The Tenant by Sotia Lazu Page B

feelings developing. And we’ve already seen each other naked, so we’re practically halfway there.” The last wasn’t exactly her strongest argument, but it was true.
    He was quiet, which made her jittery. “Will you say something?” she finally asked.
    “So you want to have sex with me because I’m here, I find you attractive, and I won’t be a complication in the future? I see you have high standards.” He sounded amused, even though his words weren’t exactly kind.
    “Okay, I find you attractive too.” She silently thanked the darkness for making it easier for her to be honest. “And you have a big penis.”
    His laughter took her by surprise and made her wince. What had she been thinking, offering herself to him like that? Despite their talk last night, when he seemed human, the man despised her and would love to see her humiliated. Tears of fury stung her eyes, but she held them back. She hadn’t cried over Mason’s betrayal; she wouldn’t cry for him . If Derek didn’t stop laughing soon, she’d start laughing too and say she couldn’t believe he’d fallen for her act.
    Then she’d go to her room, lock herself in, and try to figure out why men wouldn’t sleep with her these days. And maybe consume a tub of ice cream.
    The mattress dipped on Derek’s side, and Amanda sucked in a breath of relief. She hadn’t made an ass of herself—yet. He’d come back to bed, so maybe he found it as good an idea as she did.
    “Okay. But we do this my way,” he said.
    Uh-oh . “And what exactly is that?”
    “If we do this today and we like it, we keep doing it whenever we both feel like it, until I move out.”
    Amanda hesitated. A one-time thing, she could forgive herself for. She could even convince herself she’d still been tipsy and found Derek too tempting to resist. More than that, though? That would be an affair. She’d just broken her engagement off; she wasn’t ready to commit to anything. “Okay.” She could always say she’d changed her mind later. “That all?”
    “One more thing. We don’t hold back—either of us. When we’re doing it, it’s complete honesty. You tell me your kinks; I tell you mine.”
    “I don’t—”
    “Think about it, Amanda. This is your chance to have anything you want sexually, without worrying what your partner will make of it. You can ask for anything you want.”
    “So can you.”
    “So can I, but you can say no, call me a perv, and not bat an eyelash over it. ’Course you’ll know I’ll be calling you a prude, but you won’t mind, because you don’t even like me.”
    That was…that was too good to be true. “And it all stays between us?”
    “I may not give a fuck about your reputation, but I respect Kenneth too much to be spreading rumors—true or not—about his daughter’s sexual prowess.”
    “Okay.”
    “Okay?”
    She didn’t know why he sounded disbelieving; he’d been the one making up rules as if they’d already agreed on the whole thing. “Okay.”
    “Well, in the interest of full disclosure, first thing you should know is I fuck hard and dirty after a drinking binge.”
    Amanda had no time to react before Derek’s weight was on her, his cock hard against her stomach. Big hands closed around her wrists, but not hard enough to pin her down, should she want to escape. “Okay,” she said again, and he brought both her arms over her head.
    “Tell me if you want me to stop.” He shifted his grip so he held both her wrists in one hand. Then he nudged her legs apart with one knee and shoved two fingers inside her pussy.
    Amanda cried out at the intrusion.
    “Too hard?” he whispered against her throat.
    “No. Just been a while.”
    He nodded and withdrew his hand. She heard the unmistakable sound of spitting before his fingers were on her again, rubbing against her clit. She was wet—had been wet for a while—but the casual way in which Derek was treating this turned her on even more. It came in complete contrast to