My hand pushes through my hair as I wait. Toska walks out, her hands are cuffed to her front, her feet in chains and a wide smile is on her face. She appears drained. Maybe she’s coming down, no more drugs for breakfast every morning.

The guard sits her down on the seat in front of me, and she leans on the table trying to inch closer, but careful to not touch me. No one is allowed, nor do they have my permission. No one, that is, but my Mouse. Even then she doesn’t do it unless she’s coming from my cock.

“You came.”

I’ve come every day. She thinks I won’t, but every day I come. It’s an adjustment, to not have her near me all the time. She was always just in the other room, now she’s a city away and locked behind bars.

“I like the doctors here,” she says to me, smiling. Her red hair appears faded. She gets that from our mother. Well, what I remember of her anyway. “I really miss home.” She doesn’t say me. It’s home she misses and the way she gets away with everything. She leans in and glances up at me. “Are you with her?”

“What do you mean?”

“Don’t play coy with me. Are you living with her? Fucking her? Are you two together now that I’m away? That’s what you wanted, wasn’t it? Me out of the picture so she’d come back.”

I shake my head. “Don’t be stupid, Toska.”

She raises her eyebrow at me. “Don’t be stupid?” she spits. “Don’t be stupid? Coming from the man who traded his sister for pussy.”

My hands squeeze together on the table because every day I come she gets bitchier and bitchier. I guess a part of me deserves it since I am the one who put her in here. She should know better, though. She did what she did and never expected consequences. They were bound to catch up with us, but especially to her.

I did it out of protection for her—stupid utter loyalty to her—killed for her since I was young enough to remember. Before I even fucked a woman, I’d killed someone—for her.

Look where that got me. Fucking nowhere. Now my hatchet is put away and not to be taken out unless I need to put it through Taj’s head if he thinks he can come near my Mouse again. That won’t happen anytime soon. He may not be a man I want to cross, but I would, fuck I would, and I’d kill him with a smile on my face if he dared touch her.

“Last warning, Toska, you continue to be a bitch every visit and court hearing, and I won’t fucking come back.”

She slumps in her chair, turns to look at the guard then back to me. “Just don’t forget about me. They’re talking about the psychiatric ward, and it’s got to be better than here.”

“You need the help,” is all I say to her, which makes her even angrier. Her teeth grind as she stares at me.

“Are you saying I’m crazy?”

“Are you denying it?” I challenge her back.

“I would have killed her you know, I still would.”

Standing from the seat, she mirrors my movements, standing as well.

“If you do, Toska, I won’t hesitate to kill you, too.”

Her mouth drops open. She didn’t expect that to leave my mouth. She always pushes me to my limits, and I always take her back, covering for her. Not anymore. Not now.

“She won’t love you. She can’t. She’s broken, too.”

“That’s fine. I’ll take from her what I can get because it’s better than anything I’ve ever had.”

She averts her eyes to the floor, and I turn to leave, but her voice stops me.

“My room.”

“It’s cleared. Everything is gone. I’ve left that place.” Walking out, I don’t check back and decide tomorrow I won’t come. Tomorrow she can wait.

***

THE HOUSE IS EMPTY. Grabbing my laptop, I pull my empty bedroom door shut. I hate this place, always have. Toska loved it, so we stayed here. It’s a dump, not a place I would have picked myself. I didn’t lie to Toska when I said all her things were gone, everything is. All that remains are my computers, which I will now have in my new house. You see, what I do for some people is highly illegal, especially what I do for Taj. But in return, he pays me very generously and has done so over the years that I’ve worked for him. So, money isn’t something I’ve had to worry about. Even if I’ve never told Toska how much I have, there was a reason for that, because it would have gone to one place—her drug dealer.

“Syler...” Turning around, my Mouse stands at my door. I haven’t seen her for weeks now, haven’t crawled my way back through her bedroom window. I’ve used restraint, something that I didn’t know I had. Her eyes scan the house. She appears more than a little surprised as she sees nothing, before coming back to me. “Are you moving?”

I nod my head. “I’m collecting the last of my things. Why are you here, Mouse?”

