Vivienne arrived late to work. I knew she had early meetings, and that wasn’t unusual. What was surprising was her mood when she strutted in wearing the cutest pin-striped pantsuit along with a look like she was a cat and the canary was long gone.

“Don’t you look suspicious today,” I said as she gave me the once-over. For some reason, I didn’t think it was my outfit she was looking at.

“Oh, I’m not the only suspicious looking thing around here today. Or at my meeting for that matter.” Her heels clicked questioningly on the floor as she marched to my desk, arms crossed. “Any idea why Jack showed up late to the big meeting?” Her eyebrows raised so high I wasn’t sure they would ever come down. “And Harper, he’s never late.” She shook her head. “He’s always obsessively early. Oh, oh, oh,” she slapped her hands on my desk and leaned in, “and not only was he late, but he was also wearing yesterday’s wrinkled clothes and a big smile. Hmm?” she questioned me, and I blushed.

“That was only like, ninety-nine percent my fault.” I flashed her my best naughty-girl smile.

“You dawg! Landing the Jack McCallister. I can hear women’s hearts all over the city breaking.” She stomped around my desk, smiling, eyes glistening. “Come here, I’m so happy for you. Finally.” I stood up, and she gave me a hug so huge I could hardly breathe. Not sure if it was customary to hug your friend after she got laid, but I enjoyed the sentiment.

“Thanks, honey. I’m so happy for me, too. Finally,” I said as I stood there, getting all the air squeezed out of me.

She let me go physically, but Vivienne was focused on getting the goods. I knew her well, and she wouldn’t be satisfied until she had every piece of information.

“So? How was it?” she whispered, as if we were in a room full of people, instead of just the two of us.

“Vivienne, that man is amazing. And beautiful. And hot. And sweet.” I looked off into space, feeling a bit tingly as I remembered some of the things we did.

“You’re going to have to expand on that a bit for me,” she said, her tone full of sarcasm.

We sat, and I gave her the office-friendly version of what happened, but I didn’t tell her everything. Some things were just meant to share between two lovers.

After I was done, Vivienne fake fanned herself. “Good goodness, I’m glad I was sitting for that. Damn, that man is hot. I knew he would be. Does he have a brother? A cousin?”

Just then my phone pinged, and she said, “Oh, is that Mr. Perfect?”

I checked my phone, hoping it was Jack, but it wasn’t. Shit.

“Uh, no, it’s someone else.” I faded off because I couldn’t process the words I was reading. My stomach dropped and twisted, and I couldn’t breathe, but it had nothing to do with Vivienne’s hug. Motionless, I sat there frozen and gripping my phone like it was about to take flight. Vivienne frowned and snatched it out of my death grip.

“What the fuck? Is that Gabe?” After she read his text, even she looked pale.

Unknown Caller: Did you have fun last night, you little whore? I saw you sticking your tongue down that asshole’s throat in the parking lot this morning. Bitch. You’ll pay for this. NOBODY touches my wife.

Stabbing pains filled my stomach, and I was either going to faint or throw up. Or both.

“He’s still contacting you? I thought that was over with after Jack kicked his ass?” she asked, a tremor in her voice. All I could do was shake my head.

“Why didn’t you tell me? This is serious shit. He can’t be sending this to you and scaring you half to death. What a fucking bastard. You have to report this. Does Jack know he’s still harassing you?”

Gabe the dick was going to screw up the only good relationship I’d ever had in my life. What a complete asswipe. As if stealing years of my life wasn’t enough, now he had to pull this.

Feeling helpless, I told her, “There hasn’t exactly been the right moment to mention it. Goddamn that stupid prick. I finally have a real man in my life, and now Gabe wants me?” I said and shook my head, staring at my phone, hoping like hell the message would just disappear along with the others.

“Tell Jack. Now. This shit needs to stop, Harper. He can’t follow you around and harass you like this.”

I texted Jack right away.

Jack held my hand as he drove us back to the police station. I was scared but relieved the shaking had finally stopped. “It’s surreal. I can’t believe this is happening,” I mumbled to myself.

“Stop.” Jack picked up our connected hands and kissed the back of mine. “Don’t worry. We’ll get this handled and stop that ass from contacting you again. Okay?” He sounded so convincing, but I never thought Gabe would take things this far. What a complete psycho.

