I snort. “Right, keep telling yourself that.” Heading to the fridge, I open it to grab a bottle of beer. Fucking is thirsty work. Setting the ridged edge of the cap firmly against the edge of the counter top, I give one swift, forceful tap to pop it open. The cap ends up on the floor somewhere, while I bring the cold bottle to my mouth and down it. Some ends up dribbling down my chin and neck, and trickles a path down my chest.

“Forget touching, Aylee, I’ll let you lick it off.”

Her hands ball into fists at her sides as she ducks her head to hide the redness of her face. “Can you please put some pants on?”

“Why? I’m perfectly comfortable.” I push the issue only because it gives me a little high seeing her squirm.

She looks at me through a veil of thick lashes, and something in her mismatched eyes puts me on edge. “Please.”

I rake a hand through my hair. “Jesus, fine.” Annoyed, I search for my jeans and hop into them, purposely leaving the fly and button undone. She’ll fucking take what she gets. “If you’re going to cry, get the fuck out now.”

“I’m not crying.”

“Whatever. Why are you here?”

She fidgets for a moment before shrugging off the black straps of her backpack. Falling to a knee, she tugs the zipper open and rummages through it until she finds what she’s looking for. Leaving her backpack to slouch on the floor, she takes three steps toward me, not quite closing the distance between us but close enough that I can see the splatter of freckles across the bridge of her upturned nose. She’s a little skittish, a little hesitant when she wordlessly extends the thick stack of stapled papers in my direction.

I make no movement to take it. “What the fuck is it?” I snap, tired of her acting like I’m going to jump on her and rub my dick all over her face or some shit. Never mind that she’s the one intruding on my space here.

“It’s…astronomy…” she murmurs. When she clears her throat and swallows, my mind automatically goes to her drinking my load. Wrong, I know. But considering my upbringing, this is pretty mild thinking for me. Besides, she has nice lips. “Mr. Solomon wanted,” she begins, then shakes her blond head and sighs. “I wanted to bring you the homework from astronomy class. It’s actually a group project. We’re supposed to be working in pairs on it. I skimmed through it earlier and it’s essentially us trying to figure out how much light pollution there is in different locations in the sky and take pictures...” Her explanation sputters to a stop. Letting her hand drop to her side when I still don’t take the stapled stack of papers from her, she glances at me. “I feel really stupid right now.” A small, tight smile follows her softly-worded confession. It tugs at the corners of her too-pink mouth. “So, I’m going to go…I’m sorry I bothered you.”

Something niggles at my brain. It’s a nasty little beast with gnashing teeth and sharp claws. Claws that hook into brain matter, tugging at something long forgotten, buried beneath the filth. It feels suspiciously like a conscious.

“Huh?” I muse to myself. Didn’t know I could still feel guilty about anything anymore. But I look at her, Aylee-fucking-stalker-Bennett, and I feel like I just kicked a puppy in the face.

Finding the shirt I was wearing earlier, I bring it to my nose and take a sniff. Clean enough. Slipping it on, I ask, “You hungry?” I’m starving. While I look for my keys and pocket my wallet, I note the lost and confused look on her face. Can’t blame her considering my question came out of the blue. “Look, you can talk circles around me about this shit but I’m not going to be any help to you on an empty stomach. So you either come with me to grab a bite to eat or you get the fuck out and stay the hell away from me.”

“I’ll come.” She says it without the slightest hint of irony. Jesus.

I grin crookedly, “If only,” I say, under my breath, waiting for her to grab her bag before I close and lock the door behind me. Dro’s working at the storage unit he converted into a garage, tonight. Not sure when he’ll be home. He’ll probably end up crashing at Wynn’s place anyway since it’s closer to his work place.

She takes a short lead while I purposely linger a short step behind her. The view isn’t bad. She’s a little on the thin side; the dark gray skinny jeans wrapped around the lower part of her body only shows that she needs to eat more. She’s got a cute little curve to her ass, though. There’s a white camisole shirt beneath the dark red-and-black flannel she left unbuttoned. I’m not sure if she’s aware, but I could make out the outline of her white bra through the shirt earlier. Small breasts that fit her svelte frame. If I had to guess at her bra size, I’d put her somewhere in the lower B-cup range. The black Sperrys on her feet silence her footfalls as we make our way down the concrete staircase.

“How exactly did you get here?” I ask upon exiting the apartment building.

“I rode my—” Her expression goes from calm to distress in seconds. She jogs to the Tow Zone sign near the yellow fire hydrant and stops in front of it. When I catch up to her, she whips her head from one side of the street to the other and back again. Taking off to the left, she does a combination of speed walking and running down the sidewalk.

“Jesus, I don’t need this shit.” The son of God isn’t listening. He never has. With a curse, I set out after her. When I reach her, I grab her arm to stop her progression and whip her around. “Mind telling me what the fuck is up?”

She gives me that abused puppy look again. Wide, mismatched eyes gleaming with tears, brows furrowed, bottom lip tucked between her teeth as she worries it mercilessly until it’s plump and strawberry red from the blood pumping beneath. The visual sends my own blood rushing south, my dick twitching like it knows what’s up. I have to tear my eyes away from her mouth.

“My bike…it’s gone. I rode it here. I locked it right over there.” She points back to the sign a little ways back. “Now, it’s gone. I locked it, I know I locked it.”

I let go of her arm with a scoff, “Maybe you forgot where you are, but around here, the word ‘locked’ doesn’t mean shit.” Looking damn near pitiful, I say a little gentler, “Not sure if this makes you feel better, but my place has been robbed more times than I can count. Don’t take it personally. Think of it as the neighborhood welcoming you to the shittiest part of the city. Instead of a welcome basket, you get your shit taken.”

Her shoulders rise and fall with a long sigh. “I don’t know how I’m going to get home.”

“Maybe you can convince me to give you a ride, on a full stomach. Come on.”

Chapter 10

Aylee

My bike is gone. Not a great loss, but it was my favorite mode of transportation. With it I had an excuse not to rely on either Rachel or Tim for rides. It’d been my small piece of independence. A small taste of the freedom I could one day get. One day soon. College is just around the corner.

“Drop that pussy, bitch…” Those words drag me out of my thoughts. The rap song blasting from the woofers of his truck on the drive to wherever we’re going is aggressive and misogynistic. The only upside is that it saves us from the awkward silence. Glancing to my left, I note that he’s really into the song. He’s bobbing his dark head and raping the lyrics like I’m not in the car. It’s an abrasive song lade with so much talk about sex, every time he curls his full mouth around the word ‘pussy’ a tug of something inexplicable ripples through me. He turns his head in time to catch me rudely staring.

With a cocked eyebrow, he follows with a sly grin, evoking a surge of warmth beneath my skin. I turn away, telling myself not to look at him again for the rest of the drive. It’s hard, but I manage, even when the sound of his throaty, mocking laughter glides along my skin.