She looked at him for a long moment. Then, slowly, deliberately, she leaned in and kissed him. It was not a sweet kiss. It was deep, searching, her tongue tracing the inside of his teeth, her teeth grazing his lower lip hard enough to draw a bead of blood. It was a kiss that said: You think you own me. But you don’t even know me.

She turned. Her eyes were wide, curious, not yet wary. “Most people just say ‘pretty colors.’” sugar baby lips

“Someone who is very tired of being a collection,” she whispered. She looked at him for a long moment

“Because,” he said, touching her jaw, turning her face toward the light, “your lips are the most beautiful lie I’ve ever seen.” It was deep, searching, her tongue tracing the

“I’m not most people.”

“No,” she said. “They’ll be the life of me.”

He took her to dinner. Then to Paris for a long weekend. Then he paid off her mother’s debt in a single wire transfer. He didn’t call it a transaction. He called it “relieving her stress.” She called it “too generous.” He called it “the price of seeing you smile.”