Once inside, a young, very good-looking cop greeted us with his broody, square-jawed smile. His stubble made you want to reach out and touch it to see how bristly it felt on your hand or other places. Ahem. Anyway, after we spoke with Hot Cop, whose last name I saw was Stone—oh, now that was a great last name—unbelievably, we got stuck with the same dumpy officer as before. Gah! Officer Miller sat us down in the exact room as before and told us a different version of what he said to us last time. We didn’t have a leg to stand on, yada, yada, yada, and we were wasting the time and resources of a very busy police station. Yada, yada, yada.

“You can block numbers now on those do-dads,” Officer Nitwit said as he picked up my phone. “I’ve done it a few times, and it worked like a charm.” I didn’t doubt he had more than a few people sending him shitty, threatening texts, too. Only difference was that I didn’t deserve it.

I thought about telling him that I’d blocked Gabe’s number already, several times, in fact. The idiot just kept calling from different numbers. There were many things I didn’t want to do, and explaining the intricacies of cell phone mechanics to a moron was one of them. My skin burned with rage. We needed to leave before I said something stupid.

To say that Jack was pissed would be an understatement. As soon as we got into the car, he uttered a steady stream of expletives that would burn the ears off a nun. I decided to stay quiet and let him work out his anger, not that I had anything to say. My mind and body were numb. Today I’d felt every emotion possible. This morning started out by having the hottest sex with the most caring man I had ever been with. Then came Gabe’s shitstorm. Quite frankly? He was scaring the hell out of me, and my brain couldn’t understand why he would waste his time. He didn’t give a shit about me when we were married. Why now?

The car veered right, and Jack pulled into the parking lot of a cell phone distributor. I took a wild guess as to why. “I don’t need a new phone,” I said and crossed my arms obstinately on my chest.

“You do,” was all he offered before peeling out of the car. The door slammed, and I jumped to press the lock-door button. His eyes squinted at me through the front window, but I didn’t budge.

“Jesus,” he grunted and stomped over to my door and tried unsuccessfully to open it. “Are you five?” he asked, then pointed the key fob at the car and pulled the door. Oh, right. Shit. I forgot about that thing. “Let’s go. I’d like to make this quick.”

“Look, even if I wanted a new fucking phone, I can’t afford a new fucking phone.” I scowled at him, pissed because he brought me here and even more pissed for making me tell him that I was broke. Jack wasn’t stupid. He’d seen my shitty apartment, and it wouldn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out my wage.

“Did I say you were paying?” he said, putting his hand on his hip. “I’m buying you a fucking phone, Harper. Yours is a piece of shit. That asshole has your number.” He waved his arm out. “Blocking didn’t work. You’d have to call to change your number anyway. This will save time, and you’ll have a decent phone that’ll work for a while.”

Was he serious? “I don’t need a new phone. I can just change my number.” And then text every contact on my list to tell them I got a new number. Then explain why.

“You could. But you aren’t going to. That phone has about five minutes of life left anyway. It’s just a matter of time. This way, we kill two birds with one stone. If you ever get your beautiful ass out of my car, that is.” His argument made sense. What he didn’t factor into his equation was my pride.

I stood and smoothed out my skirt. “Fine. But I’m paying you back.”

“You’re not fucking paying me back.” He looked to the sky for help.

“I’m paying you back,” I said and strutted right past him.

“Well, if you insist,” he said, his mouth at my ear as we both grabbed for the business’ door at the same time. “I could come up with a payment plan to my liking.” His hand squeezed my ass, and I squealed out of surprise. I supposed there were worse ways to pay off a debt.

After I got my fancy new phone—Jack spared no expense—we pulled into his building’s underground parking. Relief washed over me, knowing we weren’t going back to my place. He parked in the spot that read: “Penthouse”. What an idiot. I didn’t even realize that Jack was in the penthouse. No wonder it was so majestic and picture-perfect in there.

We got out, and Jack held my hand. Our footsteps echoed as he led me to the elevator and up to his home. Just like I remembered from the first night I was here, but everything looked different now in the sunlight. I walked to the windows, gazing out at the fantastic view of the buildings below and all the people hustling on the streets. Everything looked so calm and peaceful. I’m sure there wasn’t one crazed ex among them. Jack came up behind me and put his arms around my middle, just holding me.

“You know something? I didn’t realize you lived in the penthouse. I just thought you had a really big apartment.” I snorted and shook my head. “I’m such a dork.”

“You didn’t realize it because you don’t care, Harper. Do you? Does it matter to you what kind of apartment I live in?” Immediately, I shook my head. I didn’t give a rip where this wonderful man lived. “Exactly. If it had mattered, you’d have noticed and...” He stopped talking. My mind wandered, thinking what kind of gold diggers he probably brought here and how they acted. No need to bring that up.

