But not anymore.

I took off my gloves and tossed them aside in a frantic effort to pull Lauren against me, feeling her breasts against my body as I kissed her harder. She pulled my shirt out of the waistband of my jeans. I took it off.

Her fingers ran over the planes of my bare chest as we continued to kiss. It was as if we had been deprived of each other for a long time. I stroked her hair and caressed her back.

When she grabbed my hand to place it on one of her breasts, the heat in my veins raged. A tent had formed in my pants, but I ignored it, kissing Lauren’s neck as I cupped her breasts. I could feel her stiff nipples poking my palms through the lace, and when I pinched them gently, she gasped. I felt a shiver go through her, but she continued to undress, unbuttoning her pants, and when she stepped out of them, I took a moment to admire her.

Her panties matched her bra. They were bright red against her pale, flushed skin. The waves of her dark hair cascaded down her shoulders. Her green eyes gleamed with desire, fueling my own.

I had fallen under her trance again.

I led her to the couch. As soon as she had laid down on it, I began worshiping her body with my lips and my tongue. I kissed the smooth valley between her breasts. I sucked on each one through its lace veil and took each stiff peak between my lips. I dipped my tongue inside her navel, then I moved lower.

I heard her suck in a breath as I kissed the front of her underwear. Her sweet scent wafted straight into my nostrils. I pulled the tiny lace garment out of the way and pressed my lips against her. She gasped. I started tasting her, stroking her with the tip of my tongue and lapping up the honey that oozed out of her.

Lauren let out a moan, her hands gripping my hair as her thighs quivered. My hardened cock ached for release, but I continued to ignore it as I gave her pleasure, delighting in every shudder and moan and every sweet drop that I drew from her body.

The moans grew louder, the trembling more intense. Then she pushed me away.

“Jake, please,” she begged, her voice barely a whisper and her eyes glossed over with tears and the haze of lust.

Then she reached between my legs to let me know just what she wanted. Her palm pressed against the bulge in my pants, and it swelled all the more. A growl rumbled in my throat.

“Are you sure?” I managed to ask her.

Lauren nodded, her fingers already starting to unfasten my belt. “I’m sure.”

I kissed her as I did the rest of the work, unbuttoning and unzipping my pants and freeing my leaking cock. It felt good to finally have it out of its cotton prison, but now it pulsed, wanting to be sheathed in soft, drenched skin.

I slipped two fingers inside Lauren just to make sure she was still wet and ready for me, then I guided my cock inside her slowly. When Lauren let out a loud gasp, I paused, but she stroked my hair and nodded her head.

“Just keep going. Please.”

I couldn’t back out even if I wanted to. I was already in too deep. I was only a little more than halfway inside her, though, so I continued to enter her slowly, summoning every ounce of my patience. Lauren wrapped her arms around me. Her moist, velvety skin clung to the shape of my cock.

When I was balls deep inside her, I stopped to catch my breath, then I gave her a long, tender kiss. It was the last time I could manage to be gentle before my lust took over, and my hips began moving on their own, thrusting my cock inside her over and over.

Lauren’s nails dug into my skin. She threw her head back against the armrest of the couch, her eyes half-lidded and her mouth open to let out her cries and her gasps for air. I, too, was running out of breath as I moved faster, pleasure buzzing under my skin that was now dampened with sweat. My heart pounded, its beating rivaled only by the sound of wet skin rubbing against wet skin. Heat filled my balls.

I released deep inside Lauren’s body after a final thrust, my entire body trembling as my pulsing cock unleashed all its pent-up desire. A sound ripped through me, though I could not tell exactly what it was, too lost in the haze of pleasure, which was unlike anything I had ever felt before.

Only after I pulled my spent cock out of Lauren’s body and saw my cum trickling out of her did my trance break, and I felt jolted back to reality, my senses returning.

And with them, a sharp pang of guilt flooded me as I realized what I had just done, what I had been unable to keep myself from doing.

I had just had sex with Lauren, the girlfriend of a man who was like a brother to me.

What had I done?

“Jake?” Lauren’s voice pierced the silence. “Is everything okay?”

No, nothing was okay. I had just ruined everything.

“I’m sorry,” I muttered before walking away.

“Jake, wait.” Lauren grabbed my hand. “You didn’t do anything wrong. If this is about Max, he and I have already talked. He’ll understand.”

I didn’t. Lauren wasn’t just Max’s girlfriend. She was a woman I took under my wing and promised to look after. She was young and innocent, and she had her whole life ahead of her. I was a broken man, a man with nothing to live for, a man with a murky past and no future to offer her.