Page 38 of Desperate Needs

Fuck.

I was tempted to do the sign of the cross and that was something I hadn’t done since I got expelled from St. Al’s Prep two weeks shy of graduation for fighting.

Father Chekhov let me earn my diploma that summer, though, which was likely due to my mother showing up at his office and plying him with her famous oatmeal raisin cookies than it had to do with any concern from the priest on my part.

Still, I went through with it for her sake. Speaking of which, I owed my sister and mother a check in call soon.

They were living down the shore these days, and I didn’t get out there much. Siobhan, my older sister, took care of Mom now that her husband was gone.

He died early of prostate cancer, and she never had any kids. She worked at a library, but I sent them all the money they could ever need. They were tough, those women, but I supposed they had to be.

Tough but kind, too, where my father never had been.

Clementine was like that.

Sweet and brave. Bold in her honesty and frank speech. Damn, I really liked her.

I checked my watch again.

6:58.

She could just be caught in traffic. Traveling from Manhattan to Jersey City was a bitch at any time, day or night.

I was about to stand when a shadow fell across the pristine white tablecloth. My gaze flicked up and suddenly she was there.

“Sorry I kept you waiting.” She stood there and smiled, a little breathless with her cheeks pink from the cold.

I stood up and cupped her neck, dragging her to me for a hello kiss. It was something I had no intention of giving her until I found myself already moving towards her.

I couldn’t help it. It was like someone else was pulling my strings.

My emotions were everywhere.

I felt angry she’d cut it so close. Relieved that she was okay. And so fucking needy just to taste her vanilla orange essence burst across my tongue.

This pull was unavoidable. It was built of need and desire. Of desperation and hope.

I moaned as I held her even closer, wondering at the fierceness of my emotions.

She drew me in like a comet to the sun.

She was like that, too. So bright and hot, with the power to give life or destroy it all based on her whim.

Fuck.

This was getting out of hand.

Once I logged in today and saw my little virus was working, doing its job slowly so as not to be detected, I should have been done with her.

In essence, I was. Her part in this was over.

But I just couldn’t let go. Besides, what harm could one more taste really do?

Clementine and I were fire together.

Insatiable.

Volatile.

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