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“Just get out of my room, Curtis!”

“Let me say something first.”

“No! You don’t get to call all the shots all the time. And I don’t want to talk about it.” A hoarse and bitter laugh came out of my mouth. “Are you worried I’m going to tattle to my parents? Don’t be because I really don’t ever want to think about or speak of what just happened ever again.”

“Fine.” Curtis circled each of my wrists in his hands and removed them from his chest. He wasn’t hurting me at all, but he kept my hands pinned to my sides. “But you listen to me first.”

I glared at him and didn’t say a word.

“Cassidy,” he began and then sighed.

I looked away, my eyes landing on an inspirational quote poster that Cami had put up in high school, about how to the whole world you may just be one person but to one person you may be the whole world.

“You don’t need to look at me,” he said in a low agonized voice, close enough for me to feel his hot breath. “Just listen. Of course I want to fuck you! I think about it all the time. Here, at work, no matter where I am you’re on my mind. You have no idea how bad I want to rip off that stupid dress you’re wearing, send you to your knees and push my cock in your mouth. I want to bend you over this bed and pound you from behind without a shred of fucking mercy. I want my mouth all over your pussy. I want to come right on those pouty lips of yours and watch you lick it off. I want to use you until you can’t fucking stand up.”

I finally looked at him. He meant it, every word.

Curtis pressed his forehead to mine and let out the saddest of sighs. “You don’t know who I am, the things I’ve done.”

“I don’t care,” I whispered.

He raised his head and looked at me, clear eyed and serious. “You should. Once I held a gun to a man’s head once because he owed a dealer sixty bucks. I lied. I stole. I beat the shit out of other men because someone told me to. I left my family, abandoning my brothers, and chose the life of a gutter rat hoodlum. I can’t even guess how many girls I’ve fucked and I don’t remember if I cared about a single one of them. Probably not.”

A tear rolled down my cheek. “Why are you telling me this?”

Curtis took a step back. “So you’ll know why I’m not going to touch you again. You would need…” His voice trailed off and he hissed out an exasperated breath.

“What?” I demanded. “What is it you’ve decided I need, Curtis?”

“You would need love,” he said.

I glared at him. “I’m not asking for love.”

“But it’s what you deserve.”

And what about him? Was Curtis Mulligan telling me he would never ever fall in love?

Yes.

That’s exactly what he was telling me with his face grim and the outline of his boner still on display through his pants. Curtis didn’t want me because he didn’t want to deal with emotions and attachments. He had enough on his plate and he didn’t want to fall in love, not with me. And I wasn’t invited to fall in love with him.

He put his hand on the doorknob. “You’re perfect,” he said. “And I’m sure nothing bad has ever touched your life, Cassidy Gentry. So let’s keep it that way.”

He walked through the door and closed it softly behind him.

That was it. I had no say in the matter. Curtis Mulligan had passed judgment and would have the last word.

“I’m sure nothing bad has ever touched your life, Cassidy Gentry.”

“You’re wrong,” I whispered to the closed door. “You are so wrong.”

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