Page 68 of Wild and Bright

Nothing will ever be the same after tonight.

I pull her body against mine and squeeze her, wishing I could consume her. Wishing I could own her. Keep her locked away and never release her.

Wishing I never had to feel this skin-crawling uncertainty.

When she whimpers, I cover her mouth with mine, as if I can swallow the sound. She starts rocking faster and harder, and the pleasure that radiates through my body makes me hiss. I let her maintain the pace she needs to get herself off, but when she reaches a hand between our bodies and starts rubbing her clit, I grab her arm and yank it away.

“No, that’s mine.” I place my finger on her clit and flick up and down.

Her laugh sounds almost like a sob. “I love it when you say dom things like that.”

I clench my jaw as a pleasurable wave radiates from my core to the tips of my fingers and toes. “I’m not playing.”

“I know.” The rasp of her voice tells me she’s close to coming.

She presses both hands on the wall behind the couch, pulling her chest wide and exposing her beautiful tits. She starts rocking her hips rapidly, throwing her head back. Her eyes glaze over as her pussy clenches around my dick in pulses, and it’s too much. My whole body grows taut with electricity, my hips jerking so hard I lift her into the air.

Minutes later, we’re both still breathing heavily. Her head rests against my shoulder as I cradle her in my arms. I trail my fingers up and down her back. When her breathing grows rhythmic, I grab her shoulders and shake her. “Don’t fall asleep. I’m not done with you.”

She hums quietly. “It’s your fault I’m sleepy.”

I smile. “No way. You could always fall asleep anywhere. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you watch a movie all the way through. You usually fell asleep in the first twenty minutes, or you’re on your phone the whole time.”

She sighs, a sweet little sound that I fear will echo on loop in my head in quiet moments if I don’t make sure that she’s mine for good. “I’ve just always had a hard time…being still. Do you know what I mean?”

I do, surprisingly. I know exactly what she means. It’s why I started writing music.

“I don’t like being alone with my thoughts,” she says as she shifts from my lap, and I grunt when my dick slips out of her. “I don’t like reflecting, to be honest. And I know this is a hot take, but I don’t think anything good comes out of it. I think we always need to be moving forward.”

The vulnerability in her tone tugs at me. I keep my voice hushed when I speak. “I tend to be the opposite of you. I fixate on my mistakes, and the mistakes of other people, and all it does is make me unhappy. It’s not productive.”

She snorts as she slips from the couch. After picking up her tank top, she pulls it over her head. “If I dwelled on my mistakes, I’d fucking kill myself.”

Rage flares so suddenly that the world around me starts to buzz, and I have to keep myself from reaching out and grabbing her. I don’t care that her tone was light. I don’t care that she didn’t mean it. “Don’t you ever say anything like that again. That’s a fucking awful thing to say, and I’ll throw your ass out of my house if I ever hear it again.”

She glances up as she slips on her yoga pants, her expression utterly incredulous. “Jesus. I didn’t mean it literally.”

“I don’t care. It fucking pisses me off.”

“Oh, chill out.”

Her dismissiveness makes my heart pound against my throat. “Your self-pity irritates the fuck out of me. You didn’t have to make these mistakes. You’re completely in control of what you do. You do it all deliberately because you can’t stand it when people try to corner you.”

Her nostrils flare. “Are you talking about you trying to control my every move?”

“No, I’m talking about how you think you have the right to behave like a child because you have a parent who’s hard on you. We all have our shit. I’ve been terrified my brother is dead multiple times. I’m always waiting to hear the bad news, but it doesn’t give me an excuse to treat other people like shit.”

“Excuse me?” She grits her teeth. “I don’t just have a parent who’s hard on me. I have a vindictive, miserable bitch who constantly reminds me of my worst mistakes. And I’ve made mistakes. I’ve been really careless with Cadence…” Her voice breaks, her eyes widening as if she’s surprised by her own rising emotion.

Guilt washes over me suddenly. I reach out and pull her close. She lets me cradle her in my arms, but then again, maybe she’s still so bewildered by her emotions that she’s forgotten she’s mad at me.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper against her hair.

“When Cadence was a year and a half, I fell asleep in the bathtub with her.”

I force my body to go very still, not wanting to spook her out of what she’s about to tell me. I get the feeling she wouldn’t be telling me at all if she hadn’t been caught off guard.

“I wasn’t drunk,” she says, and I detect some defensiveness in her tone. “I know that’s what you’re thinking.”

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