by Kaia Bennett
He stripped everything down to a pile on the floor, stepping into the water with a shudder as his body adjusted to the first minute of cold spray. He dipped his head, closed his eyes, and let all the tension filter out of his limbs.
That's when he saw Gia, his hand over her mouth while he fucked her hard.
He opened his eyes, blinking rapidly as the water dripped off his eyelashes and down his face. It was like this all the time now. Twenty-four hours in a day, most of which he spent busy, and the moment he had some peace and quiet she was there to ruin it. It had been like this since that first time on his kitchen table.
He thought fucking her would quench it, get rid of the idle curiosity and help him move on. But it was scary how feeding one hunger had given birth to even more voracious ones. He had been inside of her, tasted her, and now he wanted more. He wanted her in every position he could think of, in a place where she could scream out his name, a place where he could take his sweet time.
He leaned his arm against the tile and let his head roll forward. "Not again," he groaned.
It never took long for his dick to start pulsing when he thought of her. It was already rising to half-mast just from recalling the other day in the library. He could still feel her hand stroking him through his jeans. He couldn't get enough of that look of excitement and apprehension on her face, and how her body always seemed to submit to his touch. If only she weren't such a bitch. If only she didn't have that pussy for a boyfriend, she might be here, right now, taking care of what his hand was going to have to fix.
Flynn gripped himself, running his hand from base to tip, sliding his thumb over the flushed head and squeezing lightly before stroking back down. He did it over and over, until it became like slow torture. No matter how much surface area he covered with his hand, it wasn't as tight as her. The water running over him couldn't match her wet heat. But second best would have to do now, and he stroked with growing intensity to combat the memory of the real thing.
Eyes closed tight, he imagined those full lips encircling him, that pink tongue tasting and swallowing down how much he wanted her. His sighs and groans echoed off the shower walls as he climbed closer to the brink. His hand became a blur over his thickly veined shaft and its throbbing head. His chest rose and fell, his abs expanding and contracting with his erratic breathing. He braced his forehead against his arm, and his mind was flooded with images of her. The way her dark eyes had looked up at him from his table, and later, the way they stared at his reflection in the bathroom mirror. The sound of her voice calling out for him not to stop filled his ears. He remembered the way her breasts had filled his palms, how sweet her pussy had tasted, and the way she shivered in his arms when she came.
He gritted his teeth, and in those last moments before the familiar pulse and tightness overwhelmed him, he saw her face smiling up at her boyfriend, the way the light seemed to dance in her eyes and her face brightened into something even prettier than he had expected. His come barreled to the surface and shot out in waves against the shower wall, and still he stroked, replaying as many images of her as he could before his orgasm finally uncoiled within him.
He purged every last drop from his body, all the tension falling away under the water. And yet, there was still the ache, the one that seemed buried deeper than he could stroke, the one that would probably have him beating off again before he could pass out for the night.
He washed himself off, lathering and rinsing brusquely now that his cock had been momentarily distracted. He had a few girls on speed dial for just this kind of predicament and yet, he didn't feel like calling any of them right now. He knew himself well enough to know that the only way to fix this was to get to the source, cleanse himself of what he was really craving, and then let it go. Keeping up this game was becoming more aggravation than it was worth. He had to end this and soon.
Tonight, in fact.
***
Gia was lying on her bed, staring blankly at her ceiling when the phone rang. She had been trying to study for her British Lit exam on Friday, but her head was trapped in a huge fog. Her hands were planted firmly on her stomach to keep them from wandering; however, she couldn't do anything about her thoughts.
The night before, Luca had tried to have sex with her for the first time in a month, and she couldn't do it. She’d lied and said she was on her period. He had settled for a blow-job, but she knew he was disappointed. He was more of a main course kind of guy, preferring to skip the oral appetizers, and it was getting increasingly difficult to explain her way out of making love.
Still, anything was better than admitting the guilty truth, especially to herself.
That's what she was thinking when her cell rang. She answered it and gave a weary greeting.
“Hello?”
"Very cute, having your boyfriend play babysitter the other day."
Gia immediately sat up and hated herself for it. Hadn't she just been weary beyond all repair because of him? And now, at just the mere sound of his voice, she was ready to run a marathon. Ridiculous.
"I'm busy. Goodbye," she said through gritted teeth.
"I wouldn't hang up if I were you," Flynn warned.
The menace in his tone made her pause. His voice gave her such a tremor, that she suspected if she had hung up she would’ve called him right back and apologized.
"We need to talk. In person," he said.
"No fucking way."
She heard a huff of laughter.
"Wow, that was pretty blunt. What if it's just about the project?"
"Then, it can wait till after class tomorrow," she replied, dryly, "since the only thing you seem to work on when we're alone is me."
"Well, it's not about the project. It's the kind of thing you don't want other people to overhear."
Gia bit her lip, anxiety settling in her gut. This was not good. "I don't think you're hearing me clearly. I cannot – no – I will not be alone with you again. Ever."
