I took another draw on my cigar as I pulled out my mobile frommy jacket pocket and was surprised to find another message waitingfrom her. I’d forgotten I’d put it on silent for dinner.A: Our T-Day reservations aren’t until five, btw. You cancall or text anytime before that.I looked at my watch. It was a quarter to four. Really? That early,and I already needed a drink this badly?The good news was I had time to catch her.I set my drink down and stood up. “I, uh. Need to ring someone.Can I step out there?” I nodded toward the single French door thatled to a balcony, so small it could only fit one person comfortably.Donovan shrugged. “Doesn’t bother me any. Aaron?”I puzzled for half a second before realizing he was asking if I wascalling my son. “Yes. Yes, Aaron. You understand.”Pushing open the door, I stepped quickly out into the biting coldbefore I could feel too guilty about the lie. Then I clicked on Audrey’sname, put the mobile to my ear, and puffed on my cigar until

Again, Aaron rolled his eyes. “It wasn’t a big deal. We just went tosee a show, is all.”Dylan hadn’t told me where Aaron had been. I hadn’t thought itwas my place to pry. Now, I asked, “A Broadway show?”“Jacksepticeye and Markiplier had a meetup. They’re YouTubers.Like, they…” Aaron trailed off, as though trying to think of how toexplain them.I helped him out. “I know who they are.”“You watch Jacksepticeye and Markiplier?” His eyes lit up for thefirst time since meeting him.“Oh, no. No,” I said too quickly. “I know who they are, but I don’twatch them.” I wasn’t about to admit that I’d been at many a partyhosted by someone in the art department where everyone got highand watched video-game commentators and funny things pets did.Even not saying it, my cheeks went red. How immature was mylife that I related so closely to Dylan’s son? Proof that he was agrown-up, and I was just a kid myself.“Anyway,” I said, regretting the conversation. “I hope it was agood time.”“It wa

I lifted her into my arms, carrying her like a child to the bedroom.“You aren’t going to take me all the way in front of the windows? Ithink I’d like that,” she murmured as she kissed along my jaw.“I’m sure you would, you naughty thing. But I’m quite sure I wouldnot.” My confliction had a line, it appeared. New York City did notdeserve the pleasure of her naked form.I set her on the bed, still rumpled from the last night’s restlesssleep, and tugged off first one boot, then the other. She watched me,rapt, as I followed with the removal of her jeans.“I like being undressed by you,” she said, when she was only inher bra and panties. “I like how you’re completely focused on me.”I couldn’t not be. It was impossible to look anywhere but at her.She was exquisite and engaging. Irresistible perfection.The wonder in her comment made me guess that no one hadever given her the attention she’d craved. What stupidity existed inher world? Boys pretending to be men, unsuitable and unwo

It wasn’t the first time I had recognized my desire to submit. When we’d met several months before, Amber had uncovered my longing to yield. To please. To surrender.But this time her command had also awoken my sexual tastes. She had summoned a creature to life inside me – a deeply seated beast with an appetite for carnality and a desperate need to be stroked as she knelt at the foot of the one who would feed her.It was then I caught the first glimpse of the person I would become, and the role Amber would play in my life as the first master I wanted to please.CHAPTER 1My feet moved automatically, pulled by a force that couldn’t be simplified with a label of compassion or curiosity or obligation. I crouched in front of Reeve and took Amber’s limp wrist into my hands. My body was present, going through the motions of a concerned friend, but my head was in a fog. The smell of sex still lingered in my nose, the orgasms Reeve had given me still rang through me, low and wide, like the fa

The men Jeb had sent for supplies were coming in as I left the room and by the time I returned with ice packs, Amber had been hooked up to an IV and fluid was dripping down the line into the vein at her wrist. Her eyes were closed. She was either asleep or almost there so I didn’t disturb her. Instead, I handed Jeb the compresses, then sat on the love seat near the bed and watched, helpless.I was actually grateful for that helplessness. Of the myriad complex emotions that were weighing on me at the moment, helplessness was the easiest to carry. It was the one I knew.Brent returned with the oxygen tank as well as a heart rate monitor. Reeve came along with him, taking a perch on the opposite arm. Together we watched as Jeb and Brent hooked Amber up to the machines. We didn’t speak or look at each other. Tension buzzed between us like a fly caught in a closed room. I was desperate to know what he was thinking and feeling. Was he as focused on her as he appeared to be? Or was his mind