now. But I held the headboard anyway, watching him as

he fumbled in his nightstand for the package of condoms

and slid one on.

When he moved back over me, one hand on his cock to

guide it inside me, I tensed. My eyes closed as he filed

me. When he moved, I moved with him. It was easy to

remember how.

He fucked into me slowly, then faster. He pushed up onto

his hands to drive his cock deeper, and I took the pain of

his thrusts and turned it into pleasure. My hands gripped

the wood. His eyes never left mine, not even when he slid

a hand between us to stroke my clit in time to his thrusts.

"Now," he grunted from between clenched teeth, "you can come."

I hadn't been waiting for his permission, but my body took

I hadn't been waiting for his permission, but my body took

it anyway.

"Say my name." His fingers left me and he pushed his face

into the side of my neck. "Say it, Paige."

I tipped into the swirling oblivion of orgasm, and I gave

him what he wanted with his name, if he could decipher it

from the moan. But I also let go of the headboard. My

nails raked his back as I came again, as hard the second

time as the first. Harder, maybe, because I was bringing

blood and he cried out as he pumped inside me as he

came, too.

Austin shuddered. His arms slid beneath me, clutching me

tight. He burrowed his face harder into my skin. And he

just held me that way for what seemed like a very long

time.

I had to unwrap my legs from around his waist after a few

minutes to ease the cramp in my hips, but I didn't unwind

my arms from around his back. His weight on me was

more comforting than claustrophobic. When he finaly

pushed himself off me, he only roled to the side with one

arm and leg thrown over my body.

Now he would sleep, I thought.

But he didn't. Austin moved to get rid of the rubber in a

nearby garbage can, then slipped right back to where he'd

been. His hand moved lazily up and down my body in

smooth, flat strokes.

"Paige."

"Yes," I said after a second.

"I thought you liked it when I was a little rough." His hand centered over my contented cunt, his fingers dipping into

my wel.

I wasn't squeamish about post-fucking cuddles or anything

leading up to a potential round two, but when Austin

stroked my pussy, I put a hand over his to stop the

motion. "Is that why you did it?"

He didn't look at me. His breath puffed hot on my

shoulder and he kissed me. His lips pressed my skin. His

fingertip settled on my clit and circled lightly. I'd had two

orgasms and my body wasn't ready for another, or so I

thought. As his hand moved, tension stirred inside me.

"Is it?" I drew in a breath but kept my voice even.

"Austin?"

"Wel, shit, Paige. Yeah. Of course." He sounded insulted.

I put my hand over his again, though what he was doing

was starting to work. "Look at me."

He did. I hadn't noticed the shadows under his eyes

before. Faintly blue, they made him look older. Wel, he

was. We both were.

"I thought you liked it rough, that's al."

"Did it look like I wasn't enjoying myself?" I didn't want to defend my orgasms to him. I didn't want to think he'd done

something for my sake that he hadn't wanted to do for his

own.

Pushing him off me, I got out of bed and gathered my

clothes. I dialed the cab company and arranged for a ride

home. Austin watched me without puling up the sheets or

making a move toward his own clothes. When I looked at

him, his expression had gone inscrutable. That was as

familiar as everything else had been, and I figured

whatever glitch in his operating system had made him ask

me those questions had been fixed.

"Why did you come over here?" he asked, loud in the

quiet. "Realy?"

I stepped into my panties and puled them up, then zipped

my skirt, too. "I came over here to do just what we just

did."

"Just to fuck me?"

"Yes, Austin," I told him. "What else did you think I wanted?"

"Nothing." He roled to grab the remote from the

nightstand and I discreetly ogled his ass and the sweet

backs of his thighs—places I'd bite, if I had more time.

"Forget I asked."

"Are you getting pissy with me?" I straightened my shirt

and ran my fingers through my hair to shake it into some

semblance of order. "No, you are not. Are you?

Seriously?"

"No." Austin, his jaw set, kept his gaze on the television.

"No." Austin, his jaw set, kept his gaze on the television.

He punched the buttons of the remote so fast I knew he

couldn't possibly be able to see more than a second or

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.