Changing the subject, I turned in his arms and got up on my tiptoes and kissed him. “Thanks for taking me down to the station again, Jack. I appreciate it. It’s kind of scary going there. I’m glad you were with me.”

“Anytime,” he said and hugged me tight. “But no more talk on that subject. Why don’t you sit and I’ll make supper?” He kissed me and strolled off to the kitchen. I would have offered to help, but my legs were pretty wobbly, and my head just plain hurt. So I sat my behind down on his couch and curled my feet up.

Sitting there, I watched Jack’s body move smoothly around the kitchen. He was incredible in his element. Like when you observed artists while they were creating. Anyone could tell how absorbed their mind was in their craft. They’d spent years honing their skills to one day share with the world. It was the same with Jack. His entire being concentrated so hard on what he was doing, yet at the same time his body moved with the ease and ability of a practiced master. He amazed me.

He also turned me on to no end. Of course, he was physically attractive—anyone could see that. But the way he treated me was the most attractive part of him. My eyes teared up just thinking about how many times and ways he’d protected me against my dickwad of an ex-husband. Not only beating the tar out of Gabe, but taking me to the police station twice, buying me a new phone—even if it came with a creative payment plan—and whisking me off to his place, like he somehow knew I didn’t want to be at my apartment right now.

Gabe had been watching us this morning after Jack and I had finally physically consummated our relationship. His eyes should never have witnessed how I clung to Jack, not wanting to let him go to start his day. How Jack teased me about taking my hot ass and dirty mouth to work with him. He didn’t get to see that. Gabe and I were over. Why wouldn’t he accept that?

Tears spilled out, but I quickly wiped them with the back of my hands before Jack could see. I took a deep breath and tried my utmost to put what happened today in the back recesses of my mind. For now. Because at the moment, I had a hot chef cooking for me again. And Gabe had already taken so much from me. I wasn’t going to let him have this, too.

After a few minutes, I heard sizzling and smelled wonderful aromas emanating out of the kitchen. Jack handed me a huge glass of what looked like lemonade, and I reached greedily for it, acting like I’d never seen liquid before. Taking a huge gulp, I felt almost instantly better.

“Is this the real thing?” I asked, referring to the lemonade. Nothing that good could possibly come from a can.

He gazed at me quizzically and smirked. “I’m pretty sure it is.” Then he kissed me softly and licked his lips. “Only real lemons were used in the making of the lemonade. Do you like it? I hope it cuts through the battery acid we drank at the station. Man, that stuff was gross. I keep wondering what they could possibly do to make coffee taste like that?” he said and fake shivered. That made me giggle, remembering how disgusting it was. Don’t ask me why we drank their coffee again when we knew better from the last time. When in Rome… “I love that sound,” he said and kissed me on the head before plopping down next to me. Leaning over, he grabbed the two remotes from the coffee table. I froze. I hated TV.

“Can you trust me for a second? Well, maybe a bit longer. Just trust me. If you don’t like it, we’ll just turn it off. Promise,” he said, reading my mind. “And just so you know, I had my gaming system bolted to the floor right before you came over.” I glared at him and rolled my eyes. Ha-ha, funny man. Sheesh. “Here’s the remote. You push this big red button, and it turns off,” he teased me, and I couldn’t believe it, but I laughed.

“I don’t destroy every TV I meet,” I said with extra emphasis on “every”. I sat back and decided to trust him as he clicked on Netflix with the other remote. He surfed through the options, and I saw a bunch of romcoms marked as favorites. Hmm, one of his former girlfriends must have had a cheesy romance movie addiction. Before I knew it, he picked one and sat back.

I couldn’t help it. I was still upset about Gabe and the station, and I took it out on Jack. “One of your women must have really loved romantic comedies.” There. I said it. I was the biggest bitch ever for spewing my anger at him, but I just couldn’t stop myself.

Jack didn’t get mad or offended at all. He laughed. Loud. I stared at him like he was a lunatic. Why exactly was mentioning his former women funny? I was not amused.

He finally simmered down and wiped his eyes. “Can you keep a secret?” I nodded, suspicious and a little scared of what he was going to say next, like say, ‘I was once abducted by aliens’ or ‘my parents were closely related’. “I’m the one with the romcom addiction. Don’t tell anyone, though.” It was worse than I thought. I knew there had to be something wrong with the man. The package was just too shiny.

“You’re joking, right?” I squinted my eyes and looked him over. “Just trying to cover for all the women you bring back here?” I threw in a snide remark. Again, he didn’t get mad. He howled at the hilarity of the situation, which was completely lost on me.

