She swallows, and her eyes grow brighter. “I just… thank you.”
I shrug, pleased she’s happy. At least I think she is. “Sure.” I put down my duffel to zip up my jacket before I head out.
“Hey… Want to go with me?”
I still, my hand on the zipper, and don’t answer immediately. I replay her words in my mind. Can’t get it wrong again.
“Go with you?” I mutter.
“I’ll understand perfectly if you don’t want,” she rushes to say, her hands fluttering. She tugs on her ponytail. “It’s, like, nobody needs a date to go to weddings nowadays, right? Ridiculous. I just thought it might be practical, you know, to travel there together in my car. Although of course you’re probably going with Seth, and Manon, so…”
I don’t hear everything after that. My mind’s stuck on one word.
Date.
I tilt my head at her, wait until she’s done talking and waving her hands. A smile is spreading on my face, and damn, I can’t remember the last time my heart beat so fast without any trace of a nightmare haunting me.
She trails off, staring.
“You want me to be your date at the wedding?” I tuck my hair behind my ear, feeling nervous myself. God, this is like high school.
She bites her lip, gives me an uncertain half smile, then nods emphatically. Her cheeks are reddening.
“Deal,” I say and get the hell out of the gym before she says anything else.
Before she changes her mind, and before I fucking change mine.
***
Writhing bodies. Pain zipping up my spine, slicing me like a knife. A dark current twisting around me, cold and hot, freezing and scorching. The men laugh and taunt me, their voices mingling in a dizzying din that scrapes the inside of my skull.
Let me go. Let me fucking go.
Nobody hears. Nobody comes. I’m dragged across the floor, thrown against a wall. I curl up in myself, but hard hands stop me, spread me, flip me over.
No. Stop. Don’t.
No reply.
I twist on my belly on the cold floor, trying to escape.
But there is no escape. Ever. No matter how hard I fight, how I kick and try to punch them, try to get free, it never happens. It all plays out, time after time.
Only, tonight, something shifts. My throat is raw from screaming, and my body feels like it was flayed, white-hot pain twisting in my guts, when I find myself sprawled over a body.
Warm, soft. A woman’s body.
It confuses me.
It arouses me.
My body responds, and I shift, hardening, my balls tightening. I don’t know how, but I’m sinking into her pussy, and it’s hot and wet and silky. So fucking tight.
The pain tangles up with pleasure, and nausea twists my stomach. I wish I could stop, but it seems beyond my control. It feels too good, fire pulsing through my dick, and my hips rock without conscious thought. Chasing after that lightning feeling of coming, of breaking into pleasure, a feeling I haven’t allowed myself to feel often—always too messed up with memories.
Need it now. Need it with her. I grab her hands, slam them into the floor, fuck her hard and fast, until she’s sliding on the tiles.
Shit. Need her. Cassie. Her eyes open and I can see her face—small, pretty.