dick back into my pants, and did them up.
While she was still a panting heap of heat and sweat, with her skirt pushed up, I hoisted it up even further, so that it was around her waist, exposing her amazing ass.
I took one last, long look, then began opening my car door.
“I’m outta here.”
“Wait, I—”
I wasn’t sure why I liked seeing her on the back foot like that, but I did, maybe to even up the score a little from the way she’d knocked the stuffing right out of me earlier.
“I’m not waiting for shit. Go home, Noa. Or don’t, but if you get in this car with me, know what you get at the other end isn’t going to be pretty.”
She scrambled to stand, pushing her skirt down at the same time. I had to hand it to her, she was quick on her feet, even having time to swipe her ripped panties from the hood before scooting around to the passenger seat. I’d already fired up the ignition and was all set to start backing up the car, with or without her.
She just about fell into the seat and slammed the door shut before turning to me.
“I learned the hard way that life isn’t pretty. It’s gritty, and dark, and ugly, and hard. It’s real. Besides, I think pretty’s overrated.”
There was nothing I could say to that, and as I sped my way through the city streets, I contemplated her words. She was right. My life was ugly as fuck, and I didn’t see that ever changing.
I pulled the car up to the sidewalk and killed the engine.
“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” The boom of my voice, and no doubt the bang of my fists as I slammed them onto the steering wheel, made Noa jump.
“What? What’s going on? Where are we?” She squinted out of the car window into the gloomy night beyond.
Where indeed. “My place.”
“Your place? As in your apartment? But I thought you said...”
“I know what I said.” And it had been true. I’d never brought anyone back to my home—albeit one I rarely spent any time at—I’d never even fucking considered it.
In fact, I’d rather have stuck pins in my eyes. Yet there I was, having screwed Noa a hundred ways from Sunday on the hood of my car like a mad dog, then driven in some kind of daze on autopilot, not aware of what I was doing until it was done.
What the fuck? I didn’t believe in juju or hexes or any of that bullshit, but if I did, I would have sworn that she’d put some kind of spell on me, or somehow otherwise taken over my mind.
As it was, I was just pissed off that I’d taken my eye off the ball so much with her—first bleeding out at the mouth and telling her all my shit, and now bringing her home with me. What was almost worse was that now we were here, while I knew I could just tell her to go home—call her a car, or take her there myself—or drive us to the hotel, I wasn’t about to.
I got out of the car silently, and didn’t look back. I figured she’d follow me or not, and either way, I’d have my outcome. I strode into the foyer, and not hearing footsteps behind me on the polished concrete floor, turned to see what she was doing. She was standing on the other side of the automatic sliding door, staring at me as though I’d grown a second head.
“Well, are you coming up, or are you just going to stand on the sidewalk like a sentry?” I didn’t wait for her response, just strode toward the elevator, nodding to George, the doorman, on the way past. Light and speedy footsteps behind me heralded Noa’s entrance to the building. And when she pulled up alongside me at the elevators, I cast a sidewise glance at her.
“I’ll warn you again. I’m not in the best of moods, so only come up if you can handle more of the same.”
She shrugged, keeping her eyes facing front. “I’m here, aren’t I? I know what I’m getting myself into.”
I very much doubted that, but I admired her fighting spirit. It seemed I’d misjudged her from the get-go. She was constantly surprising me. Actually, it was worse than that, she blindsided me.
I stepped into the elevator when it arrived, without saying a word, and Noa followed suit. Before the doors closed behind us, I moved toward