“We never had a relationship. We fucked. It was never exclusive. You’re married. Remember? I can do what the hell I want to do. This thing we did is over.”

The blaze in her eyes was never good. She didn’t like being told no. She typically got whatever she wanted. I was more than positive I wasn’t the only teenage boy she’d fucked. She liked them young. She told me so when she bared her tits to me and sucked me off the first time.

While having sex with her the past five years had been fun and games, I knew it was wrong. It was something Lila Kate would never understand. I had to make sure it was buried. Forgotten.

“You think you have control over this?” Kelsey asked as she took a step toward me. She was unbuttoning her shirt. Once that would have gotten me excited. Right now, it just pissed me off.

“Yes, I do. It’s done. Over,” I was direct. Looked her in the eyes and made sure she saw how serious I was.

Her blouse was open, but I didn’t look down. I didn’t want that from her. Not anymore.

Her hand was on my dick, and she squeezed. “Really?” her voice had dropped to a purr.

“Yes, really,” I replied, backing away from her. “Just stop. You’re pathetic.”

She froze and her previously smiling face returned to a state of fury. “You little spoiled bastard. You will regret this.”

“No, I won’t,” I assured her as I turned and walked away. The end of what I’d been doing with Kelsey was way overdue. When I was almost out the door, she found a way to stop me.

“I’m pregnant. My husband is sterile. I was preparing to tell him about us. I still am. You can’t walk away from this, Cruz. You’re going to be a daddy.”

I glared at her. Even now she was lying. “I’ve never fucked you without protection. Ever. So it’s someone else’s baby. Not mine. You tell him it’s mine and you’ll have to prove it.” I wasn’t a teenage boy anymore. She couldn’t trick me into shit.

Her eyes teared up. “Condoms aren’t one hundred percent effective.”

“Birth control is,” I shot back.

She wiped a single tear as it rolled down her cheek. “I stopped taking them a year ago. I want a baby. I want your baby.”

I shook my head. No. She was lying. This was her way to manipulate. It wasn’t going to work. “You are a liar,” I roared not caring who heard me then stormed out of the office. Away from the club and the dark shit that was now catching up with me. I thought she’d keep quiet for fear of losing her marriage. She had told me once she loved her husband, but he didn’t take care of her sexually. She needed more. The dirtiness, the excitement. I had felt sorry for her and didn’t understood how a man wouldn’t enjoy her insane sexual needs. It had been fun. Now I saw the fun was fucked up.

It was also going to destroy me if she went through with this lie. I had to find a way to stop this. To protect Lila Kate. I never wanted her to see that side of my life. To know the sordid shit I’d done.

Getting to Lila Kate was all I needed right now. To hold her. Smell her. Feel her. The brightness in her world made my damaged past fade away.

The drive to her studio was only a few miles, but it felt like an eternity. The fear she’d know and hate me weighed on me. Her refusal to listen to me and to love me was clawing at my heels. I drove faster and focused on getting to her.

I took long fast strides from my car to her door. When I jerked it open, there Lila was. She’d already changed into paint-stained clothing, threw her hair in a bun and was dancing to music as she cleaned out a paint brush. She was good. Perfect. Pure.

I locked the door behind me and went to her. She glanced up, startled at first and then she smiled.

“Hey,” was the only thing she had time to say before I was there in front of her. I backed her up until she was behind the corner blocking us from the windows. The shadows there didn’t mask the surprise and excitement on her face.

I didn’t take time to kiss and hold her. I couldn’t. The wolves that were chasing me, haunting me, had me desperate. I jerked down her shorts and panties then quickly shoved my jeans down until my dick was free. Grabbing her by the waist I picked her up, pressed her between the wall and my body then thrust into her with a groan.

She grabbed my shoulders and cried out my name. That only caused this wild intense pounding in my head to get worse. My mouth devoured hers tasting and taking it all. I was fucking her while loving her.

“This is mine,” I told her biting at her neck. “You can’t leave me.” My words would sound crazy to her, but they came out anyway.

“Okay,” she said as her head was thrown back against the wall and her throat exposed to me while I licked and left my mark on it.

“I will always need this. Need you. I’m addicted to you. Fucking addicted.”

She moaned and I pounded harder. Wanting to get so damn deep that we were like one person. No one else would ever be this for me. She would be all I needed. Being inside her made the darkness and the lies go away. All that mattered was her. This. Us.

“Oh God,” she cried then bit my shoulder. She was trembling in my arms. “AH!” Her orgasm squeezed my cock and I let go with her.

“Fuck! That’s it, baby. Come all over my dick.”

“Ahhhh! Cruz! I can’t,” she was clinging to me now. Her arms wrapped around me. Her head in the crook of my neck.

I exploded inside her jerking free a little too late.

“Shit,” I groaned as the rest of my release coated the inside of her thigh.

We stood there in the corner sweaty, wrapped together, panting. This was what I’d never done with anyone. I’d always been careful. But my insanity when it came to Lila Kate had taken over and it had been the last thing on my mind.

“It’s okay,” she finally whispered. “Remember I’m on the pill.”

I nodded and kept holding her. Wishing I was still inside. Pulsing my release until it ran freely out of her. Making her mine.

I was scaring myself.

Lila Kate

I HAD INTENDED to get a lot done this weekend. But Cruz had changed that plan. After the wild sex we’d had downstairs, he’d taken me to the shower where he was now bathing me slowly. He wasn’t talking much. The haunted look in his eyes like he was running from something and needed me to protect him was hard to miss. It was as if he was safe as long as we were touching.

He was more important than the studio. All that could wait. For now, I enjoyed him. Being with him. He needed reassurance. This was new. I would say I needed reassurance too, but the way he was hovering over me I was getting plenty.

Sunday we slept in, ate breakfast that we cooked together and watched movies all day.

When Monday morning came, so did Ophelia. I had just gotten out of the shower and was looking forward to the coffee I smelled in the kitchen when I heard her say “Holy shit. This is not happening.”

I grabbed a towel, wrapped it around me and hurried in there. Ophelia was standing in the kitchen with a suitcase staring open mouthed at Cruz who was wearing nothing but boxers while he held a tin of muffins I had left in the oven.

“Morning, Ophelia. Can’t say I’m happy you’re back,” Cruz said as he turned to look at me and winked.

Ophelia swung her gaze toward me. “Ohmygod,” was all she could get out. Her eyes were wide, and she dropped the bag on her left shoulder to the floor with a loud thump. “What happened?”