Page 370 of Call Me Baby 2: Side B

“Is that it?

“You think this man cares about you?”

Yes, my heart screams for me.

“You’ll go nowhere near him,” I bite out to control the shake in my voice. “Not ever again.”

His brows shoot up, pulling the strings at the corners of his mouth.

“Wow. That's a first.

“Defending a fuckin' Boy.”

“I mean it.”

“I know you do, baby.” Another chuckle slips out under his tongue, and he chokes it by draining the rest of his drink. “That’s what makes it sad.”

“What’s sad is you’re a fraud, Raymond. Always have been. Putting on a suit you could’ve never afforded, stepping into a label you never built, sitting in a chair that was never yours, spending money you never earned. Could never make a name for yourself, so you had to crawl into someone else’s, huh?”

But Raymond keeps chuckling here, chuckling there. “Jesus. Is the only way to shut you up to eat you out?”

My blood turns into barbed wire, dragging me back through every second of that moment.

I go to speak,

but my throat feels thick and swollen.

I swallow.

“That’s never happening again either.”

I shake my head.

“You’ll never touch me again.”

Raymond winks. “‘Til next time, right?”

“No,” I whisper, then louder,

“There won’t be a next time.”

“Sure there will,” he raises his glass. “When your Boys don’t give it to you good enough. When you get bored. When you’re tryin’ to resist for as long as you can to make it more intense, and you need a fuckin’ man…”

He steps closer, and I feel his fingers trail the inside of my thighs. “That’s how my mouth ended up right here last week,” he spits, and I jump back, his hand falling to his side. “Because you’re an addict, Allison. And addicts always reach for more.”

His looks over my shoulder,

and he lifts his chin

with a snap of his fingers.

“Bartender, tell me I’m wrong.”

I freeze.

Horror slams into me.

Then I can’t breathe.