He's working his way through school at the Premier Escort Agency. Jared Ramirez was born in the slums of a mining planet but he found his way to the planet Haivran, the intellectual center of the Four Species Alliance, where the major universities, institutes, research facilities serving all Alliance citizens are located. Agencies are legal, licensed and regulated, and an attractive young man with a flair for pleasing a female clientele is in high demand. And Jared has an advantage; he can read minds, and sometimes influence man of the people around him. It's only a little talent, and he never talks about it, but it can be useful. Right now he is studying for his Spring Quarter finals, and he expects a quiet night with a one-time client. Madeline, newly divorced, is going to live with her mother and prepare for a career in financial planning, and she wants a night of excitement and passion before she goes. She sounds like a sensible, stable young woman. Jared doesn't know her career plans were made for her by her mother. Madeline herself is a person who never fails to act on an impulse, and never pauses to think of consequences. Jared is in for a great deal of excitement before they ever get around to the passion. This is a novella, one of several prequels to The Misborn, to be released in the near future. The story, about 30,000 words, is suggestive rather than explicit.