two of each program before moving on.
"Because I'l tel you what, if you're going to give me an
attitude every time I come over here to fuck you, I'm not
going to bother anymore." I stepped into my shoes. "That
cake is baked."
Now he looked at me. "Huh?"
"That cake," I said carefuly, "is baked. Done. Over.
Finished."
"Iced?" One corner of his lips turned up, but only a little.
He was maybe the only person who'd ever realy "gotten"
me. It was why we fought so hard and fucked so good.
He knew every button to push.
"Yeah. Iced."
He shrugged, looking back at the television, but his mouth
stil quirked. "If you say so."
"Austin." I waited until he looked at me. "Don't make me
"Austin." I waited until he looked at me. "Don't make me regret this, okay? You know what this is."
He shrugged again, the brief glint of a smile fading. His
finger stabbed the remote as he cycled through al bazilion
cable stations. I thought about kissing him before I left. I
even took a few steps toward the bed, but when he turned
to look right at me, I stopped.
"I'l let myself out. No, no, don't bother getting out of bed,"
I said, though he hadn't done so much as shift. "I'l do it."
I was already out the door and into the hal and at the head
of the stairs when he caled after me.
"That's not al it is!"
I stopped, my hand on the newel post of his stairs. There
were half a dozen retorts, but none of them made it past
my tongue. At the bottom, the smooth banister shoved a
splinter into my palm and I muttered a curse as I plucked it
free. That would teach me, I thought as I let myself out of
his house and onto the street, where the cab was already
waiting.
Chapter 05
Daylight teased the sky by the time I made it home. I paid
the cabdriver and ignored the way he ogled my thighs
when I stepped onto the curb. I didn't want to be sorry I'd
gone to bed with Austin even though I'd said I wouldn't.
The sex had been too good, as good as it can be only with
someone who already knows you, but I'd started a new
life, with a new job and a new apartment, in a new city. I
wanted new habits, too, and Austin was definitely not one
of those.
I wanted a man who'd gone to colege. Who had a career,
not a job. One who owned a car and paid bils on time
and wore clothes that matched. A professional man, not
one who smoked and drank and cheated, or one who'd
run up the credit card and skipped out into the night
without leaving a note. Not one who wrecked my car
because he didn't have one of his own.
I wanted a man, not a boy in a man-suit.
You're unfair to me, Austin had accused me more than
once. I'm not like those guys.
Those guys. The men my mother dated. No, he wasn't like
those guys. At least not mostly. But I'd always been
waiting for him to turn into one. Maybe he was right and
I'd been unfair, but he'd done his share of shitty things even
when he knew they'd hurt me. Hel. I'd done the same.
My heels sounded very loud on the marble tile as I passed
the front desk, empty at this hour. I'd occupied the
elevator alone, dressed to kil, more times than I could
count on both hands. Tonight, because I knew I looked
ridden hard and put away wet, a hand shoved its way
through the doors just before they closed, and I had to
share it.
"Thanks," said that man I'd seen before. "I'm too tired for the stairs."
He slouched, eyes half lidded, in the corner opposite and
just behind mine. His shoulders lifted with a sigh that
became a yawn, prompting one from me I hid behind my
hand. He looked at me with a half smile. Conscious of the
fact I was sure my lipstick was smeared and my eyeliner
smudged, I smiled back. We both turned to face the front,
but I felt the weight of his gaze on me, could see him
looking from the corner of my eye. Unlike before, this time
looking from the corner of my eye. Unlike before, this time
he wasn't too distracted to notice me. When I turned my
face, just slightly, he was studiously watching the blinking
white numbers showing the elevator's progress.
I had to bite my lower lip against a smile. He was seriously
eye-fucking me. Who doesn't get off on being noticed?
It took a very long time, it seemed, to reach the first floor.
He moved past me without touching me, but my skin
prickled as though he had. He stepped out of the elevator
and I let out the breath I'd been holding. I'd seen him twice
now. Three times? It must have been the charm, because
unlike al the others, this time he was the one who looked
back.
"I missed you."
I'm already diving into Austin's arms when he says it. A
week was too long to be away from him. His parents had
taken him from me, stolen him to go to visit family for a
funeral. At nineteen, he's plenty old enough to stay by
himself, but they'd insisted he go along to pay his respects.
I think it's more like they don't want us fucking our way
through every room in the house while they're away, but I
can't blame them. They'd have been right. I wouldn't have
can't blame them. They'd have been right. I wouldn't have
felt comfortable going along, even if they had invited me,
but a week is an eternity in the summer when the only thing
I have to look forward to is long hours with Austin's mouth
on mine.
His arms slip around me, hold me tight, and his hands run
down my back to grip my ass. Nobody's watching, and
would I care if they were? I'm just so frigging glad he's
home, it's worth the risk of parental discovery to have him
squeezing me. His cock nudges my bely.
He really did miss me.
"I brought you something."
"What?" I already have my hands out, expecting a snow
globe, a T-shirt. A magnet, maybe. Something he picked
up in the Pennsylvania Turnpike gift shop.
Austin hands me a smal box with a lid. Inside it is a
package of paper, not note cards but stationery. I lift a
page and hold it to the light. It's soft on my fingertips and
has a faint design of flowers pressed into the paper. I give
him a look.
How did he know?
How did he know?
"It reminded me of you." Austin gives an awkward shrug,
as if his admission embarrasses him. "You like that sort of
thing."
I do. Tablets and note cards and pretty papers. I always
have, but this is the first time someone's ever noticed or
given me something as pretty as this. "I love it."
"When's your mom getting home?"
My mom's been working weird shifts at the Hershey plant
since she got pregnant. Because it's summer, her brother
Lane is home from colege and taking over the shop, and
I've been putting in more than my share of hours there,
too. I haven't seen her much. I'm not sure if she's avoiding
me, but I know I'm trying not to hang around her too
much. She's only got another month or so before she
pops, and I can't even begin to imagine what's going to
happen then.
"Late." I snuggle closer, my knee going between his and
my cheek fitting just right into the place over his heart.
Austin pushes me so he can grin down into my face.
Austin pushes me so he can grin down into my face.
"Good."
The apartment isn't big enough to make the chase much of
an effort, but we manage to work up a sweat as I dodge
his grip and duck behind the big wooden rocking chair to
keep out of his grasping hands. Not that I don't want to be