Chapter 21
The hand over her mouth covers her nose, making it hard to breathe as she’s pushed forward the last remaining steps to her car.
Kara lashes out, thrashing in the oppressive grip. She’s overpowered easily, the person behind her towering over her frame, an iron bar of an arm around her waist, the other controlling her face with brutal intent. Animal terror races through her, all the warnings she’d always heard about less visited parking garages ringing in her head. No one will hear you scream deep underground.
Have you heard how easy it is for someone to grab a small, unsuspecting young woman, walking to her vehicle?
It’s not even night, but that doesn’t matter this far underground.
He lifts her, and there is no doubt that her attacker is a man. From the way her feet dangle an inch off the floor as she tries to struggle against him, to the feel of the strong hands immobilizing her. Even more telling, the rock-hard erection pressed into her rear.
Shouting into his hand is an exercise in futility and her vision blurs. She kicks her feet, but finds no purchase, hitting her own car a few times instead, sending zings of pain up her leg. She’s wearing useless flip flops. He presses her fully against the car door, his free hand digging into her bag, likely looking for her keys until he realizes all he needs to do is press her finger to the button on her driver side door handle.
Her keys are on her, so the telltale click of the car opening sounds out, a sound of echoing dread in Kara’s mind. He’s going to get me in car. And then-
Still in complete control of her, the man opens the door to the backseat and maneuvers her in, still managing to keep one hand over her mouth and nose. Kara doesn’t even have time to kick backwards at him, because he’s crowded in behind her, the door shutting loudly, the only sound in the empty underground lot. She’s on her front and he’s behind her, crushing her.
I can’t believe this is happening. I can’t…I can’t even hurt him. I’m powerless.
She tries biting the hand on her mouth, but he only squeezes harder, making it near impossible to even open her jaw. Despair flutters through her, pulse hammering in her head like a chorus of drums, sounding out her demise.
He’s nearly silent, hasn’t said a single word to her. It’s dehumanizing, like she’s beneath his notice. Every now and then, he grunts from exertion, try to keep her pinned; other times there’s a slight, bitten off noise of arousal when his cock rubs against her particularly hard.
She’s crying, feels her body shaking uncontrollably.
A hand works at her fabric shorts and she mentally curses herself for wearing them; how could she be so stupid? With ease, he yanks them down, stopping at her knees. Kara feels tears prick at her eyes and she waits for him to violate her, wishing she had the strength to rip his fucking guts out with her fingernails.
She’d stab him with her keys if she could still reach them.
When his hand finally shifts off of her nose and mouth, she gasps hard, like it’s the last air she’s ever going to breathe, preparing to scream. Something stops her, turning the act into a strange, aborted whining sound, curling in her chest.
She stops, because she can smell him enveloping the interior of her car, painfully familiar, full of tobacco, rum, and coffee. Her mind breaks, fractures, the panic button in her body confused. She knows who this is. She knows, because she would recognize that cologne anywhere.
She called him here, didn’t she? Oh, she’s going to strangle him. Going to kill him . Kara chokes on air, feeling a shuddering sob claw its way out of her chest.
This. This is her distraction , the one she so soullessly asked for on the phone.
How dare he? This isn’t what she fucking meant!
“You asshole,” Kara breathes out unevenly, a hitch of emotion, horrified and humiliated. She’s been sobbing, shrieking into his hand. “You mother fucker .”
Her throat feels raw.
It’s too much. He’s been avoiding her for days. Hasn’t reached out since their sick little affair, but then there’s this . Like a snail curling in on itself, Kara tries to sink into a ball, feeling another sob shake her. Rage hasn’t made its way through the sheer shock her body has been thrown into.
He made her believe she was going to be assaulted.
Worse; he’s still hard over it.
The fingers digging into her thigh and hip clench hard, a shaky sound coming from the man behind her. Kara marvels that she didn’t recognize the bitten off sounds he made, perhaps she didn’t want to, wanted him to be a faceless monster for her to bear.
His lips move towards her ear. “Breathe,” he says thickly, like he’s trying to attempt to hide his excitement. “Just breathe for a minute.”
Realizing that she’s begun to hyperventilate, Kara tries to slow her breathing, tries to match it to his. It’s calming, in a way, to match his cadence, even though he’s artificially breathing slower to try and ease her mind.
His fingers slide around to find her clit, playing softly. Easing her from the edge of fear into complacency. Nick’s holding still, perhaps understanding he’d gone too far, very, very fast .
