CHAPTER 13:

Maria stood on the front porch of the address Burr had given her and rang the doorbell. She thought about telling Alex everything; that he was in danger, that Burr was a fucking creep, that he'd threatened her, that he'd threatened her child, that she'd rather be sucking stranger's dicks behind dumpsters at three in the morning to pay for the studio apartment her kid would be asleep in because honestly, that was a far safer position to be in then working for Burr. Maybe, if she was lucky, she could get a day job working a pole, or serving drinks to guys while they watched girls prettier and younger then her dance on a stage. Maybe, if she was lucky, she could manage to run far enough away to have a month or so of freedom before Burr found her again. Maybe, if she was lucky, she'd see her kid again after telling him all of this.

She knew she'd never make it that far. And she seriously doubted she'd last that long. She had no money, she had no where to go, and Burr knew how to see everything, to find out anything. Where could she hide herself and her child where they wouldn't be found? In the woods? Far away from civilization? Where could she run to find freedom? Would they be better off, if she took her daughter's life and then her own? Was that the only way to escape the hell she'd walked her family into?

She pressed the doorbell a few more times, surprised when the front door finally opened and a man in a dress and leggings answered it, asking in a thick French accent, "Bonjour! Can I help you mademoiselle?"

"I'm looking for Alex," she said, trying to sound as if nothing was wrong. Get Alex, get out, get away. That was the objective here, simple. Alex, out, away. What she would tell him about Burr would come afterward. "Is he here?"

"And who are you?" the man asked as he looked her up and down. "How did you know he was here?"

"His stupid Snapchat account is broken," she explained. "He doesn't even have the app on his phone anymore, but it still tracks where his phone is." She doubted that was the actual truth, but it's the bullshit lie Burr fed everyone when they started picking up that he seemed to know more then he should about their whereabouts. It was also the story she knew Alex would corroborate; as well as being the reason he sometimes just...forgot...his phone at home when he decided to go for a stroll, despite having previous experience with a stalker in the past. Honestly tho, if it was that easy to ditch Burr for good then neither her nor Alex would be in the mess that they were in. Feeling pressured to get to Alex as fast as possible, she decided to play a Bitch Card to get things moving. "Listen, he was supposed to meet me for lunch and I waited an hour at the restaurant by myself, feeling like an idiot when I realized I was stood up, so he'd better be in there, and you'd better go get him, or else you're gunna get the chewing out I'm stewing on and saving for him."

Once more the man's eyes darted up and down her body, but a faux smile remained on his features as he said, "One moment," and retreated behind the closing door. She tensed even as she heard Alex's voice calling something in the background of the house. A primal part of her thought of kicking down that door, grabbing Alex and making a break for it, but she knew that's not how Burr would have her play it. Get Alex, get out, get away. Don't let him know something was...well, wrong.

A moment later and she couldn't help the flood of relief that washed over her face when Alex opened the door. "Maria? What are you doing here?"

She noticed the two people standing behind him and so kept up her angry facade. "You stood me up for lunch today!"

"I did?"

"Yeah boo. I waited an hour. If you wanted to hang out with your boys, you shoulda called me!"

Behind Alex, the French man in a dress started shaking his head and tutting something about the house being haunted. Aware he was just standing in the open doorway, Alex stepped out onto the porch and shut the front door behind him. "Maria, what's really going on?" he asked in a hushed voice. "We didn't have plans, you work today."

"Burr canceled all my sessions today," she told him just as hushed. "I am livid mad and I just need someone to calm me down so I don't fucking murder the shit out of him!"

"What? But why?"

"I dunno Alex, you tell me! Has Burr ever just canceled all your shit on you?! Probably not, he fucking loves you!"

"Okay, okay," Alex soothed, patting the air between them. "And actually, yes, he has canceled or reorganized my schedule for me when I was too over worked, so this probably isn't a big deal. Do you want me to talk to him, find out what's going on for you?"

