Author: Tiffany Reisz

“Are you home again?”

“Yeah, of course.” She winced a little at the outright lie. But she knew telling Wesley she was currently impaled on one of the sexiest men in New York wasn’t an option, not unless she wanted him in a depressed funk for a week. Why he cared so much about who she fucked was beyond her, but he did care and that made her care.

“I need a favor. Me and Fitz are pulling an all-nighter at Josh’s. Can you maybe bring me one of my insulin pens? I mean, only if you’re not busy.”

“It’s fine. Not busy.”

“If you’re busy—”

“Not. Busy.”

“Can you read my final paper, too? It’s due tomorrow.”

Nora almost groaned aloud, but not from pleasure. She’d painted herself into a corner with lies. She couldn’t tell Wes no now that she said she was home and not busy. Now she had to drive back to Connecticut, drive to his school, read his twenty-page final and help him fix it. Wes was a math and science geek, not a writer. This would take all night. “Where are you?”

“Basketball court for the next hour or two. Can you come?”

“Oh, yeah. I’m definitely coming.”

She hung up the phone and dropped it onto the carpet. With renewed determination, she rode Griffin harder, slamming her hips into his, grinding her clitoris into the base of his cock. With a lusty gasp, she came hard, squeezing him with her inner muscles so hard he flinched underneath her. She kept moving. He’d been such a good boy he deserved his orgasm.

“Come for me,” she ordered. “Come now.”

He didn’t require any more encouragement. Nora dug her nails into his shoulders as he came with a shudder, the rubber duck falling from his fingers as he panted against her chest.

“Very nice,” she said, pulling off him. She untied the gag and his hands.

“Nice? That’s all I get is a ‘nice’?” Griffin teased as he grabbed her and dragged her to him. “I’m going to spend all night showing you how not ‘nice’ I am.”

“Can’t. Change of plans.” Nora found her panties and dragged them on under her skirt. She closed her bra again and buttoned up her blouse. “I’m needed.”

“Needed?” Griffin yanked his long-abandoned boxer briefs back on. “What about the night in the city? Gansevoort? All night riding my cock? I think we had this discussion.”

“Rain check?” she asked, a small pang of guilt stabbing her heart. “I have to do a favor for a friend.”

“Nora...” Griffin gazed at her with a look of utter disappointment on his face.

“Griffin...” She tried to smile at him.

“He better be really fucking good in bed to dump me.”

With a sigh, Nora put her arms around Griffin and kissed his chest. He made no move to return the embrace.

“It’s not personal, and it’s not about sex. Trust me, I’m not getting laid tonight. Come on, you know I’m crazy about you.”

“You have a fan-fucking-tastic way of showing it.”

“Please don’t be mad. Seriously, I’m not leaving your bed for someone else’s. I have to do a friend a favor. That’s all.”

He nodded and she rose up on her tiptoes to kiss him on the cheek.

“I’m serious about the rain check,” she said as she gathered her toys and zipped up her bag. “I love fucking you.”

“I love fucking you, too...and you’d love it if you let me.”

“We’ve had this talk. I don’t let anyone top me anymore.”

“Except for Søren.”

“Søren has needs.” She hated having this conversation with Griffin. Griffin loved reminding her she was a switch, and as a switch, she should be a little more flexible in the bedroom, i.e., let him top her every now and then. As much as that fantasy appealed to her, she’d tried subbing with other men, and all she’d done during the sex was think of Søren the entire time. He was the only man she let top her these days and even then only on rare occasion. Griffin deserved better than that. He deserved better than this, too. But for Wes? Anything.

“I have needs, too. I need someone who isn’t going to dump me for someone else after making plans with me.”

Nora stood by the door and stared back at Griffin—gorgeous, kinky, rich, hilarious, sexy as fuck Griffin. And she did want to stay and have her wild night of sex and kink with Griffin. All she had to do was call Wes back and say, “Hey, something’s up. I had to go. You’ll have to get your own pen.” And Wes would say, “Okay.”

But she didn’t.

“I hope you find her someday, then. Or him.”

Nora turned to leave but a question from Griffin stopped her.

“Who is he?” Griffin asked.

Nora winced, not wanting to bring Wesley into this part of her world.

“No one you know.”

“You like him?”

Nora gave him her best apologetic shrug.

“Enough to give up sex with you for.”

Griffin laughed softly, laughed enough to tell her she was forgiven.

“Damn.”

Damn indeed.

* * *

“So you left this man Griffin for your Wesley? I’m not impressed,” Marie-Laure said, pulling Nora from her memory and out of her story.

“I’m not done yet,” Nora reminded her testily. She hated being interrupted when she was on a roll. “Story’s not over. Do you want to hear the ending or not?”

“I hope it’s a happy ending. You paint quite a picture. Your Griffin sounds lovely. Another younger man of yours?”

“Not that much younger. He’s twenty-nine.”

“A very good age.”