For a time, he fiddles with her clit, sending bursts of sensation into her core, her body changing from adrenalized into revoltingly aroused as he waits for her, his free hand stroking her hip gently. Kara doesn’t push him away. Perhaps she should, perhaps that’s the right thing to do, but she doesn’t. She can’t say no, because she wants him despite the anger that’s beginning to heat her belly alongside desire.
Kara’s a fool and self-loathing tastes bitter on her tongue.
Nick’s waiting for her to get her head back together and she realizes that’s likely not an easy thing for him to do. The predator in him is aroused by her fear; the human in him recognizes he shouldn’t be. The very idea that perhaps he’s the one who needs to breathe centers Kara.
Unwillingly, her body begins to grow wetter, shamefully. Nick makes a noise behind her, feeling her begin to leak onto his fingers. Distantly, Kara wonders if she’s simply turned on by the fact that he’s the one barely in control, that she’s made him that way.
Perhaps that gives her a leg up on him, somehow .
She may not be as strong as him physically, but her body is the thing that’s making him weak .
Pressing her forehead into the seat with a groan of embarrassment, Kara feels the strange mix of hunger and irritation coil in her, impatient. Her nipples ache, brushing roughly against her bikini top. She can smell herself, her arousal, filling the car.
She knows he’s scenting it on the air.
When her body begins to soften against the gentle press of his thumb and forefinger, desire and fear mixing together in a maddening flurry of sensation, Nick grows bored of waiting. He sets his teeth against her neck, now that he knows she’s not going to crack her skull into his nose. “Sweetpea,” he pants against her heated flesh, hands getting greedy, trying to shift her hips upward even as she resists. “Lift that ass a bit more. I…want to fuck you like a dog.”
…and I want to elbow you in your stupid nose, Kara thinks idly.
She refuses to think she asked for this , but she won’t deny that she’s beginning to enjoy how it’s played out.
Lowering her chest and face to the soft seat, still coming to terms with the fact that she’s not in mortal danger, Kara murmurs in a haze, “You’d best hurry along with your depravity, Nick . Before someone catches you.”
Not a stranger, not a random man ready to slit her throat when he’s done.
He’s admiring her rear in the air, she can feel his breath teasingly crossing her flesh. He uses two fingers to open her folds wide, admiring what she has to offer.
He groans deep in his throat as he examines her. Kara feels her belly heat violently with need.
The velvet heat of his cock replaces his fingers, sliding against her core wetly. Long drizzles of precum slide down her thighs from him; he’s practically aching for it. It’s astounding to realize how turned on he is from the very act of taking away all her control.
“ My depravity? And what would you say if we were caught?” He asks with an edge of nasty in his tone. “What little lie would you tell?”
Despite the heat coiling in her belly, Kara closes her eyes and sneers, grabs on to the threads of her original terror and anger. “I’d tell them I’d never met you before, that you forced me into my car. That you were going to fuck me until I cried. I’d say you raped me.”
She says it to piss him off, but his cock jumps against her flesh and she wonders if it had the opposite effect. Is this his fantasy? The idea is disturbing, yet Kara feels herself clench at his blatant excitement. His cock is drooling and she wants him inside, hot and thick.
“Is that so?” He groans, sliding his erection against her again, the blunt head bumping into her clit in a way that has Kara gasping. “Is that what this is, sweetpea? Does the idea of me forcing you make you wet?”
“It sure makes you hard enough,” Kara snaps, irritated that he’s turning this back on her. She doesn’t want the verbal dissection; she wants him to keep her mind empty of everything that actually matters. Like he was supposed to do. No, instead he’s making her a worse wreck.
“It does, actually.” He’s taken his own cock in hand, rubbing himself into her, slowly penetrating her before pulling back. A soft tease that strokes her most sensitive lips, building heat within her bit by bit. The wet sound it makes is filthy. “It makes me fucking horny.”
The entire, enjoyably sized head of his cock slips inside of her, stretching her folds. They both gasp.
When he moves his hips back, Kara hates herself for trying to follow him with her hips. He chuckles at her desperation, her arousal mixing in the air with his own. He’s enjoying her humiliation, that he’s made her hungry for this…this sick blasphemy.
She’s aching, puffy and swollen, waiting for him to fully bury himself in her.
“God, you’re sick!” Kara isn’t sure if she’s talking about him or herself. She needs something to fill the void inside her. Something, anything to make her forget. Even this fucked up affair will do.
And if he’s sick, what does that make her, the one who is indulging him in all of this vicious obscurity? Her, the girl waiting for him to bust her open with his cock.
