“I’m calling the police.” I fished for my phone out of my clutch, before remembering the bastard confiscated it.
“Please don’t!” the woman next to him cried out. She stepped into the light, under a lamppost, tugging her dress down. She appeared to be in her early forties. “Don’t ruin this.”
Cocking my head to the side, I waited for an explanation for her bizarre request. “Honey…what?”
“Because we’re role-playing.” Ransom stepped beside her protectively. She looked sideways at him, giving him an I-cannot-believe-this-is-happening look. I wanted to bury myself in the ground.
A role play?
Like…rapefantasy?
I’d been exposed to a lot of different kinds of porn online, but not this. What kind of people did that?
It was sick. No, worse than sick, it was degrading and harmful.
You shouldn’t be shaming people for their sexual preferences,a voice inside me countered.
“Just…don’t say anything,” the woman warned, her tone implying it wasn’t the first time she’d fired orders at people. “Please. Please, I have two kids at home and an ex-husband who respects me.”
“She’s not gonna say a word,” Ransom soothed. “I give you my word.”
“Thank you.” She turned to Ransom, putting a hand over his chest. “I think I’ll head home.”
He nodded curtly. “My apologies for the disruption. I’ll take care of this.”
“You sure?” She grimaced.
“Positive.”
He sounded sincere and polite and…almost warm. The first time I’d seen him exhibiting this kind of behavior.
She gave him a brief kiss on the cheek and wiggled past me, rushing off into the night.
I was so confused I thought my head was about to blow up.
Standing rooted to the ground, I stared at him. He tucked his shirt in, and looked presentable enough, but I still couldn’t wrap my head around anything.
He’d been…
Or at least, he’d been pretending to…
Was there even a difference, if she was in distress? Yes, for fuck’s sake, there was a difference when she had chosen that situation, made it happen because she wanted it. Universes apart difference. And she’d chosen Ransom to be the one to give her such a shocking experience?
And…oh, no. Why did it feel like my thighs were sticking together? I couldn’t be turned on bythis. I couldn’t. No. After all these years,thisis what turns me on? I mean, really?
“I’m…uh…” I glanced around me.
“In trouble,” he finished for me, rearranging his dress shirt. “Where’s Max?”
“Home.” I cleared my throat.
“Very professional.”
“It’s not his fault. I’m sneaky. You left a note on your dresser with this address. I wanted to know what you were up to.”
“Why?” he shot out.
“Because you’re hiding a lot of secrets, and we share a roof.”