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“So what made you want to do this?” Charlotte asked casually as she sat back with her paper straw in her mouth, her bowl empty.

Alex quirked her brow as she finished her food.

“The other business I mean,” Charlotte explained when Alex didn’t immediately answer.

She’d been wondering when Charlotte was going to ask more questions. Alex wiped her mouth and threw her crumpled napkin into the bag before standing and clearing all evidence of their meal.

“Are you avoiding my question?” Charlotte asked as she stood, wedging her body between Alex and the table.

Alex smirked at Charlotte’s insistence. Running her thumb over Charlotte’s bottom lip and up to the little beauty mark above her mouth, she resisted the urge to kiss her.

“Do you remember that boyfriend’s fumbling fingers?”

Alex punctuated her question by sliding her hand down Charlotte’s side and along the stitching of her green dress.

“Did he paw at your shirt?” She rested her hand on

Charlotte’s hip. “Jab at your mouth with his tongue as he kissed you too hard?”

“You do this to teach?” Charlotte asked, her voice soft as she watched Alex’s lips.

“Some of what we do is sex education,” she agreed, leaning in closer to Charlotte’s mouth. How she wished they could cancel the rest of her day and take o together. A drive to the beach or something further still.

“What about the rest? Why sell sex?” Charlotte pressed.

“I fill a need,” she explained. “A need we all have. To be touched. To be seen. To be wanted. To feel loved. Sometimes we don’t have someone to give that to us.” She cupped Charlotte’s face. “But that doesn’t mean we need it any less, does it? That’s the service I provide to people.”

A slow smile turned up the corner of Charlotte’s mouth.

“It’s interesting that you can only make someone feel loved.

What you’re really selling is the illusion, right?”

Alex smirked. Charlotte’s mind was always sharp. Always looking beyond face value. It was the first thing that caught Alex’s attention and drew her in.

“Does it matter? Whether for an afternoon or a weekend, you feel loved instead of being loved? The intimacy is the same. Adrenaline, dopamine, and norepinephrine. They all fire when we’re attracted to someone. When lust clouds our judgment and makes everything feel possible.”

“Damn,” Charlotte circled her arms around Alex’s waist.

“You’re a hell of a salesperson.”

“Some things sell themselves,” she joked, her attention drifting toward Charlotte’s lips.

“I want to do this with you,” Charlotte said, covering Alex’s hand on her cheek and intertwining their fingers.

Alex straightened. “Do what?” By the tone in Charlotte’s voice, she’d already guessed what she meant, but she had to be sure.

“I want to be in this with you. I want to be part of both your businesses.”

Furrowing her brow, Alex’s immediate reaction was to shake her head. Confiding in her was one thing, but fully bringing her into the fold was quite another.

“What do I have to do? A little underworld initiation to prove my loyalty or to show you I’ve got some skin in the game? I can embezzle, misappropriate, steal candy from a baby.” She smiled, her cheeks flushed pink, an angelic expression on someone o ering to commit a felony.

“Do you know what you’re saying?” Alex’s pulse danced in her neck. “This is a choice I’ve made after weighing the pros and cons, but I’m in no way cavalier about it. It’s illegal, Charlotte. That’s not something you walk into lightly.”

Charlotte wrapped her arms around Alex’s neck. Without resistance, she let herself be pulled in, lured into a kiss.

“In for a penny, in for a pound,” Charlotte said with conviction as she peered into Alex. Making her believe her.