“Don’t stop,” she says to me. “Please.”
 
 I shift my hand, pressing the heel of it against where she needs me the most.
 
 My fingers tease at the lace, and she rocks against me in a quiet, desperate rhythm. Her breath shortens, her kisses become more frantic.
 
 And I’ve never been more turned on in my life.
 
 “I need your fingers,” she begs. “Inside of me.”
 
 I’m mesmerized by this woman. If she told me to jump off a damn cliff I probably would right now. But thankfully all I have to do is nudge the lace to the side, groaning as I feel the slickness ready to greet me. As I slide two fingers inside of her I wish it was my cock.
 
 And I know it never can be.
 
 My thumb finds her clit, circling against it as I curl my fingers inside of her, finding the spot I know is going to make her legs buckle. She clings on tightly to me, her head dropping to my shoulders, her cries soft as I bring her to the peak.
 
 Her body tightens around my fingers as I massage the spot inside of her, my thumb echoing the movement on her clit. Then she’s gasping, and so tight I feel like my fingers are about to break.
 
 “God… I’m gonna come, Asher. I’m gonna?—”
 
 I lift her head with my free hand, determined to taste her pleasure. Our mouths clash, her body stiffens, and she falls to pieces against me, letting out a whimper as she tightens around my fingers again and again.
 
 I hold her as the convulsions subside, my own excitement throbbing in time to her ebbing orgasm. She slowly comes down from the peak, her eyes wide as they meet mine.
 
 “It’s safe to come in,” Parker calls out as he opens the door to the lighthouse. I immediately jump away from Francie, like I’m on fucking fire, her feet dropping to the ground.
 
 Her mouth opens in shock but she at least has the wherewithal to adjust her skirt so it’s hiding the sweetest part of her body, before she adjusts her top so it’s not messed up.
 
 “Coming,” she calls out. Then she smiles at me and I smile back. Because yes, she fucking was.
 
 Luckily Parker’s sudden arrival has cooled any ardor I had, and my erection subsides.
 
 “You heading home?” Parker asks, walking over to the car where I just made Francie come like a fucking steam train. He winks at Francie. “Go on inside, I’ll be there in a minute.”
 
 She looks at me and grimaces before walking past Parker to head inside.
 
 “Everything okay?” Parker asks me.
 
 “Why wouldn’t it be?” I ask him.
 
 He shrugs. “Autumn’s worried about you and Francie. She thinks you have something against her.”
 
 “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I tell him. “Everything’s fine. Why wouldn’t it be?”
 
 “Okay, no need to bite my head off.” Parker grins at me. “Thanks for taking care of my wife tonight. I appreciate it.”
 
 I’m still thinking about the way I took care of her friend as I bid Parker good night and walk around to the driver’s side of my car, giving him a wave before I climb in and drive away.
 
 But I don’t sleep much that night. I’m too busy thinking about my sister’s best friend whimpering as she orgasmed, and then, in the early morning clarity, wishing that I’d never touched her. Because then I wouldn’t know what I was missing.
 
 Eventually, at four a.m., I decide I’ll go over and talk to her in the light of day. Explain that while I find her undeniably beautiful, the two of us are a bad idea and that we should chalk this one up to experience.
 
 But when I pull up to the lighthouse in the morning, she’s already gone.
 
 ten
 
 FRANCIE
 
 “I don’t hate this part,” Alice says, tapping her lacquered fingernail against her laptop screen like it’s a metronome of doom as we sit in her Manhattan office, stacks of manuscripts teetering on every flat surface. “But I also don’t love it. And with this deadline…” She flips the calendar on her desk and circles a terrifyingly close date. “We don’t have time for lukewarm.”