PaigeI looked up from my computer and discovered night had somehow fallen around me. Late night, too. Nearly one, by the clock on my computer. I rubbed my eyes. Waiting for Tony to reply to the documents was torture, and Chris had dropped a new project on my desk right before the rest of the office usually signed off for the night. Tom and I didn’t have any plans, so I’d just asked Miranda to bring dinner to my room and figured I would work until I got tired enough to fall instantly asleep.Of course, that hadn’t happened yet. I didn’t know if it would. At least I could see the light on in Tom’s office and know he was burning the midnight oil with me. Not that my tech start-up graphic design was anything like what he was probably up to downstairs. No, he was probably doing something that put his or other people’s lives on the line.Could I put up with that? Decades of knowing every time he went to work, I had to worry about whether he’d survive the day? My memories of before Dad left

TommasoI lay in Paige’s bed, feeling her naked body against mine and staring up at the ceiling. I’d meant what I said in England about being willing to wait forever, but my God, I’d be thinking about this night for the rest of my life if she changed her mind. She’d been so beautiful, so strong, and she fit me like we were made for each other. She had breasts I could spend the rest of my life between, and I could only imagine I’d feel the same between her legs when I finally got to taste her there. She moved like a fucking dream, like a million times better than I’d been dreaming, and I’d give anything to hear my name on her lips again.But I didn’t know if I’d get an again. I was fucking thrilled, but it seemed like she was moving really fast. Like everyone kept telling me to be patient, but Paige seemed to want to race ahead. And every time she did, she regretted it. I pressed a kiss to the top of her head and prayed she wouldn’t be furious with me in the morning. Or worse, disguste

TommasoI sat behind my desk wearing a new suit and staring blankly at my open laptop, trying to convince myself to think about work instead of Paige. When she woke up, she’d seemed so upset. She made me leave without even so much as a kiss. How badly had I fucked up?No. Work. I needed to flesh out the whole looks-like-cops idea I’d had last night. I grabbed my phone and opened to my contacts to dial Killian. He had a way with schemes like this.But as my finger hovered over his number, I froze. I’d always planned shit like this with Killian because he was my boss. My best friend, of course, but my boss. I couldn’t do much without his say-so. But now, I was the boss. I should be planning this shit with my people, the ones who needed my say-so, not with him. After a long moment, I tapped Stan’s number instead and sent him a quick text to come to my office. We didn’t have long before I had to take Paige to therapy, but we could start nailing a few things down.Stan arrived in minutes.

TommasoI glanced at Paige out of the corner of my eye, singing along to some rock song I’d never heard before. She seemed different; she had since she’d answered my question in my office. There was a lightness to her now. She barely stopped touching me, and she never stopped smiling. I couldn’t deny that I liked it. Her cheeks still had a little hollowness to them, and I knew from last night that she still wasn’t totally physically healed from her encounter with Zahur, but she seemed so much better. Like a woman I might meet in the real world and fall in love with, not one I pulled out of the worst depths of human filth.Still, I kept glancing at her like this, waiting for the other shoe to drop. Like at any moment, she’d realize what she’d done and be afraid of me again.“Good therapy session?” I asked as the song ended, not really expecting anything.“The best,” she said.“Great.” I smiled at her. “That sounds good.”“It totally was.” She grinned at me, her hair bouncing as she bob

TommasoI gathered a sleeping Paige in my arms, twisted, and lifted her off the couch. My legs ached as I lifted her. Whatever had gotten into her today made her wild, and the sun had disappeared over the house, a sure sign we’d fucked into the early evening. I laid her gently in bed and tucked the covers over her, then scribbled a little note that I’d gone to get some work done. She’d understand.I tugged on my suit pants over my still-sticky dick and padded out of her room with the rest of my clothes in my arms. I couldn’t keep the smile off my face. The little voice in the back of my head kept nagging that something had to be off, that she couldn’t have changed this much this quickly, but I ignored it. If I was going to follow Paige’s lead, I had to follow it wherever she led, not just when her lead made sense to me.I stopped in my room for a shower and another change of clothes. There’d been lots of dry cleaning this week, and more if she insisted on coming onto me like she did i