Now Vin was doing the head shaking. “Devina is always okay. That’s the thing. No matter her mood, down deep she’s tight. It was one of the things that attracted me to her…well, that and the fact that she’s one of the most physically confident women I’ve ever met. But that’s what you get when you’re built perfectly.”

“She said you wanted her to get breast implants.”

Vin’s eyes flicked up. “Are you kidding me? I’ve told her she was perfect since the night I met her, and I meant it. I never wanted her to change a thing.”

Abruptly, Jim’s brows drew in tight, a hard look coming onto his face.

“Looks like you were played, buddy.” Vin cracked apart the lettuce and went over to the sink with a couple of leaves to wash. “Let me guess, she poured her heart out to you, you saw a vulnerable woman tangled up with a mofo, you kissed her…maybe you didn’t even think you would take things that far.”

“I couldn’t believe where it ended up.”

“You felt bad for her, but you were also attracted.” Vin turned off the water and shook the romaine. “You wanted to give her something to make her feel good.”

Jim’s voice grew low. “That’s exactly how it was.”

“You want to know the way she got me?”

“Yeah. I do.”

Back at the counter, Vin laid out slices of roast beef that were thin as paper. “I went to a gallery opening. She was there by herself, wearing a dress that was cut down to the small of her back. They had these lights in the ceiling that were directed at the paintings that were for sale, and when I walked in, I saw her standing in front of the Chagall I had come to buy, that light hitting the skin of her back. Extraordinary.” He added on a layer of ragged tomato and a fluffy blanket of lettuce, then top-hatted the sandwiches. “Sliced or whole?”

“Whole.”

He handed the sourdough over to Jim and cut his rye in half. “She sat in front of me at the auction and I smelled her perfume the entire time. I paid a fuckload for the Chagall, and I’ll never forget the way she looked back at me over her shoulder as the gavel went down. Her smile was what I liked to see in a woman’s face at that point.” Vin took a bite and remembered vividly as he chewed. “I used to like it dirty, you know, porn-style. And her eyes told me she had no problem with that kind of shit. She came home with me that night and I fucked her right here on the floor. Then on the stairs. Finally on the bed. Twice. She let me do anything to her and she liked it.”