When we got to Lucas’ loft, I could barely remember how we got there. I was pretty sure there had been an Uber involved, but all I could think about was getting out of my dress and closer to Lucas. Anticipation was making my heart pound and I was dizzy with the feeling. As soon as we were inside, Lucas slammed the door closed and pulled me back against him.

The time for slow was over. The time for thinking, and doubting, and second-guessing was over. I was all out of worry. But I was prepared this time.

“I have condoms in my purse,” I told him with my remaining foresight while he figured out how to unzip my dress.

Lucas arched an eyebrow at me as he found the tricky side zipper. “I bought some too. As soon as you left last time.” He finished with the zipper and pushed the dress off my shoulders. I stepped out of it.

We both smiled. It was pointless to resist this. It was inevitable that we’d end up in bed together. It had been inevitable since Cliff almost swallowed that damn bee.

My dress was quickly abandoned on the ground by the door. Lucas’ shirt ended up on the couch. His shoes were near the kitchen. Mine were next to his pants in the hallway. We ended up in the bedroom. Lucas banished the cats and then came back to my arms.

He was just like I’d imagined him being in the thousands of secret fantasies I’d let myself indulge in over the past two weeks. He was as confident and assertive in the bedroom as he was in the boardroom, and sometimes I needed that. Craved it. I needed a partner that would take control. I found myself tossed up on the bed, turned over on my stomach, and stripped out of my panties and bra in an instant. His hands lingered possessively over my breasts, my ass, my waist, and the curves of my hips. I pressed up into his fingers, reveling in being explored like this.

His hands brushed between my thighs and I spread them wide for him. He made a pleased noise in the back of his throat when he felt my heat and wetness. I was ready for him. Beyond ready. Needy. I pushed my pussy down against his fingers eagerly.

“I don’t think I can be gentle,” he whispered in my ear between kisses. “It’s been too long for me.”

“Then be a little bit rough. I like it. I’ll tell you if it’s too much.” I turned around and looked at him when I said it, and I saw his pupils dilate excitedly. I’d always had a bit of a thing for submitting in the bedroom. Nothing crazy or anything. No pain or latex bodysuits. The world of kink is expansive, and I’d barely ever toed the edge of it. But when you spend all your time in charge of things at work, being able to let someone else be in charge feels so good. With Lucas, it felt necessary and right.

He flipped me back over, pinning my wrists to the mattress and kissing me hard. His fingers wrapped all the way around each of my wrists.

“Too much?” he asked, testing the pressure against my wrists.

I shook my head. “Not enough.”

He grinned, gripped my wrists tighter and together over my head with one hand, and then leaned in to tease my mouth with his. I arched up into him, greedy for connection. Sensation. Anything he could give me to get me out of my own head. His other hand pulled and pinched one nipple and then the other until they couldn’t get any harder. When he pulled his mouth away I was panting. The emptiness between my legs ached.

Lucas seemed as overwhelmed and desperate as me. When he pulled back to unbuckle his pants and roll a condom on, I watched with him with hungry eyes. I could never imagine a more attractive partner.

The strong muscles of his arms and shoulders tensed and flexed when I ran my fingers up his sides and back. His skin was soft and he smelled so damn good, a heady, potent mixture of pine, clean soap, and citrus. I couldn’t get enough of it.

My hands stroked down his chest and he shivered against me before turning his attention back between my legs. I worked my legs wider apart as he eased forward, gasping into the first pinch of penetration before relaxing blissfully into the feeling. He wasn’t the only one who was out of practice. But just like riding a bicycle, I found the balance and rhythm right away. We breathed and moved together, wide-eyed, open-mouthed and overwhelmed by the newness and pleasure.

After the first few gentle thrusts, Lucas became more demanding. He held me tighter, staring down at me and watching my face carefully for any sign of discomfort or pain. He didn’t need to be so careful. I pushed back stroke for stroke, arching my back, lifting my hips, and urging him on.

My mind was finally empty of any thoughts beyond us. Our movements. Our bodies. Every synapse in my brain was alight with the joy of giving and being taken.

Our mouths found each other again, and I was moaning against his lips for more. He gave it to me, driving into me harder and pinning my forearms to the mattress. I could feel my climax coming and I chased it. I came hard around him, gasping his name and staring up at the ceiling with unseeing eyes.

When my mind cleared, Lucas was looking at me fondly but with a mischievous glint in his hazel eyes.

“More,” I mouthed. He smiled devilishly and my heart flipflopped in excitement. I wanted so much more. I wanted everything. If he wanted to tie me up and tease me for the rest of the night I’d eagerly get down on my knees and beg for it.

He pulled away and turned me over once more. I thought I knew what he wanted, but when I tried to go up to my hands and knees, he pressed against the small of my back to keep me prone. His fingers pushed my thighs apart. Being penetrated again from behind, face down, nearly pushed me right back over the edge. My desperate pussy clenched around him and I heard myself making high, whimpering noises.

“Lucas, harder please…” The voice was mine but it didn’t sound like me. It was breathy and high. He nipped at the back of my neck in reply.

In this position he was completely in control. I ground my ass up against him as best I could, and he reached a hand around my thigh to rub leisurely against my clit. It was exquisite torture to be fucked like this, barely able to move but completely pampered and stimulated.

