Page 72

Inside the lined-up plastic bags with signed seals indicating that the contents were sanitized were a wild assortment of sex toys. Some things Charlotte recognized

immediately, but there were others for which she couldn’t divine a purpose. All the drawers were neatly stocked with items ranging from the most vanilla tiny silver bullet vibrator to things that Charlotte could only describe as torture devices without context. The final drawer was full of lubes of all kinds and every product anyone had ever used for safer sex.

Exhilaration wracked her body. She’d done it. She’d wormed her way into Alex’s hidden truth. It quickly faded into mild panic. Was Alex going to bring up one of her independent contractors?

The possibility made Charlotte queasy. Not because they were sex workers, but because she realized that the prospect of having sex with someone other than Alex was upsetting.

When the hell did that happen?

“Are you ready?” Alex asked from the other side of the door.

“Just a minute,” she called back as she closed the drawer gently so it wouldn’t make a sound.

Quickly, she ripped o her clothes and pulled on the robe.

Uncertain about what awaited her, she left on her underwear but did away with her bra.

Outside the rest of the suite, as in the bedroom, the shades were drawn. With the overhead lights set to dim, Charlotte could just make out the newly set up massage table in the middle of the living room. It was draped with white sheets and complimented by the scent of burning essential oils.

“Do you know what people want?” Alex asked as she appeared in the bathroom doorway dressed in nothing but a

matching lavender lace bra and panty set and black heels.

With her long hair, loose in waves down the front of her ample chest, she looked like some fancy Italian Vogue ad.

Charlotte barely understood the question. All she could see was Alex sauntering slowly toward her. If her brain were functioning, she’d be relieved that they were alone.

“People,” Alex continued despite Charlotte’s bout of speechlessness, “want things they can’t have.” She hooked a finger in the knot holding Charlotte’s robe closed but didn’t pull it apart. In heels, Alex towered over her as she leaned in, her lips hovering over Charlotte’s mouth. “How much would you pay to have what you want?”

It was a loaded and obviously rhetorical question, one Charlotte couldn’t begin to answer. Hadn’t she already proved that she’d do anything to get what she wanted, but Alex couldn’t know that. She wouldn’t be here if she knew.

Would she?

Alex’s full lips twitched into a momentary smirk as she lingered over Charlotte’s unmoving mouth. “I think you like doing things you’re not supposed to do,” she whispered, her breath falling on Charlotte in soft, warm bursts.

Charlotte nodded as if under a hypnotic e ect.

“It’s a very common fantasy,” Alex explained. “An easy way to break the barriers of self-restraint.” Her hand, cool and gentle, slipped into Charlotte’s clammy one.

Charlotte was only vaguely aware of her legs moving as she followed Alex to the massage table. This wasn’t her Alex, the woman she’d been getting to know for months. The one she’d been steadily demystifying. This was the Alexandra

Leon that had interviewed her. The woman who emanated authority like animals emitted pheromones.

“Do you want to role play?” Alexandra asked against the shell of Charlotte’s ear when they stopped next to the table.

“Yes,” she managed even though her heart was hammering so fast it was hard to make a sound.

Charlotte sensed her smile even if she didn’t see it.

Alexandra stepped back and straightened as she adopted a more serious demeanor. She was all business as she picked up the sheet and looked away, a ording Charlotte privacy, as if she wasn’t standing there in lingerie but rather the traditional scrubs of a massage therapist.

After slipping o the robe, Charlotte tossed it onto the nearby sofa and ambled onto the table. While she laid on her stomach, Alexandra tucked the sheet in around her lower body, leaving her back exposed.

Closing her eyes and taking deep breaths, Charlotte worked to steady her racing heart. If she wanted to be in the moment, she needed to stop behaving like a petrified creature. A little bit of surprise is good, it’s believable, but too much is unappealing.

When Alexandra’s hands spread a scented oil over Charlotte’s shoulder blade, they were warm and sure.

Charlotte instantly relaxed. The game was new, but this was the woman who’d been touching her for months.