Page 77 of So Steady

I can’t,he thought, descending the grimy stairs.I can’t fuck her in her ex’s bed, that’d make me as big a prick as he is.

But he was hard against his thigh, his head full of how she’d looked and felt the first and last time they’d fucked. Even the sight of Mrs Harris posted behind her curtains wasn’t enough to put him off. If anything, it made him want to do it more. Fuck this uptight crusty house and this uptight crusty neighbourhood, if she was down, he was down.

When he returned to Nicole’s bedroom, sex didn’t seem to be on her mind. She was deep in a dresser drawer, piling old receipts on the floor.

“I should have filed this ages ago,” she muttered. “I can claim loads of stuff in here.”

“There something else I can do?”

“No, I’m almost done. See what I did with Aaron’s stuff?”

Noah looked around. A big pile of clothes, books, the duvet and bed sheets, and a tonne of miscellaneous trash had been humped into the far corner of the room. “Wanna burn it?”

She laughed. “Kind of, but it’s not worth it. Aaron’ll just think I did it because I still love him, and I don’t need that.”

He watched her pile the receipts into a shoebox, around a pair of sparkly heels. “They’re sexy.”

“Oh! Thanks! I’ve never had a guy be nice about my shoes before.”

He nodded, hating her ex some more. “Want me to take the boxes out to the car?”

“I guess, but I have no idea where I’ll put all my clothes and stuff in Brunswick. With all three of us home, there’s hardly any space.”

“What about at my place? It’s not far from yours and I’ve got a spare bedroom now Paula’s gone.”

She beamed at him. “Oh, that would be amazing! Thank you.”

There was another hot moment, both staring, neither of them talking. A bolt shot through him—her nipples were pushing against her t-shirt. His hands became loose fists. He wanted to suck them more than he wanted his next cigarette, his next breath. She stood, a little unsteady on her feet, and pulled out one of the top dresser drawers, walking to her bed.

“I’ve kind of forgotten what’s in here, actually.” She upturned the drawer and colourful stripes spilled across the mattress. “Oh, um…”

She’d just tipped a rainbow of lingerie onto the bed; silk thongs, garter belts and bras. Filmy, frothy shit that would look incredible on her. She glanced up at him, a flash of faux-shocked eyes. She was hoping he’d do something about it. Well, she’d come to the right place. In this pretty, ugly house full of expensive bullshit and filth, he was going to fuck her like they just invented fucking.

Nicole was gathering up her tiny panties like autumn leaves. He didn’t remember crossing the room, it happened like a cutaway in a movie. One minute he was near the door, the next he’d snatched her up. She tilted her mouth to him, offering, and he took it without question. The kiss was like melting into springtime snow. “I like all that silky shit.”

Nicole’s lips were red with kissing. She looked more like an elf princess than ever. “Really?”

“If I could take my hands off you, I’d ask you to try them on.”

She kissed him again. Her mouth was hungry, desperate, demanding to be taken out of her head and into pleasure. For the second time that day, he conceded. Only this time he didn’t have the willpower to play games. He grabbed her ass and hauled her up against him. She moaned, wrapping her legs around his back. “Noah.”

God, the way she said his name in that bratty, urgent whine. He cupped her right tit, pinching her nipple. “Yes, baby?”

The blue of her eyes shrank as her pupils blew outward. “Do me again, please? Do me like you did before?”

The longing in her voice made his cock throb. She wanted to fuck him in her ex’s bedroom. The dirtiness of the request transmuted his fear that he was exactly what was spray painted on his front door. What was the point of being a big, ugly bastard who scared people if you didn’t occasionally get a transgressive fuck out of it?

“What was it like before?” he asked.

“Hard. Mean.”

A sinking sensation. Concrete. Swamp water. It shouldn’t have been so shitty—knowing she felt about him the way he did. That the thrill factor, and the fact he owned a van were the only reasons they were here. But it was, and it pissed him off.

“Noah?”

He turned Nicole around and pushed her into her rainbow lingerie. “I can do whatever I want. You’d better do what I want, too.”

“I will.” She slid out of her shorts to expose a soft blue thong that framed her ass like a dream. “Please hurry—he might come home.”

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