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She snorted, shaking her head. “How are second dates, though? What are your rules for that?”

I pretended to think it over. “Only one rule for that one, really,” I told her.

“And what is that?”

“That they happen tomorrow, any free second we have.”

Her eyes widened, and her cheeks flushed. “That’s quite the rule.”

“No games between us,” I told her as I pulled her close and brushed a soft kiss against her lips.

“No games,” she whispered, staring at me with that same wide-eyed disbelief she’d had the entire night.

“Give me your phone,” I told her in a rough voice, because I was so turned on, it was hard to talk…or think. And I really needed to get this last thing done.

“What? Why?” she asked, her eyes a little dazed as we separated.

“I’m going to put my number in your phone and text myself so I have your number.”

“Oh, right,” she said, pulling out her phone and handing it to me after she punched in her code. That was a good sign, she was much more trusting than I thought she’d be. I was starting to wear her down. “I’m sorry about this…”

“About what?” I asked as I quickly pulled up the app Ari had sent me that I could use to track her phone.

“Being so awkward. I’m not usually like this,” she told me, wringing her hands in front of her nervously as she searched my face. “It’s just?—”

“What, baby?”

“This is a first for me—dating. Even if it’s not really dating because you’re paying…” She was rambling, and it was adorable.

I typed in my number and saved it asBoyfriendbefore texting myself. “It’s definitely a date,” I corrected her after I finished. “And this ‘situation’ between us…is only going to be temporary. You’re going to fall in love with me. It’s only a matter of time,” I told her with a smirk. “I always get what I want. It’s a trademark of mine.”

She scoffed, and I watched as a dark thought flitted through her head and the humor in her eyes faded.

“It won’t happen this time, Logan,” she whispered in a solemn, devastated voice. “I promise I’m something you won’t win.”

I brought her close again and tipped up her chin so she had to look at me. “Why not, Sloane? Whynotgive me a chance?”

Sloane searched my face, her deep blue eyes glistening with emotion.

“I made a vow to myself that someday, no one was ever going to control me,” she said. “That someday,Iwould be the captain of my own destiny.” Her lower lip quivered, and my hands squeezed at my sides knowing that she needed to get this out. “So you might be the most beautiful man that I’ve ever seen. And you might say the prettiest words I’ve ever heard come out of a guy’s mouth.” She brushed a piece of hair out of her face and straightened her shoulders. I could see the decision in her eyes before the words had even come out of her red-stained lips. “What I’m trying to say…is that I may give you my body. I may be the best fuck you’ve ever had in your life. You might even start to think that you’re in love with me. But that would be a mistake, Logan York.” She paused, her tongue peeking out to lick her bottom lip slowly. “Because I’m never going to give you my heart. That would just be another form of controlling me. And I could never do that.”

I stared at her for a second, a slow grin sliding across my lips. I leaned forward and pressed a hard, long kiss on her mouth, not pulling back until her skin was flushed and her breath was coming out in gasps. “We’ll see about that.”

With that promise, I headed toward the elevators. “See you tomorrow,” I told her as I stepped through the doors and winked as they began to close.

My last glimpse of her was her shell-shocked face.

At least until the elevator was descending and I could pull up the app on my phone.ThenI was able to look at her through the camera as she stood there, holding the phone in her hand and staring at the doors.

I kept the app up for the entire drive back to my place, listening as she watched TV and then got ready for bed.

Later, I listened to her breathing as I drove back to her building after I was sure she’d fallen asleep.

* * *

I parked the truck a block away from Sloane’s place, cutting the engine and leaning back in the seat. The neighborhood was quiet, the kind of silence that comes late at night when the world’s finally asleep.

Turning the volume up on my phone, I listened to the reassuring sound of her sleeping. I’d gotten lucky she slept with the phone by her bed.