"Not a big deal? Alex, I need the money! If I don't work my family doesn't eat. There—there's car payments and rent is due next week and I need to be able to buy Susie more clothes as she grows and—and—and pay all our stupid bills!" She could feel the tears coming down her cheeks now, and she wasn't sure if it was an act or reality as she thought of the trouble she could be in if Burr didn't make good on his promise to pay her for this. God, she felt so awful lying to him. "That is a very big deal to me! I don't want you to talk to him and make him understand why I need the work, he should fucking know why I need the work, Alex! I want you to talk to me and keep me out of jail right now because I want him dead, Alex! I want to fucking murder that man, do you understand me?! I would fucking shoot him if I knew I could get away with it!"

"Okay, shhh, shhhh," Alex said, taking hold of her shaking free hand as she rubbed at her forehead with the other. "It's okay. Maria, we'll figure something out. Why don't you come inside—"

"No, I don't want to sit down on someone's couch and have to explain myself to people I just met, Alex. Can't we just go drive around for a bit, please? I really need my best friend right now."

Alex looked down at himself, then back up at her. "I mean, I don't think I can just run off without my clothes right now..." He pulled at the waistband to show her how much extra space there was in them.

"Where are your clothes?"

"In a dryer, I hope. It's a long story, and unimportant." Alex sighed. "Okay, you obviously need me so I'll just go get my shoes and we can stop by the dorm or something, or just drive around. Hey Maria?"

"Yeah?"

"It's gunna be okay." He squeezed her shoulder and smiled with that soft and stupid face of his, the one she knew she shouldn't love yet did. And she felt so bad, so incredibly bad that he was caught up in a web of lies he couldn't yet see, that she was helping to keep him trapped still. She hated what she was doing. She hated herself so much that she did the one thing she knew she shouldn't do.

She leaned in and kissed him.

"Will you get your head out of the damn window?" John hissed at Lafayette. "They're gunna catch you spying on them!"

"They will have to stop kissing first," the French man replied and was not that surprised when John hurried up behind him to peek out the window as well. He sighed himself when he heard John whisper a curse to himself. "Looks like she really is his girlfriend, mon ami," he said. "I wondered why he did not take my bait. This explains that."

"What bait?" John asked not peeling his eyes away from the spectacle. Ugh, did they have to use tongue?

"I tried to go fishing for you," Lafayette said with a shrug. "But he was not into me. I thought at first that was a good thing because he must be very into you, but now..." He shrugged again as he leaned back from the window. "I must have been wrong. You should not stick your head in the window for much longer. They will probably see you."

"What do you mean, 'go fishing' Laf?" John asked but before his friend could answer he pulled back and plopped on the couch, dragging Lafayette along with him. "He's coming in, act natural." He nearly slapped his friend when he leaned in as if to kiss him but instead blurted out, "And that's why my little sister isn't allowed to have stickers in the house anymore, haha, crazy story, huh Laf?" just as the front door was reopening.

"Indeed. And I would love to hear it sometime," the French man replied dryly.

"Hey, Alex!" John nervously called, ignoring Lafayette. "How's your friend? Is she staying for lunch?"

"Huh?" Alex said looking a little lost for a moment. "Uh, no. So umm...I...gotta go help Maria with something for a bit, is it okay if I ask you to bring my clothes back to the dorm for me?"

"Yeah, sure," John said. "You gotta take care of your girlfriend man, we get it."

Alex looked embarrassed for a moment, smiling sheepishly and shaking his head. "No, no, see, she's married..."

"To who? You?" Lafayette asked.

"Uhh, no, no, not exactly."

"Oh! Elle vous a sur le côté, I see."

"What?"

"It's nothing," John cut in. "I got your clothes Alex, don't worry about a thing. I'll catch you back at the dorm then?"

"Yeah, man. Thanks, I owe you one." Alex smiled and saluted them both before collecting his shoes and leaving again.

