No one recognizes a writer. Not even ones with million-dollar publishing contracts and movie deals.

I still couldn’t get over that.

The day my agent said my book was going to auction—basically a bidding war between publishers—my life changed. This story I felt compelled to write? I knew it was special. The idea hit me like a flash and I couldn’t write the words fast enough. I felt this story in my bones in a way no other story had touched me before. My agent lost her mind a little bit when she read it but I was still skeptical. The historical fiction market was different than romance and fantasy. Especially when it came to triumphant, strong female characters.

I thought Maggie was being a little too hopeful about my chances.

I didn’t see the auction coming and I most definitely didn’t see the immediate movie deal from a million miles away, but it was one of those right place, right time, right person scenarios. My editor was married to a producer who was actively searching for a script that matched my book description. He had a whole plan for how to crack this historical blockbuster market that had been languishing over the last few years.

What should have taken years was instead taking months. I was just holding on for dear life, hoping it didn’t all crumble around me.

Thank goodness I used a pen name and everyone understood my need for privacy without question. My real last name needed to stay out of the spotlight. Tony wasn’t the kind of man to hunt down a woman who left him. I wasn’t worth the effort or the mess that would ensue. He wouldn’t want to look bad.

But I didn’t know what he’d do if the information fell in his lap.

“I’m making cookies!” Lindsay said, sticking her head out of the kitchen. “And you’re all eating them.”

Other than the signing on Saturday and a dinner with a group of our fans, our entire weekend would be spent here, cooking, writing, and drinking a ridiculous amount of bourbon.

“What kind?” I yelled back.

“Chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, and sugar!”

So all of them. “Carry on!”

“What are you working on?” I asked Laura, who was lounging on a chaise fit for a queen with her laptop perched on her lap.

“Mermaid sex,” she sang. “No seriously. They’re in the cave from Julia’s book and they’re about to bang.”

We’d taken to crossing over into each other’s books even when they had nothing in common, simply because it made us happy. I mean, what was more fun for writers than writing? It was our version of playtime.

“So when does Erik arrive?” Julia asked, cutting right to what everyone clearly wanted to know.

Our group was tight. We shared pretty much everything. They knew about Erik right away and I hadn’t held back on sharing the details of our week. As someone who processed her world through words I think maybe it was just easier for me to share my life with my writer friends.

There’s also the fact that I didn’t see them in person all that often. Oh sure, we talked all day every day, but it was different. I didn’t usually see them in their pj’s, flicking off a Twitter post like I did with June.

So in a way it seemed right that I would introduce Erik as my boyfriend to them first. June, Carrie and Eve knew Erik. They knew me.

But these six women had followed along as we became a couple.

My phone vibrated at that exact same moment.

“Is he on the way? Is he on the way?” Alexandra clapped.

Oh, how I wanted to draw this out just for the fun of it, but I couldn’t do that to them. “Yes, he’s on the way.”

“It’s like we’re having our very own novel play out in real life,” she sighed, back of her hand to her forehead. “He better be good hero material.”

Which brought me to something important. “So here’s the thing. I don’t think I can objectively evaluate us.” And neither could June, Carrie, or Eve. “And since you all are the foremost experts on all things love, I was hoping—”

“That we’d study you guys and give you a report! Yes. We accept!” Laura exclaimed.

For the next hour we sipped cocktails and cooked, all while the anticipation grew to epic proportions.

“Is he as sexy as he seems in Sports Illustrated?”

“When you say patient you really mean patient?”

“Where is he from?”

“What does he do in the off season?”

“Are any of his brothers single?”

I answered the ones I could and ignored the ones that were flat out wrong. “His older brother is divorced, but I’m not sure he’s over his ex-wife.”

“Rats,” Laura sighed. “I love a good rebound. Bonus points for being a former athlete. Bonus, bonus points for being a sexy coach.”

“You’ve looked him up?”

She held up her phone. “Wikipedia, baby! If only he was a ginger . . . ”

“Sex truck! Sex truck! This is not a drill!” Alexandra yelled from the front window. Sex truck was an old joke we couldn’t let go. It was also very applicable to the situation. Erik drove a big fancy pickup truck.

My heart jumped into my throat. This was it. For the very first time I was introducing a guy to my friends.

No not a guy. My guy.

The girls lined the front window giving me a play by play of his arrival.

“His truck is so nice and big.” That was Lindsay.

