Kira turned to Alexa. “I’ve never read your company handbook, but I’m willing to bet if they found out Zack was seeing John, they’d fire him on the spot.”

Alexa nodded. “Just so.”

“Which means, if Zack wants to keep paying his rent, he needs to keep his distance.”

Zack grimaced. “I used to agree with that rule, but now I’m not so sure. If I were to date a client, wouldn’t I be doing it at my own risk?”

“Yeah,” Alexa said, “but prostitution is still very much illegal in this country.”

“Wait, what?” Kira asked. “I figured it was against company policy, but what does that have to do with prostitution?”

Zack rubbed his forehead. He could feel a headache coming on. “They don’t want us moonlighting, so to speak. Some people use phone and cam sex as a way to reach clients who might be interested in ‘additional services.’ Murmur Inc. doesn’t want to be held responsible if one of us is caught whoring on the side. They could be accused of being a front for an escort service.”

“Huh,” Kira said. “There’s a lot more to your jobs than I thought.”

“Thank you,” Alexa and Zack said in unison.

“All right,” Zack said after a moment, “so, to summarize, I was right to run away, because God only knows what would have happened if I’d stayed and talked to him.”

“Babe, we all know what would have happened.” Alexa winked.

“Shut up. I get why I should have left, but that doesn’t help me with my other problem. John’s still my best client, and he might never call me again. There’s a chance he thinks I was completely repulsed by him.”

Alexa made an appraising face. “Yeah, I got nothing. He probably does.”

Zack let out a heavy breath and, to his surprise, felt a pang of cold sorrow in his chest. “There go those fat paychecks I was getting.”

Kira gave him a look. “Is that all you’re going to miss?”

“No, I’ll miss the awesome sex as well. And the breaks he provided from the tedium of my job. And Colette’s begrudging approval. That was my favorite part.”

“I’ll miss seeing you look happy at work,” Alexa said. She was watching him out of the corner of her eye.