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I hope I’m not going to scare her off with my blunt joke. I smile and nod but I’m holding my breath, waiting for Jill’s response.

JILLIEN: Probably. Who’s the brunette? The one touching your arm?

I hadn’t noticed, but she did.

LIAM: Jealous or trolling?

JILLIEN: Maybe both. I’d do her, if she’s interested.

I laugh hard. Her flirting is on point. A touch of possession that’s stirring all my alpha feelings. I feel happy. Like I used to feel long before I knew life could break you.

LIAM: Never mind her. You’re taken.

JILLIEN: I’m fielding offers currently if she’d like to get in. This fellow, named something I’ve already forgotten, is making a compelling case to my breasts.

LIAM: An offer from the idiot neighbor? He can’t do what I can.

JILLIEN: He’s offered to show me his collection of shot glasses from around the world. Apparently, he lives so close no one will even know we’re gone. Counteroffer?

LIAM: I have precisely two shot glasses.

JILLIEN: It’s really all you need.

LIAM: Counteroffer. I’ll eat you out until you can’t stand. I’m desperate to make you come so hard you fucking forget all the reasons we’ve never done this before. I’m saddled up to do some damage. I want to ruin you for all other men. Contract items are on the table.

JILLIEN: Accepted. Shall we sign the papers at my hotel then?

I breathe a sigh of relief. Miraculously we’re on the same page about sex.

LIAM: I’m sorry, where are you sleeping tonight?

JILLIEN: You know I can’t sleep in this house.

LIAM: Sleeping isn’t on the previously discussed agenda. I’ll reimburse you for the hotel.

JILLIEN: See, I am going to fuck you for your money.

LIAM: Be my guest. As long as you fuck me, you can have it all. Want a cat?

JILLIEN: Pass.

She glances over her shoulder and returns to my neighbor, and I rearrange. She laughs and touches his arm.

LIAM: Kitchen. NOW.

JILLIEN: Not done talking to the shot glass king of Philadelphia.

I can’t watch, so I head off to the kitchen and wait. God, I hope she wants me the way I want her. My cock has never wanted anything more. My brain is foggy—my dick is sucking up all the blood from my brain. She enters, and my body relaxes and tenses at the same time. I swiftly push her into the back staircase, closing the door behind us. She’s a step above me, and we’re face to face. Her perfect smell of summertime and lush flowers fills the space around us as her arms wrap around my neck.

“Hi.” Her voice is breathy and cute.

“Shh.” I shut her up by retaking her lips and putting my hand on the back of her head to pull her to me. I taste her need and give her mine. Our insistent tongues collide.

I say, “It’s like the word beautiful isn’t expressive enough.” Someone in the kitchen interrupts us, and I squeeze her ass. She gasps, and I put my hand over her mouth, and she sucks my index finger. My balance is thrown off slightly as she sucks and nips, giving me a preview of what she could do to my cock. Then, as if I can fucking take any more, she deep throats my long thick middle finger. I moan loudly, then we both freeze. I can’t keep it together. I can never keep it together when parts of me are being sucked.

“Fletch!? That you? You in here, man?” My buddy James opens the pantry door. I freeze. Neither of us can move an inch because the old Revolutionary War era hardwood steps we’re perched on creak like two-hundred forty-five-year-old wood should. I shift and the step betrays me a little. I turn slowly as if I’m in some kind of spy movie and there are trip lasers everywhere. I hear her stifle a giggle. James is out on the back porch calling for me. I hear the back door shut and I’m now facing the door to the back staircase. Jillien huddles behind me. I evoke the image of my wrinkly old grandmother eating peach yogurt and kasha and my cock obeys by deflating to a comfortable level.

James whips open the door and cackles when he finds me. “Dude! Where the fuck you been?” Fuck.