Page 57 of This Wild Heart

“Yeah, it was. That man looks like he’d break the damn bed.”

I laughed. “The furniture survived.”

“Did your vaj survive?”

“If he brokethat, we’d have a whole different set of problems.”

“True.” Vida sighed like she was the one who just had bed-breaking sex. “Man, I feel great right now. I knew this would happen the moment I saw him nibbling on your fingers five minutes after he sat down. Only men very confident in their abilities do that shit.”

My face was on fire, and I laid my forehead on the cool table. Spike batted at my hair, and I shooed him away with a gentle nudge of my hands.“Ididn’t know this would happen.”

“Are you glad it did?” she asked.

“Yes,” I answered tentatively.

“Yeah, it sounds like it.”

Her dry tone had me rolling my eyes. “Yes, I’m glad it happened. I feel … good. But it’s complicated, Vida. I asked for straightforward and easy. A simple business arrangement. And he agreed. My furniture-breaking husband does not want love.”

“You don’t either, do you?”

Instead of answering, I stared down at the fresh sheet of paper. A million possibilities of what could come next. “I don’t want to get hurt,” I told her. “I’ve met my yearly quota, thank you very much.”

“Then don’t fall in love with your hot, emotionally unavailable husband. You can still keep things straightforward. Just bang the hell out of him and move on when your time is done.”

“You missed your calling as a motivational speaker. That was beautiful.”

Vida laughed. “You saw the videos, though, right?”

“I didn’t. I was too busy banging the hell out of my husband.” I tilted my head. “Actually, I think it was the other way around.”

She made another squealing sound. “I know you saw stars, didn’t you?”

I sighed, tilting my head back. “The entire freaking cosmos, Vida.”

“Attagirl. I sent you the link.”

A text popped through on my phone, and I navigated to the link while Vida waited patiently. Milicent wasn’t dicking around, was she? Two hours earlier, she’d posted the first couple shots, along with the caption:Voyagers nation, I hope you’re ready for a new royal couple. Because Parker and Anya Wilder are officially IT.

“Holy shit,” I whispered, scrolling through the pictures.

“That’s what I’m sayin’. You two are hot, hot, hot.”

Milicent went through those freaking pictures with one goal in mind: choose the ones where Parker is looking at Anya like he’s imagining her naked. And holy shit, she did a bang-up job. Gold star. A+.

I pressed my thighs together, my weak-ass traitor brain choosing that exact moment to shove a memory forward: Parker sucking his fingers into his mouth and grinning.

What an unhelpful little bitch my libido was. It was tempted to go straight back upstairs and wake him up in a variety of creative ways. There was a list as long as my arm of positions I’d like to try, and I swallowed down the disappointment that I might not be able to.

Use your head, Anya. This wasn’t a game. And it wasn’t just for fun.

It wasn’t just sex. It wasn’t just orgasms and incredible kisses and no-strings-attached anything.

We had more strings than a friggin’ puppet show. And now they were on display for the entire world to see.

The comment section was overwhelmingly positive.

OMG, she’s gorgeous! Well done, Wilder.

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