Page 19 of Mastered By Desire

My place is small, so it takes her two seconds to retrieve our drinks. She grabs the last slice of pizza and plops down on the couch in her usual spot.

“What do you want to watch?” I grab the remote and pull up my streaming service.

“Funny, fast-paced, maybe a little violent?” She takes a big swig from her beer bottle.

“I got just the thing.” I select a show that came up in my recommendations a couple weeks ago. It had looked perfect forLeah, so I decided to wait to watch it until she and Danica came over again.

And here she is. But without my sister.

“Hey.” She wipes the grease from her hands with a paper napkin and tosses it into the empty pizza box. The movie is starting, but it’s the boring opening shots. “I know you didn’t want me here. I promise I’ll start looking for an apartment, first thing tomorrow.”

“There’s no rush.” God help me, there should be. I am thinking some very perverted thoughts about seeing her naked.

“How come you were always so nice to me? I never deserved that. Danica and I were total brats to you.” She stares at me, belief and trust shining in her beautiful eyes. Her lashes look impossibly long right now, as the sunlight quickly fades outside. The blue of her irises darkens behind them.

I force myself to look away and laugh, remembering some of their harmless pranks. “When you two childproofed my dresser drawers, I swore we’d be enemies forever.”

“But you didn’t hold a grudge.”

“Over a silly prank? Nah.” I have to minimize the way she’s making me sound, like I’m a good guy who never had any ill will or bad intentions. I crave her admiration, her belief. But I don’t deserve it.

She offers me a sweet smile and makes ahmmsound before turning back to watch the movie.

It’s no wonder she’s so popular with the students she tutors. She has this uncanny way of making a person think they’re worthy, that they’re inherently good.

Even if they’re inherently bad.

It’s probably why she’s attracted so many asshole boyfriends who could never deserve her.

We eat our pizza and drink our beer, laughing at the movie and looking over to see the other’s reaction. It’s just like old times.

Except now I know what she looks like naked. I know what she looks like when she comes.

I push those things from my mind. They aren’t helpful right now.

The hard work of packing and hauling her furniture and belongings catches up to me. I struggle to stay awake, but I fail.

Next thing I know, the room is dark. The sun’s gone down, the movie’s over.

Leah is snuggled up against me. She smells sweet and a little sweaty from all the work we did today. But she isn’t gross—she’s gorgeous.

Her hand is on my chest. One of her legs is thrown over both of mine. It looks like I stretched out while I slept, and so she stretched out alongside me.

My cock feels harder than a tire iron in my jeans. Fuck. If she wakes up, she’s going to feel it.

So what if she feels it?a nasty little voice in my head says.Three nights ago, she had it in her mouth.

Yeah, I gotta get up. I scoot to the side. Leah gives a soft moan of protest and rocks her hips, rubbing herself against me. The heat of her pussy seeps through our clothes—I can feel it against my thigh.

Fuck fuck fuck fuck.

I try again to move.

“Oh,” she says in soft surprise, her eyes opening. “How did we—crap, sorry, Dmitri. I didn’t mean to tackle you in my sleep.”

But she doesn’t move away. I stare at her lips, wanting to kiss her mouth. I know how I’d do it, too, controlling the angle of her head, restraining her arms with one hand so I can explore her with the other. After watching her touch herself, I know howshe’d want to be touched. I could shove a hand into her jeans, yank those panties aside?—

I pull back, shaking my head. I can’t do this. Shouldn’t do this. Can’t, shouldn’t, won’t—doesn’t matter.

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