Page 61 of Dirty Little Secret

My heart began to ache as my mind filled with the sight of those men’s lips touching her stomach. “You sure are a great actress, Zandra.”

“I’ve had to be.” Pulling her sunglasses off, she wiped a tear from her eye. “I had to get away from my parents. And I couldn’t do that without making enough money to provide for myself. So, I became a waitress at a nightclub where an older woman taught me how to flirt and how to tease, how to be comfortable doing what was needed in order to make big tips. You know how shy I was. You have to know that when I’m at work, that’s all an act.”

I had to be honest with her. “I don’t like it. I don’t like you working there. I don’t like it for a lot of reasons, Zandra.”

“I’m looking for another job, Kane. I know it doesn’t seem like it, but I am. As a matter of fact, that was how I’d been planning on spending my day today if you never called me. But now that I’ve got Fox around, I want to spend time with him. Tomorrow I’ll start looking a lot harder than I have been.” She stood up and looked at the door to her apartment. “It’s hot as hell out here.”

“Yeah, it is.” I walked up to her, taking her by the hands as I looked into her eyes. “I don’t want to tell you how you should be, Zandra. I want you to just know how to be. Does that make sense to you?”

She nodded. “It does. And I know you’ve got high expectations, Kane. But things take time. I’ve only got a high school education, and waitressing is the only job I’ve ever had. I can’t make something out of myself overnight.”

“You’re right. You can’t.” My heart had started beating faster as soon as I felt her hands in mine. It was distracting me from all other topics of conversation. “I kind of hate what you do to me, Zandra.”

Her pink lips barely parted as she whispered, “What do I do to you, Kane?”

“You take me back to who I was a long, long time ago. The man I’ve become disappears, and the kid comes out in me again. That’s not what I want at all.” Even as I said those words, my body leaned in.

“You can’t always be in control of everything.” She licked her plump lips. “Why are you always trying so hard to keep things just the way they are, the way they’ve always been? What’s so bad about change?”

“Because I don’t know any other way.” It felt good to finally get the truth out, and I knew without a doubt that there were other things that would feel even better when they came out of me and went into her.

“I think you should let things play out however they’re going to.” She leaned in, getting her sweet lips closer to mine.

“I think you’re going to ruin me.” It was the truth, and I was sure we both knew that.

Her mouth came so close her lips grazed mine as she whispered, “Ruin? No. Change? Yes.”

Oh, Lord, have mercy!