It may very well impact my career if my clients didn’t believe me and turned on me for outing another client.

It definitely meant there was no future for Alex and me. I would always be associated with sex work and now this story and it would be terrible for his career to be with me. For this, and a thousand other reasons, I needed to walk away.

But it hurt. I thought I was an expert on pain, but the idea of leaving him was a searing agony on a different scale than I’d ever imagined possible. I would leave him because I had to. He deserved better.

The ruthless part of me wanted to gather my things, leave without saying goodbye, and let that be it. The cowardly part of me needed that last hit, craved one final time with him to cling to in the ugly weeks to come. More importantly, I wanted to tell him the truth before he heard it from someone else.

I stalled long enough that the decision was made for me when he slid the door to the deck open, pausing and looking at me without speaking for a long moment.

I’d never seen such an intense look in those electric blue eyes.

He said, “I couldn’t find you. Thought you might’ve left without saying bye.”

“I thought about it.”

“Why didn’t you?” He leaned against the frame of the door.

“Because I’m a coward.”

He reached me in three quick strides, rushing to get to me then looking like he wasn’t sure what to do once he was there.

He glanced at his watch. “You’re officially a free woman. Our contract is over. What will you do with your freedom, Lady Elena?”

This was the moment to tell him I wanted to find a way to be with him, even if it meant burning everything we’d each worked for to the ground. But I couldn’t find the words to ask him to give it all up for me.

So instead, I kissed him. I kissed him with all the longing and sorrow and rage that was pent up inside me, savoring the feel of his lips on mine in case this was the last time.

He groaned and kissed me back, meeting me with his own ferocity, pulling me onto his lap and wrapping me in his arms like we could shut out the rest of the world.

This was stupid. I needed to tell him about Max and get the hell out of there while I could still think clearly. It wasn’t fair to him to do this when he didn’t even know what was coming. He’d be thrown into the mess because everyone thought we were dating.

But I was weak and selfish and deep down, knew I was hopelessly in love with him. So I stayed, pulling his clothes off as we kissed our way into the bedroom. We were naked by the time we reached the bed.