Chapter 16 #2
The room smelled like heavy bleach, stale cigarette smoke, and despair. He stepped inside, slamming the door behind him, entirely ready to grab Katherine, throw her onto the cheap, floral bedspread, and fuck the agonizing humiliation completely out of his system.
But Katherine wasn’t waiting on the bed in a sheer slip. She wasn’t smiling. She wasn’t ready to submit.
She was pacing the small, stained patch of carpet at the foot of the bed, wearing oversized sweatpants and a messy hoodie. Her blonde hair was entirely disheveled. Her face was blotchy, streaked with dark, messy tracks of ruined mascara.
“Where the hell have you been?!” Katherine shrieked the absolute second the door closed. Her voice was shrill, grating, and entirely hysterical. “I have been waiting in this disgusting room for an hour!”
The dark, primal lust in David’s blood instantly evaporated, replaced by a toxic, boiling venom.
“Do not raise your voice at me,” David snarled, his chest heaving as he stalked further into the cramped room. He unbuttoned his collar, feeling like he was suffocating. “I just had the worst fucking day of my entire life. Take your clothes off. I need to unwind.”
“Take my clothes off?” Katherine laughed—a high, manic, completely unhinged sound.
She didn’t move to touch her hoodie. She crossed her arms tightly over her chest. “Are you out of your mind? My life is completely falling apart, David! Sean froze my cards. All of them! I was at lunch with Lacey, and they declined my card on a live stream! In front of thousands of people! I had to beg for money just to get my car out of the valet!”
David stared at her, his dark eyes narrowing into terrifying slits.
He was actively bleeding out professionally.
His fifty-million-dollar fee had just been incinerated, his managing partner was likely drafting his termination papers right now, and the woman he was risking it all for was throwing a temper tantrum about a declined brunch bill.
The glamorous, sexy illusion of his vibrant, twenty-nine-year-old mistress violently shattered.
He didn’t see a goddess anymore. He saw exactly what she was: a shallow, dependent, utterly useless burden.
“You are crying to me about a live stream?” David hissed, his voice dripping with pure, concentrated acid.
He took a step toward her, his imposing frame entirely threatening in the small room.
“I just lost a three-billion-dollar merger, Katherine! My firm is being audited by the SEC! I am about to lose my partnership, and you are standing here whining about your fucking avocado toast and your pathetic little spin instructor friends?”
Katherine flinched, but she didn’t back down. The desperation made her vicious.
“Don’t you dare talk to me like that!” she screamed, her face twisting into an ugly, furious sneer.
“I am in this mess because of you! If Sean found out, it’s because you couldn’t keep your hands off me!
You promised me you would take care of me!
What am I supposed to do without money, David? Huh? I don’t have anything!”
“You’ve never had anything!” David roared back, the absolute ugliness of their affair finally boiling over.
He pointed a shaking finger at her face.
“You’re a leech! You’re a parasite who lives off a billionaire’s wallet because you have absolutely nothing else to offer the world!
The only thing you are good for is opening your legs, and you can’t even do that right now! ”
Katherine gasped, her eyes going wide with absolute, horrified shock. The brutal, naked cruelty of his words hit her like a physical blow.
But the shock only lasted a second before it hardened into pure, venomous hatred.
“You arrogant, pathetic bastard,” Katherine spat, her voice trembling with absolute malice.
She stepped directly into his space, aiming her claws directly at his bleeding, shattered ego.
“You think you’re so powerful? You’re a joke, David.
You’re a failing, miserable old man who’s about to be completely broke.
The only reason you even come to these disgusting motels is because you need to cheat on your gorgeous wife just to get your dick hard! ”
The words hit their mark with devastating precision.
Something inside David snapped entirely. The rage blinded him. He lunged forward, his hands wrapping roughly around her waist, and violently shoved her backward. Katherine hit the cheap veneer dresser with a harsh thud, her breath rushing out of her lungs.
“Get off me!” she shrieked, her nails violently raking down his forearms, drawing thin lines of blood.
But she didn’t push him away. The fight, the screaming, the mutual, toxic destruction ignited a sick, entirely abrasive spark between them.
Katherine hooked her hands into the lapels of his ruined suit jacket, yanking him forcefully against her body, her mouth crashing against his.
It wasn’t a kiss; it was a collision of teeth and bruised lips.
David tore at her sweatpants, completely uncaring of the fabric tearing.
He yanked his own zipper down. There was no foreplay, no gentle worship, no breathless praises of how beautiful she was.
He lifted her by the thighs, slamming her back against the dresser, and thrust into her dry, unready heat with a brutal, punishing force.
Katherine let out a sharp, painful cry, her fingers digging viciously into his back.
They hate-fucked each other in the suffocating silence of the cheap room.
It was mechanical. It was entirely stripped of passion, thrill, or the forbidden rush that used to sustain them.
The friction was agonizing, burning rather than bringing relief.
Every hard, fast thrust was a punishment—David punishing her for being useless, and Katherine punishing him for his spectacular failures.
There was absolutely no pleasure in it. It was just two miserable, drowning people desperately trying to use each other’s bodies to climb out of the dark, only to drag each other further down.
When David finally, mechanically finished, he pulled out immediately. He didn’t look at her. He didn’t offer a towel or a kiss. He coldly zipped his pants, grabbed his ruined tie off the floor, and walked out the door without a single word.