Unexpectedly, he slowed his hand. “I really shouldn’t get you off again after you kept the truth from me for a whole week.” His voice was deliciously teasing.

I was so close. This teasing made it so much better… and so much worse.

“Lucas please,” I whimpered, pushing against him greedily. It wasn’t quite enough without his fingers.

“You’ve been bad,” he growled in my ear. “Why should I give you a reward?”

I was beyond saying anything coherent. I was just sensation. Just breathless, helpless need. All I could do was moan and writhe and push mindlessly against his hand.

If he would just move his hand…

“Oh alright,” he finally whispered, sliding his fingers back to put pressure on my clit right where I needed it. I could feel his lips drawn up in a smile against my neck. “I can’t say no to you when you make such sweet little noises for me.”

His breath in my ear told me he was getting close and I came again just before he did, finally collapsing next to me in exhaustion and bliss.

We cuddled for a long time before a question that had been pinging around in my brain finally percolated to the top.

“Hey Lucas?”

“Hmm?” His voice was a calm, happy sound.

“Remember how you still owe me a question from our first fake-date?”

“Yeah.” His voice became more cognizant.

“Well I’ve thought of a question.”

He looked down at me, smiling. “What is it?”

“How do your algorithms work?”

Annie had gone on and on about how incomprehensible his matchmaking algorithms were. I just had to know. Why were they so damn weird?

Lucas’ smile wavered. “That’s what you want to spend your question on?”

“I’m curious!” It was true, I was curious. I also half-believed that maybe if I understood the algorithms I would be able to find a way to save Notable Match from Azure Group.

Lucas, however, sighed. “The answer will disappoint you.”

“Let me be the judge of that.” Sometimes the smallest, weirdest details could be valuable. I’d learned to overturn every rock in my time working in Private Equity. This time, I hoped to use a detail to kill a deal, not make one.

His voice was soft. “I reverse engineered the algorithms by looking at the similarities between Victoria and I’s record collections. That’s why they’re so weird. I was working from the solution instead of the question. It was bad math, and it shouldn’t have worked. I had to make up a lot of it. But once I had the similarity measures, I found that I could apply them to other people. Again, I wasn’t expecting the algorithm to work. I thought I was just messing around, trying to figure out what compatibility features Victoria and I had shared.” He shook his head. “I’m still amazed that so simple of a premise yielded so complex a solution. I just took the person I was already in love with and replicated the formula for musical preference, making up about a quarter of it as I went along.”

My heart sank in my chest. It was all becoming clear. Victoria was the key to Notable Match’s success. Everything came down to her. Even when I was lying in Lucas’ bed, Victoria had to be here with us.

In fact, the reason that Lucas and I were ever matched must be because Victoria and I had similar taste in music. He’d said the reason that Victoria and I reminded him of one another wasn’t the hair color and was hard to explain. Well it wasn’t the hair color, that was true. But it wasn’t hard to explain, either. The truth was that Victoria and I were just alike, but in a completely innocuous way. He just replicated the formula that had worked with Victoria, but this time when he ran the program, he got me. I was approximately 75% as good as her.

“Were you ever planning on telling me that the reason you and I matched was because I like most of the same music as Victoria?”

Lucas shook his head. “No. It sounds really stupid, doesn’t it?”

“Stupid? No.” That wasn’t want I thought at all. “But it’s not very flattering to me to know the truth. I’m just a poor substitute for her. Like a bad copy.” I stared up at the ceiling unhappily.

Lucas propped himself up on an elbow and nuzzled my ear. “That’s the wrong way to look at it, Rae.”

I looked over at him. “How do you figure?” My voice sounded bitter.

Lucas laughed. “This is an example of something working when it shouldn’t. The idea that musical preference could predict whether or not people like each other is ridiculous. I removed all the other variables. Appearance, income, education, age, all of it. I threw out the reliable measurements and kept something completely pointless. Just music. What does it matter what music people like? It shouldn’t matter. The alchemy of human attraction ought to be complicated, right? And it is. Even my algorithms look complicated. But I’m taking it from a relationship that didn’t even work worth shit. Victoria and I crashed and burned. She cheated on me like it was going out of style. But somehow, that equation I made which never should have work, it brought me you. I think that’s pretty cool.”

When he finally fell silent, all of my anger and bitterness was gone. I looked over at him affectionately.

“What if it doesn’t last?”

“Which part?” he asked me. His voice was soft.

“The algorithms. What if all the relationships your algorithms make are doomed to failure because you and Victoria didn’t work?”

Were Lucas and I already doomed? I feared I knew the answer.

You’re not good enough for him, my conscience whispered. You know he’s being screwed by Azure Group and you don’t know how to save him.

He shrugged. Lucas was oblivious to my doubts. “It’s still better than nothing.” He kissed me on the forehead. “Nobody who makes a dating app gives people a guarantee, do they? Some love is better than no love, isn’t it?”

I sighed, feeling a smile break through even though I wasn’t entirely convinced. “I guess you’re right.” I paused. “I still wish we could make it last forever.”

Lucas smiled sadly. “I’ll just have to work on that for version 2.0.”