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He shrugged. “My dad liked it. Said I’d be the Prince of Manhattan if he could make it happen. It was a joke at first. Guess it stuck.”

“I like Alec,” I murmured. It’s how I first knew him. How I sometimes still thought of him.

“So does my mother.” He smiled slightly. I ran my finger over a valedictorian award. Nearby was a trophy for some sort of science achievement.

“Why do you keep all this locked in here?” I asked. He was still allowing my questions, and I was going to keep going until he stopped me. But I could see it was wearing him. He wasn’t accustomed to being so far out of control. He turned back to his desk, and I watched as he sat down again.

Jesus, he’s got a great ass.

“It doesn’t really fit into my…world, I suppose,” he answered.

I narrowed my eyes and look around again. I didn’t agree. Somehow, I knew that thiswashis world. It defined him. Yet he’d learned to hide it all.

I wondered why.

I strolled back over to where he was sitting. He’d picked up some sort of switching device and was fidgeting with it. I’d never seen him quite like this.

I stopped in front of him, my knees touching his. I brushed a dark swathe of hair from his broad forehead. “You’re smart,” I said quietly, and he smiled wryly. “It’s sexy,” I added.

He shot me a look. “My father doesn’t think so.”

“You don’t fuck your father,” I replied.

“I don’tfuckyou, either.” His words made my heart stop, and then race.

I leaned down and slid my lips across his as I took the strange object from his hands and set it aside. I untied the belt of my robe and let it slip from my shoulders. Then I moved his hands up to slide them over my curves as I straddled him. He traced me lingeringly, exploratively…as if for the first time. And in a way, it was.

The first time I’d made love to Alec Walker.