“Oh, his foot is so nice and big, too. I wonder if everything is . . . oh, yes, yes it is,” Julia sighed.

I peeked over their heads in time to see Erik step out of the truck and slam the door looking kind of like a giant in his Mantas-blue t-shirt and matching ball cap. My mouth went dry. He made jeans and ball caps look as good as any suit and tie.

“I’ll get the door!” Mary offered very helpfully considering the rest of us were behaving like a pack of kids. She flung it open just as he stomped up the wooden steps.

“Hey there. I’m Erik,” he said with a little wave.

“I’m Mary, nice to meet you.” She shook his hand and welcomed him inside.

Even though we were all crowded into the large living room with the expansive ceilings and beach-chic white paint, he seemed to fill the space.

Laura immediately started giggling uncontrollably.

My nerves went haywire as it all really sank in that this was happening. I liked a guy and he liked me. He was here with the people I loved, seeing me in work mode. In a lot of ways this whole weekend for me was like a three-game series for Erik.

I hurried over and took his hand. “Welcome to the beach house.”

He squeezed back, dropping a kiss onto my cheek. “Thanks.”

My cheeks turned pink as everyone stared.

And stared.

So before things got anymore awkward I began introductions. “You’ve already met Mary. This is Laura.”

More giggling.

“Laura,” Erik said. “I have heard wonderful things about you.” He took her hand and she blushed.

“Nice to meet you too.” Even more giggling.

Okay. Not sure what was happening there. So I turned to Julia. “Miss Julia. Our queen of historicals and mermaid hair.”

“It’s very nice to meet you, Erik. We promise to be kind.”

“Kind of nosy,” Alexis quipped.

I sighed. “This is Alexis. Watch out for her.”

She scowled. “I’m not that bad.”

“Yes you are.” She really was. I moved quickly on to Alexandra. “Our Mistress of Positivity.”

She bounced her eyebrows. “You have a nice big truck. Has Zoe ridden in it yet?”

I almost choked, but I’d warned Erik many times what he was in for. Innuendo, sex jokes, and cookies were always in large supply.

He smiled wide. “No, actually she hasn’t,” he said without missing a beat.

Maybe ballplayers really were as dirty as romance writers.

“Hm. Such a shame,” she said.

I shook my head and moved down the line to Lindsay. “Our Grande Dame of Snark and Mysteries.”

“She’s too much. Really,” Lindsay gushed with all the theatrics she could muster. “I’m also the self-proclaimed cookie queen. Speaking of which, why don’t we all move this to the porch?”

The minute they left, I let out the breath I’d been holding. “So that’s them.”

One could make the argument that because we spent so much quiet time with our characters we had no choice but to let out all our personality at once, anytime we came into contact with multiple human beings. It would certainly help explain the over-the-top introductions I just witnessed.

Erik pulled me back for another hug and a real kiss. “I like your friends. They are as bad as I ever was.”

“What do you mean?” I wrapped my arms around his waist, looking up.

“Oh, were you were too busy freaking out to notice the death threats?”

“I was not freaking out.”

“You were totally freaking out.” He squeezed me against him. “They all just gave me the silent third degree. I can guarantee you Laura will kill me if I hurt you. Lindsay will bury the body. Julia will concoct the cover story while Alexandra distracts everyone.”

“And the rest?”

“Mary will make sure no evidence is left behind. I’m fairly certain Alexis is already planning ways to blackmail me.”

“That’s stunningly accurate.”

He shrugged. “They love you. When you love someone you don’t dick around. You make sure the new person knows their balls will be sliced off without hesitation.”

I could have done without the graphic description, but knowing that my friends had my back and that Erik was aware of it, was strangely comforting. “Are you sure you’re ready for this?”

“I’ve been looking forward to it all week,” he said with all the sweetness I could stand, all while his steady gaze dug deeper inside me. “I’ve missed you.”

“It’s been six hours.” Six long hours without him.

“Six minutes is too much.” He ran a finger under my chin and stole a kiss. “I like seeing you every day. I like kissing you every day. And I really like the way I feel when you’re around.”

My heart thudded harder. “And how is that?”

“Like I’m right where I should be, Zo.” He dropped another kiss on my lips and gave me a good squeeze. “Let’s go hang with your friends.”

For the next two hours we sat on the back porch listening to the gentle waves of the Gulf of Mexico while we grilled, ate Lindsay’s delicious cookies and polished off glasses of bourbon.

