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his words and that particular conversation would make it damn near impossible for me to do my job.
    And the thought of getting the sexual tension out of the way was difficult to resist. We could go back to his studio apartment, we’d do what needed to be done, and then tomorrow I’d be fine. An itch scratched. A hunger sated. No promises for something more.
    By the time we pulled up to my brick apartment building in Orient Heights, I’d managed to find some of the control I’d lost. Less than a foot separated us, but he didn’t move, thank goodness.
    Silence folded over us and all I could do was face forward. The still air in the car grew heavy. The weight of his gaze intensified.
    “I’ll see you bright and early tomorrow morning, Miss Ashton. Sleep well.”
    “Bright and early.”
    As I walked up to the building, my confidence strengthened. He was nothing more than an attractive client. Losing everything I’d gained was unacceptable.

Chapter 4
    Sophie
    As expected, the living room lights cast a bright glow through the large bay window in my second-story apartment. By the time I walked through the door, I wasn’t surprised to see Lana, one of my two roommates, with her papers and books scattered all over what little space we had.
    I stepped over a book titled
Atlas of Human Anatomy
and leaped over a bunch of drawings of body parts most folks didn’t want to see. Was that a left arm? Or maybe a dissected upper thigh? Yep, ignorance was bliss.
    “You’re back early,” Lana remarked. The short redhead never looked up. As usual, she was wearing an alternative rock band T-shirt. This time it was Modest Mouse. Ever since her first-year second semester started at UMass, I only saw the back of her head most of the time. My other roommate, Penny, was home far more than I preferred due to her work-from-home gig. Like Carlie, I grew up with Penny, sharing rooms with them in the foster care system in NYC. Compared to Carlie, who never picked up her belongings unless they were on fire, Penny was a much tidier roommate.
    “I had an uneventful night.” Now that was an understatement. Just thinking about Xavier made my brain tumble. My cellphone buzzed in my pocket as I left the living room and walked toward the bedrooms. The three-bedroom apartment wasn’t that big, but with one medical student and an at-home phone-sex operator paying part of the bills, the place was much more affordable.
    Since I’d lived here first, I offered to give Lana the biggest bedroom so she could have a study nook, but she declined.
    “You won’t see me here half the time,” Lana had said when we’d first made the agreement. “If I get comfortable, I’m sleeping,” she had added. “My scholarship only goes so far in helping me
not
get screwed over by the crazy-high tuition costs. I should be at the library, in class, or sleeping in that bed.”
    In a way, I was rather glad. The amount of clothes and stuff I had was astronomical. I might’ve been only a concierge, but for my kind of business, I had to be flexible in terms of my attire.
    I thought Lana was engrossed in her homework, but she eagerly followed me into the narrow galley kitchen. “You’re never home this early,” Lana said as she grabbed a Coke after I got my bottle of water. “I’ve been wondering if something is up.”
    “So I gather,” I said dryly.
    “All you do is work and come home late.” She took a long sip of her drink. “When it comes to dating, Penny and I never hear you talk about anyone.” She said this as if she wished she had a date.
    “Do you seriously want me bringing a guy here when you’re studying?” She flashed me a look as if I’d fallen down the steps on the way up to the apartment.
    “I’ve never had a drought like this since high school,” she said. “Even the guys in the second-year class look tired and broke down. I wish our professors weren’t so good-looking.”
    She hopped on the kitchen counter and propped her feet up on the