Awake by Elise Daniels Page B

then,” I say. “I was trying to help. Feel miserable if you want to. Destroy your life too. Whatever.”
    He laughs. “Don’t you whatever me, you little rich brat.” He grabs onto my hips and I gasp from his sudden, rough thrust into me from behind. Thank God my body was lying in wait for him.
    “Asshole,” I whisper through an uneven breath.
    “That might be impossible, but if you want me to try to get inside there, I’m game,” he teases. I hope he’s teasing.
    “Don’t even think about it,” I manage to say as he revs up my body with deep, feverish pleasure. “That would hurt.”
    He grabs the front of my neck and bends my head back so he can stare intensely into my eyes. “Then try not to say such hurtful things.”
    He kisses my lips sloppily until the sex is too much. He closes his eyes to feel my wet heat pleasing him. It’s amazing how with Wade I can experience the sex from both sides. His joy and my joy happening inside me at the same time. I want to cum when he cums.
    I close my eyes and try to forget that the sun has risen and night will not last forever.

-16-
    It’s Sunday. I am twenty-one and Wade Donovan is in my shower. He remembered he has to cook lunch at the shelter in Boyle Heights today and I remembered I promised Alodia I would help with the dishes again.
    We both agreed he has to go back to his regular life and that we should not be seen together. There is too much at stake for him and, honestly, I do not need that kind of drama and gossip attached to me two weeks before my graduation.
    We have made no plans beyond these simple agreements and he finally convinced me I should show up separately at the shelter and not let Alodia down. I told him to clear his head and take a few days and try to remember Tori and his restaurant.
    He shook his head angry again at my suggestion to return to his normal life and marched off to the shower. Alone.
    I have decided to give him his space and make some morning tea.
    My phone rings. I pick it up just as I get the water heating in the kettle. “Ursula doesn’t live here anymore,” I say referring to the no longer needed name on my fake ID.
    “Ursula was more fun,” Kat responds.
    “Well, Erin doesn’t like hangovers,” I explain. “She’s twenty-one now and too mature for that stuff.”
    “Yuck,” Kat says. “Maturity can suck my balls.”
    I laugh. “You know, Kat, I don’t think any girl in the world refers to her balls as much as you do.”
    Wade enters wearing jeans and no shirt just in time to hear that last line. He gives me a delicious confused smirk and then pulls his tee shirt on over oh-so-delicious wet hair.
    I make a pouty face when he covers his hard chest and six-pack. He opens his hands in apology and looks for his shoes.
    “Brunch?” Kat asks.
    I watch Wade bend over and pick up his shoes.
    “Hello,” Kat says.
    “I can’t, honey,” I say. “I promised I would help out at the shelter today.”
    “Uh huh, light bulb,” Kat says. “You wanted your beauty sleep for Studly McStuds, didn’t you? It’s all making sense.”
    “I promised one of the girls at my girl’s night thing,” I say.
    “I hear you, Cassidy,” Kat says knowingly. “I’m going to let you go with that story. My last birthday present. Tomorrow shit gets real though. I need to hear everything and absolutely no BS.”
    “That sounds fun,” I say. “Not.”
    “Can you keep your panties on until then?” she asks as Wade reaches under my tee shirt and squeezes my panty-less ass from behind.
    “Of course,” I lie. “Toodles.”
    “Toodles,” she says and hangs up.
    I put the phone down as Wade notices the tea bags and water on the stove. “No time for tea,” he says.
    He pulls me to him like a ragdoll and kisses me. I like the way he dominates my body and moves me around to his own desires.
    “Love them and leave them,” I say softly as a joke but perhaps it comes off vulnerable.
    Wade eyes me uncertainly.
    “I’m joking,” I