...“What did you mean by inspiration upstairs?” he asked, stepping through the door after her. “Inspiration for what?”

She walked down the two stairs in front of the building and onto the path system that led around the resort, barely visible in the moonlight. “Sculpture commission. Inspiration for a new sculpture commission.”

“Sculpture commission? And you hoped to get inspired here by—the students? The change of scenery? The…”

“The sex. And those other things, too. The commission is for a pair of very sexually explicit pieces in bronze. I came here for research, ideas, to feel, to experience…” She paused, seeming to realize how lustful she sounded. “I’d like to do a ménage a trois and an orgy.”

I’d like to do you. Mentally shaking himself, he said, “Do you want to just watch? Or experience?”

Mia twisted her hands back and forth. The all-too-familiar gesture screamed “I don’t know…”

“It was easy to think, back home in New Jersey, when it was theoretical, that I wanted to experience all of that. My body says ‘yes,’ especially after all that inspiration. But my mind says—”

“…Are you nuts? Yes, I know the feeling.”

They approached a fork in the path, with one side going down toward the lake and the other to the main lodge, where their rooms were located. Where their time together would end. Unless…

“So,” Tyler said, his heart in his throat, “what if you tried experiencing some of those things with me? I could make it exciting…and safe.”

Mia folded her arms in front of her, a gesture which definitely did not say “I don’t know.”

“Tyler. If we went back to your room, or mine, what’s to stop the sex from being just the same as it’s been for the last decade. Let’s be honest here—since you’re finally talking to me,” she said, not without some bite, “sex between us has certainly been a lot more toward the safe than toward the exciting side the last few years. I’m not sure it would provide the kind of inspiration I’m looking for. And where would it lead? We’re separated. I’m honestly not sure what your agenda is here. We’re probably going to leave this resort, file for divorce, never see each other—”

“Who says we have to go back to each other’s rooms? How about”—he looked around, desperate for an idea—“if we walk down toward the lake, find some corner off in the bushes, and”—his dick hardened in anticipation—“become part of the wildlife. Hopefully no one will see us, but if they do, it could make things even more exciting.”

“Tyler. Tyler!” She started to wring her hands again, but this time he grabbed them, and tugged her toward the other path.

“I’m not asking for any promises. I don’t have any agenda right now. But you’re obviously aroused, and I want you so badly I can hardly walk. Don’t believe me?” He took her hand and placed it on his crotch. She started in surprise, but instead of pulling away, she cupped him firmly. Tyler had hoped she would, remembering how she never could resist the temptation when he walked by her half-dressed.

“It doesn’t have to lead to anything,” he continued, attempting to convince her, maybe even convince himself. “But you’re trying to work up the courage to experience the wildest sex of your life, so you’ll be overflowing with sexuality and can create art that will be the talk of the town.” He leaned close, playing to her growing excitement. “Let’s go find a place in the woods, under the stars, and let me screw your brains out.” Her fingers alternately tightened around and stroked his cock. Pleasure streaking through him, he reached up and grazed the side of her breast, through the robe. “Maybe even,” he whispered, “while you’re under a tree, and I’m thrusting my penis into you, you could tell me your deepest fantasies—and I could try to make them come true.”

Because he knew her face better than his own, he could tell, even in the moonlight, the exact moment when want to won over dare not.

“I hope I don’t hate myself in the morning.” She grabbed his hands and dragged them both down the path, away from the lodge.