“Speaking of affordable,” Kelly says with a conspiratorial grin as she leans forward. Lexi and Moira do the same, almost as if Kelly is going to let them in on some big secret. I do the same, so I don’t miss something important she may say. “I found the cutest pair of red pumps on sale at Nordstrom’s last weekend, and they’ll go fabulous with that black-and-white sundress I bought for that wedding I’m going to.”

Lexi squeals and claps her hands. “Seriously, I can’t wait to see them together.”

Moira nods her head and says, “I told you red was the color to go with.”

I look around in confusion and ask, “What’s a pump?”

All three women look at me with blank faces for just a moment, and then start laughing. Moira reaches over and pats my knee with her hand. Her touch is warm and her smile is bright. “Welcome to a girls’ night out, Zach. Where we talk about stupid stuff like shoes—which is what a “pump” is—and fashion.”

“And hot men,” Lexi adds in.

“And sex,” Kelly says. “We talk about sex a lot.”

“No, we don’t,” Moira says hurriedly, but I’m already leaning in closer across the table toward Kelly.

“Let’s talk about sex,” I tell her. “Moira’s been teaching me some things.”

“I have not been teaching him some things,” Moira practically screeches in denial.

“Yes, you have,” I talk right over her. Giving her a pointed glance, I turn back to look across the table to the women. “Moira has observed the sexual customs firsthand in our village, and she’s been a very patient teacher when it comes to the differences in our cultures.”

“Oh, do tell,” Lexi says.

“Seriously—” Moira starts to say.

“Well,” I drawl out, hoping Moira is terrified I’m about to spill our dirty little secret about what we did this afternoon. But I don’t intend to discuss that, because that was a private moment between Moira and me. While public displays of sexual domination are the way of things where I’m from, I know just from the lack of people screwing out in their front yards that it’s not acceptable here. “In my tribe, the man is the sexual dominant. The woman is there to pleasure him, as a reward for providing for their safety and welfare.”

“What does that mean?” Kelly asks. “Sexual dominant?”

“It means when I want a woman, I take her right there. No questions. No denials. She gets down on her hands and knees for me, and I pin her to the ground while I take her.”

Lexi sucks in a deep breath, and Kelly sighs. “Oh, my God, that sounds hot.”

Moira just groans beside me and covers her face with her hands. I can’t help but laugh, and then I decide to let her off the hook.

“But Moira has been patiently educating me on the differences here. Even though I have a million questions, she does a very good job of putting it in terms I can understand. She’s even bought me a few interesting textbooks that have been somewhat informative.”

Moira looks at me with a grateful look on her face, and I wink at her.

“Wait a minute,” Lexi says. “I want to get back to this concept of sexual dominant, because I dated a guy once that—”

“Okay, that’s enough sex talk,” Moira interrupts as she stands from the table. “Come on, Zach. I’m going to teach you how to play pool.”

Chapter 8

Moira

For never having played pool before, Zach is actually quite good. That means he has a keen eye for angles and distances, a concept he told me he practiced every day with this bow and arrow. After a few moments, whereby I had to lean over the pool table next to him and show him how to hold the pool stick, he was off and running.

One thing I have learned is that Zach is exceptionally smart. One day at my house, I spent a few hours asking him about his basic educational skills, and he told me that Father Gaul had taught him a few things over the years. He would bring Zach some used textbooks written in English to learn from and some works of fiction for him to read and discuss. When I pulled money out of my purse to show Zach our currency, he easily learned the denominations and had no problems with adding and subtracting, and he even understood basic multiplication and division.

Zach told me he enjoyed reading and devoured the books that Father Gaul had brought him. Father Gaul only brought him books in English to help him keep his native language alive, insisting that Zach would never know when he might need to fall on the use of that skill. I smiled when Zach told me his favorite book was Call of the Wild, and I thought to myself, Of course, that would be his favorite.

Zach and I are playing against Kelly and Lexi. Although they won the first three games, the more they drink, the better Zach and I are doing. I can honestly say it’s not a chore to watch Zach play. He looks beyond handsome tonight with his long, dark hair falling forward sexily and his jeans tight across his ass when he bends over the table.

“Seriously, Moira… I cannot believe you are not tapping that,” Lexi says as she bumps my shoulder and whispers in my ear. “You didn’t tell us how freakin’ gorgeous Zach is.”

“He’s not a play toy,” I grumble at her, even as I keep my eyes on Zach as he walks around the table to line up his next shot. “Besides… that would be totally inappropriate.”

“Who made up that stupid rule?” Lexi asks. “Is it written in your contract that you can’t have sex with him?”