The sun had set a while ago and Erik had his arm slung around my shoulder. “All right, so let me see if I’ve got this straight,” he said. “The seven of you all write completely different stuff but you have the same goal, so it works.”

“Exactly,” Julia said, holding up her nearly empty glass. “I know it doesn’t make sense.”

“No, actually it makes perfect sense.” Erik’s eyes got a little unfocused as he looked past Julia. “It’s kind of like a baseball team, actually. If we were all exactly the same we wouldn’t be a good team. Every position requires a different set of skills, and all the positions together cover the field of play. Our different talents are what make us a strong, dynamic team.”

“Oh . . . wow,” I said. “Erik, we’ve been trying to explain why this works for over a year.” And here he waltzed in and figured it out in an hour.

The seven of us met at a conference and quickly became friends. The fact that we wrote very different types of books didn’t become a concern for a long time.

And then we wondered how we ever made it work. I mean, how was someone who wrote about sex in explicit detail supposed to work with someone who never wrote about sex at all? We didn’t share readers. Our marketing looked nothing alike. It shouldn’t work, and yet we all loved each other so much, and we loved the process of writing so much, that we never let that detail stop us.

Eventually it all started to make more and more sense as we each began to stretch and write more diverse types of stories. The fact that we had already established a strong connection made that growth so easy for all of us. I jumped from romance to fantasy to historical saga and back again. Julia moved from contemporary romance to historical fiction. Lindsay seemed to write in five different genres but always with the same smart voice.

Because our foundation was built on our love of reading and writing we could talk about anything from the business end of the publishing industry to the nitty gritty details of crafting a character. It simply didn’t matter what the story was about anymore.

“You’re a genius,” Alexandra whispered. “How did we never come up with an analogy like this? I like him, Zoe. He fits right in.”

“He can be our mascot,” Laura declared. “Our sexy mascot.”

“He’ll be good for carrying things at conferences and signings and stuff,” Mary said. “Our husbands will be happy to have help for a change.”

“Hey,” Alexis said, “are you implying I’m lazy?”

“Yes,” I laughed. “You have to admit the husbands do a lot for us all.”

She grinned. “They like feeling useful. Do you like being useful, Erik?”

Luckily he seemed to love my friends’ weird senses of humor and went right along. “I do. Did Zoe mention I have four sisters?”

There was a collective “Oh . . . ” from the whole group.

“Well that explains why he doesn’t look like he’s two seconds from running for his truck,” Julia nodded.

He squeezed my hand. “I feel most at home with a group of bossy women.”

“We’re not bossy,” Laura said with a point of her finger. “We just know what we want and aren’t afraid to demand it.”

He held up his glass. “To badass women. May we know them, may we love them, may we never piss them off.”

And because my friends are never subtle, they all stared at me with a grin as they raised their glasses and said, “Here, here!”

* * *

While I did have a couple of celebratory drinks with my friends, I quit pretty early in the night. I noticed Erik did as well. I didn’t know his reasons but mine were clear. I wanted my head on straight for whatever happened next.

Mary and Julia had already headed off to bed. Alexis was asleep on the couch, as usual. She refused to go to bed when she was tired because she didn’t want to miss anything. One time she fell asleep on the floor.

“Should we wake her?” Lindsay asked.

“No,” Alexandra said. “She looks comfortable. We’ll just throw a blanket over her.” Then she glanced at us. “You two look cozy. Maybe you should go to bed, too. Wink, wink.”

She also actually winked.

“You know you do one or the other, not both?”

She shrugged. “I wanted to make sure you got the message.”

“The astronauts on the space station got your message,” Laura laughed.

Erik whispered, “You still sure you want me to stay?”

After spending every night together for a week? Yeah, fat chance I was letting him out of here whether my friends liked it or not. “Of course.”

He played with my hair while he studied my eyes. “I don’t want to make anyone uncomfortable.”

“Don’t worry,” Lindsay said loudly. “We bring our husbands sometimes. All we require in exchange is that they make breakfast. You do make breakfast, right?”

We did not force them to make breakfast, although they all enjoyed cooking for us and we greatly appreciated their sacrifice.

“Oh, I make breakfast. Prepare to be amazed,” Erik said.

“I will be appropriately excited,” she said. “Now go to bed you two. You look exhausted.”

Since I didn’t feel exhausted I took that as code for: Please go make our romance writing dreams come true and bang your boyfriend before you’re too tired to take advantage of him.

