“Benedict Canyon, actually. And yeah, it’s pretty swank. He likes suits too. Flies to London twice a year to buy custom stuff. He drives a Bentley. He spends four hundred dollars to get his hair cut and he gets manicures. He’s a nice man who cringed at the very idea of me wanting him to hold me down. Of me wanting the bruises from his hands holding my arms or wrists. He never bit me. He never made me feel even a shadow of what you do every time you look at me like I’m the most precious thing to ever breathe. You are everything to me, Todd. I don’t care what you drive or where you live. You have horrible taste in music, but I’m willing to overlook it. Thank god I exist to cancel out your vote on Election Day.” She grinned.

“I want you to protect me at these shows. I want you to”—she swallowed hard as emotion swamped her—“be with me and to have babies with me in the future. I never thought I’d want that again. I love you.”

He pulled her close, his hands sliding up and down her spine.

“And you were married! I’ve seen her picture you know, at your parents’ house, although I know your mom didn’t like her. Your wife is gorgeous and perfect.”

He snorted and set her away from him enough so that they could see each other’s face. “How did you know my mom didn’t like her?”

“She said, when I was there a few weeks ago, ‘I have no idea what in god’s name Todd was thinking when he married that girl. She had no spine, she didn’t give him what he needed and she was more worried about what fork went where than whether or not she made my boy happy.’ I asked her why she had the wedding photo up and she said,” Erin paused to laugh, “she said she looked really good in the pictures.”

“She thought Sheila did?”

Erin laughed harder. “N-no, your mother thought she, your mother, looked good in them. She said she lost ten pounds just dealing with Sheila’s snotty attitude about the wedding and how much was being spent, and she was sure she’d never be that size again. She asked if I thought it would be bad form if she just cut herself out and left that part.”

Todd laughed then. “What did you say?”

“I said I had scissors in my purse.”

He laughed until he had to wipe away tears. “You fit with my family, you know that? And yes, Sheila is pretty, but she’s my ex-wife and she’s now happily married to someone else. You aren’t pretty, you’re stunning. You make people turn and look when you walk into a room. It doesn’t matter that you might have pink hair when you do it, or that you’re wearing a torn T-shirt. You’re magnetic and you’re mine. Even if you have shitty taste in music, except for what you create, which I freely admit is amazing. Even if you are a bleeding heart liberal.” He winked. “I love you too, and thank you for saying that. About babies. I want that too. I just didn’t want you to hurt more. We’ll take our time on that.”

“I should think so! We’ve only been together since May.”

“Pshaw. We’ve been together for years, Erin.” His posture changed. He transformed from sweet and loving to something else. Intense sexuality washed over her just looking at him.

“Mm hmm,” she managed to say as a flush built inside her.

He eyed her from head to toe, a slow, sexy perusal. “On your knees. Suck my c**k right now. I want to come in your mouth.”

She knew the door behind her was open. The door leading down to the office where Ben was. He’d be able to hear everything.

She sank to her knees and unbuttoned his jeans, thankful he wasn’t having a client-contact day where he’d have been wearing zip-up khakis or something.

His c**k readily sprang from the confines of his boxers, and she took a moment to inhale, loving the warmth of him, loving the way he felt in her hands, loving the way his body smelled.

The floor was hard beneath her knees, but for whatever reason, it only added to the experience.

“Suck me. The head first.” His voice had gone rough and deep, sending a shiver down her spine.

She took him into her mouth, sucking hard against the slick of pre-come on the slit, straight to the crown and then stopped. Suck and draw, suck and draw. She licked around the crown, sucking against the ridge of sensitive flesh there, moving back up to suck the head again. His balls were hot in her palm, slowly drawing up against him the closer she brought him to coming.

“Now take me deep. I want to feel the back of your throat.”

She took a steadying breath through her nose and sucked him down, back as far as she could, keeping her breath even through her nose and concentrating on staying relaxed. When she pulled back, she swallowed, to mollify her gag reflex.

In and out, over and over, the floor digging into her knees, his hands tight in her hair as he guided her mouth on him. He made low sounds, growls and moans of her name, gave her instructions on what he wanted, told her what he’d do to her later that night. All the while f**king her mouth, all while Ben was just feet away.

Could he hear them?

Erin’s pu**y bloomed and slickened as she knelt there, sucking Todd off in his kitchen, the late summer afternoon sun flowing over his shoulder and down her back.

“Oh, honey, yes. I’m going to blow right down that pretty little throat of yours.”

His fingers tightened and he pressed deep as he came, filling her with his taste over and over until she was nearly drunk with it. Finally he pulled back and she licked across the head before tucking him back into his jeans.