“What’re you doing here?” I bark, startled into rudeness.
But really. What the fuckisshe doing here? I drove her away. I made her kneel and gave her a taste of the worst I have to offer. A thread of hope unwinds off the spool and I’m almost scared to tug it in case it snaps.
“Oh, sorry. I…” She shakes her head. “I came to… thank you?”
The raised inflection at the end of her sentence fills me with warmth. Like some force brought her here, and she’s helpless to explain it, so is fumbling for any reason that could make sense.
I don’t care. I’m on board with whatever reasons she has to tell herself. I showed her the bogeyman I keep inside, told her to run, and instead she headed straight back to me.
My pocket of joy found her way back to me.
I check the corridor’s empty, then lean against thedoorframe, one arm raised to press against the top of the jamb, the other hanging loose by my side. A goofy smile hits and I twist my mouth, hiding it. “What are you thanking me for? Unlocking a new kink?”
She rubs the back of her neck and glances back the way she came as though already wishing she was walking away. “I never thanked you for paying what we owed and I… It all came as a shock, that I didn’t really stop to think about it from your side—”
George breaks off, rubbing at her eyebrow, her gaze flicking up to meet mine, then darting to the comparative safety of the floor.
“Try breathing,” I say with a chuckle. Communication doesn’t appear to be her strong suit. “Then just say what you want to say.”
George nods and takes a visible breath. “Thank you for paying his debt. It was incredibly generous and something we had no ability to do for ourselves.” She lets out a long exhalation when she comes to a halt, wringing her hands.
I don’t give a shit why she’s standing on my doorstep or what she has to say.
She came back to me.
I grab the front of her blouse and haul her inside, slamming the door shut and flicking the lock so she can’t leave too easily. I spin her around, walking her to the single bed that takes up half my room, it’s that small.
Her expression turns from faintly to strongly alarmed, especially when the backs of her knees hit the bed and momentum forces her to sit.
“Lie down,” I tell her, expecting compliance. This is why she’s come here. It must be, wanting me to make her body sing again.
“Oh, no. I really…” She cups her elbows. “I only have a few minutes, then my bus will—”
“I’ll drive you home.”
“That’s very k-kind. Very. But I…”
She tries to get to her feet, and I push her back, a bit more firmly this time. “Or you can drive us. Don’t you want another spin in my car?”
George stops fighting for the moment as her face lights up, apparently taken with that idea. “Could I? Could we go for a drive right now?”
“No. Right now, we’re fucking. Later, you can drive me anywhere you feel like it.”
“But… You have a girlfriend.” George twists and somehow gets away from me, leaping to her feet and backing until her butt hits the door. “And I—”
“And you?” I interrupt when she falters. “What do you have, George?” The memory of the boy touching her back hits me like a lightning bolt. “Surely you haven’t shacked up with someone new in the past ten days?”
“Just… um… like on a friendly basis but I’m going to the dance with someone, and I guess that makes us…”
I smother the burst of jealous heat under a show of nonchalance: undoing my jeans, slipping out of them and my underwear in one practised motion, dragging my shirt over my head.
“Sounds like a really solid relationship you’ve got there,” I growl. “Does your someone have a name?”
“Hm.” She makes a strange humming sound as I advance on her, naked, and I slip my thumb against her windpipe to catch the last of the vibration, sending it into my muscle memory. “It’s Keanen.”
Keanen.My lips curl as I burn the name into my brain. “Never heard of her.”
“It’s a him.”
