“Maybe I’ll let you do that one day. In the meantime, I still need my job.” Sabrina tried not to think of the predicament she was in. She wanted her career to flourish, but she didn’t want to do it at the expense of her integrity. Giving in to Hannigan would mean plum assignments to interesting cases, but nothing disgusted her more than the thought of Hannigan touching her. She’d rather have leeches put on her skin.

“And I need mine. We’re in the same boat.” Holly’s voice sounded resigned.

Sabrina gave her a long look. What her friend was suggesting was too much of a stretch for her. “I can’t. I can’t just sleep with some guy I don’t know.”

Holly took her hand. “When did you last have sex?”

“You mean sex other than with a battery operated device made in China?”

“Yes, sex with a man.”

“You know that as well as I do, so what’s that got to do with anything?”

“When?” Even though Holly’s voice was still weak, she wouldn’t give up.

“First year of law school. As if you didn’t know the story—hell, everybody watching YouTube sure had a good look at my ass.” Sabrina shuddered at the memory of it. Without her knowledge, Brian had videotaped them having sex and then posted it on YouTube for everybody to see.

“That was quite unfortunate, I admit. However, you shouldn’t let one bad experience like that hold you back. You need to let loose, pretend to be somebody else and just let yourself go. You can’t wallow in those bad memories and be afraid of what the next guy is going to do. You’ve got to take charge of your life. If you assert yourself in your sex life, you’ll get what you want. So, don’t sit around like a wallflower. You’re pretty, you’re charming, you’re smart. You could be anything. And you could get any guy you wanted.”

Sabrina looked at her friend as if she’d lost her mind. She couldn’t do what Holly suggested. “I could never pull it off.” She could come up with a hundred reasons why she couldn’t do it. “I’m not like you, Holly. I don’t jump into bed with guys on the first date. Hell, I barely kiss on the first date. I’m so not a candidate for this.”

“Bull! You took drama in college. Don’t tell me you can’t playact a little. Just pretend you’re me. In fact, that’s what you’ll have to do anyway, so the whole thing doesn’t blow up in your face, or in mine. You just go there and tell him you’re Holly Foster, and then you’ll behave like Holly Foster. Just pretend you’re going on a blind date.”

Strangely, the more Holly marketed the idea, the less unreasonable it sounded.

“A blind date? He’ll buy me dinner, and then he’ll expect to have sex with me. Like that?” Sabrina tried it on for size. It sounded strange in her ears. “Ridiculous. I’m not the type for this. You’ve known me all my life. What in my history makes you think I could even pull this off? The guy will see straight through me.”

“Don’t be so paranoid. All he’ll see is your pretty face, and nothing else will matter. It’ll be like a date, only that he paid for it in advance. And you know exactly what’s coming. In fact, you’ll be in charge. Most guys let me take the lead. They want to be seduced. It’ll give you some practice. I tell you, you sure need it.”

That jab hurt. She’d put herself on the shelf after the disaster with her fellow student Brian, who’d obviously just wanted to see if he could get her into bed so he could post a sex video on the internet. The humiliation was something she never wanted to feel again.

She’d buried herself in her studies after that and rarely taken part in the school’s social activities to avoid seeing him more than she had to.

“You need to get over it. What better way to do it, knowing exactly what you’re up against? It’s a one-night thing. He’s from out of town. You’ll never see him again. This is your chance to do something crazy, have fun, have fabulous sex, enjoy yourself, let loose.”

Holly gingerly bit into a cracker as she glanced at Sabrina.

Sabrina was torn. She wanted to help her best friend out of a jam. Holly had helped her out so many times over the last few years, and she really owed her. But this? How could she agree to pretend to be an escort and go to a strange man’s hotel room to have sex with him?

If her parents ever found out, they’d be appalled and sink into the ground out of shame for their daughter. Yet, one thing Holly had said, stuck. She had wallowed in her bad memories and hadn’t let anybody close because of it. She was afraid of getting hurt again and had passed up sex because of it.