“Just watch it for five minutes. I don’t know what it is, but they just make me feel better. It’s a way to zone out, and everyone lives happily ever after,” he said and snaked his arm around me, settling in for his stories.

“Are you gay?” I asked, wondering if maybe that was the real issue. Again, he broke out in peals of laughter.

“I think you know the answer to that after this morning,” he said into my ear, pulling me closer. “If you have any lingering doubts, we’ll work on that after supper.” My body shivered, and my nipples stood at attention.

Sighing, I gave in and watched a really stupid “happily ever after”.

“See? You’re hooked, too, right?” Jack inquired after feeding me a spectacular meal while watching his romcom. He made some kind of stuffed chicken breast with cheese and spinach and the biggest salad with such a variety of vegetables I lost count. His dressing had to be homemade because it was fantastic, not a fake chemically tasting supermarket brand.

“You’re starting to worry me, Jack,” I said, shoving in the last bite of my salad.

He took my hand and said, “Harper, I can stop any time I want. Just one more, okay? Just one more.” He dropped my hand and burst out laughing again and slapped his hand on his leg.

“I see the allure. It is mind-numbing drivel, and it’s hard to think of anything bad in your own life when they are all living in such perfect worlds. In some sick way, it’s an escape,” I said, moving onto his lap, straddling him. “Personally, I can think of better ways to escape that don’t include quaint little bakeries or helpless damsels in distress.” I bent over and licked his lips before he opened for me. My hands raked through his hair, and I felt him come alive underneath me. Pulling back, I asked, “Or, we could sit here and stare at the boob tube instead.” I lifted my leg and tried to escape his lap, but he was having none of that.

“Nope, I don’t think so,” he said, then jerked me back to where I was. I smiled against his lips, unable to control my happiness. “Sweetheart, in this house, your hot sweet ass will always win out over the stupid TV.” Then he found the remote and pushed the big red button.

After making out on his couch, we somehow ended up in his great big bathtub. That thing was lovely, jets and all. Not to mention the handsome, soapy, extremely naked company I had in there. It was nice to have someone help soap up all the hard to reach places and vice versa. I learned how slippery soap made everything feel. And slippery was very nice.

Then we rolled around in his big bed, touching each other and kissing each other, just taking our lovely time, exploring and learning each other’s bodies.

Jack rolled me to my back, and starting with my lips, he kissed his way down my body. He chose some other very nice places to kiss along the way as well. Once he got to my stomach, I panicked and grabbed his head with both hands, but he kept moving south. I clenched my legs together, and he looked up at me, perplexed. He sighed and lay down beside me.

“Why did you stop me? Don’t you enjoy oral sex?” he asked, and I got so embarrassed I put my arm over my face. Were we really going to discuss this? Now?

“Oh my God, do we have to talk about this?” I said, hoping I could disappear or at the very least, change the subject.

“We do. Harper, look at me. There’s nothing to be embarrassed about. Just talk to me,” he said and moved my arm down.

“Fine. I’ve never done, you know...that before,” I said, more embarrassed than I’d ever been.

“You were married, and he never did that to you?” I shook my head. “Did you do that to him?” His face was completely serious and confused.

“I did. Well, I tried. He said I wasn’t very good at, you know, and not to even bother,” I told him, humiliated.

“You married a fucking moron. I’m nearly coming right now just thinking about your gorgeous lips wrapped around my cock. Oh, and by the way? There’s no such thing as a bad blowjob.” He chuckled again, and I scowled at him. “What? I speak the truth, my dear. There’s nothing you could do, aside from... Well, I won’t give you ideas, but trust me, there’s nothing you could do wrong. Now, as far as why that idiot didn’t go down on you, I have no clue. But the thought of you never having a man give you head before excites the fuck outta me. You are so beautiful and so responsive, it’ll be great for you. For both of us. I know it. Will you at least let me try? If you hate it, I’ll stop. Just say the word. But I want to give this to you.” His eyes bore into mine, and his words resonated all over my body.

Jack wanted to give me something. He called me beautiful and responsive. This man was amazing. I would do anything for him.

“I...I guess so. But should I go shower again first or something?”

The worry melted off his face. “You smell wonderful, gorgeous. Your scent drives me wild.” He kissed me and started kissing down my body again, but this time I didn’t stop him.

Jack was right, as usual, and he made it great for me. His enthusiasm forced my self-consciousness to virtually disappear. It was perfect—he was perfect, and after I came, he held me against his body until my heart stopped thumping out of my chest. “That was amazing. You were amazing. Thank you for trusting me.” And he held me like that until I felt like joining the real world again.