“How’s the office?” Brenna asked Kelly as they drove across the Mojave Desert.

Kelly let out a slightly hysterical laugh. “In shambles. Trust me, this getaway wasn’t just for you. I need it, too—bad.”

They discussed the various disasters occurring at Blue Night for a while longer, but both concluded it was a downer, so decided to turn on the radio. From which blared Malcolm Barstow’s latest hit, which made them both grimace, so Brenna turned it back off. And peered out over the flat brown landscape. “Did I tell you Damon and I fucked in the desert?”

Kelly looked over at her with a sly smile. “No, you didn’t. And honey, I have to tell you, that man was so good for you. Even if you only had him a week.”

Brenna cast a wry grin. “Why—because I can say ‘fuck’ now without flinching?”

Kelly wore a satisfied expression as she looked back out the windshield. “Well, that, too—but mainly…you’re just a more confident person now. You’re more outgoing, you don’t let people push you around, and you don’t dress like a schoolmarm.”

Brenna hadn’t really thought about it—she’d hardly had time, given everything else being juggled in her brain—but maybe Kelly was right. “I guess maybe I…feel better. I definitely feel like my divorce is long behind me now—like it happened in another lifetime. And…I was brave enough to quit that so-called dream job, wasn’t I?”

“I think he just…showed you parts of yourself you’d never seen before.”

“You can say that again,” she replied, clearly thinking of sex, and they both laughed.

She still thought this girls’ weekend in Vegas was a generally bad idea, but for Kelly’s sake, she decided to try and have fun, or at least to pretend she was.

Kelly tended to drive like a maniac on the open road, so they turned onto the Las Vegas Strip just after ten o’clock, which flooded Brenna with recent memories. Her heart beat harder just seeing the hotels she and Damon had toured together, the streets they’d walked—and the Eiffel Tower, of course.

But she nearly passed out when Kelly veered onto the drive leading to the Venetian.

“What are we doing here?” she asked.

“Um, sleeping. Maybe some eating. And possibly partying, as I hear they have some great clubs here.”

Brenna passed her friend a dubious look. “This is where Damon and I stayed.”

Kelly blinked. “Oh. I guess you mentioned that at some point—I must have forgotten. But hey”—she shrugged, smiled softly—“hair of the dog, remember? And it’s a gorgeous hotel. And I got a great deal on the room, so we’re not going anywhere else.”

Brenna didn’t like it, but she supposed it wouldn’t kill her to be here. Even if everywhere she glanced she found another memory. Yet she tried to push that aside as they checked in and headed up a familiar elevator where Damon had once rubbed his hard cock against her ass. She tried to push it aside as they rolled their suitcases into a room very much like the one Brenna had stayed in—even if she’d ended up not spending a great deal of time in it.

“So,” Kelly said, “ready to hit the town?”

Brenna simply blinked. “It’s late. Aren’t you tired?”

“No way—the night is young. And Vegas never sleeps. I’m ready to go dancing, or maybe do a little gambling. Have I ever told you how lucky I am at craps?”

“Uh, no. But even if you aren’t tired, maybe I am.”

Kelly lowered her chin and stabbed her fists into her hips. “O-ho-ho no you don’t. You are so going out with me. I’m betting you were out ’til the wee hours every single night the last time you hit Sin City, so no way are you going to just put on your jammies and go beddie-bye.” Kelly grabbed her wrist, saying, “Come on.”

And before she knew what hit her, they were back in the elevator.

Given the prime-time hour, it was crowded, people coming and going on various floors, and Brenna wasn’t paying much attention until Kelly latched on to her arm again and dragged her out into a quiet hallway. “Where are we?” she asked.

“One of the lower floors. I think there’s a dance club around the corner.”

“I don’t hear any music,” Brenna said but followed Kelly anyway, thinking the area looked vaguely familiar—and finally recognizing it when they exited through a pair of doors that led out to the lush pool area. “Oh, this leads to the pool. We’re in the wrong place,” she informed her friend.

But Kelly pressed onward anyway. “Well, while we’re here, I may as well check it out, scope out my chair for tomorrow—since I intend to spend at least half the day working on my tan.”

Brenna followed behind silently, not particularly wanting to revisit the pool, either, but forcing herself to be tolerant. Hair of the dog, hair of the dog. I don’t need a man, I don’t need a man.

The area was bathed in darkness, but the surrounding neon lights of the city illuminated the place enough for her to make out the columns and arches, the potted trees, and the alluring beds at various points along the pool’s edge.

Which was when she noticed…

Was there someone lying on one of those beds?

She squinted, figuring she was seeing things in the shadowy darkness—but then she froze in place.

Oh God—it was Damon.

Wearing his usual T-shirt and jeans, he stretched out along the elaborate poolside bed, his head propped on one fist. His grandmother’s cross glinted in the moonlight. And his eyes sparkled, sexy as ever.

He met her gaze, looking wholly seductive, and curled one finger slowly toward him, beckoning her.

