My head falls back against the wall panel. My breath saws in and out. He’s stopped the licking but his mouth hovers there, like he can breathe in my ecstasy.

He moves up my body to stand in front of me. I’m shivering, shaking.

His hands cradle my cheeks as he rains kisses over my face. “We’re going in there, baby, and I’m going to strip you naked and fuck the daylights out of you. I’m going to fuck you like there’s no tomorrow. You good with that?” He kisses me again. Again.

His words drug my veins. Good drugs, wild and intoxicating. My mind is thinkingyes, and then I'm whispering it.Yes, yes, yes,to the rhythm of his kisses.

He pulls back, studies my eyes.

I mouth his name. Long and slow, I mouth it.Hen-ry.

He exhales raggedly. His hands are on me. He’s picking me up. I scream as I’m whirled around. He carries me through his place, past low lights. Past furnishings. Kitchen. Walls. Hall. Into a spacious bedroom.

He throws me down on the bed. I scoot back a little, and he crawls right over to me and grabs my legs, yanks me under him. “Where’re you going?”

I like no past or future. I like no roles. He goes to work on the pearly buttons, fingers trembling. “I never feel like this,” he says, suddenly serious. “I never feel this messed up. Your skirt was an engineering problem I should’ve understood, but I felt like…a bear. My hands like a bear.”

“I liked it.”

“I’m serious. You’re all I could think about, all these weeks.”

“Me, too,” I say. “I watch you. I try not to want you,” I say.

He growls with satisfaction when he hits my camisole. “You always have these under there?”

“Kind of,” I say.

He yanks the cups down so they’re under my breasts. “You need to be dealing with that skirt right about now. I need it off you.” His voice is sluggish with lust and desperation.

I unhook and unzip my skirt as he tongues my breast. Then he makes me take the rest of my clothes off.

I’m naked under him, just like I imagined, but he’s not playing his part. I’d imagined hot, arrogant Henry in his beautiful suit, crassly using me.

Instead he’s skimming his hand over my skin, like he’s learning me. Mapping me. Enjoying themeI hide under the court clothes. Enjoying Vonda.

It’s too much. Too much vulnerability.

“Henry.” I reach up.

He grabs my hands. Kisses a finger. Keeps them clasped in his. “Shh.”

He runs two fingers under my breast, a whisper of a movement that nudges it up just slightly. “I love you right here.” He slides his palm down over the curve of my belly. I quiver to his touch. “And right here.”

Stop talking,I think.

Fingers roam over my hip, pressing, printing. “Here.”

He nudges apart my legs. My heart jumps into my throat, knowing what’s coming. He trails a lazy finger over my mound. I arch up when he makes contact with my clit. Steely eyes holding mine, he plays with my sensitive folds.

“You are so beautiful.”

He’s not just printing me, he’s seeing into me. All the possibilities, the hidden things. Like the Moreno hotel. He sees beauty where everyone else sees rubble for a landfill.

I whimper. A strange sound to my ears—misery mixed with utter pleasure.

“I’ve got you, baby.”

All this time I thought the worst thing that could happen would be me being exposed as Vonda.