“It’s a very good age to be Griffin. He’s currently ass over ears in love with a teenage boy. I introduced them. One of my better matches.”

“A teenager? You have no morals, do you?”

“If he’s old enough to join the army, he’s old enough to get it from Griffin. And you married an eighteen-year-old, Captain Morality. Oh, and you killed someone.”

“I never said I had morals. I’m simply pleased to find that you don’t, either.”

“Let’s be best friends,” Nora said. “We can braid each other’s hair and murder runaways together.”

“Let’s. After your story, s’il vous plaît. It’s enjoyable but I still don’t understand why you love this Wesley boy of yours so much. I certainly wouldn’t have sacrificed a night with your friend Griffin for a night of editing a teenager’s term paper.”

“Some things are more important than sex. Wes...he was more important than sex.”

“An interesting statement from a woman who used to sell her body.”

“I never sold my body. I only sold my time and talents. And that’s something any working woman can say—secretary or Dominatrix or both. And there’s not a mother on the planet who hasn’t had to say no to fun in order to help her kid with his homework.”

“So that’s why you loved your Wesley? He was like your son?”

Nora exhaled heavily. No, Wesley wasn’t her son. He’d been her sun, but there was no explaining something like that to someone so deep in darkness.

“Do you want to hear the rest of the story or not?”

“By all means, carry on.”

Nora left Griffin’s and drove into the fading sunlight of evening. All the way there she plotted playful revenge on Wesley. She was going to have to do something to punish him for taking her away from a night of food, sex, massages, kink, more sex and the eight most impressive inches of manhood in the East Village. She’d come up with something good. She always did. She could put tampons on the next grocery list. That might be too cruel. After all, she didn’t have periods anymore thanks to her IUD. Not that Wesley knew that. Tampons and yeast infection cream. That would do it. And condoms and lube, the flavored kind. That would stoke his virginal imagination, wouldn’t it? She briefly considered putting Hershey bars on the grocery list, too, but that would be a bit too cruel even for her. Wes might be a virgin by choice, but he never asked to be a type 1 diabetic.

But seriously, he deserved a little torture for dragging her all the way back to Westport from the city just to bring him his insulin pen and read his midterm paper. She caught herself smiling as she contemplated the various tortures. Goddammit, why did doing things for him make her so happy? She pulled onto their street and furrowed her brow. There, in her damn driveway, sat Wes’s yellow VW bug. What the hell? If he was home, why did he need her to get his pen for him? Did that little twerp actually make her abandon a night with Griffin for absolutely no reason whatsoever?

Ready for a fight, Nora stomped up to the front door, threw it open and was immediately besieged with confetti.

Confetti?

In the middle of the living room, hiding behind a bouquet of white roses, stood Wes, peeking at her over the top of the petals.

“Wesley...what the hell?”

“Happy birthday,” he said, grinning broadly over the flowers before hiding his face behind them again.

“What...you...” Nora grabbed the flowers from his hands and stared at him.

“Don’t look so surprised. I cleaned your office and found some insurance forms. I now know that you have low cholesterol and that your birthday is March 15 which happens to be—”

“Today, yes. Don’t remind me.”

“I’m reminding you. So are those.” He nodded at the flowers.

“You’re killing me, kid.”

“Don’t be depressed. You’re only thirty—”

She covered his mouth to prevent him from announcing her age.

“Good boy.” She removed her hand.

“Don’t freak out, Nora. You’ve got at least a couple good years left.”

Nora took the roses and smacked him on the ass with them.

“Ow. Those have thorns.”

“I know. That’s why I hit you with them.”

Wes grabbed her by the shoulders and spun her toward the kitchen.

“I have presents for you.”

“You shouldn’t have done all this,” Nora said. “I hate my birthday.”

“Tough. We’re celebrating whether you like it or not.”

“I don’t like it. Can I safe out?”

“Nope. Look.”

On the kitchen table, Wes had arrayed a birthday cake with her name on it plus two wrapped presents.

“You got me a cake? You can’t eat cake.”

“I can eat, like, a bite of cake. But you can have it all. You can’t open your presents until later, though. I’m taking you out to dinner first.”

“You’re trying to get me fat, aren’t you?”

“I’m trying to get you not emaciated.”

“It’s working.” She reached out and grabbed a corner of the cake with her bare hand and shoved it in her mouth. She had a little too much fun licking the icing off her fingers while Wes watched. “It’s definitely working.”

“Speaking of working...” Wes grazed her from head to boots and raised his eyebrow. “You said you were home.”

“I lied.”

“I know. I was here when I called. You were on a job, weren’t you?”

“Something like that. A girl’s gotta get paid.” And laid.

“I didn’t mean to trick you. I wanted to get you home in time so we could party.”

“We’re going to party?” Nora knew how to party. She could party with the best of them. Kingsley, his crew, a shit ton of money, too much alcohol, a dash of an illegal substance or two and waking up on top of Griffin or Kingsley or...