"Because you can't control yourself when you're around me, right?" Flynn said with a teasing laugh.
She practically growled in frustration, "No, it's because what happened between us was the mistake to end all mistakes. Because we cant even stand each other. Because I have a boyfriend. Because it's bad fucking karma. Take your pick. I can keep on listing them, but we'd be here all night, and I have studying to do."
"You're forgetting the most important one," he countered. "I think the fact that you want me and are too chicken-shit to admit it should be at the top of the list. Or are you going to pretend you didn't practically beg me not to stop fucking you?"
She wanted so badly to scream into the phone and throw it against the wall. But, for better or worse, she knew what he was capable of. Hanging up on him now would be a bigger mistake than fucking him had been. She mustered up her courage and spoke plainly.
"I know what I said, and I know what I did. All of it was wrong. I'm not going to meet you and, from now on, I think we should just split up the work for our project and put it together the day its due."
There was a long pause on the other end. Too long.
"Hello? Hello?” She pulled the phone away and checked the screen. He was still on the line. "Flynn? You still there?" she asked, feeling very meek all of the sudden.
"Yeah, I'm here. I was just thinking," he said, with an exaggerated sigh.
"Thinking about what?"
"I was just wondering if Bobby has Luca's number. Or maybe I can check the student directory. His last name's Caprielli, right?"
She sucked in what little oxygen she could get into her tight chest, processing his thinly veiled threat.
"I'll take the silence as a sign you get where I'm going with this," Flynn said, slowly and deliberately, all signs of humor drained from his voice.
She shut her eyes tightly, trying to ward off the pounding which was starting in her chest. She couldn’t tell what was frustrating her more. Was it the fact that he was blatantly blackmailing her? Was it that it was so easy for
him to get under her skin? Or was it the fact that her body was already starting to respond to the idea of seeing him again?
Nothing good could come out of meeting him alone. But, she didn’t see another way out of this mess. She was trapped, and the worst part was, her body didn’t seem to mind.
When she was able to swallow the lump in her throat she asked, "Do you enjoy torturing me?"
"Not torturing," he replied simply. "Fucking. I enjoy fucking you. But we'll talk about that when you get here. You can be here in about twenty minutes, right?"
She pressed her fingertips to the bridge of her nose, nodding, and then realized he couldn't see her.
"Yes," she mumbled.
"Good. See you in a bit."
He hung up and she sat cradling the phone with what little strength she had left. Unfortunately, that amount of strength wasn't enough to risk Luca finding out what a horrible person she was.
She reluctantly grabbed her keys and jacket, and made the drive to Flynn's for the first time since all of this had begun.
CHAPTER SIX
He wasn't nervous, per se, or feeling particularly guilty. Flynn knew he was a dick for blackmailing her into coming over for the sake of a relentless hard on, but he had made his peace with it. Lots of people thought he was an asshole, which was fine, because he didn't really care. What he did care about was this strange weight on his chest as the minutes ticked away. It had become a familiar presence after Gia came into the picture, and tonight it was damn near impossible to breathe. He couldn't tell what the origin of the feeling was, but after tonight it wouldn't matter. One way or another, this mess was going to get cleared up.
He heard a knock at the door and he smiled bitterly. On time, if not early, that was Gia Kessler.
He took his time getting to the door, opening it and taking her in. She was wearing a light tan leather jacket over a plain white t-shirt, dark blue jeans that hugged the curves of her long legs, and tan sandals. Her hair was down, which she tucked nervously behind her ear. He noticed that under the lights in the hall it shone a lighter brown. He wanted to run his fingers through its silky length again.
"Well, do I need some kind of password, or are you going to let me in?" she quipped, staring up at him with those onyx doe eyes of hers, so dark that they looked almost black. Her full lips were pursed into an angry line.
He stepped aside, feeling a twisted sense of nostalgia as he ushered her in. She had been pretty much like this the first time – bitter – but that had been when she thought she breathed rarefied air. Now, when he looked at her, he saw wariness in those dark eyes and anxiety in her body language. It was funny to think that if she had been just a little more like this, just a little more humble in the first place, then none of what transpired over the last week and a half might have happened. She might not even be here right now.
He watched her look around as if seeing his place for the first time – and perhaps she was. It wasn't like she’d taken the time to notice anything about him before. Or maybe, she was remembering the last time she had been here.
When he didn't join her in the middle of the room, she turned to see him leaning against the door with his eyes trailing up her body to meet hers.
"What did you want?" she asked. She turned to face him, as if trying to keep him fully in sight at all times, with her hands clasped demurely in front of her.
"Another taste of you," he replied.
Gia opened her mouth, but no sound came out. Even if she had been able to form words, she wasn’t sure what she would have said. It would be no small feat for her to tell him she was dying for another taste of him, too. But the thoughts which tormented her and kept her up at night were the same ones he could say without batting an eye. He said those words as if he were saying it was raining outside, like it was a casual fact that couldn't turn her topsy-turvy.
