“I meanit.”
“I know you do.” I reach forward and pause the video. I turn a bit and face him. “You want to jerk off to this or do you want to fuck me? I can feel you getting hard backthere.”
“I want to finish watching this and then I want to fuck you,” he says in his straightforwardway.
“Okay.” I turn back around and hit play again. When I settle back, Silas holds me tighter. As the video goes on and as things get more intense between us, I feel his lips start grazing my neck. I usually don’t allow this. I usually don’t let men get this handsy, but I can’t deny how much I enjoy being in his arms. And I can’t think about the moment when I know I’m going to have to give thisup.
I watch him fuck me on my computer screen. I close my eyes every so often, just for a moment, and take in the way his erection feels against my back, the way his lips feel against my skin, the way our fingers feel intertwined. When the video ends, I hear and feel Silas let out a deepbreath.
I reach over him and grab a condom off the nightstand. I hand it to him, then I get off the bed and take off all of my clothes. “I can’t unwrap my hair, but is this better,” Itease.
He tilts his head to the side. “The whole thing could be improved by some nipple tassels, but I’ll takeit.”
“Shut up,” I say as I climb on the bed. I roll onto my back and let my thighs fall open. “Comehere.”
He leans down and kisses me as he slides his cock intoplace.
* * *
There’sa vague memory of Silas saying something about coffee and lunch. I think he kisses me, but that might have been a part of the dream I’m having where we’re having sex against a wall in a haunted house. We’re hiding from Scott and their mother, who was just trying to feed us butter cookies she’d made with a recipe she’d gotten fromMartha Stewart’s Cooking School, but I was convinced they were poisoned. I keep trying to tell Silas that his mom is going to kill us both, but he keeps finding dark corners for us to fool aroundin.
He’s trying to slip his hand under my skirt, but he can’t find the bottom of the fabric. And then my phone starts ringing. It appears in my hand and I try to answer the call, but I can’t get the screen to respond to my fingers. I keep pressing and swiping. I’m getting frustrated, then the ringing stops. Doesn’t stop me from jabbing at the screen. It starts ringing again. I look up and try to tell Silas that my phone won’t work. He’s gone though and Brooklyn is standing there leaning against the other wall talking to this boy who lived in our building when we were in elementary school. My phone keepsringing.
My eyes open too fast, in a way that makes my heart feel like it’s going to snap. I stumble out of bed and grab my phone off the dresser. My office number is flashing across thescreen.
“Hello,” I say. I don’t even try to sound like I wasn’t justsleeping.
“Hi, Miss Lewis. It’s Caroline. Mr. Murrell wanted me to find out if you’ll be intoday.”
“Is he in the office yet?” I ask. I turn back to the bed and find Honeycrisp and Morty looking at me from thefloor.
“No. There’s a call with Mr. Fullerton at ten a.m. and he wanted to make sure you’d be onit.”
“Do me a favor? I’ll send something nice and official, but if you see Mr. Murrell before I get to speak with him, please tell him I’ll be working outside of the office for the rest of the week. I’ll be back in nextMonday.”
She hesitates a moment before she answers. “Sure, I will absolutely let him know, but you’ll be on the ten a.m.call?”
I close my eyes and try not to cuss the poor girl out. “Yes.”
“Okay, thank you. I will let himknow.”
I end the call, then give myself a few moments to try to get my brain back together, but the universe isn’t having it. My phone rings again. It’s Scott. My stomach lurches as I stare at his name, but I know I have to answer. I have to tell him. Maybe it’s better that Silas isn’t here. Scott can be pissed at me for a while and maybe when he cools off, he and Silas can talk. Maybe. Probably not. Still, I have to tell him what’s happening between me and his brother. I slide toanswer.
“Hey!” I say. “I’ve been wanting to talk toyou.”
“Yeah, hey.” He sounds pissed. “I have some bad news.” A horn blares. “Fuck—sorry I’m on my way into theoffice.”
“It’s okay. What’s the badnews?”
“I just got off the phone withTillery—”
“He didn’t findanything.”
“Yeah, that would be great. No, it’s a little worse than that. He found Kelsey. She’s definitely alive, but Dorrit sent someone to scare the shit out of her right after you guys lost. That’s why she quit. She’s back living in Vermont with her mom. Dorrit definitely got toher.”
“Okay. Okay,” I say, trying to take that information in. It’s too much to process at once. “So they threatened her, wait eight some odd months and then send someone to killme.”
“Tillery didn’t say for sure, but think I know why. Thefines.”