A ragged curse escapes me at the sight of my cock. The red streaks on it, knowing it’s from her hymen, and I’m hard all over again.
“What?” She turns around, then gasps. “Fuck me. Fuck. I’m so sorry.”
“Sorry? For what?” I look up to find her staring at my length. With two fingers under her chin, I tip her head up. Her round eyes lock on mine. “For giving me this beautiful gift? One I never want to wash off?”
“You need to, though.” She sounds so timid after her orgasms. “I can help.”
Help.
That obscene offer, the thought of her licking my dick, does things to me. Bad ones.
“Not out here on the street.” But goddammit, do I crave it. “When we go back to your apartment, and right before we turn in, you can help me clean it up.”
Guess I’m not going back to Harold after all.
I was supposed to. I was supposed to drag Lilith down into the alley, kiss her hard, maybe finger her into an orgasm, and then walk her home.
But then she cupped me over my jeans, and there was no way I was letting her go.
So, no, I’m not going home tonight.
“Um…” She worries her bottom lip while I zip up my jeans.
“It wasn’t a suggestion, you know.” I curl my fingers around the side of her neck once I’ve shouldered my backpack. Lilith’s first time won’t end with me walking herto her door and sayingit was great, talk soon. “We’re going to spend the night together.”
“Wish I could, but…” She sucks in a deep breath. “My room is a mess.”
“Don’t lie to me,” I growl, my brow furrowing.
“I’m not lying.” She gives me a smile that’s too sweet for the things I’ve just done to her. “I’m not brushing you off either. I want this, us. Very much. Just…can I have tonight to myself? Is that okay?”
As someone who cares deeply about her consent, it takes me too long to say, “Yes.”
“You trust me?”
“I do.” My thumb paints circles over her smooth cheek. I curl my other arm around her back and yank her into my body. Her warmth seeps through our clothes, her addictive scent fills my lungs. “And yes, I’ll give you tonight. I can’t promise anything more.”
“That’s all I’ve asked for.” Her arms slide around my waist, and she presses her cheek to my chest. “Thank you.”
I kiss the top of her head, letting my lips rest there. “Hey, Lilith?”
“Yeah?”
There are a million questions in my head, but our time has almost run out.
Which is why I choose the one thing that’s been nagging at me the most.
“Whoever hurt you…” It’s possible I took them out—I just don’t fucking remember. And I need to remember. Need to ruin them in case they’re alive. “Are you still in contact with them? Were they the ones who got you the apartment? If they did, if they’re holding it over your head, you don’t have to live there because”—you can move in with me—“I have enough money to get you and Hope a place.”Since the people who hurt me are long gone, and I don’t owe them a goddamn thing.
“Theirmoney paid for our home, yes.” Lilith glances up, her smirk devious. “Buttheyare long gone. Disappeared before I was discharged from the hospital. By the time the system moved me out of New York and placed me in a foster home in Maine,theywere declared officially missing.”
For her to be moved to another state, it had to have been a high-profile case then.
Think. Think.Think.
“Thank you for the offer, though. I don’t need your money,” she adds. “They left me enough. That’s why I work in the cafeteria. I can do what I want without worrying about a paycheck.”
She flashes me a look that challenges me to judge her choices.