After the last soaring note of “Defying Gravity” leaves my lips, I close my mouth and lock eyes with Tyler. He’s sitting on the edge of his bed, his eyes glistening and his chest rising and falling sharply. He looks the same way he did recently after I’d given him a particularly “artistic” blow job.

Tyler stands. “That was incredible, Zooey.” He moves to me and peels off my shirt. And then his. “I’m so hard right now.” He’s got my shorts off. “When you hit that high note, I got an instant boner.” We’re both naked now. He pulls me onto the bed. In a flash, his warm skin is covering mine. His uncovered hard-on is jutting against my wet entrance. He slides his tip against my tingling clit, making it ache. “You’re God’s gift to the world,” he murmurs, kissing me. “I can’t believe you’re all mine.”

Goose bumps erupt all over my body. I’m all his? “Tyler,” I whisper. But that’s all I can manage.

He reaches down and massages my tip.

And I’m instantly gone.

“I’m coming,” I choke out.

“You’re so sexy.” He raises my arms above my head, pins my wrists together with one of his large hands, and kisses me as I climax. “I can’t wait to feel greatness surrounding my cock. But first, I want to taste it.”

As Tyler’s hungry lips make their way down to my belly toward the sensitive folds between my legs, I let out a long, low moan, anticipating his mouth’s ultimate landing spot.

“You defy gravity, Zooey,” he says softly from between my legs. His warm, wet tongue finds my clit, making me groan. “Your pussy defies gravity, baby.”

Um. Logically, I don’t know what that last comment means exactly, but logic has no place here. The way he said it turned me on. I buck and gyrate and push myself into Tyler’s voracious mouth, aching for another climax that’s already brewing inside me. He slides his fingers inside my wetness and his thumb up my ass while continuing to lick me…and…oh, God, yes…in short order, my body once again racks with shockwaves of pleasure.

“I want you,” I breathe. I feel desperate for him. “Fuck me, Tyler.”

Tyler grabs a condom from his drawer and gets himself covered in record speed. When he returns to me, he slides a pillow underneath the small of my back, pushes my thighs to my chest, folds me like a beach chair, and slides his full length into me with breathtaking ease. “Zooey,” he whispers. “You’re fucking amazing.”

I hitch my legs up around Tyler’s ribcage as he thrusts into me. Dig my fingernails into his forearms as he holds my thighs in place. “Deeper,” I whisper. “As deep as you can go. Oh, God, yes. Deeper than you’ve ever gone.”

After a few minutes of enduring Tyler’s powerful thrusting, my body releases with an orgasm so intense, tears well in my eyes. Or, heck, I don’t know. Maybe water is spouting from my tear ducts simply because I sang my favorite song to Tyler—the one that honestly expresses the most important thing there is to know about my soul—and it made him hard for me.

On the heels of my orgasm, Tyler impales me, snaps his hips forward, lets out a loud growl, and collapses on top of me. Several more jerks and shudders on top of me and his body finally goes completely quiet.

For a long moment, we lie in a crumpled, intertwined heap, gasping for air, until Tyler lifts his head and opens his mouth like he’s going to say something. But when he sees the tears streaking my cheeks, his brow instantly knits with concern. “Did I hurt you?”

I shake my head.

“Then what’s that clear liquid coming out of those pretty blue things in your face?”

I wipe my cheeks. Try to smile. Oh, God, I want to tell him the truth. That I’m crying because I just realized I feel closer to him than I’ve felt to anyone in my life. And that I can’t bear the idea of us being nothing more than friends mere weeks from now. But I’m quite certain a reply like that would break every rule of our arrangement and possibly spur him into breaking things off with me prematurely. And so, I take a deep breath and say, “Sometimes, when a girl’s body feels really, really good, liquid spontaneously squirts out her peep holes.”

Tyler laughs and pushes a lock of hair out of my eyes. “Promise me something, Zooey Cartwright.”

I hold my breath.

“Promise me you’ll never give up on chasing your big dreams.”

Oh, well that’s an easy one. “I promise.”

“And promise you’ll start dreaming even bigger than being Alfalfa on Broadway.”

“Elphaba.”

“Whatever. You’re filled with greatness, baby. That means you need to start dreaming way bigger than being Elphaba, sweetheart. Bigger than you think you have a right to dream. Don’t tamp down your greatness to fit in or make people around you feel better about their own absence of greatness. Greatness like yours is rare in this world. A precious gift.” His eyes are on fire. “It’s not arrogance to think you can change the world, Zooey. When you have greatness inside you, it’s your duty to believe that.”

He’s rendered me speechless. I nod, but only because I don’t know what else to do.

Tyler strokes my cheek for a moment, apparently deep in thought. And then he smiles at me, gently pulls on a lock of my curly hair, and watches it bounce and re-coil when he releases it. “Promise me you won’t rest until the entire world has heard that incredible voice of yours, Zooey. Anything short of that, God’s going to be pissed he picked you of all his children to gift the voice of an angel.”