Page 61 of Duty

There was something about this man.

Something …

“Haven,” Andino murmured.

She blinked.

He was standing at the edge of the stage, now. His palms lying flat to the LED lights lining the stage as he leaned over, and his face came to a stop just a few inches from hers. Upside down, and suspended like she was, the only thing she could see was him.

And it was all she wanted to see right then.

“Yes?” she whispered.

“That conversation—would you like to finish it now?”

Haven laughed. “Right now?”

“You could get back on your feet, if you want. I mean … I’m not going to tell you to stop dancing, or whatever. I do like that.”

She grinned. “Of course, you do.”

He just shrugged. “Why deny it?”

Haven winked, and then quickly lifted her upper body, grabbed the pole with two hands, and let go with her leg. She landed gracefully to her feet, and then turned around to face Andino once more. He wanted to have this conversation, so she was ready to talk.

“Are you going to come down?” he asked.

She stared down at him. “No, I think I like it up here right now.”

“Lady’s choice.”

“Talk.”

“Counteroffer,” he posed, pointing a finger at her and twirling it in a circle, “you dance, and I keep talking.”

“Oh, is that how this is going to go—you’ll make sure I’m distracted enough not to hear what you have to say to me?”

“Dance, woman.”

Haven pursed her lips, and started to move toward the edge of the stage to get down. “Hmm.”

“I hadn’t had sex in two months before I fucked you at the club that night.”

Haven hesitated. “Really—two months?”

“I have dry spells.”

He said it so defensively that she had to laugh.

“Is that what you’re calling it?”

Andino sighed. “I get busy. My life is chaotic.”

“I understand that.”

“Do you?”

Haven nodded once. “It’s like … everything starts coming at once. It all piles up, and for a while, you forget that you’re even a real person with needs and wants to take care of, too.”