We left the event glowing. Tommy was all hands, and I couldn’t complain. Even though he worked at a desk all day, his palms were rough, and they sent shivers through my body.

By this point, the champagne had loosened every anxious nerve in my body. I clung to him like an ornament on a tree. I told myself it was to be convincing as his fiancée, but I loved the feel of his hard, strong body. The way his eyes would glint with amusement. His smell, so intoxicating.

In the limo, his hands found the slit in my dress, and he took the edge of the fabric delicately in his hand.

“Nice dress,” he said.

“Thank you,” I replied, breathless from watching his hand hover over my thigh again.

“It would be a shame if it got ripped...”

He smiled a knowing smile and returned to playing with the hem of my skirt. We stayed like that for what felt like an eternity, not speaking.

The limo stopped in front of a modern looking building glowing with lights. The snow was falling again, and as Tommy took my hand to help me out of the limo, he pulled me into his chest, my arms wrapped around his neck and my lips found his. The torture of the car intensified the moment. I could feel each snowflake melt on my hot skin, feel my lips, tingly from where he had been, feel his breath, hot as fire against the cool skin of my neck. His lips tickled the skin behind my ear, and I laughed again.

“Let’s see if we can find a way to warm you up, shall we?” he said huskily.

For a moment I forgot how to breathe.

Tommy lived on the top floor of the apartment building. In the elevator, he stood to face me; his finger trailed along the neckline of my gown, but he stopped me each time I went in for a kiss.

“If I kiss you now, I won’t be able to stop. I’ll have you out of that dress and naked in the elevator… and I don’t fancy giving Rudy in the security office front row seats to an exclusive event.”

“In that case, I think I can wait a few minutes longer,” I said biting my lip.

The elevator dinged. Eagerly he led me down a carpeted hallway and stopped in front of a dark wooden door that read 706. He smiled while fishing the key to his apartment out of his thick wool coat.

He gestured for me to enter. Inside, the expansive space was filled with modern furniture and elaborate paintings. It looked like something out of a catalog, and the sitting area was bigger than my entire house put together.

I walked over to the window. “Wow. You actually live here?” I asked, looking out the giant window that dominated almost an entire wall. You could see all the lights of the city down below, shining like a million tiny fairies.

The night had gotten so late, but the sky was a soft, illuminated gray, the same color as his dark eyes. I stared in awe at the scene of the city as my nerves began to escalate.

I felt hands on my waist, then, felt him brush my hair off my back and lay it delicately in front of my shoulders. I kept staring forward, wondering what would happen next. He leaned against me and kissed my neck gently.

My chest rose with a shaky breath. Tommy leaned back again, tracing his finger from my ear to my shoulder, then across the open back of the dress. I felt him unfasten the clasp of the dress and slide his rough hands beneath the fabric until the straps holding up the gown fell off my shoulders. It shuddered to the floor and lay in a silken puddle at my feet. I stood topless, still looking out the window. I was apprehensive of what would happen if I turned to look at him—would I break the spell? The tension from the office was back, and suddenly I felt incredibly nervous.

What did he expect of me? Clearly, from the list I’d found, there was another side to him. And in all reality, I barely knew the man… I didn’t know anything about him—his power over me. All I knew was how he made me feel.

“Look at me,” he said. His words were commanding, but not cruel. My stomach was a collection of nervous knots, between my legs, a hot wetness sent out throbbing waves of heat and anticipation.

I turned to face him. His hand picked up my chin, and he kissed me, hard, pressing my back against the sharp coolness of the glass. I gasped, my skin erupting again with goosebumps. He interlaced his fingers with mine and pressed the back of my hands against the glass.

I felt so vulnerable, standing almost naked in his apartment, my back flush against the window, barely anything between me and the forty-story drop. He was still wearing his tie and dress shirt and shoes. Here I stood in nothing but a pair of heels and (thankfully my best) underwear.

He kissed me hard, my bottom lip catching in his teeth, the force of his mouth pushing my head into the glass. He released my hand and cupped my breast in his large hands, letting his thumb graze delicately over its ecstatic surface. I could feel him as he pushed up against me, a stiffness applying steady pressure to my thigh. The dampness between my thighs had become obvious. His hand slowly fell to my now soaked underwear where he traced his finger back and forth beneath the top inch of fabric. I wanted him so bad I felt like I could scream, but my one hand was still pinned to the glass, and the other was trapped beneath his impressive weight, his tongue a flickering presence in my mouth.

I wanted to please him and do all the right things. I wasn’t going to be full of regrets this time around, that was for sure. We came up for air. My lips felt pleasantly sore, but this was the moment.

“Are you going to punish me for being a naughty girl?” I breathed trying to hide my false confidence.

The dark pupils of his eyes widened, and I bit my lip hoping that I’d pleased him.

“What?” he whispered.

I detached myself from him and glanced back at the glass for a moment; it had fogged where my body pressed up against it. There was no going back now, I thought, and I turned to face him.

“I’ve been a bad girl, you outta spank me… Don’t you want to put me on your naughty list?”

Before he could answer, there was a clunking sound from down the hall. We heard the front door slam shut, and his eyes opened wide in terror. Then sharp clicking; the sound of heels upon highly polished tiles.

Suddenly, there was a shriek from the hallway.

“Tommiiiieee!”

We jerked apart to look towards the sound.

“Shit,” he said. “Stay here. Out of sight.”

Without thinking, I ducked down, gathered up my dress, placed it over my front to cover myself and crouched behind the enormous sofa. A moment later I heard his voice from the alcove near the front door. “Natalie, what are you doing here?”

A woman who I presumed was Natalie that he’d just addressed answered. “I’ve just come from the Halloway Party. Funny story, they wouldn’t let me in because they said you brought someone else as your plus one.”

“That wasn’t my question. I asked you what you were doing here.” His voice was rough and angry.

“What’s that?” she asked inquisitively, her voice a lot closer than it had been a moment ago. My mind immediately flashed upon the scene. Could she see me? I didn’t know what to do, if I should stay hidden or just reveal myself.

I decided to not cower in the shadows and popped up from behind the sofa. It would be better than the humiliation of being found and set upon. I knew by her tone, and Tommy’s equally furious anger that whatever was about to happen wasn’t good, and it was better to get it over and done with. My heart began its downward descent, sinking back into oblivion.

I revealed myself, still clutching the dress, and the three of us stood in the living room staring at each other.

A tall brunette in a crimson gown was by Tommy, looking from him to me and back again. Her eyes ignited into a furious blaze that matched the color of her dress.

“What the fuck!” she spat and turned to face Tommy. Even though this woman was easily a foot shorter than him, her anger overpowered him. “We have one fight, and you turn up here with some bimbo?”

She looked rabid, like a diseased animal on the discovery channel, about to start foaming at the mouth.

“Who the fuck are you?” she asked, turning to me.

“Um, hi. Shae Reynolds?” I said stunned and automatically. My hand flew to my heart, a weak attempt to protect it, I thought.

Natalie gasped and pointed at me when she saw my hand; the diamond Tommy had given me only hours before still on my finger glinting in the light. Her eyes flew to mine in accusation.

“Who are you?” I asked, although my heart sank because I already knew the answer.

“Who am I?” she almost screamed. “I’m his fucking fiancée! What the hell are you doing with my ring?”