And who was I to say no to that? “Well then we’re off.”

But Erik patted my leg. “Hold up. I need to go grab my bag out of the truck. I’ll be right back.”

Which left me alone with them.

“You’re gonna, right? Right?” Laura asked with very bouncy eyebrows.

“Maybe. I don’t have a crystal ball.”

“But you’re not denying that it’s on the table,” Alexis mumbled, eyes still closed. “Which means you’re ready. Which means if Mr. Hero Material is up to the task then you are totally making sweet, sweet love tonight.”

Was I that obvious? Did I care? “Mr. Hero Material, huh? Does that mean you think this works?” One evening wasn’t enough time to know for sure, but it was plenty to get a gut reaction.

And I trusted these ladies guts when it came to love.

I got three sets of thumbs-up.

“Are we doing thumbs?” Alexis asked, eyes still closed.

“Yes,” Alexandra replied, reaching over to hold Alexis’s arm up.

Alexis popped up her thumb. “He’s awesome. He’s sweet. He is totally nuts about you. I say you do this. Him? Whatever.”

“He’s coming back,” Lindsay hissed and everyone attempted to look normal.

Which of course meant no one looked normal at all.

“You ready, Darlin’?” Erik asked as he strolled into the room.

“Good night everyone. Have sweet dreams,” I said with a wave goodnight.

We picked this house because it had two master bedrooms on opposite sides of the house, plus four other bedrooms. We tried to rotate who was forced to share rooms and beds and I was eternally grateful that two months ago at our last retreat I’d bunked with Mary, which meant that this week I got one of the master suites.

I led him to the back of the house and down a hallway. My room wasn’t huge but it had all the necessary pieces: a king-sized bed, a nice bathroom, and privacy.

One week.

Seven days ago I went to a hockey game and met Jack and Belle. We ate dinner and went dancing.

One week ago I took him to my bed and here I was doing it again, only this time I wasn’t driven by frantic instinct. Tonight I knew exactly what I was doing. Two years of knowing each other had fueled seven intense days of intimacy of every kind except one.

We shared meals and laughed together. I learned his body and he learned mine. Tonight I wanted more.

“I like your friends,” he said, throwing the lock on the door.

“They like you, too.”

“So I passed?”

“The test?”

He nodded.

“Yes. I received multiple thumbs-up, whispered approvals, and even one very dirty illustration.”

His eyes lit up. “Can I see it?”

“Maybe. I have a question first.”

He swaggered across the room to where I stood by the bed. “What’s your question, Zoe?”

I swallowed down the butterflies that took flight when he looked at me like that. “Do I pass your test?”

His brow furrowed and then understanding dawned. His eyes took on that hungry look I loved. “Well there’s only one way to find out.”

I threw my arms around his neck and kissed him. It was strange how familiar it was to be close to him now. How natural it felt to melt against him and breathe in his musk.

Except after his morning run. That musk was a little too much.

“You definitely get an A in kissing,” he murmured against my lips.

“No shadows?”

“No,” he growled. “But I’ll take back your good grades if you mention it again.”

Duly noted.

He ran his nose along mine and I became keenly aware that the only sound was the heavy panting of our breath. I could feel him everywhere, even the places we weren’t touching. There was so much heat and electricity it filled the air and closed the gap between our bodies.

His hands moved down my arms and up again, stopping at my collarbone. “Tell me what you’re thinking.” He pressed his forehead against mine, eyes screwed shut.

I didn’t hesitate in my reply because there was no more thinking when it came to Erik. No shadow confusing me. “I’ve always wanted to know what happens next.”

Instead of his hands moving down he cupped my face. “It’s going to be amazing.”

“Yes.” I kissed him. “Keep going.”

I was so comfortable with him now. It was nothing like last week. I knew now that there was no comparison. Erik was hands-down the best man I’d ever met in real life, or even my fictional one. Better if for no other reason than the fact that he was oh-so-real.

His touch was simply the touch of a man wanting a woman. His kiss was—well let’s be real. His kisses were the very definition of mind-altering.

This was me enjoying the life I’d always wanted with a man who was just as happy to be living it.

Period.

End. Of. Story.

So when he pulled me closer, I craved more and asked for it. He tested me by touching and massaging as he searched my body, looking for what I wanted.

I was pretty sure I passed because he smiled. “How does this feel?”

I ground against him. “Like I want to feel your mouth on me.” Did I just say that? Oh yes I did.

