Page 209 of The Baby Bargain

"Aren't we…" I clear my throat. Motion to the sex toys against the far wall. There are so many. Dozens. How can there be so many?

There are only a few basic functions.

"Yeah." He motionsafter you, but he keeps his arm around my waist.

I nodof course. Take a small step forward. Then another. My stomach flutters. Nausea or nerves or both. I have an excuse now. A get out of jail free card. But I don't want to use it. I want this. I do. Just—"Do we still need this?"

He arches a brow.

"I mean, before, it was because you thought I would—" My eyes dart around the room. There's an older woman perusing glass dildos. She studies them like they're works of art.

Theyareworks of art. They're beautiful, like the stained glass windows in a Catholic Church.

I step behind a wall of products. DVDs this time. There are even more possibilities. Gay. Straight. Lesbian. MILF. Interracial. Barely legal.

God, that's so…

Why?

Why do guys find the idea of a woman on her eighteenth birthday so attractive?

Chase presses his palm into my lower back. "You want one?"

"No." My chest flames. "We don't need a vibrator anymore. Because we don't have to, uh, finish, in any specific way." My fingers brush the skin below my bellybutton. "I'm already—"

"I know."

"Oh."

"Still want one."

"But—"

"Still want to feel you coming on my cock."

Oh my God. This is a tiny shop. There's no music. Only the hum of the air-conditioning. In Los Angeles, everything hums with air-conditioning, all the time. The sun heats the glass, makes shops warm every afternoon, even if the temperature stays in the sixties.

His low chuckle fills my ears.

I look around the shop for signs someone heard. That they're shaking their headso uncouth. But no one is watching. And even if they were. So what?

We're all in this shop for the same reason.

There's nothing to be ashamed of.

Sex toys are healthy. Sex is healthy. Masturbation is healthy.

This is a totally normal activity.

So why am I dizzy?

Maybe it's not nerves. Maybe it's the baby. Maybe it's lust.

Maybe it's love.

Not that I can think it at the moment.

This trip isn't about love. This is about sex. No, it's about coming, pure and simple. "What if I want something else?"