As soon as the door closed behind him John's face fell and he leaned back against the couch with a sigh. He wasn't disappointed. He wasn't at all upset that Alex was involved with a woman. No, no, of course he wasn't, because that would be stupid, stupid, stupid of him to start falling for a freaking porn star of all people. He stared at the ceiling for a moment trying to repress the sudden resurgence of feelings he hated having to deal with. After a moment he remembered Lafayette was still sitting next to him and turned to see his best friend staring at him with an almost to causal look. "What?" he asked.

"She is married?" Lafayette said. "He is kissing married women? Who works with him?"

John grunted but sat up. "What do you mean, works with him?"

"You did not notice who she was? John, that is the girl we saw him...'working' with," he quoted with his fingers, "the other day. You do not recall?"

"No, Laf. I told you I don't watch him do other people. Wait, seriously, that was one of his...his co-workers?"

"As if it is not bad enough you will be living with one sex worker, now you will be up to your eyeballs with them all semester."

"Well good thing I'm not a judgy asshole then and oblivious to what relation they have to Alex. So...do you think she's really his girlfriend?"

"I do not know what to think about Alex anymore, mon ami. He is lying about things and I do not like it."

"Yeah, well, I'm not exactly telling him whole truths either here, remember."

"I think you should move in with me."

"I think you're full of shit if you think that's going to happen, Laf."

"Just for the semester."

"And sleep where, exactly? On the couch of your living room? The floor of your bedroom?"

"You've shared a bed with me before."

"And I'm not sharing one with you ever again."

"John, we can share a bed without anything happening, that—"

"No, we have shared a bed without anything happening before things started happening and, now that you've made it very clear you don't want me anymore. I don't think we should ever share a bed again, Laf. I'm not moving in with you." John got up and stalked to the kitchen as Lafayette rolled his eyes and shook his head.

"It is not that I do not want you, mon amour," Lafayette called after him as he too got up to follow John. "It is that I do not want you to be stuck with me. You know this."

"Right, so sharing a bed, yeah, that'll solve that problem."

"It would be better then you pinning over a man you—" He stopped short as John whirled to stare him down.

"No, go ahead, finish that sentence, Laf. I dare you, I triple dog dare you."

Lafayette narrowed his eyes at John, not wanting to be the one that backed down. "A man that you will not chase for yourself."

"You think I won't chase a man for myself?"

The French man gestured his arms wide to his sides and dramatically looked around the space surrounding them. "How many men have you kissed since we broke up, John? I do not see anyone here but you and me."

John's mouth opened and closed a few times as he tried to come up with a retort. "I've kissed people since we broke up!"

"Name me one."

John seethed, reluctant to give him the one name he did have. "You know, it's really none of your fucking business anymore who I want to kiss."

"So go out and kiss someone already! John, it has been two years since we brake up! You can not hide away forever! Or do you really want me to become so desperate to see you happy that I start kidnapping men off the streets and leaving them tied up for you in your bed?"

He wanted to be mad, damnit he really wanted to stay mad, but the absurdity of that statement drew out a laugh before he could shove it back down again. "Oh, you would not."

"Want to bet me? We can settle this as soon as Thomas comes back."

"You're not tying Thomas up in my bed, Laf!" John shoved playfully at his friend's shoulder.

"Non, of course not. That would be silly," the French man replied. "We will go to a club, and you can either go home with a guy you like or I will kidnap one for you and bring him back to your dorm when you..." he waved his hand in that circular motion that always told John that Lafayette was looking for a word, "...rooster out."

John laughed again, shaking his head at his friend's lingual mix up. "It's 'chicken out,' Laf. There's not really a meaning for 'rooster out' although if there was it would probably have something to do with my dick."

"Rooster out with a guy you like or I will find you one to rooster out with."

