Loving Me, Trusting You by C. M. Stunich Read Free Book Online Page B

body, almost tasteless but classy enough that it works. I can see why she kept the coat on. She looks like she's ready for a night out in the city, not a boring slump at a dive bar with tearful soft rock and cheap drinks.
    I look over my shoulder and watch as Gaine tosses a wad of bills on the counter and gives me a look that's part hunger and part melancholy. I ignore it and turn my attention back to Crystal, listening to the sound of the doors swinging open and shuttering closed.
    While her friends laugh and heckle her behind us, goaded on by Beck's ridiculous one-liners, I lean in and whisper in her ear.
    “Do you want to fuck him?” I ask. I'm not shy about it. Tonight isn't about being shy. I don't need to bring a shy girl up to my room and walk her through the delicacies of sex. I need somebody that's going to give and take equally, who I think will leave that room tonight or tomorrow without any fantasies about what might or could be.
    “Yes,” she whispers, completely enraptured. She doesn't seem drunk though, just wild, a bit of untamed spirit back home for the summer, a small town girl with big town dreams. They're a dime a dozen, but at least I know how to handle them. Austin and I used to … play around sometimes. But Gaine's not like that. And I'm forcing him to be. I keep the why off the tip of my tongue and smile at Crystal.
    “Then come with me.”
    I turn away and start towards the door with catcalls and whistles abounding behind me. Either the girl will follow or she won't. This is the perfect way to test her, see if she's really up to it. My feeling here is that little Miss Crystal wants Gaine, that I'm inconsequential. Sometimes, they come for me. Mostly they come for the guys, but that's alright. That's what we're both there for anyway. I just like to watch.
    I make it halfway across the street before I hear her heels behind me, clacking across the cement in hurried steps. When she finally catches up to me, her arms are crossed over her chest, keeping the jacket closed.
    “Where are we going?” she asks, looking up and down the quiet street with wide, fearful eyes. I'm about to take her inside the hotel when I see Gaine leaning against the street entrance to the parking garage with a cigarette between his lips and his arms crossed over his broad chest. When he turns away and moves down the steps, I change my direction and follow. “You're not going to, like, rape and murder me, are you?” Crystal asks, steps slowing as I start down the cement stairs without waiting to see if she's going to follow.
    “Sweetie, if you have to ask that question, maybe you should go? After all, this world is one sick and fucked up dirty place. I've been hurt bad by it before, and I can promise you that it'll show no mercy.” I hit the oily pavement and move across the brightly lit lot like a jaguar hunting prey. Gaine's already waiting for me, cigarette dangling from his lips while he stares with glittering eyes. I like the power I have over him. I admit it. I like that he wants me, craves me.
    Without a single word passing between us, Gaine grabs his cig between two fingers and flings it to the cement, wrapping his arms around my waist and pulling me to him, kissing me hard and possessing me with his lips. We've been here, done this before. He's said things to me before, things that I can never forgive. I love you.
    But he can't. Nobody can. At this point in my life, there is nothing here to love but a sharp edged bitch who doesn't remember how to feel. Numb. That's all I am anymore. Just numb.
    I feel Gaine's body, hard and angular, the perfect opposite to my soft curves, my breasts. He crushes me against him as I tangle my fingers in his dark hair and pull, drawing a groan from his lips and a pleasant grinding against my hips when his cock responds to my call.
    “Don't be selfish now,” I whisper against his mouth, drawing back and glancing over my shoulder. Against all the odds, Crystal is standing behind me