Beautiful Stranger

direction. As I followed his lead, I noticed a few people watching him; a couple pointed and nodded to each other. Only in midtown Manhattan would an investment whiz playboy be immediately recognizable.
    I followed him, admittedly paying more attention to the fit of his jacket across his wide shoulders than to where we were headed.
    Slowing, Max asked, “How much do you know about the New York Public Library, Sara? This branch specifically?”
    I searched my memory for details I would have picked up from movies or TV. “Other than the opening scene in Ghostbusters ? Not much,” I admitted.
    Max laughed. “This library is different from most in that it relies heavily on private philanthropy. Donors—such as myself,” he added with a wink, “take a special interest in certain collections and give generously—very generously in some cases—and are sometimes granted small perks in return. Quietly, of course.”
    “Of course,” I repeated.
    He stopped, turning to smile at me. “This is the room most people would recognize, the Rose Main Reading Room.”
    I looked around. It was warm and inviting, filled with hushed voices and the muted sounds of footsteps and the turning of pages. My eyes moved to the ornate ceiling painted to resemble the sky, the arched windows and glowing chandeliers overhead, and for a beat wondered if Max planned on taking me on one of the large wooden tables lining the cavernous and very busy room.
    I must have looked unsure, because Max laughedsoftly beside me. “Relax,” he said, placing a hand on my elbow. “Even I’m not that bold.”
    He asked me to wait while he crossed the room to speak with an older gentleman, who I got the impression knew exactly who Max was. The man glanced at me over Max’s shoulder and I felt myself blush, quickly looking away and back up toward the painted ceiling. Only a few moments later, I was following Max down a narrow flight of stairs and into a small room filled with row after row of books.
    Max knew exactly where to go, and I couldn’t help but wonder if he came here a lot, or if he’d scouted the location sometime during the week. I liked both ideas, actually: the Max who was as intimate with the library as someone who worked here, and the Max who had been thinking about this as much as I had.
    He stopped in a quiet corner, in a narrow, crowded row of books. It felt like the stacks pressed in on us from both sides; the tight quarters gave me the strange illusion of the walls closing in. I heard a cough and realized that there was at least one other person in the room with us.
    Anticipation thrummed low in my belly.
    Max lifted a book from a shelf without even really looking. “Do you read smut, Sara?”
    I knew when he laughed a little at my reaction that my eyes must have nearly popped out of my head. I wasn’t a prude, and I wasn’t closed to the idea of erotica; I’d simply never gone looking for it. “Not much.”
    “Not much? Or not any?”
    “I’ve read some romance novels . . .”
    He was already shaking his head. “I’m not talking about soft-focus covers with sweaty bare-chested men. I mean books that tell you how the woman feels when the man penetrates her. How she aches when he slips his tongue inside her. How he describes her flavor when she asks him to. I mean books that describe the fucking .”
    My heart began to drill beneath my sternum at how casually he talked about things that made me want to close my eyes and squirm. “Then no. I haven’t read anything like that.”
    “Well, then,” he said, handing me the book, “I’m happy to be here for this momentous occasion.”
    I glanced down at the cover. Anaïs Nin. Delta of Venus . I knew the name and, like everyone, I knew the reputation, too.
    “Great, let’s check this one out.” I flipped it over, looking for some kind of bar code or number. But the volume was leather, with heavy gilded pages. Obviously a rare edition. “Take it with us . . . ?”
    “Oh no, no, no, no. One can’t actually check out the books at this library,” he began. “And, besides, where would the fun be in that anyway? The acoustics in here are so lovely, with the wood, and ceilings and whatnot . . .”
    “What? Here?” My heart drooped a little. As much as I loved the idea of reading something racy with Maxnearby, I loved the idea of being completely wild with him tonight even more.
    He nodded. “And you’re reading to me.”
    “I’m reading you erotica in here