"You know what you glorious French bastard? I'm gunna take you up on that. AND! And, I'm also gunna bet that not only will I be able to snag a guy to go home with in one night, but that you won't even be able to find a guy I really like to kidnap for me if I don't!"

"You are suddenly very confident for someone whom is too scared to come out of his closet, mon ami," Lafayette teased. He held out his hand all the same, but pulled it away when John made to reach for it. "We do it tonight. Once you shake my hand there is no, how you say, chicken out?"

"I'm not scared to leave my closet, Laf." John snatched his friend's hand and shook it. The quick kiss that came afterwards hardly startled him. Although he wasn't going to outwardly admit it, he knew Lafayette had a point. He had been avoiding doing exactly what he'd told himself he needed to get out there and do for two years and it was time to finally get off his ass and go do it.

"Hmm, we shall see," Lafayette told him, smiling all the same.

"I'm not!" John insisted as he let go of his friend and turned back into the kitchen. "Just you wait, I'll show you! We'll go to the club, I'll get so drunk I won't care who I fuck and then I'll just go home with the first guy that will have me! And you can suck it!"

"Oh non, non, non, we are NOT doing that," the French man chastised. "You get one beer at the bar, that is all."

"Five, at least," John countered.

"Three, final offer, or no beer you got to do it sober."

"I didn't agree to do it sober."

"Three beers, mon ami."

"Well then, you can't get smashed either!"

"Fine, because I cannot be smashed to kidnap a guy for you anyway. Three drinks. One from me, one from Thomas and the third must come from the guy you will be going home with, tho I suspect I will buy you that one as well to get you to sleep with the man I will pick out."

"Oh you will not!" John griped. "I can seduce any guy just as good as you can."

Lafayette nodded at him as if he were humoring a child. "Well, I will believe it when I see it."

"Then prepare to be amazed!" John stopped his rummaging through the fridge and cabinets to turn back toward his friend. "Are you hungry? Thomas doesn't have much here, but there's the makings of grilled cheese sandwiches."

"I would like that," Lafayette said. He leaned in and kissed John's cheek, for a moment his hands rested on either side of John's hips, giving a small but affectionate squeeze. But then he let John go and wandered off to give him the space he needed to cook. John let out the breath he'd held and brushed it off. Lafayette had always been affectionate with him, this wasn't new. But this time it felt almost patronizing, like he really was sure John was all bark and no bite on their last topic of conversation. Or maybe he was actually trying to fluff John up for it. Either way, it bothered John. He didn't need to be prodded into doing this and he didn't enjoy having his best friend's doubt hanging overhead. He wasn't shy or scared to come out of his closet, it just wasn't anyone's fucking business what he was doing in bed, or...not doing rather...And okay, he wouldn't come out to his father, ever, but that wasn't a fear thing per se so much as it was just common sense. You didn't tell Henry Laurens SR he'd raised a gay son; you just didn't if you knew what was good for you, and John knew what was good for him.

This would be good for him. He wouldn't be hung up on Lafayette anymore, he wouldn't be stepping on eggshells around Alex. He could relax and maybe, just maybe, enjoy himself a little. The cuddles and kisses his best friend bestowed upon him aside, it had been far too long since he'd had someone be physically intimate with him and god did he really want it sometimes. It was just time.

John nodded as the weight of his decision settled over him in a positive feeling. It was time to move on.

Alex hung one hand out of the car window, allowing it to coast by on the waves of air currents as they drove along. The wind also blew his hair around his face, so for the most part he kept his eyes closed and just tried to enjoy the summertime serenity that washed over him. Maria, despite her earlier upset, seemed to calm down as soon as he climbed into her beat up Pontiac Grand Am. He figured she just needed a minute to gather her thoughts, or maybe that all she really wanted was the company of a friend while she sorted through her own head. Or maybe still, she just needed to put her emotions aside and focus on the road; in any event he knew better then to try to distract her while driving. His other hand held loosely onto hers between their seats, but still allowed her to pull it away to drive when she needed, offering it up with ease when she could reach for it again.