"You see, I've never had a problem saying, or doing, what I want. I make a choice and I go with it. But, you," he said, coming to stand in front of her, "you don't have a clue what you want, do you?"
She swallowed, feeling her fingers go numb from squeezing them.
"I know exactly what I want," she said. "I want my life back. I want to be the girl I was before you decided it would be fun to toy with me. I want you gone."
He nodded and smiled. "That's exactly what I thought you'd say."
She should have been ready. She knew how quick he was, but that wasn't the problem. He was more unpredictable than he was quick. He didn't kiss her, or pin her, and he didn't bend her over the couch. Instead, his shoulder was bending her at the hip and she was off the ground. Flynn carried her down the hall, kicking and screaming, biting and scratching at his back and trying to knee him in the chest. From her view atop his shoulder, she could see the hardwood floor whizzing past, and the entranceway to a room.
"Put me dow –"
She squealed as she was released, her view a blur of walls and ceiling, and then him standing over her as she landed and bounced on his mattress. She squealed again when he kicked the door shut behind him, and stared down at her with the most serious expression she had seen on him since she slapped him.
"Both of us know exactly what we want. Both of us have the power to provide the other with what we want. So, here's how this is going to work," he said softly, coming closer. "You have two options. Option one is: You call Luca, right now, and tell him exactly what you do when he's not around. I'll even let you use my phone, so he knows who you're doing it with."
He tossed his phone at her and she caught it, staring at him in horror.
"Option two is considerably less messy...emotionally, that is. But it's a lot more fun than telling your boyfriend you had sex with a guy you can't stand."
"You can't be serious!"
He cocked his head to the side. "Do I not look serious? I feel pretty serious."
She shook her head over and over again, as if this were a dream she couldn't wake up from. "No. No. It doesn't make any sense," she said.
"Sure it does. You're a smart girl,” Flynn said. “I thought the logic wouldn't be lost on you. You can either break his heart over the phone; ruin your relationship, in which case everyone loses. Or you can do what you really want to do with me, here and now, and we can finally be free of each other."
He said the last line as if he were as tired as she felt.
"But, either way," he finished, "this ends tonight."
Gia’s stomach was turning loops as she stared at his phone. Where was Luca now? Probably sleeping, or playing video games with his roommates. Maybe he was talking to some other girl. Hell, even Flynn suspected he was cheating on her. But the only person she knew had cheated, for sure, was her.
Wherever Luca was, he was completely oblivious to what his girlfriend had done and she wanted to keep it that way. She wanted to belong with him again, not skulk around in the shadows with a demon like Flynn.
That wasn't the only reason she was considering it, though. Her body was humming at the prospect of being near him again. He was so close that her eyes were level with his crotch if she stared straight ahead. It had been all she could think about for days.
Could she really do this again?
Even as she asked herself that question, her mind started to shut down, taking a backseat to the way he was affecting her. She’d been replaying the feel of his cock stroking inside of her over and over again, masturbating to ward away the lust he incited in her whenever she had a spare moment. She still shivered when she remembered the way he moaned and panted in her ear. When she licked her lips she imagined she could taste his kiss, and she had fantasized countless times about what it would be like to taste the rest of him.
This wasn’t some upstairs bathroom, where it would all be over as quickly as it had begun, because there were too many people around. No, she was at his place now, where the time and possibilities seemed to stretch out in front of her. Every part of her was shaking with the desire to see what he would do if she said yes.
&n
bsp; Still, she fought it. The eagerness welling up in her was like a slap in the face to her pride, and she needed to think with something other than the heat between her legs. She needed to sit down and weigh this out, make the right decision.
"Can't...can't I think about it? I can tell you tomorrow—"
"You've had plenty of time to think about me," Flynn said, with a sly smile. "It's time to make a decision."
"You can't ask me to do this right now!” she practically screamed, feeling desperate now that her attempt to stall was being denied. “And even if I did say ‘yes’, how do I know tomorrow you wouldn't pull the same stunt?"
"You don't, but I do. I'm a lot of things, Gia, and most of them are not very nice. But one thing I'm not is a liar. Whatever you decide, from tonight on, I'll stay away from you, if that's what you want."
She looked at the phone, her hands shaking horribly, weighing the options.
"What's it gonna be, Gigi?"
Her eyes snapped up to his, and she felt the slightest twinge of satisfaction as some of his conceit drained away under her steady gaze. For the first time, her anger had been properly conveyed to him. However, glaring at him wouldn't make him back down.
She thought of all those sleepless nights, all those times her fingers had mimicked his. All those times she’d fought tears or swallowed her guilt over having been with him. It could all be erased. One night, and she could quench the thirst and return to the way things had been.
Or she could tell her first love she had betrayed him over the phone.
The answer was easier than it should have been.
Gia held out the phone and placed it in Flynn’s outstretched hand. Her eyes were on the floor as he put the phone on the dresser. She hadn't yet resigned herself to the fact that she had agreed to this, but she wouldn't cry. She had brought this on herself. She could shoulder the guilt later because right now he was standing in front of her saying, "Come here."