“I’m going to mark you here and make this ass mine. I’ll come so hard that you’ll be dripping for days.”

She shudders beneath me, and I drop my face into her hair, inhaling jasmine as I draw my hips back and thrust again.

“You’ve had me in your mouth, your pussy, and your ass. I never knew you’d turn out to be such a little slut.”

“I’m not,” she says through gritted teeth.

“I’d advise against backtalk when I’m in this position. You are my little slut, Cataline. Say it.”

“Oh, God,” she cries as I pulse harder into her. “I’m a little slut.”

I nip the shell of her ear just enough to make it painful. “Wrong.”

“I’m your little slut.”

I give her a hard thrust, and her knuckles whiten. My hand covers hers, dislodging it from the step. I reach both of them down between her legs and guide our index fingers inside her. “I want to make you feel good. Do you feel good?”

“Calvin,” she moans.

I remove our hands to force her mouth open with our fingers. “Do you taste good?”

She glances over her shoulder at me. I bend my head to lick the corner of her mouth. My tongue runs over hers and then our knuckles.

“You do,” I say. “You taste so good, I could eat you and nothing else for the rest of my life. Would you like that, Sparrow?”

“Yes.”

I let go of her hand and put mine back between her legs. “Just relax. Feel it.”

She exhales a breath as I put two fingers on her clit. I start with small circles while keeping the rhythm of my thrusting hips gentle. Just underneath my chest, her body shudders, and I slip a finger down the length of her opening, coating myself with her slickness. I move back up and circle faster. My other arm burns from propping myself up, but I welcome the pain. It’s a reminder that if I let go, I’ll crush her. It’s too tempting to jam myself all the way up her ass and let her have it.

Her heavy breathing morphs into mewling as I keep a steady rhythm with my fingers. “I love you this way,” I whisper against the back of her neck. “Your body stretched out to accommodate all of my cock, bending your determination not to enjoy it. I’m going to break that, Cataline. Break you.”

“Break me, Calvin,” she whispers.

“Look at me when you say that.”

She hesitates a moment before twisting to meet my eyes. “Break me.”

Her ass rears, and I have to bite back the urge to pump her full of cum. She’s close, so I shove three fingers in her pussy and keep my thumb over her clit. Her nails claw the step, and she writhes as she begins to crack. With a loud cry, her whole body seems to contract around me.

When she finishes, I replace my other hand on the step in front of us and fuck her. I can’t tell if her sounds are from pleasure or pain, but I don’t stop. Her puckered asshole grips me everywhere, the little ridges scraping against my shaft, turning me delirious.

“God, fuck!” I thrust balls deep and come there, groaning with my mouth in her hair, pulling at it with my teeth. I remain propped up as I catch my breath, my hips slowing as her tightness milks the last few drops from me.

I withdraw from her as slowly as I can and stand. She doesn’t move while I pull up my pants. “Don’t dare me to chase you if you don’t want to get caught.”

I wait as she gingerly pushes up and gets to her feet. Her stomach and arms have red indents from the edges of the stairs, and she winces as she buttons herself into her jeans.

“I-I think I should use the bathroom.”

“You have a lot of cum in your ass.”

“Jesus,” she says, hiding her face in her hands. “Do you have to be so crude? And is that safe?”

I can’t keep the grin from my face. “You’ll be fine.”

She makes her awkward way up the steps until she reaches the landing of the third floor. I grab her arm as she turns for her room.

“Come up with me,” I say.

“To the fourth floor?”

“To my bedroom.”

She looks up the stairs and bites her thumbnail. When I ascend, she follows. Her glances around my bedroom are furtive. “Take your time,” I tell her, pointing to the bathroom. I occupy myself until she’s finished by readying the bed and locating a bottle of lotion. When she emerges, she comes to a stop in the middle of the room.

“Strip,” I order.

Her teeth chew at her bottom lip, and her eyes go wide and watery. She looks at the bed and then back at me, shaking her head and wiping her cheeks with the palms of her hands. “Again?”

“It’s not what you think,” I say with a frustrated sigh. “Just strip.”

I undress all the way with her and kick my clothing aside. Her panties are the last thing to go, and she tosses them into the pile. She waits, wringing her hands, for my command. Silent tears track over her cheekbones and down to the corners of her lips. Naked, crying, and striped red from the stairs, I realize just how much power she has over me. She’s still the little girl from years ago who needs me, but she’s also an erotic, extremely fuckable woman.

“Why are you crying?” I ask.

“I’m not.”

I laugh, and her lower lip trembles harder. With a sigh, I walk to close the space between us. I put my arms around her but she remains unmoving, breathing in stuttering gasps against my chest.

“I know that hurt,” I say.

“Yes, but . . .” She wipes her nose and looks up at me. After a moment, she just shakes her head. “Never mind.”

I pull her closer. “It’s okay to like it, Cataline.” I rub her back and squeeze her shoulder. “Go lie face down on the bed.”

She looks defeated as she gets into position. “I can’t stop thinking about that woman.”

“Which woman?”

“The one you had in here that night. And Lyla and the prostitutes.”

I grunt and get on the bed to straddle her. “They’re worthless sluts. Don’t waste a thought on them.”

She sighs with her eyes closed as I spread lotion over her upper back. “Like me,” she says. “I like what you do to me. I’m a slut.”

I press my thumbs between her shoulder blades and run them down her back. “You’re not them,” I tell her, but I don’t think she hears. I clear hair from her back and massage her shoulders.

When she’s fallen asleep, I put her under the covers. I climb in, and she slides up next to me, pressing the length of her body against mine.

“Calvin,” she says, running her hand over my bicep.

“I’m here.”

“What happened to your parents?”

A personal question is the last thing I expect after the way I just stripped her bare. My hope that she’s dreaming aloud fades when her eyes open. Tentatively, she moves her cheek onto my shoulder. When I don’t stop her, she places her head on my chest.

“They’re dead,” I say.

“I know. Norman told me. But he didn’t say how.”

I sigh deeply and look out the window across the room. I decide it’s time to have a talk with Norman, seeing as how she has him wound around her little finger. “My dad was a chemist. They were killed in a lab explosion.”

“Oh. Your mom too?”

“She was a doctor, but they were together.”

“How old were you?”

I glance down at the top of her head. “Young.”

She’s quiet for a minute, and her fingers mindlessly trace circles in my chest hair. “I was young too.”

I swallow but don’t respond. I know exactly how old she was. Every single detail about that day is burned into my tired memory.

“I meant what I said earlier,” she says. “I have no one. I haven’t for so long. Nobody to love me, and nobody to love.”

The words are on the tip of my tongue. You had me. I was there. It’s only the beginning of the truth.

“Calvin?” she whispers.

I run my hand over her smooth, damp cheek in hopes of lulling her to sleep.

36

Cataline

Calvin’s hand stopped its caress hours ago and was replaced with the equally reassuring rise and fall of his chest. I’ve grown accustomed to not sleeping, but tonight it seems impossible. It’s the first time I’ve ever admitted to being unloved, even to myself. I didn’t do it for his pity, but if the situation were reversed, I’d ask him questions about his past until the sun came up.