He’s licking his fingers, playing on her clitoral hood, lifting it, stroking it, sending her halfway to madness. She needs him to fill her more than she needs air. “That sounds like you,” he says thickly, his breathing changing. “Vicious slut. Convince me you don’t want this. Convince me .”
Even though she doesn’t want to move an inch from him, Kara tries to struggle, hissing, “Stop. Stop it, you fucker. Get off of me .”
The struggle is short, he’s simply so much larger than her. His cock easily slots between her cheeks, his hips rocking against her mockingly. “That’s nice,” he growls, the ‘s’ sound dragging. His hand comes around her throat, gently pressing. “But I think you still want me. I can practically smell your juicy cunt.”
Sweating, there’s no air on in the car, the car isn’t even turned on, Kara tries to get away from the press of his hand against her throat, hissing in frustration. Aroused and angry at herself. She adopts a pathetic note to her tone, a desperate begging sound. It’s not too hard; her air is getting cut off slightly. “Don’t. Please, please don’t do this. I have a boyfriend.” The last bit is inspiration.
His lips curve into a smile on the nape of her neck as her hovers over her like a demonic gargoyle. “A pity, that.” Nick finally begins to press his cock into her, spearing her on his girth. Kara gasps out, fingers clutching at the seat, needing to grab something . It’s so good, her nerves on fire.
“S-stop,” she begs again. Stop teasing, stop touching, it’s all part of the twisted game. She’s ablaze. She’s on the edge of something. “God, please don’t!”
Please, yes.
“Christ, you beg pretty,” he groans tightly. With those words, he seats himself fully inside of her with a rough shove, growling low in his throat as she spasms around his cock. Tight, squeezing him like she’s being paid for it. Kara presses her face into the seat and finds herself ridiculously pleased that he knew exactly what she needed.
She’s soaking, dripping around him, eager and fueled by adrenaline. The sick taste on her tongue is all that remains of her fear, a reminder of how morally grey this man really is, this man, slowly sliding his cock out of her, before slamming home hard, causing them both to moan.
“Touch yourself.” He grabs one of her hands and forces it underneath her, forces it near where their bodies are connected, where his balls are swinging into her.
Kara’s clit is slick, either from whatever is dripping out of her or from when he rubbed his precum into her. It’s easy to touch herself, feeling the spikes of pleasure pulse into her core, the feeling of being full and desired, lusted after.
Not loved. Never. Taken . Taken is a better word for how this feels .
Wet. Wicked. Shameful.
“Oh… oh , Nick-”
He grunts, cursing under his breath, playing with her nipples as her breasts sway with the rhythm of their thrusts.
The angle of her hips is sharp and he’s going deeper than ever, so deep she feels like he’s crawled inside of her skeleton. One of his hands is back on her hips as he thrusts, grunting, humping into her like a beast. His other hand gently squeezes her throat and Kara’s vision gets a little fuzzy, but the threat makes her crazy, chasing her own air right alongside an orgasm.
As Kara spirals closer to her climax, her pussy tightens, her body beginning to tense with anticipation. She feels every part of him, a needful part of her loving it. Nick’s breathing oh so heavily behind her, his hips pushing into her at a pace he’s decided on, a hand at her hip with bruising pressure. Hard, fast, and punishing.
The sound of their flash slapping together is obscene.
Kara loves it, noises being forced from her lips on every thrust. “ uh…uh...uh !”
“Fuck, listen to your sloppy pussy,” he hisses in that sharp rasp of his. “Filthy girl.”
He’s shifting her hips, tilting them even further, obscenely. Like a whore. He fucks into her with strokes that send Kara into fits of ecstasy, the animalistic feel of it debasing her, making her squirt around him wetly.
Nick loves that, her wetness coating him. His cock thickens inside of her and Kara gasps, “It’s too much.”
“It’s not. You love my cock.”
“Mnm…”
“Take it. Come on. Make me dump my load…in your sweet…cunt.”
He’s like a dog, taking his bitch in heat. Nick snarls filth against her neck, calling her his whore, his slut, his fucktoy, and somehow all of it only makes Kara squeeze his thick meat harder. She gasps, crying out with slight exaggeration, spurring him on repeatedly.
One of her knees slides off the side of the seat from the force of his thrusts, but Nick only uses the change of angle to his benefit, placing his left knee on the ground behind hers, thrusting upwards relentlessly. His dick is shiny with her slick juices.
She’s a hole for his cock and she becomes only that. Something for him to fuck and fill.
