Beautiful Stranger

waist.
    “He’s made a replica of my living room for us.”
    “That’s . . .” She looked around, eyes wide. “That’s crazy.”
    “What’s crazy is that this is the first time you’re seeing my house. From inside a sex club.”
    The absurdity of it all seemed to hit us both at the same time and Sara dissolved into giggles, pressing her face into my chest. “This is the weirdest thing anyone has ever done. Ever.”
    “We can go . . .”
    “No. This is the first place we’ll have sex where we’re supposed to,” she said, grinning. “You think I’m going to pass that up?”
    Fuck. The woman could ask me to kneel and kiss her toes and I would do it.
    I almost said it: I love you. The words got so close to escaping that I literally turned away from her, and walked over to the bar to fix myself a drink.
    But she followed me. “And it’s probably late to be asking this, but what are we doing here?”
    “I believe we’re trying to find a way to enjoy this aspect of our relationship without jeopardizing our careers or getting our faces plastered all over Perez Hilton.”
    I lifted the bottle of scotch, silently offering. She shook her head, eyes wide beneath her mask as she watched me pour myself a drink.
    “Three fingers,” she whispered, and I heard her smile in her voice.
    “Just one, for now.”
    She stepped close after I took a sip and stretched to kiss me, sucking on my tongue.
    Fuck she tasted good.
    The feathers of her mask brushed against my cheek. “Three,” she insisted.
    As she kissed down my neck and spread her hand over the front of my trousers, palming me, I looked over her shoulder at the dark window. Out there, customers mightalready be sitting and watching, curious about what would happen. Or maybe we were all alone here at the end of the hall. But the idea that we weren’t, the sheer possibility that others could see how she touched me . . . for the first time I understood how being out in plain sight with me had allowed Sara to be whoever she wanted to be. She could play. She could be wild and adventurous and take risks.
    And so could I. Here, I could be the man who was desperately in love for the first time in my life.
    “Do you really want to fool around here?” I asked, wincing internally at my own bluntness.
    But she nodded. “I’m just nervous. Which is slightly insane considering our history.”
    She laughed and reached out to lightly scratch my abdomen. Fuck . I’d never felt such a tormenting mix of protectiveness, worship, and a blinding need to completely own someone physically. She was so beautiful, so bloody trusting—all fucking mine.
    I bent down, kissed her jaw, and slipped the top few buttons on her shirt free. “What do you imagine when you think we’re being watched?”
    She hesitated, toying with the hem of my shirt. “I imagine someone seeing your face and how you look at me.”
    “Yeah?” I sucked on her neck. “What else?”
    “I imagine a woman who wants to be with you, seeing you with me. Seeing you wanting me.”
    I hummed against her skin, pushing her shirt off her shoulders and reaching around to remove her bra. “More.”
    When I kissed her neck, I could feel her swallow against my lips. Her voice came out quieter when she admitted, “I imagine some faceless person who saw Andy treat me badly. I imagine the woman he was caught with seeing how you look at me.”
    There it is. “And?”
    “And him. I imagine him seeing how happy I am now.” She shook her head, digging her fists into my shirt and pulling me close as if I’d pull away. “I don’t think I’ll always hold on to it, but I hate that I still feel so much anger.”
    Leaning back, she looked up at me. “But you make me feel amazing, and wanted, and yes, part of me still wishes to rub that in his face.”
    I couldn’t hold back my grin. I fucking loved the idea of that bastard seeing me fuck Sara senseless. Because the biggest mistake of his life—his infidelity—had given me the best part of mine.
    “Me, too. I’d love him to see how you look when you’re coming. Since I bet he didn’t really manage to see that much.”
    She laughed, licking up my throat. “No.”
    And fuck, for the first time in my life, I wanted to be someone’s only .
    I led her to the couch, then kneeled on the floor between her legs.
    Her hands laced into my hair.
    “What do you want me to do?” she whispered, looking down at me, always so willing to give me anything.
    What do I want? I