His eyes widened. “Is that so?”

I nodded, trying really, really hard to not blush.

“Right now?”

I nodded again.

He dropped to his knees, peeling my uniform yoga pants and underwear down my legs.

All I felt when he kissed my clit was pleasure.

Well, pleasure and excitement. His mouth was oh, so warm and soft. Nice and, oh . . . oh my. Yes.

He spread me, searching deeper, groaning in pleasure the way I always hoped a man would when he kissed me there. My hips began to move and Erik hooked my leg over his shoulder, hands on my hips to hold me steady as he tasted, licked, and sucked, learning me and arousing me rather quickly.

And then he took things up a notch, sliding a finger into the mix. I gasped at the very pleasant, very new sensation.

“That’s enough. On the bed,” he growled.

When I didn’t move fast enough he picked me up, depositing me exactly where he wanted me, with his mouth back where it was before I had a chance to say anything. So instead I gripped the edge of the mattress and bowed up, gasping. He alternated fingers and tongue, taking his time and seeming to enjoy himself if the sounds he was making were any indication.

“Erik,” I gasped. “Can you slow down? I’m . . . ” Half mad? Wild? “I want to touch you, too.”

He kissed the inside of my thigh, glancing up. “Sorry. Was I stealing all the fun?”

“A little.” I shrugged “Not that I minded.” As he rocked back on his heels I bit my lip. “I’ve just waited a long time and I didn’t want to miss anything.”

He stood. “Well then by all means. Have fun.”

So I did. I took my time undressing him, stripped him naked just like my sexy, strong heroines did in my books. Turns out, it’s just as fun in real life. Then I sat on the edge of the bed. Instead of holding and stroking him like I had a week ago, I licked.

He gasped in surprise. “Zoe . . . ”

“Does that feel good?”

“God, yes. Amazing.”

So I did it again, this time gripping him at his base so I could lick around the crown of his head. “Still good?”

His hips thrust forward. “Very unexpected. Very, very, very good.”

I sucked, taking him into my mouth, testing and learning, then took him deep. He tasted salty and new. I really liked the way his breath kept coming faster, the way his fingers stroked my hair. None of this felt wrong or like some sort of obligation. It was intimate and it was a gift I was happy to give.

“Zoe.” He placed a hand on my shoulder.

I pulled out to the tip and with one last swirl, looked up.

And up and up, because now I was on my back again, this time in the middle of the mattress. “Just you and me?” he asked, frantically reaching for his bag.

“Just you and me.”

He whipped out a condom. “We’ll go slow.”

“I think that’s wise.” Three years was a long time. A really long time.

He crawled across the mattress but didn’t lower himself down onto me. “Talk to me, okay? You tell me if it hurts, if you want to stop, everything, anything. I want to hear it.”

One thing I learned writing romance was that words were hot. “I like hearing it too.”

He lowered down slowly, the weight of his body crushing mine into the mattress, his hard cock throbbing between us. “Really?”

“Turns out this romance writer gets turned on by hearing words, too.”

He nuzzled behind my ear. I pulled my knees up to make room for him. “Then you should know,” he whispered against the shell of my ear, “that I cannot wait to be buried deep inside you.”

I shivered. “Yes.”

He kissed my neck, my shoulder, down between my breasts. “This is what I’ve been sleeping next to all week? All of this?” He nuzzled my nipple and sucked lightly.

I ground against him. “Oh, yes.”

“I like it when you say that.” He moved back up and kissed me, his hips angling toward mine.

“I have a feeling I’ll be saying it a lot tonight.”

He pressed against me, the pressure sending a shockwave through me that pulsed back against his impending invasion. I gasped.

“You okay?”

“Yes.” I clutched his shoulders, arched to meet him, desperate to be together.

He pushed inside, stretching me. I dug my fingers into his muscles as I cried out. He pulled back slowly and thrust a little deeper, widening his way in.

From touching him last week I guessed his size would be just right for me, more than I was used to, but not significantly. So I was surprised by how sharp his thrusts felt, how foreign the sensation of being stretched seemed. I hadn’t expected the difference to feel so extreme.

It was wonderful but also shocking.

“You still with me, Zo?”

I couldn’t quite catch my breath. “Maybe . . . maybe just give me a second?”

“Of course.”

With one nuzzle of his nose against my cheek I relaxed. “You’re just . . . a lot.”