The sound of his arousal pushes Kara further into oblivion. It’s sick, wrong, but why does it feel so good? Nick’s slamming into the bundle of sensitive nerves inside of Kara, so harshly that Kara sees stars.
“Yeah,” he grunts, “You’re such a whore.”
“N-no.”
“Yes.” Thrust . “My whore. My slut.” Gasp . “So good.”
With his hand still pressing against her throat, Kara’s air becomes thin, fear and anticipation knocking her off the edge. With a moan of pleasure, Kara clamps down on his cock, milking him hard, her pussy seizing desperately. A gush of wetness fills her and she feels it squirt out around his cock. Seconds go by, mindless, air eluding her as she squeezes around him.
The way he growls tells her that he’s felt her orgasm keenly. His voice cracks a bit. “Why are you such a hot fuck?” Nick barely gets the words out before he slams in one last time, to the hilt, staying there with a snarl. His cock is pulsing inside of her, his balls pressed against her. Owning her. Filling her with his release.
His forehead falls to her spine, resting there as he shudders, gasping.
As he finishes, his hips stutter into hers, rocking them together. “Oh, you slut…” he rasps against her back, teeth scraping her through her thin blouse.
When he slowly pulls out, Kara feels swollen and sore, thoroughly used and abused.
She mentally grimaces as his seed leaks out of her, dripping onto the upholstery.
For a moment, the only sound in the car is their panting, loud and labored. Kara’s face feels wet and she realizes she’s been crying. She wipes her face, embarrassed about that particular display.
There’s a rustling of noise as Nick sits back from her, zipping up his fly and doing his belt. “You okay?” His voice is still hoarse, that husky sound that warms Kara’s belly. “You, ah, didn’t seem to realize it was me immediately.”
No shit . She hadn’t realized he’d been so close to the location specified. That during her slow walk to the parking garage, he’d already been nearby, possibly even waiting to watch her walk in. She envisions him stalking her like prey.
Or, perhaps he’d already been in the area. Going to meet up with Dietrich . Fucking shit.
Slowly pushing her chest up off the seat, Kara sits up, trying to fix her loose shorts back into place. “I figured it out.” Eventually. Her heart is pounding, adrenaline from fear and arousal still working its way through her system. “I can’t…I can’t believe you did that. Like that .”
Now that it’s done, she’s not sure how she can look him in the eye. Rage feels red, like blood, crashing down over the remainder of humiliation she feels.
Twisting so that she’s sitting on the seat, back against the window, Kara barely glances at him before she slaps him hard across the face, panting. The sound is loud in the confines of the car, full of finality.
Aside from the flush on his cheekbones, Nick looks clean-cut and made of stone already. His mouth tightens at her action, but it seems he’s realized he deserved it, because he doesn’t react otherwise. He’s dressed in business casual, his pants buttoned up and belted already. His Caribbean blue eyes are still dilated, attractive, slightly aroused looking.
“I’m not going to apologize,” he says flatly.
“Then don’t.” Kara can’t pull apart her feelings on the matter. The situation is revolting and tasteless, but she enjoyed it, didn’t she?
He leans forward a bit, large hands returning to play with her thighs, noting the indents where his fingers had been. “This was…unexpected.”
“ Really ? What part?”
His hands slide down her legs, leaving a tingling sensation in their wake. Nick scowls. “You’re the one who asked me to be here.”
“I didn’t intend for how you went about it!” Or had she?
They sit for a moment in awkward silence, staring at each other. Then, surprisingly, Nick looks away. “I liked this. It felt-”
“Real?” Kara asks it with a self-depreciating note in her voice. “Like you were actually violating an unsuspecting woman? Making her cum against her will on your cock?”
His lips twitch into a dark smile and Kara’s core clenches at the sight of it. “Something like that.” He leans forward, cornering her in her own car, practically pressing her against the door as his lips nip at hers lightly. “I’ve never been able to act out my darkest fantasy…quite…like…this.”
“You terrified me,” Kara whispers against his mouth, her eyes open, staring into his tropical blues. “That part in the beginning. It wasn’t a fantasy for me. You get that?”
He’s pressing his fingers against her crotch, trying to slip under her shorts to brush through her sopping folds. “You were so good, sweetpea.” Oh, that sandpaper rasp of a voice is low, seductive. Kara whines embarrassingly as his fingers play with her swollen clit. “So, fucking good.”
A gush of his cum oozes out of her and he grins smugly.