Beyond shocked, she couldn’t quite process what was happening, and she glanced to Kelly for help.

“Go on already,” Kelly said, giving her a light shove forward.

Brenna peeked over her shoulder, once more, at her friend. “But…”

“I’ll be downstairs at the craps tables if you need me—but I don’t think you will.” She concluded with a smile, then turned and walked away—and Brenna understood in that moment what a really wonderful, priceless friend Kelly was.

Then she turned back to Damon.

Who she couldn’t believe was really here.

“Lie down with me, Brenna.”

Cautiously, she approached the bed that had drawn her into fantasy the first time she’d seen it. Slowly, she climbed up onto it, reclining beside him. “Does this mean…you don’t hate me anymore?”

“I never hated you,” he said. “Not really. I was just…angry. I felt betrayed.”

“Of course—I understand. But…you don’t feel that way any longer?”

“I called Kelly and we met for coffee, talked for awhile—about you. She convinced me that the you I’d fallen for was the real you and that the you who lied wasn’t.”

“That’s so true,” she said, leaning toward him. “I hate lying. I didn’t want to lie. But I felt my job was on the line if I didn’t.” She glanced down. “Of course, I eventually ended up without it anyway, but that’s another story.”

“Come work for me,” he said, “at Inspiration.”

She let out a heavy breath. “That’s a generous offer, Damon, but…I’ve concluded that I’m not really cut out to be an A&R rep.”

“Yeah,” he said, “Kelly told me that part of the story, too. But I’m not offering you an A&R position—I want you to run the office. I need good people, and I figure you’re a great place to start. Although I would also welcome your input on music, babe—you’re good at that, I promise. I’ve also offered Kelly a PR position, and I think she’s going to take it.”

She sat up a bit. “Really?” Running an office she could do. And to be there working alongside her best friend and her…well, she started to think lover, but she wasn’t sure where they stood yet. “I…I would love the chance to do that, Damon, but…do you think it’s a good idea for you and I to work together?”

“As a matter of fact, I do. We managed to mix work and play pretty well before, didn’t we?”

“Is there going to be…um, play?”

He went deadly serious then, reaching out to cup her cheek. And to be touched by him, after all this time—oh God, the sensation raced all through her. “Brenna, we both made a big mistake here. Yours was lying to me. But mine was not giving you a chance to explain. I…hadn’t ever really opened my heart to a woman before, not since I was a teenager, so thinking you’d used me to get a job hurt pretty damn bad. I didn’t deal with it very well—I just shut down. But I want to start over. Or, more accurately, I want to pick up where we left off.

“Like I told you that night in the desert, I can’t make you promises. But I know I want you. I know I’ve been damn lonely without you. I know that for the first time in my life, I need more to satisfy me than music and work and random sex.” Then he grinned. “I need sex with you. And I need you next to me, in bed, and at work, too. I need you in my life, Brenna.”

There were a great many things Brenna could have said, but the simplest way to reply was to slip her arms around his neck and kiss him.

God—it was so good to have his mouth back on hers, his sweet, hot tongue kiss drizzling through her like warm icing.

“Ah, damn, babe,” he breathed afterward, peering into her eyes. “I’ve missed kissing you. Fucking you. I’ve missed feeling your sweet little cunt around my cock.”

“Oh—me, too. So, so much. Fuck me now, Damon. Please.”

When she’d first met Damon, she wouldn’t have dreamed of having sex out here by the pool—even at night, because workers or anyone else could wander in to the area, just as she and Kelly had—but now, after all she’d experienced with Damon right here amid the neon lights, she didn’t even hesitate to reach for his belt buckle.

“Oh. Oh Jesus,” he moaned when she unzipped his jeans and slid her palm down over his temptingly hard erection. She massaged and stroked him, fueled by the feel of him in her hand, utterly amazed he was back in her life.

Damon reached to unzip her jeans, too, and soon eased them down, along with her panties. And when his fingers sank into her pussy, she practically howled her pleasure.

She next pushed his shirt off over his head, then removed his jeans, wanting him completely and beautifully naked, and she shed her top and bra, as well. “Fill me,” she told him.

And he complied, parting her legs, positioning the head of his large cock at her oh-so-ready pussy, then plunging inside. Like always, they both moaned at the entry, then began to move together in a familiar rhythm that nearly took her breath.

“You feel so good in me, baby,” she purred up to him between hot kisses. “So, so good.”

“Get used to it,” he told her, “since I plan to be here often.”

Soon, he pulled out and instructed her to get on her hands and knees, entering her from behind. As usual, she felt him more that way, and each firm stroke made her cry out her pleasure. She didn’t care if anyone heard, or even if anyone saw—she just wanted to be with her man, right here, right now, in one of the places where he’d first begun helping her shed her inhibitions to become the woman she was meant to be.

“Fuck me,” she demanded through clenched teeth. “Harder. Harder.”

