“So these—” I hold up the ben wa balls. “—are for strengthening your Kegel muscles, and also, if you leave them in, the effort to hold them in place can be very pleasurable. And they’re incredibly discreet. I could have two in right now, and you’d never know it.” I shrug. “I might.”

I wait a beat. Two beats. Three. Then I check. Just to see.

His eyes are a thousand degrees of heat. They’re burning through me. I’m going to go up in flames. My inner muscles clench around the (non-existent) ben wa balls.

I should’ve followed my impulse before the party. I’d thought about it a long time, holding an unopened box in my palm. I’d even taken them out—committing myself to the purchase—balancing their heavy, tantalizing weight in my palm. And then I’d chickened out of inserting them.

I pass the demo balls around.

“I’ve never been a balls girl,” one of the partiers says, both speculatively and impishly. “But these could change my mind.”

Snickers.

“Yeah, but it would be awkward if yours were bigger than his,” another guest says.

I look up and discover Brody smirking at me. He shakes his head.

My chest wings open like a bird taking off. It’s the smirk. Scowling Brody, I can deal with. Smirking, not so much.

Fight fire with fire, I think, and meet his amused eyes with a tease in my own. His expression changes—dark lust now.

I go hot all over, in waves.

“What’s next?” a partier demands, yanking me back to my task. Every group is different, I’m finding. These women are ready to roll with the harder-core toys when I bring them out. In general, they’ve been a rowdy crew, demolishing wine at an alarming speed. They’re almost all divorced, no-nonsense, and no-holds-barred.

Brody leans back against the edge of the cabin door, watching. Crosses his arms. His gaze is on me now. I don’t have to speculate about where his attention is—it’s fully mine. And the intensity of it, of that green-eyed fire, streaks hot through me, like the ghost flickers that sparklers leave behind.

The vibrators are causing so much joy in this crowd. This is a group that’ll turn every last one on, teasing their fingertips and their thighs before handing them back. I pass a thumb over the head of something hot pink and pleasingly smooth, then look up to find Brody with his eyes so languorously heavy that I almost drop the toy. Lashes practically touching his cheeks.

The buzzing toy in my hand doesn’t look like a real penis, but I wonder what those eyes would do if I slicked my thumb over his.