It wasn't long at all before they had pulled up to the dorm and Alex unbuckled his seat belt to get out. "You wanna come in or stay here?" he asked, turning to Maria but she was already turning the car off. "Come in it is then," he said with a smile. Holding his loose pants up with one hand, he offered her his arm and walked her across the lawn like a gentleman. He was actually quite nervous; she'd never actually visited him at his dorm before and he was secretly grateful that he had John of all people as a roommate this semester as he'd really made the space feel warm and inviting; at least more so then Alex would have ever managed. Alex held open the dorm door for her, bowing all formal like and grinning when she giggled at his charming, "after you, m'lady."

"So this is your home away from work-home, huh?" she said as she entered and looked around. Everyone knew that over the winter and summer breaks, when the school demanded their students take a damn break and go visit their families, Alex bunkered down in his own studio. Aaron made a point of reminding him every time that this activity wasn't supposed to be allowed and that moving into an apartment would solve his temporary homeless problem, but since Alex always signed up for summer classes it wasn't like he ever spent more then two weeks at a time "living" at his work studio. Besides, he didn't want an apartment yet and the only other alternative was to make Alex sleep on the streets, which Aaron would never do to his precious workers of course. The fact that Aaron still let him get away with breaking a rule so blatantly was just one of the ways Alex was convinced the man truly cared about him.

"What do you think?" Alex asked. "John, my roommate, did most of the decorating."

"Is he the French man that answered the door when I came and got you?" Maria asked, looking at pictures of both John and Lafayette taped to the wall beside John's bed.

"No, that's Lafayette." Alex moved to the closet, fishing out another set of clothes that would fit him.

"Oh, the man Burr wanted to deport."

Alex frowned as he flipped through shirts. "Maria, I told you, he wouldn't actually do that. Besides, now that I've spent some time with the guy, I think..." Alex trailed as he tried to find the right words for how he felt about Lafayette. He'd thought he liked the guy, but now that he had a minute to stop and think about it something felt...off. No, no he liked Lafayette. At the very least he would be pleasant with him so long as he was rooming with John since they seemed like good friends...or...boyfriends? Damnit, he'd meant to ask the Frenchman about that, make sure John wasn't just being shy about it; and for Lafayette's phone number. Maybe he just needed more time to really form an opinion. He decided one shirt was as good as any other and picked the one on the top of the pile then a spare pair of jeans. He would need underwear too.

"What do you think?" Maria asked him.

"About what?" Alex replied as he pulled on the shirt. He didn't worry at all about dropping the jeans he had stolen from Thomas, since Maria had seen him naked hundreds of times, really no surprise there.

"About Lafayette? You were talking about him a minute ago, Alex."

"Oh, umm...he seems okay," Alex said lamely, feeling embarrassed he'd slipped away into his own head. He turned from his closet to find Maria sitting on his bed, leaning back in an almost suggestive pose. Had he never noticed how tightly her jeans hugged her hips or how the the contours of her bra peeked through her equally tight t-shirt before? "So did you just want to go grab some lunch or something?"

"Actually...could we maybe just hang out here for a bit? I've got some time to kill now and since Burr wanted to pull me off the schedule for the day I've wasted gas going into work when I apparently didn't need to."

"Yeah, so what happened?" Alex asked.

"I told you, he just canceled my sessions!" Maria said defensively. "No rhyme or reason for it, I just walk in and I don't have work when I know I had work."

"C'mon Maria, he had to have had some reason for it."

"Oh you're right, his reason is that he's the devil."

"I doubt that."

"Then he thinks I'm getting old and is going to replace me soon."

Alex laughed like this was a joke until he saw the look on her face. "Oh, you can't really think that, you're not even that much older then me."

"Why not? It would make sense wouldn't it? I've been with the company for almost four years now, what if he thinks my face is too old? What if he thinks everything I do is just...the same old boring things, over and over?"

