“No, that’s not…I just can’t reward you with anything. I can’tgiveyou anything for all this. When it’s all done, what…what do you think is going to happen? I spend one night on a couch, and you go and spend thousands of dollars and put in all this time, and…”

Nico’s face darkens. He drops the paint roller, stepping up to me.

“And you think I’ll make you spread your legs for me as athank you?” he asks. “We both know I wouldn’t have to put in half this fucking effort to get you on your back for me, Ava. It never takes much. The right tone and a firm touch, and I’d have you trembling for me.”

I swallow hard as he calls me out so plainly.

“But if you need me to have some selfish ulterior motive to make you feel better about this, then fine, I’ve got one for you.”

“Nico, that’s not...”

He keeps approaching.

“There won’t be a single place you can look in this room where you won’t think about me. I’m in the fucking walls, Ava. I’ll make the bed you lay in, I bought the pillow where you rest your head. You think Vinny left a mark on this room; Iamthe room. And I want you to lie in here and think aboutme.”

He tilts my chin up, his gaze boring into mine.

“Does that do it for you, gorgeous? Or can it just be that I want you to feel better?”

We stare at each other, burning up in each other’s atmospheres as we plummet through the tension.

Nico curses softly under his breath. I see the way he wants me, the way he’s even starting to question his own good intentions. He swipes a dab of paint onto my nose, then steps around me, throwing his shirt onto the floor and marching toward my shower in an angry huff. I sigh in his absence, scrubbing away the paint and finally breathing in the cool air drifting in from the window, as if it can help clear my head. I try to tell myself it’s the paint fumes making me lightheaded, but it isn’t.

I sit down on the floor of my gutted room, listening to the water running. My imagination spins, picturing him just a few feet away, all those muscles and faint scars glistening under running water.

Through the drum of water on the shower floor, the faintest sound rises—the rhythmic meeting of skin on skin. My breath catches as I strain to hear. I crawl to the door, pressing my ear against it. Nico’s soft, elevated breathing and the working of his hand mingle with the rush of the water. My body rushes with chills as I hear him taking care of himself, knowing what those thoughts are spiraling into.

Does he know I can hear him? Does he want me to?

My pussy clenches tight, jealous of Nico’s hand.

I bring myself to my feet and slip into the bathroom. Behind the glass, Nico is an abstract blur of a thousand different water droplets, his powerful shape leaning forward, one hand moving steadily at his waist. He sees me there, his posture changing, but he doesn’t stop. The heat in my belly roars to life as he keepsgoing, staring at me through the haze of glass, his hand working hard at his cock. The soft, pleasureful breaths are so delicious, like he just can’t help himself.

I drop my clothes to the floor and slide open the door, stepping into the steam with him. For the first time, Nico pauses, unsure. I reach out, running my hand along his stiff cock slowly, keeping him hard.

“A man goes on and on about how much heownsme, and then uses his own hand,” I say, daring to glance up into his gaze. “I should be offended.”

“Clearly not too offended.”

“You better hope not,” I say, pushing him to the back of the shower and dropping to my knees, where I put my mouth on Nico’s cock for the first time. He goes still, sensing the threat and the suggestion, his hand gripping my hair. The tension runs through his body, caught between urging me to go on and pulling me off him. I lean forward and press my lips to the tip of Nico’s cock, the softest and most delicate kiss. His grip lessens, his breath coming through his teeth as I’m slowly allowed to work my lips around the huge girth. I take my time, getting to know him. My tongue swirls slowly around his tip.

I never dared to play with Nico like this before, but there’s a thrill of power that comes with having a man’s most possible pain and most profound pleasure in my complete control. I wonder if this is how Nico feels when he takes charge of me, playing god just to hear the other person worship and pray with every breath.

“I’ve never done this before,” I tell him, giving him a teasing little frown, “and take it from me, first times canhurt.”

Nico’s breath shudders as I fully wrap my lips around his cock, but he still doesn’t stop me. With water dripping through my hair, I take his cock into my mouth. I like making Nico sweat, like having him on edge just a little—bracing for the worst—but I’m careful with him. I ease off, licking a slow stripe from base to tip, tracing the thick vein pulsing up the underside of his cock. I can’t imagine actually hurting him after he went through all that trouble for me today, and I try my best to imitate what I think a man would like. I branch off to follow the shape of his head and get my mouth around him again, this time trying to take him into my mouth and suck him off.

Nico’s cock doesn’t make it easy. It’s big and unwieldy, and it hurts my jaw just to get my mouth all the way around it and keep it open like that. I fight back the flush of embarrassment as I struggle. Nico’s hand comes to rest on the back of my head, his low voice uttering instructions.

“You can take a little more,” he urges, the single sentence setting off a fire inside me as Nico takes charge. He pushes me down another inch, and suddenly, he’s right. My jaw opens wider, lips dragging along the skin as I catch on to the pace. He wraps my hand around the base of his cock, guiding me to move it in rhythm with my head. It’s the only real way I can pleasure all of him, moving in one steady motion, hand and mouth in tandem.

“That’s it.” He shudders. The hand on the back of my head urges me faster but not too deeply, even when his fingers knot into my hair and his thighs tense. He groans, leaning back slightly as I hit my stride.

“You think you’re so big and bad, don’t you?” he asks, his thumb scrubbing against my jaw as he gazes down at me with my mouth already stuffed full. “Like I couldn’t take you by the hair and fuck your throat if I wanted. You’d never really resist me. You can’t. You’d choke on my cock just to please me. Look how pretty you look, on your knees with my cock in your mouth.”

The fantasy lets me take him a little deeper, ignoring my urge to gag as I get used to him filling up my mouth and gliding along the back of my tongue. I move faster, greedier, wanting more of him than I can take. My breaths shudder through my nose, lungs burning and jaw aching.

His grip tightens, his breathing changing.