Thick pleasure poured over her with each drive of his stiff shaft, and she held nothing back, arching her ass to meet his thrusts, sobbing her joy as each one echoed through her.

A few minutes later, they lay resting on their sides, Damon’s dick still inside her from behind, and she rolled to her back, lifting one leg over his hip so that his cock remained snug in her pussy, but she could look into his eyes, touch his chest. “I love you,” she told him, no longer shy—about anything, even that.

He lifted her hand from his chest to his mouth, kissing the back of it. “I love you, too, Brenna.”

And their new position made it so that one of his thighs lay stretched between hers, and when he began to move in her again, it stimulated her clit in just the right way. She lifted instinctively to rub against him, seek more pleasure—and seeing her response, he began to saw his thigh more rhythmically across her wet slit. “Is that good, babe?”

“Mmm,” she whimpered. “Yes, baby. Yes.”

And driving his cock deep inside her, sliding his thigh across the nub jutting from the front of her flesh, he took her closer and closer to heaven, until…“Oh God—yes, yes, yes!” The orgasm washed over her like a tidal wave coming up out of the pool, taking away all feeling but utter and thorough pleasure. She bucked against him, drinking it in, reveling in the hot joy of it.

“Oh, Damon—that was nice.”

He altered their position just enough to lean in and kiss her. “You can get used to that, too.” Then he rolled her to her back once more, positioning himself atop her and proceeding to fuck her slow and deep, making her feel each long thrust, and peering deeply into her eyes, until he said, “Oh shit, babe—I don’t want to come yet, but I’m coming. You’re making me come.”

And then he pounded into her, pummeling her with each hard stroke, making her feel the intensity of his climax—until he finally went still but didn’t move from inside her. He simply lowered his body to rest atop hers and kissed her sweetly, their tongues sparring playfully.

“How did I make you come?” she asked, smiling up at him. “I mean, I…wasn’t really doing anything.”

“It was from looking into your pretty eyes.”

She practically gulped at his reply. “Really? That’s all?”

He gave a short, direct nod. “That’s all it takes, apparently, after being away from you for a few weeks. Something which, by the way, I don’t intend to let happen again.”

As he rolled off of her and onto his back, she peered up through the vine-covered wrought iron that crisscrossed the bed to the dark sky above. She couldn’t see stars here—too much light—but she could see the moon and feel the breeze, and just like in the desert, experiencing even such simple things with Damon made her feel alive.

“I’m so happy,” she said. “I have you back, and we’re going to work together by day, and fuck each other’s brains out by night, and all will be right with the world.”

Next to her, he laughed.

“Although, I feel bad for Kelly. She went to so much trouble, planning all this with you and convincing me to come—and here I am, ditching her for a guy. No offense,” she said, rolling onto her side to look down at him, “but that’s a major girlfriend sin, at any age.”

Yet Damon merely chuckled, pulling her naked body to his. “Don’t worry about Kelly. She’s taken care of.”

Brenna blinked. “What do you mean?”

“Tomorrow, Anthony will be joining us at the pool. And if he and Kelly hit it off, he’s going to take her out for dinner and a night at Rendezvous.”

Brenna threw her head back in a laugh. “Oh my God, she’s going to be in heaven.” Then she gazed playfully down into her lover’s eyes. “And where will we be tomorrow night?”

“Wherever you want. I don’t care. As long as I’m with you.”

She tilted her head, thinking. “Maybe we’ll…revisit the gondolas. Or the Eiffel Tower. Every time I think about either one, I get wet.”

Damon replied with a low growl of arousal. “Then we’re hitting both. And you’re not wearing panties. And you’re going to shave your pussy before we go out, and I’m going to watch. And by the time we actually get to fuck, you’re going to be crazed with lust, just like the first time we hit the gondolas.”

She nuzzled closer to him, letting the fresh heat invade her and bring out the dirty girl inside. “I can’t wait.”

“And once we get Inspiration in good shape—get a few more acts signed, get Austin’s CD in the works, get the office up and running—I’m taking you on a trip.”

Her eyebrows lifted. “Really? Where to?”

“Paris. And Venice.”

She sucked in her breath, falling more in love with him every minute. “Oh, Damon.”

“I want to float along the real Grand Canal with you, Brenna. I want to look out on the lights of Paris with you from atop the real Eiffel Tower.”

This was the man who had been so clear about not doing relationships, not letting sex turn into romance. Now, she couldn’t imagine a more romantic guy. And if he was a little sex-crazed, too—well, she definitely considered that a perk, one which she expected to keep her life extraordinarily exciting from this point forward. “Although when we get up on top of the real Eiffel Tower,” she teased him, “don’t be expecting a blow job.”

He grinned, his eyes sparkling on her. “We’ll see about that.”

She couldn’t help smiling in return, her voice filled with flirtation, when she said, “Yes, we will.”

A month ago, the very idea of that would have been unthinkable—but with Damon, she’d learned, anything was possible.

I do need a man, I do need a man, I do need a man.

And now I’ve got one—forever.