Page 74 of Too Late

“Well too bad. I’m gonna tell you all about it anyway.”

I sit on the bed again, but this time I sit all the way back until I’m against the headboard. I cross my feet and rest the gun on my thigh. “She was eighteen,” I tell him. “Innocent. Untouched. Poor girl had been taking care of her brother for so long she never even had the chance to be a kid. To go out, to have fun, to experience guys. Would you believe it if I told you I’m the first guy she ever kissed?”

He’s staring ahead now, refusing to look at me. I can see the veins in his neck bulging. I smile and get even more detailed with my story because I like watching him squirm.

“She wasn’t inexperienced because she was shy, let me make that clear up front. She was inexperienced because she didn’t trust easily. Grew up with a pathetic mother, didn’t even know her father. So, when I came into the picture, she didn’t know what to think. Didn’t have any exes to compare me to, so I didn’t have anything to live up to. No one to outdo. I just knew if I was better to her than her own parents had ever been, she’d think she was blessed. And I was, Carter. I was so fucking good to her.

“Thankfully, she wasn’t the type of girl who wanted to take things slow. The first time I took her on a date, I kissed her before we even got to the restaurant. Pushed her against a brick wall in some alley and she liked it so much, it was like she wanted to drown on my saliva.”

Fucking hell. My dick is hard now just thinking about it.

“I had been to that particular restaurant before, so I knew the perfect time of night to take her so that it wouldn’t be crowded. And I knew the perfect table to request so that we’d have privacy. She couldn’t keep her hands off me after we sat down. It was like I unleashed this need in her that I didn’t even know girls were capable of feeling. And it made me want to bend her over the table, lift up her dress, and fuck her right on top of the appetizers.

“I’ll never forget that dress. It was a cute little white dress with tiny straps and yellow flowers all over it. It felt like silk in my hands, and I couldn’t stop touching it. She wore these white sandals that showed off her pink toes, and she had slipped the shoes off at some point during dinner. Are you a foot guy, Luke?”

He’s staring at me now. Not sure when that happened, but he doesn’t look as calm as he did right after I hit him.

I was right. This is the only subject that breaks him. I smile and keep going.

“The whole time we ate, I charmed her. Told her how beautiful she was, how special she was. How what she was doing for her brother was the most compassionate thing I’d ever witnessed. And the entire time I was feeding her exactly what she needed to hear, my hand was slowly inching up her thigh. By the time they brought the dessert menu, I had already slipped my hand under her panties. The waiter had barely disappeared when my finger went inside of her.”

I blow out a breath, trying to control my pulse. I can’t even fuckingthinkabout it without getting worked up. “It’ll be difficult describing what happened next, because you just had to be there. But I’m going to try.”

I sit up on the bed and run the gun across my cheek. “Her pussy … holyfuck. It was the warmest, wettest, tightest thing I’d ever touched. I wanted to crawl under the table and bury my mouth against it. And she was so fuckingresponsive.

“Her very first orgasm hit her in the back of that Indian restaurant. It was fucking beautiful.” I sigh at the memory, then laugh when I realize I never even got to the good part.

“I had to have her, so I drove her straight back to my place. But of course, after we made out for half an hour, she asked me to wait. She said we weremoving too fast. But I had to have her, Luke. I couldn’t fuckingbreathe. So, I did something you probably do with girls and I cuddled with her for two goddamn torturous hours. Waited until the middle of the night, and then I started kissing her. Touching her. She woke up with my head between her legs. Didn’t take her long before she was begging me for it. The firstnight, Luke. She had just gone on her first official date. Just had her first kiss. Her first orgasm. And then, like the miracle that it was, I started to fuck her.”

He looks like he’s about to vomit, so I keep going.

“She screamed when it happened. She even cried a little, probably because I didn’t go easy on her. Icouldn’t. The marks left by my headboard as I slammed it against the wall are still there, actually. I might show them to you before I kill you.”

I stand up and take a step toward him. “After two years I still think about that night. About what it felt like being the first person inside of her. The first person to make her come. The first person to make her scream out a name. And every time I look at her, I love her a little bit more knowing that what happened between us will always be sacred. That I’ll get all those firsts and all those lasts. That she would never allow another man to kiss her. To touch her. To fuckingruinher for me.”

I calmly close the gap between myself and Luke and I squat in front of him again. “If I find out you took all that from me, she’ll be worthless to me, Luke. Excuse me while I go upstairs to retrieve her. I think the three of us need to have a serious conversation.”

I send two of the fuckers back inside to keep an eye on Luke while I run upstairs to retrieve Sloan.

FORTY

SLOAN

The first thing I did after running upstairs to my bedroom was run to my nightstand for my phone. It wasn’t there. I looked on the floor, the bed,underthe bed.

And then I remember Asa running up here right before dinner.

The bastard hid my phone.

As soon as I heard the shouting from downstairs, the scuffling, the crashes … I ran to my closet to hide. Less than ten seconds later, someone pounded on the door. When I heard the words, “FBI, open up!” I was filled with relief.

I crawled out of the closet and swung open the door, but I immediately knew something wasn’t right. The agent shoved me into the bedroom and slammed the door behind me, pointing a gun at me. He ordered me on the bed and hasn’t allowed me to move or speak since he walked in.

It’s been a while now. Too long. I can sometimes make out the sounds of Dalton’s voice. Sometimes Jon’s or Kevin’s.

But not Asa’s.

And not Luke’s.

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