Page 253 of On a Fault Line

My back presses into the wall and my legs become limp as he takes from me what my body has no choice but to give.

It is dirty and animalistic the way we fuck. Our mouths crash against one another’s, as our bodies rut with the only goal being to get off.

Collins enraptures me.

Claims me.

He reaches between us to play with my clit, pressing into it aggressively and circling his fingers like an expert.

I am the puppet, and he is the master.

After a few seconds, I can’t take any more and skyrocket into oblivion.

“Yes, Princess,” he hisses, joining me in paradise.

He marks me with his seed, spilling some out of me and down my ass crack, as he lazily pushes inside a few more thrusts.

I stay clutched to him like a bear cub, as I come down from my high. But then Collins kisses behind my ear and plays with my hair, and it reminds me how badly I just sent him mixed messages.

“We can’t do this again.”

He pulls back his upper body to get a better look at me. Then his eyes narrow with realization of what I’m about to do. “We’ll be doing it as often as we can.”

“This wasn’t makeup sex, Collins.”

“No?”

“It was goodbye sex.”

A laugh flutters out from deep in his chest, as his eyes flash back to mine. “Believe what you want”—he kisses a path from my ear to the sensitive skin at the base of my neck—“but I know the truth.”

I push against his chest. I can’t keep breaking my heart over and over again. “Stop.”

My one word makes Collins halt. Then he helps me to my feet, making sure I’m on stable ground before letting go.

What am I doing? I’m supposed to be having a date with one man, not fucking around with a different one.

“Penny…”

I fix my dress, smoothing down the fabric. I fluff my hair so I don’t look like I’ve been doing anything in here other than using the facility.

“I need to go.”

“Then go with me.”

“No,” I snap. “I need space to think.”

“You can think with me. We can sleep in separate bedrooms. We can talk if you want to talk. And I won’t pressure you if you don’t. I just want you to be in close proximity.”

“You just don’t get it.”

“Then explain it to me over dessert.”

Feeling suffocated, I push open the restroom door just to find a man in a restaurant logo shirt waiting outside in the hallway.

Collins’s arm stretches out, and several one-hundred-dollar bills are placed into the palm of the worker, who then quickly retreats through another door labeled Employees Only.

Of course, he’d get someone here on his side to stand guard while he made his move.

---