, if that’s what you would even call them. But never anything serious. Just some dates, some goodnight kisses, some fumbling on sofas in front of TVs. But my experiences don’t come anywhere close to...” She raises her face to the showerhead to bathe herself completely, as if she really needs to cool off. Then she bows her head again. “What we just did.”

I’m still as stunned by the news of her virginity as I was when I first put two and two together to realize that Harlow is utterly inexperienced. A fucking virgin, for God’s sake. “It’s hard to imagine that a woman like you hasn’t been chased down by every cad in the country.”

“There are reasons, but as you requested, I’ve kept them to myself.”

Shit. I need to get serious about this mail-order arrangement. But I need to lay down more rules as well because there’s such a thing as knowing too much about someone — especially a fake girlfriend. I don’t want to encourage an atmosphere in which we have to talk about painful and humiliating pasts, because I have buried mine. “We can make this situation work without getting sappy and emotional and too detailed. But I should still know about any big romances you’ve had.”

I don’t think those were the words she wanted to hear, because she tenses up ever so slightly. To relax her, I slip my soapy hand between her thighs. As I rub her there, heat wavers between us, seeping into my skin.

When she peers over her shoulder at me, I can see that she’s ready to sink into a puddle at my feet again, absolutely under my control. This is how it should be — pure sex. Pure lust.

A girlfriend experience that I am enjoying more and more by the moment.

She closes her eyes as I keep petting her pussy.

“So you want to know how I remained a virgin?” she asks. “One big reason is that I’ve been too busy studying at school to get involved with anyone.”

I have a feeling there’s more to her lack of intimate contact than that — especially since Rick hinted as much to me — but we need to respect my no-deep-details rule. “What are you studying?”

“You can read the dossier for this stuff, can’t you?”

“Fuck the dossier. I want to hear it from you right now.” Also, the dossier will tell me too damned much.

I slide my hands to the small of her back, right above her plump, lovely ass, and begin to soap her up there with long, sensuous strokes. Her muscles loosen up.

“I’m getting a degree in Business Economics,” she says. “You might not have been listening at dinner when Rick told me that my major was a big factor in choosing me from the mail-order site. He also liked the charity work I do on campus.”

I concentrate on the major. “He does like to work with bean counters like you.”

I think I just attempted a joke.

As Harlow turns around, she’s faintly smiling. She takes the soap from me, and I watch her blush as she guides the bar over my body: my chest, my arms, my hips... She’s steaming me up, and the more I get steamed, the more my brain gets clouded. Before I know it, I’m speaking before I can think.

“It would be a good idea if you stayed the night in my room tonight, Harlow.”

Her hands go still on my stomach. The sound of rushing water is all I can hear, along with the clamor of my heartbeat going from sixty to six hundred as I wait for her to respond.

Maybe I should explain this sudden request to her. Hell, it even surprised me, because I never have women stay here. My suite is my domain, and the only person who has ever spent the night in my bed is me. “Rick clearly thought there was a lack of intimacy between us, so we need to make people think that we spend time together, especially in the same bed.”

She begins to soap my stomach up again. “Yes, of course. You’re right.”

As her hands glide down to my belly, I hitch in a breath. My cock bobs with a pulse of sudden heat. Harlow pauses, then bites her lip and hands me the soap. Then, just like that, she exits the shower.

What the hell?

Through the steam-veiled glass, I can see her toweling off and then leaving the bathroom. I let out a long breath and finish cleaning off. So much lust has built up inside of me that I need to take some extra time to jerk myself off, because even if Harlow is in my bed tonight, I won’t be fucking her.

A virgin.

I don’t normally deal with those, and having one in my bed is going to be hell. But Harlow and I must learn to pretend to be a couple. Even if I have to cock-block all these clusterfuck feelings that seem to attack me whenever she is near, we are going to make this arrangement work. It will be a challenge, but I am always up for one of those.

I will be damned if anyone gets the best of me.