I purposely waited this time. Waited for it to feel right. To show her this wasn’t a fling.

I licked my way slowly from her neck to her tailbone, where I stopped and propped her ass up by raising her knees. She was on all fours now, twisting her head behind her shoulder to see what I was doing. I stole a desperate kiss and guided her face so she was facing the headboard again.

“Don’t you trust me?”

“I’m just starting to.” She laughed breathlessly, and I sank my fingers into her again, feeling her grow wetter.

I borrowed some of that heat and swirled it around her nub, my finger pads stroking smoothly, and felt her pussy rubbing into my hand desperately. I placed one hand on the small of her back, nailing her down.

“Don’t move.”

“You’re always so bossy,” she moaned, but complied. This time I didn’t forget to put on a condom. Hell, this time I didn’t forget anything. Slowly, I sank into her from behind while still working her clit. It felt good to be inside her again, but it felt even better to know that this time, it meant something.

At first, I went in slow. Desperately slow. Teasing her. Frustrating her purposely.

“Vicious,” she begged, her head falling to the pillow as she let out a sigh. “Please.”

“Please what?”

“Please don’t torture me.”

I picked up speed inside her, still not giving it to her the way she wanted it. Emilia liked to be pounded. She liked it rough and angry. Which is why we were so compatible in the first place.

“I think you like to be tortured.” I leaned forward, whispering into her ear. “I think you always liked it. Very much.”

The first wave of pleasure slammed into her, and her knees and elbows gave in. She collapsed, lying on the bed now, but I still pumped into her hard, my fingers still working her clit. I was relentless. And after depriving myself of her for so long, I had good reason to be.

“Up,” I instructed. My voice held its usual cold tone.

“I don’t think I can.” She sounded just about ready to pass out.

I tugged her up so her back met my torso, cupping one of her bouncy breasts as I fucked her from behind, brushing her nipple with my thumb over and over, rubbing it in circles while sucking on her tattoo.

“Do you know how you feel?” I growled into her neck. I was going to come any second now. I knew it, and some orgasms, you knew it was same old, same old. But this one? It felt like a first. A once-in-a-few-years epic peak.

“Good?” she asked.

“That too.” I smirked into her hot, sweaty flesh, licking it to taste her again. I was riding her so hard I knew she burned everywhere, but it was for me, so I didn’t care.

I used one of my hands to support her while playing with her tits, and the other to grab her knee and spread her leg to the side for better access, then pounded harder. She yelled louder. Everything between us throbbed.

“You feel like redemption. And do you know what that’s like?”

I flipped her over, but I was still at it, and she was shaking with what might’ve been her third orgasm.

“No. Tell me.”

I came inside her hard, feeling my release inside her warm, tight pussy.

“It’s perfection, like you.”

I fucked Emilia so hard my back looked like I’d fought a fucking grizzly bear by the time we were done.

When we collapsed back on bed, she rolled over on top of me and whimpered, “I love you.”

“I know,” I said. Because I did. Because who else would ever put up with my bullshit if they didn’t love me?

“It scares me,” she added.

“Don’t let it. I promise I’ll protect you from anything. Even from myself.”

An hour later, I was already dragging her out to the balcony—hey, it was a hot day outside, almost summer—sitting her naked ass on the dining set and pushing her legs wide with my shoulders. I ran my tongue along her slit teasingly, hardening in my briefs again. I slid my hand between her legs and pinched her clit. It was good to feel her flesh against mine again. And at least now I knew that the vacation I had booked in the Hamptons would be a fuck-fest

“People can see us,” she told me, and not for the first time. She was right, of course. We were on the twentieth floor, but so was pretty much the rest of Manhattan.

“Fuck ’em,” I said, eating her out, filling her with my tongue and fingers at the same time.

She cried my name, and I loved it on her lips so much, I nearly burst. Her mouth hung open for the rest of the time as I plunged into her with my tongue. After she came once more, I stood up and lowered her body so she was flat against the table and fucked her raw, the dining set dancing under her ass, until we both found our releases.