“Not gonna lie, that sounds pretty fucking awesome coming out of your mouth.” He kissed me, cocking his head to the side to sweep his tongue inside. My body pulsed from head to toe. “Tell me what’s going on.”

I realized I was trembling again. My ears buzzed and the top of my head felt hot. “You’re . . . inside me and it’s so much. It’s like I can’t catch up.”

“Okay. First, breathe.” Then he leaned up on his elbows and palmed my breast. “Does it help when I do this?”

He touched my nipple with his thumb, sending a jolt to my core. It eased a little of the sensation. “Yes, actually.”

“What about when I do this?” He rolled my nipple between his finger and thumb, sending a shockwave to the same spot. My entire core pulsed and this time I felt needy so I rocked my hips.

He slid deeper.

His eyes grew dark and his jaw thrust forward. “I take it you liked that?” He rolled it again, sending another jolt that I couldn’t resist. I rocked my hips and he slid even deeper. “I’m the one who’s going to need a minute next,” he groaned, sliding out to his tip and easing back in. He did this several times until we were both panting. He pushed deeper, stretching me even wider, and this time I felt relief.

I rocked against him, looking for that delicious friction that only came from one hot body working against another. Erik took my cue and began thrusting more, reaching deeper. His cock stretching me and disappearing, filling me and leaving me over and over felt so damn good. I arched up to meet him. “Harder.” I needed more to get there. More impact, more friction, more something.

“You, on top.” He grunted, rolling to the side.

Suddenly I was above him, straddling his hips with his cock still inside me. “You’re like a magician.”

“Naw, just someone who works out for a living.” He pressed a thumb against my clit and palmed my breast. “You move in whatever way feels good, okay, Zo? I want to watch you come.”

“What about you?” I could have kicked myself for the kneejerk reaction. Maybe it was inevitable that I’d still have some old, bad habits peek through at the wrong times.

But Erik didn’t let it faze him. “Darlin’ I’m trying my level best to keep it together long enough to make sure you get there first but it’s taking everything I got. Trust me, when you go, this time anyway, I’m going right over the edge with you.”

He thrust up at the same time he rolled my nipple and circled my clit. “Right now I want you to take what you want from me. Show me what you like. Have a good time.”

I didn’t know what I needed but I was excited to find out. I had an Erik play toy and a free pass to enjoy it for as long as I wanted. I rode him slowly, learning how deep I could take him from this angle, then that. I liked leaning back, placing my hands on his thighs. It made his cock press hard against me from the inside as I rode him.

He ran his hands everywhere, lighting me up as he explored. I really liked it when he gripped my hair, but from this position I was too far away, so I noted it for another day to explore.

Instead I relished the electricity that zapped from my nipples to my core as he clamped them between his fingers. Each time I rose up the tug sent another pleasurable wave. Each time I slammed down on him he rolled the tips in time with the way I ground my hips against him.

Up and down. Spikes of electricity from his fingers to his cock.

Over and over the tug exactly what I needed to drive me wild. The swirl another level of heaven.

I rode him because I liked the way his cock filled me to almost too full.

He grunted in pleasure. The way his shoulder muscles stretched taut as he played with me was just about the sexiest thing I’d ever seen in real life until I saw the way his jaw muscle flexed. The pleasure he restrained. The amount of desire he refused to unleash on me.

So much potential all bottled up in a body contained.

I could come any time, I knew that, but this wasn’t something I wanted to end. It crossed my mind for a split second to give in and let the man have his orgasm, but he told me to do what felt right.

And riding him felt oh so right.

Feeling this good was even better.

I’d written so many scenarios at one point or another. I gave my fans what they wanted so that meant some couples were sweet, passionate love makers. Others were very kinky. They had threesomes and sex parties. While others had intimate, passionate, completely vanilla lives. Each couple was different and I had enjoyed exploring each one.

It never occurred to me that I might be all of them in real life. I kept those fictional thoughts completely walled off from everything else. But not anymore. With Erik I had the freedom and safety to be whoever I wanted to be.

And right now that meant letting go.

I sat forward to kiss him. “I’m going to come around your gorgeous cock, now.”

“Yes,” he hissed, one hand on my hip, the other in my hair.

I took him deep. Every muscle in my body went rigid as I came. My nipples tingled as they dragged along his chest and my core pulsed along his length. I ground against him, riding the wave, crying out again and again as he joined me. He gripped my hips, pulling me down hard as he thrust up. His orgasm every bit as electric as my own.