“Come back here, you fucking cowards!” I shout at the disappearing taillights. “I’ll find you, whoever you are, and you’re about to see who gets the last laugh!”
The red lights disappear around the corner, fading into the dark.
22
SOLANA
You’d think findinga severed head on his doorstep would traumatize me so much it’d keep me from staying over at Silver’s.
Instead, it has the exact opposite effect.
As crazy as it sounds, Silver’s house feels like the safest place on planet earth for me right now. When I’m with him, my mind quiets. My heart settles. The anxiety that usually claws at my chest loosens its sharp nails, and I can actually breathe.
I trust him implicitly—with my secrets and fears and my body.
With everything.
I can’t bring myself to sleep in my old bedroom anymore. Every time I’m there, I think about Kel. I’m forced to remember how he invaded even my most private space. He showed up that night with rage in his eyes and hands ready to hurt me again. The walls feel like they’re closing in. The shadows feel like they’re watching. I lay in that bed and stare at the ceiling and all I can see is his face, twisted with anger, coming for me.
So I make staying over at Silver’s a nightly habit.
It’s not as though Uncle Eddie or Moses notice a thing. On the few nights one of them is actually home, I lie and say I’m spending the night at a friend’s place.
…which istechnicallytrue.
Silverisa friend—and so much more.
He’s become a confidant. A protector. He’s become my lover.
We’ve explored together in ways I never imagined, and he’s awakened a desire in me I never anticipated.
Before Silver, I thought sex was an act you did with a guy when you wanted him to like you. After what Kel did to me, I worried I’d never be able to be with a guy and not be reminded of what happened that Saturday night.
But Silver has rewritten everything I thought I knew about intimacy and pleasure, showing me what it’s like to be truly wanted.
Tonight is no different.
We’re tangled up in his sheets, only a single table lamp lighting up the room as we fool around.
Silver kisses his way down my body like he has all the time in the world. His lips trace a path from my throat to my collarbone to the valley between my breasts, and by the time he reaches my stomach, I’m already trembling with anticipation.
“Silver...” His name comes out breathlessly.
He looks up at me, his blue eyes tinged with lust, then smiles like the tormentor he is.
“Patience, baby.”
His head is between my thighs in the next second, his mouth on my pussy.
His tongue traces my folds, teasing and tasting me. I gasp at the warm, wet sensations he inflicts on me. He’s learned exactly what I like—the pressure, the rhythm, the way a flick of his tongue against my clit makes my hips jerk off the mattress.
He slides a finger inside me, then two, curling them at an angle that stimulates yet another pleasure spot.
I squirm against his mouth, barely able to resist humping his entire face. My fingers wind up in his hair as my pleasure reaches a breaking point, and I can’t take it another second.
He sucks harder on my sensitive bud, his fingers stroking inside me, dragging me over the edge.
“Oh fuck… oh god—” I cry out as I come. My whole body writhes like I’ve been electroshocked.
