Corrupt(15)

And I whipped around, just seeing him slip through the door and close it behind him.

Little Monster. Why had he called me that? I hadn’t heard that name in three years.

Not since that night.





Present



DON’T BE ALONE WITH HER.

My one rule. The one thing I’d kept to myself and promised to heed, and now I’d broken it.

I breathed hard, my arms folded across my chest as I glared ahead at the rising numbers on the elevator wall. No one else knew her.

Not the way I did. I knew better. I knew how good she was.

Erika Fane played her parts well. The dutiful, self-sacrificing daughter for her mother, the pleasant, agreeable girlfriend for my brother, and a shining student and beauty in our seaside community growing up. Everyone loved her.

She thought she was nothing to me, insignificant and invisible. She wanted me to open my eyes and see her again so f*cking badly, but she didn’t realize that I already did. I knew the deceiving cunt that stewed underneath that perfect little sheen of hers, and I couldn’t forget.

Why the f*ck did I take her to her apartment? Why did I have to make sure she was safe? Being near her made me falter. It made me forget.

She’d burst through the stairwell doors, frightened and flushed, looking small and fragile, and instinct immediately kicked in.

Yeah, she played her parts well.

Don’t be alone with her. Don’t ever be alone with her.

The elevator doors opened, and I stepped directly into my foyer, rounding the corner into my darkened living room, but then I slowed, noticing the girl I had sent up and nearly forgotten about. She sat in the middle of the floor, straddling a wooden chair.

Completely naked.

I held back a smile, surprised at her ingenuity. Most women waited for direction.

I narrowed my eyes, approaching the chair as her lips quirked in a small smile. Her forearms rested on the top of the chair-back, while her legs were spread wide and her high-heeled feet were planted on the floor on either side of the chair.

Stopping a foot in front of her, I let my eyes fall to her exposed body: supple, open, and ready for me. Her breasts were perfect and round, and I gazed down at her tan stomach, letting my eyes drop to her bare * and wondering if she was already wet.

I reached up, running the back of my hand over her cheek, and she leaned into it, eyeing me playfully as her long, silky hair draped over her breasts. And then she darted out, catching my thumb between her teeth and biting it gently.

I stared down at her, waiting to see what she would do next. Suck on it? Lick it? Maybe bite it harder? I liked it when I got as good as I gave. When a woman showed the fire in her instead of sitting idle.

But then she just let it go, offering me a shy look and leaving the ball in my court. It was my job to attack and hers to be the willing piece of meat, I guess. God, I was so f*cking bored.

I tipped her chin up, ordering in a gentle voice, “Stay here.”

I needed a breather to get in the mood for what I no longer wanted.

I walked past her, up the stairs, slipping off my jacket as I climbed. Entering my bedroom, a large space with a king size bed and plenty of room to relax, I walked for the shower, which sat between the bedroom and the master bathroom. It was out in the open and completely visible from the bed. Sometimes it came in handy when I had a girl or two over and wanted to watch them play.

I stripped out of my clothes, tossing them on the ground and stepping into the shower, in no hurry to return downstairs.

The rainfall overhead poured down, immediately drenching my hair and spilling its heat over my shoulders and back. I wished I could say it was all the hours logged in at the gym, the personal trainer making sure I was ready for the season, or the constant practices we’d been attending since they increased our workout schedule, that caused the tension in my head and body, but I knew that wasn’t it. I was twenty-three, in the best shape of my life, and contending with demands I’d lived with for nearly my entire life.

It wasn’t basketball. It was her.

After three long years, she was here, they were here, and I could hardly think of anything else.

I wondered if she’d still want me when all was said and done. After all the years of watching me, probably wishing I’d touch her, wouldn’t it be f*cking ironic when I finally did take her in my hands and pressed my body into hers, that she despised me?

Yeah, you’re going to be in my bed, baby, but not until you wish you hated me.

I let out a breath, bowing my head and closing my eyes.

Jesus. I wrapped my hand around my cock, feeling it throb and pulse as it grew thick and hard at the thought of her.

I ran my thumb over the fat tip, wiping away the cum that was only a small measure of what was begging to get out.

Goddamn.

All it took was the thought of her, and how I’d almost given myself away in the elevator with her earlier.

She’d been amusing. The way she tried so hard to not look like she was losing her f*cking mind with me around. How her shallow breathing made her tits rise and fall, and how those nipples poked through that tight, little tank top of hers, making me want to take one between my teeth and teach her how to scream my name so well she’d say it in her sleep.

That golden skin, tan from her summer in Thunder Bay, looked like a feast, and that hair, blonde and straight and brushing across her face and neck as it spilled down her back. It looked so soft, I couldn’t resist touching the bright strands.