page130 (2/2)

Ferro relaxed, followed Julia’s gentle tug back down to the divan He lay on his back and looked at the stars, while Julia rested her head on his chest, her body heat seeping through his skin

Her heat chased away the cold The fear And he slept

It wasn’t until he was in the office the next day that he realized what he’d done He’d been so desperate to get Julia to stop talking, to get her to stop otten about condoms

That had never happened in his life Never Condo in his sexual encounters when he’d been a prostitute Dio, but he hated that word It still had the power to flay his skin from his bones To make him feel like less than a man

And yet it was the truth about hi thoseto her as if her touch had the power to clean all the dirt from his skin

But far fro the dirt to her No matter what she said No matter what she claimed to see when she looked at him

Actions like his didn’t come clean

I wish you could see how a you are

No, she rong He wasn’t ah, without conscience enough, to do whatever he’d had to do to get where he wanted to go

And now he’d brought her into it, compromised her After all that had already happened to her…would he hurt her, too?

Da with Barrows today, too He stood up and stalked out his office door “No one callshis driver from his phone as he did so

He got into the elevator and took it down to the lobby where his car was already waiting, idling against the curb

“Julia’s,” he said to the driver He didn’t have to say more Everyone kne that they were lovers Everyone kneho Julia was

The drive across town in the afternoon traffic was unbearable Too hard to wait that long He couldn’t wait When his driver was a block away, Ferro jerked open the door and got out, striding the rest of the way down the sidewalk, his focus straight ahead He ignored the tourists, the few people who recognized hi, the sun, the palnored them all