"Well, are you losing viewers?" Alex asked. "Has your revenue been decreasing?"

"What does that matter? We're just products to him Alex, and when your products go stale you replace them to keep the bottom line good. That's business."

"We're not just objects," he said, sitting on the bed next to her. "We're people, capable of changing and growing and adapting to our needs. If you feel like you're going stale you can try something new, ya know, shake things up. And you don't look old, Maria. We're in our 20's we've got time. Hell, Benjamin has been—"

"No, you're in your early 20's and attending Harvard law. I'm a 23 year old high school dropout, with a three year old daughter, who's working in porn because I have no other options. Between the two of us, who sounds like they have their shit together?"

"You," Alex replied, catching her off guard. "You forgot that you're married, you're raising a family. I'm homeless four weeks out of the year, and the only reason I can even afford to go to Harvard Law School is because I suck dick for a living, so don't say doing porn can't get you somewhere. Oh, and you have a car." He grinned trying to get her to smile back at him but Maria's expression remained decidedly not happy.

"Okay, so if I'm trying to raise a family, why is my boss taking work days away from me? Especially when I can't afford it?"

"How much do you need?"

"What?"

Alex shrugged. "How much do you need? I'll give you the money you'd have lost today, just name it."

She stared at him in dumbfounded shock for a moment. "You...don't have to give me money, Alex. That's not—"

"I make about $400 every day," he said, already getting up and going to fish something out of his closet again. He turned around counting off twenties from a wad of money and held out a significant portion of it for her to take. "Here, it's about $460, since I know you have more viewers then me and your cut of profits should be just about that, right?"

"Alex, I'm not going to take your money," she replied. "And what in the world are you doing with so much cash on you? Isn't that...dangerous?"

"I don't keep it on me, it's just...a personal savings account." He offered the money once more. "C'mon, if you don't take it I'm just gunna use it to buy you groceries or pay your rent."

She seemed to hesitate before finally reaching out to take the money. "You...don't have to do this for me, you know."

"I want to," Alex replied nonchalantly. "Oh! And that reminds me, Aaron and I both noticed you needed new shoes—"

"I'm not taking those stupid red ones he bought for me."

"Okay, easy. Look, you don't have to wear the shoes. You can sell them and get a pair you like, and if money is tight, and those are really nice shoes, then you can apply the rest of it toward anything else you need. But is it just because you don't like Aaron that you won't even accept them?"

"No, it's everything they represent."

Alex tilted his head at her, tucking the rest of his savings back into whatever hiding hole he kept it in. "What do they represent?" he asked.

"Just that I have no control over my own body anymore," she mumbled.

"Maria," he moved back to sit beside her, "you do have control over your own body."

"God, you really believe that, don't you?"

"If you want to quit working at The Company, it's okay to quit. Maybe once your husband gets a job you can be the stay at home parent for a while, okay? And I'll tutor you, we can get you a GED and then when Susie is old enough for preschool or kindergarten we can find you something else for a job, something as far away from sex work as possible if you want. It's gunna be okay."

"Alex, it's more then that. There's a lot that I'm unhappy with right now and I just...don't know what I'm going to do about any of it."

"Well, then you need a break. So let's start with being happy you got a day off with your best friend in the whole world, even if your boss is a jerk for not telling you before hand." He rubbed her arm as a means to show her comfort. "Is there anything you want to do today that would make you feel better?"

She looked over at him with big, sad, brown eyes. "Do you every think about us, Alex?"

He chuckled. "What about us, Maria?"

"Like...do you ever think about us being together?"

Alex tilted his head to the side as he considered her words. "Like...if you weren't married?"

"Or just...like right now..."

