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It was three hours later in Connecticut, Natalia remembered belatedly. It wasn’t in the middle of the night for her. She was starting her day. God, was that worse? Before Natalia could calculate just how she’d messed up by texting while compromised, her phone buzzed again.

Samantha: Shouldn’t you be sleeping? What’s keeping you up, Ms. Flores?

Against her will, Natalia heard the flirty tone in Samantha’s voice. Saw the crooked grin. Nearly detected the scent of her cologne as if she were pulling her in. Her pulse reacted to the memory of Samantha’s touch. She was too intoxicated for this. Too off kilter. Too far removed from the last time she had sex. Why hadn’t she brought a woman back to her hotel room? She certainly could have if she tried, she was sure, but the night had been a blur and not a single face in the crowd had stirred her curiosity.

Natalia: Even I’m not immune to jet lag.

Samantha: Or maybe you just missed me and couldn’t sleep.

Natalia: Don’t flatter yourself, Professor.

Samantha: Flattery, huh? Is that what I’m doing to myself while I’m lying in bed talking to you? Thinking about you?

Natalia: What you do with yourself is your business.

Samantha: But it would be so much fun if it were yours.

Closing her eyes, Natalia tried not to think about Samantha’s body. Tried so hard not to imagine her slipping her hand into her shorts. Tried not to react to the memory of her fingers coated in Samantha’s arousal.

Samantha: How’s San Fran? I expected you to have some starlet wearing you out.

Flushed with heat, Samantha threw off her covers and tossed another pillow behind herself.

Natalia: Are you angling to find out who’s in my bed, Professor?

Samantha: I don’t mind who’s in your bed, Natalia. Not when it’s me you’re thinking of at 3am.

Unable to control her body’s reaction, a hard flush rushed over her skin. It left her overheated and disoriented. Samantha drove her insane.

Even she would be a little jealous if Samantha were sleeping with someone else, which was stupid and useless and ridiculous, but regrettably true nonetheless. But Samantha didn’t seem to care if there was a hypothetical naked body next to Natalia. Who the hell was this woman?

Samantha: You didn’t tell me how your night went last night. How was the venerable Indigo Vixen?

She wasn’t going to do this. She wasn’t going to have a casual text conversation with Samantha in the middle of the night while naked and drunk. Absolutely not. That’s not what they were doing. She didn’t know what the hell they were doing, but it wasn’t that.

Natalia: Didn’t you say you were getting ready to teach today?

Samantha: I can do two things at once. Have you forgotten?

A moment later, her phone was ringing in her hand. The audacity of not just an unannounced phone call, but a video call? Staring down at Prof. Samantha Reyes flashing on her screen, Natalia narrowed her gaze.

Do you think you’re going to shock me, Professor? Force yourself into a position of power?

After tossing her hair, wavy and damp, to one side, Natalia pulled up the plush, white duvet so that it barely covered her nipples. Reaching for her glasses on the nightstand to dampen her lack of makeup, Natalia dipped the point of her arrow in flaming pitch. Samantha might have planned to mess with her, but Natalia set her counterattack to ruthless.

When Samantha appeared on her phone, she was lying in bed wearing a t-shirt, her hair the perfect amount of messy. She was also wearing the stunned expression Natalia expected. Stunned and then all at once lustful, as her gaze traveled over Natalia. Over her lips, her throat, her collarbones, the cleavage that remained perfect thanks to a lift she’d gotten years earlier.

Dominance nourished Natalia. It cleared the booze from her mind and pumped oxygen-rich blood into her brain. She was alert, awake, and in the mood to hunt.

“Did you make yourself an imposition just to gawk?” Natalia asked in her lowest, slowest tone, speaking the way she might with her lips against the shell of Samantha’s ear and two fingers plunged deep inside of her.

“I’m sure I didn’t,” Samantha replied, voice hoarse from sleep, “but now I can’t think of a single thing more important than looking at you.”

Natalia rolled her eyes. “Not one, Professor?” She shifted her body, the sheet slipping down and exposing one of her nipples — hard thanks to the cold room.

Samantha’s rich, brown eyes widened a beat before her eyelids dropped and her expression turned lecherous. “Maybe one,” Samantha admitted before moistening her lips. “But on second thought, I’d rather see you in person to discuss it.”

“Discuss?” Natalia let the fingertips on her free hand glide over her collarbone and down the center of her chest. “Is it business related, Dr. Reyes?” Her fingertip drifted lazily to her exposed nipple, circling it lightly. The sensation was nothing compared to the way Samantha’s eyes tracked her movements. She was absolutely ravenous.