ARNAZ
My breath pounds against my ribs as I sink through the floor.
“Are you okay?” His voice cracks as he pulls out and kisses the inside of my thigh.
I suck in a breath.
For the first time in weeks, I feel inside of my body.
He removes the condom and ties it before tossing it in the wastebasket.
I groan.
His gaze shoots to me. “It hurts?”
“No.” I swallow.
I just imagined what that dick down would have felt like raw.
Terrifying.
I barely survived tonight.
Fuck my life. I know what Salem The Silencer feels like inside me.
If the nighttime internet stalking was bad before...
But it felt like he was letting go.
“Hey—” I start, but he cuts me off.
“Should I stop holding out for you?”
A hoarse “No” is trapped in my chest as I shoot to sit up.
Hewasletting go.
But that was the first time I let someone make love to me.
At least, I think that’s what that was.
I always thought when it happened, it’d feel just like that—like getting off wasn’t the goal.
“Is it just sex for you?” he asks. “Is that why you disappear after?”
What?“You were there. You saw what I saw.”
His brows draw together. “There, where?”
“At my sister’s. With my family.”
“I’m not following.” He shifts closer. “Why would what I saw make you disappear?”
“Why would it make you stay?” It’s out before I can mask it with something less direct.
“You and your family are going through a rough patch. Why?—”
“No.” I shake my head. “It’s not a rough patch. It’s been that way my whole life.”