The man who terrified her, grabbed in her an empty parking lot, shoved her into her car and fucked her hard is now kissing her sweetly, his inner monster clearly sated, purring with happiness over the unholy turn of events. He nips and sucks at her lips, nose nuzzling against hers.
Kara allows herself to enjoy it, while it lasts. This strange illusion of having pleased him. It almost feels like fondness, the way he presses his lips to hers.
“What sparked this?” He asks casually, his voice settling into his typical coolness as he nips her earlobe. “Calling me?”
Kara twists in the seat as she replies cagily, not wanting to reminisce about the why. “I hate to be a bitch, but it really isn’t something I think you care about.”
He doesn’t take offense. Nick presses his nose to her neck suddenly, inhaling. “You smell like the lake.”
She shivers, feeling him inhale at her collarbone. It feels strangely intimate. The fucking was an empty act of vileness, but this…feels different. “Boating tends to do that, I think.”
He stiffens against her, sitting back. A frown shifts his features, making him look like a stern authority figure. “Boating? You have friends that take you boating during the work week?”
With a sarcastic little noise, Kara looks down at her fingernails. “Now I do, apparently. Quite the scandal.” She doesn’t like the way he’s looking at her. He’s quickly disappearing into that cool mask he wears and strangely she doesn’t want him to distance himself from her entirely so soon after this experience. It would cheapen it.
Idly, she asks something that’s been nagging at her. “Why were you so close to this location? Are you…on your way to meet someone? Your limo buddies? Or is your disgusting libido satisfied for now?”
His eyelids lower slightly, displeased with the line of questioning. “That’s of no consequence-”
“Ah, yes.” She gives him an unkind smile. “You’re meeting up with Dieter later. It’s written all over your face.” She’s jealous, she thinks, which is absurd. But, the idea of some other girl sitting next to him tonight is driving her up the wall the more she lingers on it. “You really are a dog.”
Lips pulling back from his teeth in a sudden expression of anger, Nick leans forward aggressively. “ Dieter ?” His eyes go icy, livid. “You were on his goddamn yacht today. Weren’t you?”
“Oh, do fuck off.”
He grabs her face roughly, hard enough to cause pain. “Answer me.”
Jerking her face out of his punishing grasp, Kara snaps, “What do you care if I was or not? Alright, yes, I was on his yacht. It was delightful . A man almost died. There was a suspicious lack of cocaine. I sat on a sun deck with a morally bankrupt man with far too much money. Gale may have gotten a grey hair. Are you pleased?”
The expression on his face clearly speaks for itself, eyes surprisingly full of emotion. His teeth are gritted. “What. Did. You. Do. To. Him?”
What did she do to Dietrich? Absolutely nothing she cares to repeat here. Well, there really isn’t much to repeat anyway. “I didn’t do anything to him. What’s wrong with you?”
An ugly, almost jealous expression crosses Nick’s features in a wave. The car is becoming suffocating. “Let me rephrase then; what did he do to you?”
Pursing her lips, scowling at him, Kara tries to squirm her way to the front of the car to turn it on so they can get some air. Nick tries to yank her back, but she angrily hisses, “I’m turning on the air, it’s hot as balls in here! Get off me, you absolute troll.” He waits as she turns on the engine, cranking up the air to the max. Kara sighs as the hot air slowly chills.
“So, is that what this was?” Nick says snidely. “You didn’t get what you wanted from him, so you figured you’d call me?”
How did this turn conversation go downhill so fast?
“What has your nuts in a bind? I already told you, nothing happened . The man wants to hire me. I gather he’s doing it to step on you, which is honestly becoming very clear to me, based on your crazy-person reaction.”
Nick scoffs, looking refined in his business casual, even with it being rumpled. He looks away from her, nose flared.
Triumphantly, Kara crows, “I’m right! You’re upset, he’s upset you! Good grief, all I did was take a boat ride and you’ve lost your mind.”
He’s quiet for a moment, looking furious at the continued twist in the conversation, not looking at her. “He’s poaching on my territory.”
The possessiveness in his tone is slightly concerning, considering this affair of theirs was never supposed to mean anything at all. Despite that, Kara feels her heart flutter.
“I’m not yours. You’ve made that very clear since day one,” Kara replies back carefully, because maybe he didn’t mean what he said. “You have no interest in commitment, remember?”
“I don’t have to commit for you to be mine,” he snaps with ill-temper, glancing at Kara sharply.
Oh, this toll bridge troll…what a hypocrite.
“I don’t know,” she whispers nastily, wanting to knife Nick a bit. “I had fun with him, actually.”