He hesitated before answering. Of course he'd thought of them being together, more together then just co-workers in an unusually intimate work environment, but that was before he'd learned that she was married. He'd shelved those thoughts and any feelings he'd thought he had for her the moment she told him she had a husband, when she'd told him she had a kid; and besides that, Burr was actually pretty strict with his rules about not letting employees date each other in the work place and even if he'd let Alex slide on somethings he was certain he wasn't going to be allowed to slide on that. When he'd started at The Company he'd wanted the job more then he'd wanted Maria, so it was easy to tell himself to just leave her alone. And of course, the fact that he was still allowed to have sex with her was a great way to keep himself from wondering about that much at least, though he had to tell himself many times over once he'd learned of her marriage not to pry into how in the world her husband could be so open and understanding of her work. Alex thought he must be a saint to be cool with watching his wife get nailed by other guys and still love her enough to raise a kid together. But then, Alex knew some people got off on shit like that, so who was he to judge?

And he knew if he couldn't date someone in the same line of work as him, a line of work he had no intention of staying in forever of course, then what was the point? What if he got out of it but his significant other didn't want to? Would he be okay with that? He'd like to hope he would be, because he had such a great understanding that sex was just sex, right? It didn't have to mean anything, and the ban on dating coworkers froze any attempt real romance might make otherwise, but what if he couldn't be as cool with it as Maria's husband was? Or what if he dated someone outside of it? Would they be jealous? Hurt that Alex screwed around to earn his financial security? Any which way he looked at it, it was a mess he just didn't want to deal with. He could completely understand why Aaron had that no dating rule, and why he was so strict with it.

Still...if he stopped and really thought about it...Alex felt a little starved for genuine love. He wanted to love Maria, but he couldn't...could he? "Maybe, a little," he admitted. Well, no sense in telling her he didn't find her attractive, that he didn't really like her as a person. He wanted to stay on her good side after all, because they worked well together. He liked working well with her, but that was all...

"I think about us a lot," she told him, pulling at the hem of her shirt.

"What do you think about us?" he asked already seeing where she was leading and almost regretting it. Though, it was hard to regret anything as she pulled her shirt off. Funny, he'd seen her in a million different outfits meant to show off all the curves she had in the right places, but he'd never seemed to really notice just how visually pleasing she was to him. Well, he'd noticed superficially before, it was hard not to. But as she leaned forward and unclasped her bra he noticed the way her hair fell across her face and the folds of her stomach. He watched her stand up and hitch her fingers around the button of her jeans, popping it open and sliding them down to the floor.

"Heeeeyy," he said, trying to get his stalling brain to work again. She leaned in for him and he realized too late that she had caught his month again. There should have been nothing new in her kiss, no way that she could seduce him that he didn't already know of, and yet he was drawn into it almost immediately. "Wait," he said into her lips, "wait, wait, Maria," he pulled away, with reluctance he pulled away. "What is this, what are we doing? You're married."

"He won't mind," Maria told him, kissing him again, moving to straddle his lap. "He knows we're sleeping together."

"For work," Alex said around another mouthful of kiss. "Maria, this isn't work."

"You're giving me a lot of money here, Alex. I think that warrants a reward for you, shouldn't it?"

Alex could hardly believe what he was hearing. "No, no I gave you that money because you're my friend and you need it. This," he gestured his hands around her body, oh god, he had had his hands on her hips and now he couldn't put them back, "is not why I gave you that money. You don't owe me anything, okay?"

"What if I want to then?" she asked, biting her lip. "Just once, just you and me. No cameras, no audience watching, not for the money, not for work but because I want to...do you?"

"I think that's very different then what we do at work," Alex whispered. "Is this what you mean when you say you feel like you don't have control of your own body anymore?"

"No," she said with absolute conviction. She held his gaze for a moment more before leaning in to kiss along his jaw. He felt her arms wrap around his waist, one hand trailing down his stomach and over his penis. He shifted, slightly uncomfortable with her sudden foreplay. "This is actually something I've wanted to do with my body for a very..."

"Oh."

"Long..."

"My."

"Time..."

"God."

END CHAPTER