He chuckled. “Probably not, but I’ll still pay for it, just in case.”

She smiled and patted his cheek. Her favorite kind of customer—ones who wasted a lot of their money and little of her time. “I’ll jot you down, Larry. Now go home, and f**k your wife. Consider bringing her with you next time.” Aggie loved to work with couples.

He chuckled again. “Maybe I will. Our sex life has never been better. She loves it when I come see you.”

“I’ll bet she does.”

“Maybe I’ll surprise her with one of those corsets you make. Do you think she’d like that?”

“You won’t be able to surprise her. She’ll have to be fitted.”

His face fell. “Oh.”

“But we’ll let her pick out the design.”

He grinned. “Yeah, okay. Thanks, doll.”

Aggie winked and locked the door behind him. And now, a little pleasure for herself.

She found Jace sipping reheated vegetable soup at the breakfast bar. Her magnificent, squashed rose was in a blue plastic tumbler of water on the counter beside him. She smiled at the sight. She’d love him to be in her kitchen every evening, but knew he was skittish about relationships. She didn’t mind taking it slow. But, God, she’d missed him. His monosyllable phone conversations and occasional text messages weren’t nearly enough.

He started in surprise when he caught sight of her. “I thought you were joking when you said three minutes.”

“I think he made it all the way to four this time. He’s a regular of mine.”

Jace lowered his gaze, slurped another spoonful of soup into his mouth. Every line in his body strained with tension.

She’d thought he was cool with her profession—she’d shared it with him and showed him what it entailed—but apparently, she’d been wrong. Was that why he hadn’t come to see her? She’d gotten tired of inviting him and getting turned down over and over. Maybe he wasn’t skittish. Maybe he was embarrassed by her. She refused to put up with that bullshit. She needed to know what his intentions were. If he was only here to feel the bite of her whip, he was going to pay for it just like everyone else. She wasn’t a fool. Aggie leaned on the counter across from him and ducked low until she entered his line of vision. “Does it bother you?”

“What?”

“What I do for a living?”

He shook his head.

“It doesn’t bother you that I hit men the way you like to be hit?”

“No.”

“That I watch the welts rise on their naked skin and listen to their cries of agony, night after night?”

“Nope.”

“That I beat them until they beg for mercy because it gives me some sick sense of empowerment to make them cry?”

“Not at all.”

“Really?”

He lifted his gaze and pinned her with a hard stare. “No, not really. I f**kin’ hate that they give you joy, but that’s my problem, not yours.”

He was jealous. Oh my God, she loved him.

Unable to keep her hands off him any longer, she climbed over the counter and tackled him to the floor. He tumbled off the stool onto the hard tile. “Ow.” Aggie landed on top, tugging his shirt up his body.

“Wimp.”

He laughed. Her heart melted. She couldn’t get him naked fast enough. She wanted to fill herself with him. Not just her dripping wet pu**y—her hands, her mouth, her gaze.

Everything. Filled. With him. All him. Jace.

He laughed again as she worked at removing his jeans. Was this all it took to make him happy? Pouncing on him in the kitchen?

“Do you have a condom?” she asked.

He pulled an entire strip out of his pocket.

“Did you think you were going to get laid tonight?” she asked with a teasing grin.

He chuckled. “I was hoping more than once.”

“You got another date later?” she asked, looking at him with a fabricated scowl.

“Just with you.”

“Good,” she whispered.

She bent her head to kiss his belly. A spasm wracked his entire body. She trailed open-mouthed kisses over his stomach, just above the low waistband of his jeans.

His fingers sank into her hair. “Aggie.”

Well, hello there, erogenous zone.

Nibbling, licking, sucking on his lower belly, she located his most sensitive spots inside the ridges of his hip bones, indicated by his outrush of breath and the sucking of air between his teeth. When her fingers brushed the growing bulge in his pants, he shuddered and cried out. She grinned with sudden realization.

She kissed her way up his body until they were face to face. She waited for him to open his eyes and then asked, “Have you had sex since we made love on your bike?”

He stared at her forehead and shook his head.

“Me neither.”

His gaze shifted to hers. His smile could have lit the heavens.

“Why haven’t you come to see me sooner?” she asked.

“I didn’t think… I thought it was best…” He took a deep breath. “I have no f**king clue. I wanted to.”

“Do you mind if I think of you as my boyfriend?” She wasn’t going to let him brush her off. If she had to do the pursuing, so be it. She’d always gone after what she wanted in life. And she wanted Jace Seymour.

He paled and moved his gaze from her eyes to her forehead again. She waited for him to find his voice. She wasn’t going to give him an easy out. If he wasn’t ready to commit, that was fine, but he would have to say it. She wouldn’t.

“Okay,” he said finally.

“Okay?” She grinned at him.

“I don’t mind.”

She cupped his cheek. “Do you think of me as your girlfriend?”

He hesitated. “I think of you. Constantly. Is that enough?”

She chuckled. “It’s a start.” She kissed him gently.

He looked guilty. “I’m sorry. This is new for me.”

“You don’t have to apologize.”

He touched her face. “It was so hard to stay away. I want you to know you mean more to me than just awesome, awesome sex.”

“Only two awesomes?”

His eyes rolled into the back of his head and drifted closed. “A thousand awesomes.”

She slid down his body, kissing his throat. She pulled his shirt up and caught sight of the new addition to his sculpted chest. She flicked the small silver ring in his nipple with her fingertips.

“What’s this?”