She fidgets with her hands. It reminds me of the first time I saw her when she was talking to Toska in the cinemas. She was beautiful then, and just as beautiful now. She’s my undoing. I knew she would be the minute I saw her, and then again at that party. I knew she would become mine, eventually. Jaya is everything I never knew I wanted, everything I know I needed. She’s all wrapped in a package and sent directly to me. She succumbed to my needs, listened to my desires, and didn’t push my limits.

It took me losing her to see what I had. It took her almost dying for me to see what I felt for her was more than just fucking. I hadn’t cared for a single soul the way I cared for her, and that included Toska. I love my sister, there’s no denying that. But Mouse, well... I didn’t just love her. She and I fell into the pages of that book and got lost in the words.

“I just want to see... to see how you’re doing.”

It was then I notice she’s dressed differently than her normal attire of jeans or a dress. She’s dressed in business attire. Her top has buttons, her skirt reaches just below her knees, and she has high heels on her feet. Her long brown hair’s pulled back in a bun.

“Why are you dressed like that?”

She looks down at herself then back to me, smiling. “I got a job at one of the magazines I applied for. It’s nothing big...” her hands edge down the skirt, “... but I enjoy it. More so than any job I’ve had before,” she confesses.

“I bought a house,” I blurt out to her.

She smiles up at me. “Can I see it? I mean... if that’s okay?”

“You want to know where I live, Mouse?”

She smiles and I miss that smile, the way her dimples shine in each cheek, the way her blue eyes glisten and the smile reaches them.

“Only if that’s okay.”

I nod. “How about a date, Mouse. Would you like a date?”

Jaya’s smile brightens even further if that’s possible. Her eyes shine brighter. “Yes,” she answers fast. “Are you sure, though? Have you ever been on a date?” she asks me.

Biting my lip, I realize I never have. “I guess you’ll be an array of firsts for me, Mouse.”

“I like the sound of that, Wolf,” she replies.

Turning off the bedroom light, I walk closer to her, reaching behind her head to flick the light switch off for the living room area. It encases us in darkness, the only light coming in from outside now. She smells of raspberries and vanilla—it’s her shampoo.

“Tomorrow,” I say.

Jaya nods her head, my free hand not holding the computer touches her hip, and starts to push her from the door, so I can shut it. She takes a step back not turning, just facing me as she walks backward.

“Be patient with me, will you?” she asks me.

“Why?” I question, stopping once we’re outside. “I’ve never been patient before.”

“Because I’m trying to stop my love from flowing, I want it to drip slowly. Let me drip, Syler.”

“I’ll let you drip, Mouse.”

She nods her head, looking down at our feet, her eyes off us now. “I should go.”

“You should,” I reply while inching closer. My hand slides up her side, over her overdressed outfit, over the curve of her breast until I reach her chin. My fingers grip hold and I lift it, so she has to look up at me. Her eyes are watery as she does. “Let me kiss you, Mouse.”

“Just a kiss?” she asks.

Nodding, I lean in to touch her lips. She takes a deep breath, sucking the air from me before our lips touch, soft and deliberate. Pausing, I wait for her to take another breath before I move my lips against hers. She tastes just as she always does, of candy and all things sweet. Her taste is addictive, it’s always been, that’s why I steal her kisses until they are mine and mine alone.

Her hands stay where they are. My fingers thread through her hair, taking her mouth as mine. She moans when my tongue slides over hers, then pulls back, just as I kiss her lips one last time.

“Slower...” she asks.

“My hands don’t like to stay to themselves with you around.”

It makes her smile reach her eyes again.

Fuck! She’s the most beautiful thing, ever.

“You should go before I drag you into this empty apartment and fuck you against every surface.”

Her cheeks redden at my words, and she takes a step to the side to put distance between us. “Tomorrow?” she asks confirming.

“I’ll be fucking you after.”

Her smile stays put. “You couldn’t have at least said something kind, or sweet? Or maybe put it differently.” She giggles.

“Do you want me to lie?”

She shakes her head. Then starts walking toward her car. After getting in, she offers me a small wave as she drives off.

Shutting the front door, it hits me. I have a fucking date tomorrow.

I don’t fucking date. I fuck.