lips, but I can’t force it out.
“I’m sorry for what it looked like. And I’m sorry for what I did that I still can’t tell you. You have to understand that Kylie orchestrated it all. She set up the hallways before finding you, closing all the doors so the two of you would go one predictable way while Jessica and I went another. She hit all your buttons, just like always. I was looking for Kylie, yes. I was with Jessica, yes. But I never even kissed her.”
“I don’t believe you,” I say. But now they’re just words, and it takes effort to say them.
“You have to. You have to believe it because I need to love you.”
“Love me, or fuck me?”
“First one, then the other.”
“Prove it,” I say.
In a second, he’s on top of me. His hands around the back of my head, under my hair. He’s kissing me like an assault. His mouth murders mine. Scent and sensation enter me like a violation. All sense departs, and for a second it’s like I’m something else, something primal. A stupid girl without a brain, here for a big brute to abuse. As it’s always been for me, forever.
When he pulls back, I slap him. Hard.
He kisses me again. Harder.
This time, I use more force. Daniel is so much stronger than me, I think it’s more surprise than strength that knocks him back.
“Tell me you don’t believe me,” he says.
“I don’t believe you.”
“Don’t bullshit me, Bridget. I know what you feel, and you’re lying to me. You’re trying to be tough, just like you used to be.”
“I’m still tough,” I say.
“Then tell me no. Tell me you don’t want this.”
“ This ?”
Daniel’s hands go to his pants. He unbuckles the belt and unfastens the latch. Jesus Christ, he wants to fuck me right here.
And holy shit, I want him to.
“You tricked me. You’ve been messing with my head the whole time.”
“I can’t make you want something you don’t actually want. Nobody can do that. I’m sorry for the day in the garden. But it was what you wanted, Bridget, unfiltered. Just like you want me now.”
“You cheated.”
“I never cheated.”
I know there’s a hole in his argument, but I can’t articulate it. I can’t stop watching his deadly serious face. His hard body. The bulge as he unzips, as his huge dick strains against cotton as if trying to reach me. I feel lightheaded, like I’ve had one too many drinks. Are they doing something to me? Or is it only Daniel?
They . The word clangs in me like a bell.
“Caspian,” I say.
“He’s not invited.”
“He might be able to see us.”
Shit . What I just said amounted to tacit agreement. I see Daniel respond, his cock throbbing.
“Then he’ll see us.”
“I’ll fail. I’ll fail his test.”
He shakes his head with strange certainty, as if he knows something I don’t.
“You can’t fail.”
“How can you be sure?”
“What do you think he wants from you?”
“I don’t know!”
But my hand has gone to my lap. I’m rubbing myself subtly through my dress. My nipples press outward, stiff like erasers. I want Daniel’s dick in my mouth. I want to spread my legs for him. I want him to hurt me again, if that’s what it takes.
But in my mind, I hear Jessica’s voice. Jessica, for whom I have a conflicted new level of context.
Be you.
It’s as if Daniel heard my thoughts: “You’ve managed to get this far by being yourself. So what do you want, Bridget Miller?”
I look at the canvas around us. We’re in the middle of some sort of test. There might be cameras. There probably are . Caspian will probably record this and add it to his spank bank. The guys have already told me Caspian likes me — that I’m faux-innocent enough to fit his fetishes; that I remind him of someone else. But Daniel’s here now. Daniel, who I shouldn’t trust or believe. Daniel, who I want to trust and believe anyway, even if I’m only
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