When we ate our cold dinner at the dining table inside, I decided I was going to use my new trait of being honest and just give it to her straight.

“I sold ten percent of my shares in Fiscal Heights Holdings to Dean in exchange for six months in New York.”

Silverware clattered on the table and silence filled the air.

I continued. “That was back in January. I have three more weeks before I need to pack a bag and move back to Los Angeles. I’m not going to ask you for shit, because I know you have your life here and that you love your job, but…I’m just letting you know.”

Her eyes shot up, and she choked on her dim sum. They glittered with different emotions, which I was still too much of a dick to recognize. But I was fairly sure she wasn’t pissed off at me this time.

“Three weeks?” she repeated.

I nodded, solemn. “I can try and sell ten percent more of my shares, but there’s no way Trent and Jaime will let that happen. It’ll put their asses at risk, too.”

She drank more wine, probably to buy herself some time. After polishing the whole glass, she winced. “Thanks for telling me.”

I didn’t know what I was expecting. Actually, I did. I expected her to say that her job could go fuck itself, she was moving with me.

But then, why would she give up on her career just so I could chase mine?

“Sure. Are you gonna eat that last dim sum?” I pointed my chopsticks to her plate. She shook her head, suddenly looking sad. I picked it up and stuck it in my mouth, chewing so I wouldn’t have to talk anymore. “Good stuff.”

“AND AGAIN, I’M SO SORRY,” I parroted my own words for the twelve hundredth time, twisting my fingers together as I stood like a punished kid in Brent’s office. It was all white, other than the paintings hung on each wall of the room. They were beautiful.

One of a strawberry field.

One of naked men wearing fancy dress shoes.

One of a gun crying.

And one of a cherry blossom tree.

He stared at my painting and sighed, pushing his reading glasses up his nose.

“I’m not sure what to tell you, Millie, other than the obvious. You’re making a huge mistake.”

I would have argued, but there was no point. He was probably right. How many girls would have left everything they knew and loved—their city, their dream job, their sister, for a guy who kicked them out when they were eighteen? Not many. Yet I was that girl.

I was everything illogical and reckless, everything stupid and irrational…because I was his.

So I continued standing there, tapping my foot nervously. Brent got up from his seat, pushing from his white desk, and strode over to me. It was different than standing in front of Vicious when he was my boss.

Because now I wasn’t scared, just sad. Sacrifices were like vices. You made them, gave up something good, in order to get something better.

“What will Rosie do?” he asked. He didn’t know my sister all that much, but he’d met her a couple of times and knew our story. I shrugged. That was the most painful part. The part that made me feel like a traitor.

“She met a guy. Hal. She’s staying here in New York. Wants to enroll back in nursing school, anyway.”

Brent gave me a look—that look that said, See? You should stay here too—but I dismissed it by fixing my eyes on the naked-men painting.

“I’m so sorry I disappointed you,” I said. Which was true.

“You didn’t.” Brent leaned into my face, sighing. “I’m just hoping you’re not going to disappoint you.”

I made my way to Vic’s office right after I handed in my resignation. On the subway, I thought about the fact that I’d never resigned from so many good jobs in such a short amount of time. Ever. But I knew what I wanted, and what I wanted was to move to Los Angeles. I’d never been there, but it didn’t matter. He was going there. My parents were there.

LA was my home, and I hadn’t even been there yet.

I sauntered into Vicious’s office, and as usual, his receptionist gave me the stink eye, though at this point she knew better than to try and stop me from getting inside. Over the past few months, I’d walked in that door countless times, and, embarrassingly, produced noises she could hear perfectly while I was there. Noises that clearly gave away the idea that I was engaged in some grueling cardio activity. Vicious didn’t have a treadmill in his office, so she knew exactly what we were doing.

“Hi.” I nodded to the receptionist.

“Mmm,” she answered back, flipping through a glossy magazine with a picture of heavily photoshopped Selena Gomez on the cover.