Free Tell Me What Is Priceless (Siren Publishing Classic) by Kat Barrett

reputation, my business grew on its own. I was also left with some different views on what’s proper. If you really feel uncomfortable about me knowing that you have a vibrator, then look in the bedside table. As I said, they serve their purpose.”
    Blaze turned her head to look at him, her eyes wide with surprise. “After David passed away I found this pink plastic replica of a female vagina. You don’t have one, do you?”
    “Yes, I do. It’s pink flesh tone and made of the same gel, just in a different shape.”
    “Didn’t you say that you have a twin brother? Did you grow up together?”
    “Yes. We also have a sister. She lives in Dakota with her husband and their two children. My brother lives up in Massachusetts. He is the black sheep of the family and usually calls me when he wants money or help. I can’t turn him down. He’s my blood. I just wish he would get his life together. I haven’t heard from him in about six months, and he is due. Do you have any siblings?”
    “My brother, who, unlike me, remembers the abuse my mother shelled out on him. Maybe fifteen years ago, he caught her hitting his son. He sold his house and moved out. I e-mail him on occasion, but I’ve been sworn to secrecy. He said that if I ever tell my mother that I’ve spoken to him, it will be the last I hear from him. It puts me in an odd position, but I respect his request.”
    “You don’t remember anything?”
    “No, not really. I have one very clear memory that my mother adamantly denies ever happened. I don’t know what I did. My mother made me stand in the center of the living room, and she was walking around me in a circle screaming at me. I don’t know if she was hitting me or not, but I think she was. It’s a vague memory at best, and the only thing I know for sure is that by ten years old, I had the ability to shut out reality. I would go into my mind and lose touch with everything real. I suppose maybe you would call them blackouts in an adult. During my first driving lesson, the teacher was yelling, and I almost got us both killed. I simply zoned out to get away from his voice, and if he hadn’t had a set of controls on his side, we would have gone headlong into a tree. Somehow that knowledge makes me leery of finding out what did or didn’t happen. If something pushed me to a point of being able to slip away from my flesh, it must have been traumatic.”
    “That’s a scary thought. How could anyone be cruel to a child? I have never understood that. My mother was the best. She very rarely yelled at us for anything. I think that as my brother got older it really upset her. She was forever bailing him out of trouble. My sister and I tried to keep an eye on him, but it was not easy. Did you ever want children?”
    “That is a hard question to answer. David was always like a child. He liked expensive toys and his freedom. He worked, and we were reasonably well off, but I didn’t see a place in our lives where children would fit in. I wasn’t ready to take on a child by myself, and that is what would have happened. David would have resented the child for taking up all of my time. I didn’t want a child that badly. It’s something I’ve regretted as I got older. Now I’m too old to think about bringing a child into this world.”
    Zar wrapped his arms around her, sliding up close against her back. “I wish I could help, but obviously I can’t. I wanted kids so much. I suppose I could adopt one, but it would be unfair to the child. I travel too much, and it wouldn’t be a stable life. I suppose this is as good a time as any to mention this. I have to go to Upstate New York on Monday morning. I’ll be gone for a couple of days at least. There are some problems with a mall that my company is designing and building. No chance you could go with me, is there?”
    She leaned her head back, kissing him and then shaking her head. “I can’t. Nan is great, but it would be a lot to dump the dogs on her with no