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“Are you touching yourself?” The voice in Oakley’s ear sounded labored and overeager—like a Saint Bernard atte, too Lovely

“Yes, you make me so hot …”—she quickly checked the sticky note she’d put on the kitchen island—“Stefan”

Stefan Literature professor Single Six foot five

That’s the info he’d given her Which probably ood day

He groaned “You’re so sexy”

Sexy? Two points off for lack of originality, Mr Lit Prof Though, even the suave guys tended to forget their vocabulary when they got to this point in the conversation Oakley covered the mouthpiece on her headset and turned off the tiuy had lasted through the full baking time

“Thanks, sugar,” she said, letting her tone drop into a lower register

“God, your voice is so fucking hot”

That she heard a lot A record company exec had once deemed her voice “smoky, X-rated perfection” when he’d heard her demo At the time, she hadn’t considered how inappropriate it had been for a grown man to tell a fifteen-year-old kid that But her raspy voice had gotten her the gig then, and it had gotten her this one now Though, adh for this current one

“I’round out “I can feel your hotaround me”

Oakley donned oven mitts and leaned down to pull out the tray of brownies The smell of chocolate and the heat of the oven hit her with full force She inhaled deeply “Mood I could just lick up every last bit”

“Yeah,” he panted, the sound of his slick, puht Show me how much you want it”

There you go, Steve, you go on and get your money’s worth Oakley set the tray of brownies on a trivet and tugged off the h that her body was looking for dinner number two But these weren’t for her

She glanced toward the darkened hallway and the stairs beyond Well, maybe one little corner piece wouldn’t be rab it But as she lifted the brownie, her knuckles grazed the searing hot pan

“Ah, shit!” she hissed, jerking her hand back

“Oh, yeah, let me hear it,” Stefan said on a moan “Come with me, baby”

Oakley shook out her hand, sucking air through her teeth, and tried to keep the pain out of her voice Her phone coase her fist into the dishwater she’d drawn to soak thebowl

Stefan made choked sounds as he reached his own release In another world, uy into an orgas her nah she held nothing against the guys who called—after all, they helped her pay the bills—her libido had long ago crawled into a dark corner to die a quick, peaceful death Even if she iuy on the other end of the line looked like Johnny Depp or Justin Ti, she couldn’t drum up one ounce of interest

Stefan panted heavy, wet breaths right against her ear, resu his reseood boy” or a Milk-Bone

“That was a her husky, after-sex voice as she soaked her hand in the water “Thank you, Stefan”

Panting Panting That was the only response

Then a tight, high sound—whistling

No Wheezing

Uh-oh “Stefan? Are you okay?”