you. I always will.”
She sits down on my cock, sliding down the entire length of me. I have never felt pleasure like this, never had sex like this. I find myself just staring at her, completely captivated. I could die right now, content, with her pussy wrapped tightly around me like sucking lips.
I breathe in the smell of her, and then the base of my cock is on fire, and I can’t hold myself back anymore. I’m roaring, I realize, like a fucking lion.
“Hazel, have you—”
“Don’t worry about me,” she whispers, bouncing, twitching, playing me like no woman ever has. “Just finish for me, Carlo. I want to ride you until you’ve got nothing left to give.”
I roar wordlessly, wrapping my arms around her and hugging her close.
We roll over and over until we’re at the edge of the bed, the silk sheets wet and crumpled, our limbs contorted as my release washes through me. But really, it’s washing through us both. Hazel is trembling, her orgasm coming just as mine ends, an aftershock.
“Fuck,” I whisper. “Jesus—just, fuck.”
Hazel immediately stands up, reaching for her shorts.
“What are you doing?” I ask.
She spins, my come dripping down her leg. And yet still she looks dignified and beautiful. This woman is fucking magic.
“Are you going to give me an answer?” she demands.
I shake my head. “I don’t know what you want from me.”
“That’s what I thought.” She tugs on her shorts, not bothering with the panties. “I don’t think you’re the asshole you wish you were, Carlo.” She makes for the door, hand pausing on the knob. “But I think you do a really good job pretending.”
She leaves me to stare after her, not entirely sure what just happened. I thought I was going to assert my dominance, to remind this girl who’s really in charge. But if I thought that just by kidnapping Hazel that made me the boss, I was dead-wrong. Hazel is nobody’s prisoner.
I might just be hers.
16
Hazel
It’s the evening after I rode Carlo like my life depended on it. Alda and I are in the kitchen, making a soufflé and chatting. I keep thinking about how Carlo looked when I was on top of him.
There was hidden meaning in his eyes. Carlo wants me, but the asshole just won’t admit it.
Or maybe I’m being desperate. Maybe I need to go back to Hulk-mode, room-smashing Hazel. I just wish things were simple. I’m too confused about all of it.
“Where are you, dear?” Alda asks, eyeing me closely. She has the same jet-black hair as Carlo, completely straight, framing her face. Her eyes are the same blue-green and her face is round and kind. The scar isn’t even that noticeable, really. I’m drawn to her maternal smile. “You’re like Emily, always thinking.”
I scoff. “At least Emily’s thinking makes her cold, hard cash. All mine does is give me a headache.”
Alda tuts. “So, there are no prizes for guessing who you were thinking of, then? Did I ever tell you about the time I fell into a reverie when I was working in my restaurant?”
I am struck by two things. One: “fell into a reverie,” like we’re in a Georgian drama. And two: I didn’t know she had owned a restaurant. I say as much.
“Oh, it was a lifetime ago.” She picks up a lemon and a grater, getting to work as she talks. “I was chopping a tomato and, well, Carlo had taken his first steps the night before. I couldn’t get his little proud face out of my mind. Rule number one in a kitchen: pay very, very close attention.” She holds up her left hand. “Look at my pinkie. See that little scar? It was a wonder that they could reattach it.”
“Alda!” I cry.
She laughs. “I tell you: I’ve never fumbled chopping a tomato since!”
I’m giggling as I handle the eggs, separating the whites from the yolk. “I was daydreaming in class once. This was, oh, I don’t know, maybe two or three months ago. I’d given them an assignment and just floated off into the clouds. The next thing I know, the class is completely empty and the clock’s telling me it’s quarter past seven: fifteen minutes after the class ends. I’m like, what the hell? No way was I sitting there for that long.”
“It turns out Lucille—she’s the Mexican lady I’ve told you about—she quietly got everybody out of the class and changed the time on the clock. I walked into the hallway to find them all