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“Productive.”
“Where did you venture out to with your camera this time?”
I hesitated. “Heaton Park.”
“Yeah? I often go jogging there. In fact, I was there this morning.”
I thought about not mentioning that I’d spotted him, but why bother? “I know, I saw you.”
His head briefly whipped round to face me. “I didn’t clock you. How far away were you?”
“Not far.”
Though I could only see his profile, I didn’t fail to note how his jaw went tight. “So you could have come talked to me, but you chose not to,” he mused, his voice flat.
“I was goingto try to get your attention somehow so I could at least wave or something, but then it occurred to me that you might not want that.”
He cast me a sideways frown. “Why wouldn’t I want that?”
I shrugged, turning to my window. “It seemed reasonable to assume that you’d prefer for our arrangement to not leak out onto our lives outsidethe Vault.”
Stopping the car at a red light, he said, “Look at me.”
Planting a neutral expression on my face, I turned to him and raised my brows in a querying gesture. His own expression was serious yet somehow also soft and warm.
He pinned my gaze with his. “You ever see me in public again, don’t hesitate to approach or call out to me or whatever. There’ll never be a time when I would be anything but glad to see you, Izzy. Given the boundaries of our arrangement, I can see why you would think I wouldn’t want our paths to whatsoever cross outside the club even in a small way, but you’re wrong. Okay?”
I swallowed, my chest going tight. “Okay.”
He quickly checked the traffic lights, saw they were still red, and then returned his full focus to me. “Remember I told you how I don’t like distractions? How I cut them from my life?”
I nodded.
“There’s nothing in my life more distracting than you. You pop into my head far too often. It should bother me. It doesn’t. Not once have I considered letting you go.”
He probably thought I’d find his words reassuring. They were certainly flattering enough to make my belly all warm, but they gave me no real comfort. Because he might not have ended our arrangement yet, but he would at some point.
I wasn’t going to think about that, though. Not tonight. Tonight was a night for fun, so I kept my next words light. “Who would consider letting me go? I’m a keeper.”
His lips twitching, he faced forward again just as the lights went green. “And full of humility, it would seem.”
“I fairly brim with it.”
He lightly squeezed my thigh, the tips of his warm fingers brushing my bare knee.
“So, what room did you book for tonight?”
“You always ask me that, even though I always tell you that you’ll find out for yourself in due time.”
“It seems worth asking.” But, as usual, he didn’t tell me. Bloody tease.
Eventually, we arrived at the indoor parking lot beside the Vault. We didn’t enter the club through its main doors. We used the side entrance that was exclusively for those who were heading to the basement.
As was becoming our habit, we had a meal at the lounge. He sat beside me, just as he normally did, alternating between kissing, feeding, and talking to me. Oh, and subtly feeling me up.
By the time we’d finished our meal, my body was ready to fucking roll. So I easily placed my hand in his when he held it out. He guided me through the door at the other side of the lounge and into the hallway. He didn’t stop at any of the private rooms there. He led me through the dome’s ornate doors, across the length of the large space to its other set of doors, and then out into the hallway beyond them.
We hadn’t used any of the rooms in this section before. I knew from Cat that one was a library, another was a doctor’s office, and there was—
