Page 29 of After Hours

She smiled at him. “I don’t actually like your bed that much when you’re not in it,” she told him.

His grin flashed in the dark, a dangerous promise. Just the way she liked it.

As she lay there in the cozy V birth, watching him sleepily, he stripped off without another word. She got to behold the glory of him that never got old for her. He was tattooed, beautiful, so much a man that he made her ache all over. She could feel herself, slippery and ready for him, immediately.

Then Zachary crawled into the bed with her, where he barely fit, and made her hold on to the shelf above her bed as best she could. While he fucked her so intensely that she was surprised when she actually woke up again the next morning.

She didn’t sleep on the boat again.

By the fourth month, she’d even come to appreciate all the running he did, though there was really only jogging for himwhen she tried to match his pace. Still, they did laps together at the strangest hours, because it was safe when he was there. While Oakland slept, and the Bay slumbered, they ran together in the dark and it felt like the two of them against the world.

For a girl who never felt she had anyone, not even while she was married — maybe especially not then — this was some heady stuff.

“It’s nice to finally meet you,” said one of the gym members one day, as he was checking himself in. Using the system that Romily had set up.

Romily smiled by rote, then sat up straighter. She hadn’t seen this man in the gym before. Most of the men here were a lot like Zachary. They kept to themselves. They looked at her, not exactly with suspicion, but not in any forthcoming way, either. Many of them looked like they preferred the shadows.

Not this man.

He was tall, commanding. Not visibly tattooed or bearded, setting him apart from a lot of the other clientele. He was also dressed in a suit, not jeans or work trousers like many of the others. He also had a differentairabout him. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but she could tell that this was a man who got everyone’s attention, wherever he went.

The man’s gaze was alsoassessingin a way that seemed to penetrate, deep into her. It wasn’t quite sexual, she thought, though there was something about it that reminded her of Zachary’s stern appraisal. She felt her breath pattern change, like he was changing the air around them.

She glanced at the screen and saw his name.Frederick Hill.

“It’s nice to meet you, too,” she replied, and then when she smiled again in her usual polite fashion, he didn’t smile back.

“I hope that when the Club opens in a physical space, you’ll enjoy it,” he said. And though she thought she covered the way everything inside of herseized—because wasn’t that the nameof that app? How did this person know — his uncompromising mouth curved. “With Zachary, of course. I didn’t mean to alarm you. Your private information is safe. I’m the founder. And Zachary’s friend.”

“Oh,” Romily said, flustered, and then she couldn’t look at him directly.

It wasn’t because she was embarrassed. It was because she understood that assessing look, now. She understood that like a lot of the men she’d seen here, but had only speculated about, this manabsolutelyplayed the kinds of games that Zachary liked.

She doubted she could look up again if her life depended on it, but she knew the exact second when Zachary came in in the main part of the gym.

“Stop doing your dom shit all over my place of business,” Zachary growled, but Romily could hear what sounded like genuine affection and laughter in his voice.

“Seems like you found yourself a prize,” Frederick said.

“I sure have,” Zachary agreed, still in that growly voice. “And I don’t share, so back off.”

Frederick only laughed. “Don’t you?” he asked. “Isn’t that interesting.”

“Did you come all the way to the East Bay to run your mouth or to get a workout in?” Zachary demanded, and they both laughed.

The two of them walked back into the main part of the gym, where there was a rudimentary locker room. Though when Romily snuck a look, Zachary caught her gaze—and those eyes of his gleamed.

Later that night, she sat on the couch Zachary’s living room and looked out over the marina. Sometimes it made her a little dizzyto think about how much her life had changed in so short a span of time—and this time, for the first time, for the better.

She knew all about life changing too fast and in the wrong direction.

Sometimes she liked to pinch herself to make sure she wasn’t dreaming this, but Zachary had caught on to her and there was always a little bit of punishment when that happened. Sometimes, therefore, she pinched herself on purpose when she knew he could see her because she liked those punishments. Or she liked how they ended, anyway.

Though she suspected that once he caught onto that, he would make them more unpleasant all around. The man took these things seriously. She could trust and believe that he would deliver what he’d promised.

It was amazing what a difference that made. How safe it allowed her to feel.

She watched him move around the kitchen, preparing their dinner. He did not eat burgers in dive bars every night of the week as she might have been tempted to imagine. Like everything else, Zachary took food very seriously. He liked his fuel to be both nutritious and tasty, and did not think much of her attempts in that direction.

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