She snorts. “Good for you.”

“You make it sound like I’m a fucking charity case.”

She laughs again, her head thrown back. “Now I know that is not the case.” She gives me a quick roll of her eyes before jogging off. “After tomorrow,” she calls over her shoulder, “I’ll give them back to you. Sound good?”

“Yeah.”

I’m doing okay now. Feeling less head fucked. As I make my way to the kitchen, I’m surprised to find my mood is…pretty damn good. I crank up some Led Zeppelin on my Bose and crack two eggs, planning to whip up breakfast, before I get an even better idea. I’ll make something portable, and invite Suri Dalton to the maze with me. Maybe we can have a quick fuck in the bushes.

I grin, and I’m grabbing some fruit out of the pantry when I hear the click of shoes on hardwood, and there she in the doorway between my den and kitchen, looking gorgeous.

I can’t help how good I feel. I give her a big, stupid smile.

She grins back at me. “You look nice today.”

I look her over, deliberately lingering on her tits. “You look better.” I have to fight the urge to yank her dress up and fuck her on the kitchen table. I’m already hard, and I don’t try to hide it as I grab a paper bag from a nearby drawer.

“You going out?” she asks me.

“Yeah.”

She walks into the kitchen, giving me a great view of her ass, and leans against my counter. With her hair hanging a little past her chin and her pink lips smiling, she looks like a girl someone should love. Which is a fucking weird thing to think.

I rub my head, and she says, “Where ya going?”

“Thought I’d go for a walk.” I thought I’d go with her, but now that I see her looking so beautiful and fresh, I’m not so sure. Wasn’t I supposed to be keeping this professional?

But it’s just a walk, right? It should be pretty hard to ruin the beauty that is Suri Dalton in the course of a twenty-minute walk. And if we fuck? Well, it’s not the first time. I’ll end this fuck-fest soon. Get some willpower and take off to my house in Summerlin.

Till then… It’s been a long time since I took a walk around the grounds for no reason at all.

I look back over at her to ask if she’ll go with me, and find her smiling slightly.

“What?” I ask.

“Oh…nothing.” Her smile widens, and she laughs.

“What is it?” I rub my hand over my face. “Do I have a booger?”

“No.” Her eyes are twinkling, swear to fucking God.

“Then what?”

“You’re packing a lunch for yourself.” She’s still smiling.

I hold out two apples and a banana, like I’m surrendering a weapon. “You mean this?”

“Yes, that.”

I feel a little hot under my collar. “So what? A person’s gotta eat.”

“I know,” she says. “It’s cute.” And then she giggles. It’s a real giggle. Like…I don’t know. Something real and nice.

I’m surprised to find it makes me laugh a little, too.

“I was thinking one of them could be for you. You like apples? Or bananas?”

She twirls a piece of her hair, still smiling. I swear to God, this girl is like sunshine. “I like them both. Where are we walking?”

I shrug as I throw the fruit in the paper sack, prompting her to laugh again. “Just around. I like to stretch my legs sometimes.”

I squeeze my eyes shut and want to groan, because I sound like an idiot. I screw up my face and pull out my country voice. “Want to throw some stones in the pond? It’s real fuuun.”

She giggles again. “Sure. I throw a mean stone.” I don’t even know what this means

I walk past her, headed toward the ’frige to grab some bottled water. She catches me by the arm and tugs me close to her. I’m still as one of her hands twists around my nape and pulls my face down close to hers. I’m ready to kiss her. Ready to fuck her. Instead she pulls me even closer and I feel her lips press gently on my forehead.

It’s fucking weird, the way it makes me feel. Just…warm in my chest, like someone poured hot water into me.

She looks into my eyes. I must be frowning because she frowns a little, too, then smiles and ruffles my hair. “Don’t be so uptight. I just wanted to kiss you. No strings.” She pushes me gently away and holds up three fingers. “I swear.”

“I know.” I give her a small smile and grab the water from the refrigerator, and by the time I’ve turned around the weirdness of the moment has passed. She grabs an apple out of the paper sack, and I grab the other one, and we leave the sack in the kitchen and head out the front door. I have a memory of walking out of the house with Riker when we were children, armed with bed linen and kitchen utensils. I guess my brain is dredging up strange shit because of Suri’s presence in my house. I usually don’t let women stay, or even fuck them in my cottage. That’s what my room in the main house is— was for.

As we walk toward the pond, she asks, “What are you thinking?”

I shrug. “About the new building.”

It’s out there in front of us, and the construction crew is already moving this morning. Their big machines beep and buzz as they resurrect the building.

“What about it?” she asks.

“I used to have a room there. Like, my personal room.”

“That’s cool.”

“I mean for sex.”

“Okay—still cool, for you, I guess.” She gives me an unreadable look.

“I was just wondering if I’m going to rebuild it.”

“Are you?”

“I don’t know.”

We walk a little more, and it’s fucking weird, because I kind of want her to tell me not to. Instead she says, “Did you ever imagine this place would be so successful?”

We sit on some stones by the pond and I tell her about my first few years as a brothel owner, how I started with the Strip location but wanted something more exclusive, something less stereotypical and more high-end. I tell her about how I met each of the girls—and guys. I tell her about the first escorts who worked for me, about the brothel manager who embezzled almost a million dollars from me when I was still green and didn’t know to keep a sharp eye on my managers. I even tell her about how my cheesy, framed “first dollar” burned. And she listens. I can tell she listens, and she doesn’t judge me even though she’s not a fan of sex-for-pay.

About that time Juniper walks by, wearing a black sports bra and hot pink leopard printed tights. She’s holding hand weights with little snoopy pictures on the sides. We both laugh.

“Hello,” she calls.

“Hello.” I smile and Suri waves.

“Whatever works,” I say as Juniper passes.

“You know…” Suri sits her apple core on a stone beside her, “when Lizzy said people here were like family, and I scoffed at her. But it seems to be true.”

I raise my eyebrows. “Are we converting you?”

“Maybe,” she says coyly—but she can’t keep the grin off her face. She trails her bare foot over the water’s edge and looks around. “Who designed your maze?”

“I did actually.”

“Really.” I nod. “I’m impressed.”

I stand up and offer her a hand, which she takes after sliding her sandal back on. I pull her up. “Want to go?”

“Maze walking?” She smiles a little. “I got lost there the other night.”

I’m still holding onto her hand. I tuck it closer to me. “If we get lost this time, it’ll be because we want to.”

We start off over the plush grass, toward the maze, and after a few steps I can tell something is wrong. Our earlier banter and easy conversation is gone. Suri is quiet; her face looks tight, and her hand in mine is still and almost stiff.

I can’t think straight knowing something’s bothering her, so I give in. “What’s wrong?” I ask.

She glances up at me from underneath her long eyelashes. “I was just thinking of before the fire. I was planning on going back to California the next morning.”

“Oh yeah?”

She nods. “One of the reasons was you.”

My chest aches. I guess because she takes me off guard. “It was?”