“Did you, now? If that’s true, you had fun because he wanted you to have fun. You either dance to his tune or you’ll get another person entirely.” He’s breathing angrily, eyes bright and livid, clear as can be. “You’re not to see him again.”
Well, this is interesting. He’s trying to tell her how to live her life? Who to see? “Jealousy is ugly on you,” Kara whispers. “I don’t belong to you, get that out of your head. If you won’t commit to anything, I refuse to commit to you. That’s how this works . Relationships cannot be one-sided boat wrecks.”
His lips tighten and he looks like he wants to shake sense into her rather physically.
The man is absolutely absurd. “Oh, I’m sorry,” Kara says, giving him a hard look. “Do you want something more between us?”
“No.” His answer is flat and emotionless, which stabs Kara right in the feels. For a second, it hurts too much to breathe, to even formulate a reply.
“Fine. Then get used to not having control of who I see or who I fuck.”
The corner of his mouth twitches. After a moment of looking like he wants to crush her into submission, he deflates. Asking quietly, “Can we do something like this again?”
Something…like…his fantasy?
Giving him a cool look, Kara replies stiffly, “Maybe. If you want to call me and set it up, sure. With me aware .” No way does she want to be caught off-guard like that again. It had felt terrifyingly real.
“Fine. I’ll consider it.” He opens the car door and starts to slide out. Nick gives her one more backward glance and says, “Seeing as that’s what’s going to make you happy, isn’t it? Attention .”
“Just go,” Kara replies cattily, annoyed that he’s figured her out. “Have fun in your fucking sleazy limo. I hope you and Dieter have fun giving each other dirty looks all night.” Kara gives him a thin smile. “Public Service Announcement: he’s in a horrid mood today. Go with God, Nick.”
Stepping out of her car, Nick gives her a stern look, like he’s trying to figure her out. “When is he not in a horrid mood?”
Enjoying having him on the edge, especially after what he just did, Kara crawls into the front seat with as much dignity as she can muster. “I’m not sure yet. Maybe I’ll let you know if I figure it out.”
He reddens, a rush of emotion flashing across his face at the insinuation. Nick steps up to her window and grips her chin firmly, leaning down her kiss her hard. So hard, he nearly takes her breath away. “Have a good night, Kara,” he says huskily, eyes showing a mix of anger and want. “I know tonight I’ll be thinking of how you looked all helpless and desperate, bent over for my cock. Crying. Powerless.” He leans over to her ear and hisses, “It gets me fucking hard. Until next time, sweetpea.”
He releases her roughly, stepping away. Kara watches his back until he’s out of her sight, feeling breathless and strangely lost. Fuck you , she finds herself thinking.
As she drives home, she opens all the windows, needing the combined scent of them to get out of her upholstery. Fast. This was a momentary escape from the other monster in the background of her mind. The one in Arizona, calling her.
It keeps the memory of the voicemail her father left at bay, if only for awhile.
But when she gets home, unable to stop herself, she presses play once more, just to hear her father’s voice, even though it makes her feel like having a heart attack, like vomiting until her guts fall out of her mouth.
Until she feels like digging her own grave.
Later that night, Bianca calls, asking for Kara to go out with her to club.
“No, I’m good. Not really in the mood to socialize or drink tonight,” Kara says into the receiver, sitting crossed legged on her couch, playing with the ice in her glass. Her body aches, bruises turning darker on her hips and thighs. Shameful reminders of what she allowed to happen to her.
Of how she enjoyed it.
“Ugh. Fine. I’ll ask someone else who is in the mood for some dancing. Miss you, bitch,” Bianca replies with fond disappointment. “I feel like you’ve been avoiding me. You are alright, yeah? Are we okay?”
“Yeahyeahyeah,” Kara replies so fast that the words slide into each other. “Miss you, too.”
“Hm. You sound like you’ve been drinking.”
“Stop being a nag, B. I’m just tired. See you next week?”
Bianca goes quiet for a suspicious moment. She senses something; she’s not stupid. “You’d better be just tired. I haven’t heard the ‘yeahyeahs’ from you in years. Go to bed. Call me tomorrow and check in. We’ll dance next week.”
When Kara hangs up, she decides she doesn’t feel like drinking from the glass in front of her, full of ice. Instead, she grabs the fresh bottle of vodka she picked up on the way home and sets her lips to the rim.
The familiar burn down her throat is like a deadly kiss hello.
The warm embrace of feeling nothing at all comes shortly after.