Page 73 of Perfect Praise

I squirm. “But I think I’m going to—”

He covers my mouth with his hand, smothering my words, and picks up speed with his other. His voice comes out like steel. “That’s what I want, Maren. If you want it, let go and fucking soak my face. I want you messy. I want you all over me. I want you in every single way Ican have you. Now relax, baby, and make me happy.Take.What. You. Want.”

My entire body responds like it’s no longer connected to my brain. I’m putty, melting under his touch, molding against his mouth. Shaking, messy, gushing putty. And the internet is right—this is fucking incredible.

I’m holding his face tight against me as I grind unapologetically, practically drowning him as I scream his name, and he’s loving every second of it—which only makes me come harder, longer.

Maybe I like to be dominant just as much as I like being submissive because I’m drunk on power.

Maybe good girls can have both.

“Spend the night withme,” I say, scooping her almost lifeless body into my arms after I push myself up out of the pool.

The sun is just about to disappear below the horizon, and it will look beautiful from my bedroom window.

Maren nods into my chest and clings to my shoulders.

When I make it up the stairs and into my bedroom, I dry both of us off with a towel before I slide my comforter back and deposit her into the middle of my bed.

I climb in next to her, and she hitches a leg over my waist and nuzzles back into my chest, smiling to herself and drunk on pleasure. “Have you ever had a girlfriend?”

“Yeah,” I say, twirling my fingers through her hair, “in high school. Gwen Stevens.”

“What was Gwen Stevens like?” she asks.

I laugh. “Out of my league.”

“Hm,” she hums. “I don’t believe you.”

“I was hopelessly in love with her all through middle school.”

“She didn’t know you existed?”

“No, she knew,” I say, rolling my eyes. “She ignored me.”

“Well, what happened? You grew a foot? Or did you become a junior golf champion? No, you got contacts and your braces off, and suddenly, she realized you were hot all along?”

I pull her across my body and pinch her ass. “You think I’m hot?”

“Yes,” she sighs. “You think you’re hot. I think you’re hot. You know I think you’re hot. We’re all in agreement.”

“I like hearing you say it. Especially when you get feisty.”

Maren crosses her hands on my chest and rests her chin on top. She scrunches her nose, and those tiny little brown freckles make my stomach drop. My pinky runs over the bridge of her nose, making me wish I could somehow feel them.

“So, how did you win over Gwen Stevens?” she chuckles.

“I didn’t even know at the time really,” I admit. “I didn’t care about her anymore. I was so focused on golf freshman year. And then sophomore year, my mom tried to get clean for the first time. I was naive, of course, thinking this was it. She’d go to rehab and stay sober. Be my mom again. Elise paid for it out of her retirement, so it also makes me happy that I can now take care of my entire family. They don’t need to worry about things like that anymore.”

I pause, knowing I’m saying too much, but I can’t find it in me to care enough to stop myself. Maren doesn’t even seem bothered, unlike every other person besides my family I’ve ever watched fidget uncomfortably.

“Anyway,” I say, “at a party sophomore year, Gwen was suddenly into me. Out of nowhere. Looking back, it made sense. I’d been hooking up with girls from other schools, keeping my lives separated. It was so much easier that way. I never had to see them or open up to them. They didn’t know much about my life, and I didn’t care about theirs. I think Gwen saw me as a challenge for the first time.”

Maren cocks her head to the side, studies my face with furrowed eyebrows, then chuckles out, “What’d you do? Challenge her right back?”

I can’t keep the smile off my face. I can’t keep my hands off her body, they just roam everywhere. “You think you know me?”

“Yes,” she says slowly, ears pink, before she recovers confidently. “At least, I think I’m starting to.”

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