Page 32 of Caught from Behind

The backs of my eyes burn like motherfuckers.

I nod at her then maneuver back onto the road.

Drive as carefully as I ever had all the way back to her house.

We’re silent.

But her voice, her words ring through my mind.

It wasn’t your fault.

I’ve never told anyone—because I thought it was. And wasn’t it?

I told her no.

I told her no.

I close my eyes for a heartbeat, force that down, and park in front of Ella’s place, opening my door and climbing out, making it around to her side as she puts her foot on the pavement and stands.

Her gaze comes to mine, unfathomable, but she doesn’t say anything.

I still hear her voice sliding through my mind.

It wasn’t your fault.

We walk up to the front door, side by side, shoulders brushing.

I wait next to her as she punches in the code, as the lock whirs and retracts, as she turns the handle and pushes the wooden panel inward.

But when I start to turn away, to head back to my car, she grabs my arm.

“Stay,” she whispers when I rotate to face her.

“Just…stay.”

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Ella

He takes a long time to fall asleep.

But I take longer, even though I force my body to go lax in his arms, to keep my breathing even and my eyes closed.

His face when I’d asked him to stay—disbelief and fear and…yes, panic.

But he’d locked it down, let me guide him inside and upstairs, though he’d stopped me so that he could double-check the lock to the front door, to the garage—something that filled my belly with butterflies.

Or maybe…well, maybe it was the fact that I was inviting a man to my bed.

To sleep.

Not to fuck.

Not to lose myself in the bliss of an orgasm.

But to…offer comfort.

I don’t do that. I can’t do that, can’t get so attached. I just get down to business, make sure both of us are satisfied and feeling good. Sex is just mutual pleasure before going our separate ways.

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