Page 121 of Begin Again Again

“A bit. But I overdid it. I kept wanting it to be like the first time.”

“What was the first time like?”

Byron’s smile softened, his eyes going all dreamy. “Something else. Going from…” he hovered a hand over the bedspread. “To just…”

He raised his hand as high as it would go. “I didn’t know youcoulddo that. Feel that. It was like…”

“What?”

“Being a kid again.” He turned his face away.

“It’s okay, you know,” she said, touching his shoulder. “Sometimes you get caught up in stuff and it takes on a life of its own. It doesn’t make you a failure.”

“I know, but I should have listened to Sal. They said I didn’t have the right vibe for it and they were right.”

Beth smiled, charmed by the idea of this big strong guy getting schooled on drugs by his little sister. Byron seemed to know what she was thinking. He threw an arm around her and pressed his nose to hers. “Being with you is like drugs.”

“Oh really?”

“Yeah, the best drugs there are.”

Beth told him, “Next time you fuck me, could you maybe be rough?”

“Rough how?”

“I don’t know,” she said, feeling like a big weirdo. “Pin my arms down? Make me suck your cock and keep going until I gag.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Just… sometimes I want to feel like I don’t matter to you. Like I’m your groupie or something and you’re just using me.”

He shifted closer, his cock hard against her thigh. “How about now?”

“Now works.”

Forty minutes later, Beth was straddling his lap, her ass singing, the last of her make up running down her face. Byron’s hand pulled her hair tight as he thrust inside her. “You dirty fucking whore, you love it, don’t you? You love getting fucked by me.”

“Yes!”

“Say it.”

“Yes Byron, I love being fucked by you.”

“And I don’t even know your name. How does that feel?”

It felt like Beth was about to come.

The sun dimmed behind Mrs J’s chiffon curtains, and they huddled closer together.

“I fucked things up with Derek,” he said.

Beth waited.

“I was a shit friend. It was a shit time.” He blew out a breath. “It was right after Audrey left for London. I was in a bad way. Fucking things up and ignoring them. Kind of reeling, you know?”

Beth nodded, because she did know. She’d spent most of her twenties that way.

“My leg was killing me. I’d been in rehab for months, but I knew it was over, or maybe I just… I dunno. I went out to some place and there were these girls—they knew who I was, one from school and one from footy—and they asked to come home with me. So, we went back to my place, but I couldn’t…”

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