The house is quiet as I walk in and lock the door behind me, punching in the code that’s needed to open it even if you have the key. The girls’ shift tonight was only five hours, since we want them to get adjusted to it slowly. Soon, it will be much longer. Guys get horny round the clock, and that’s how much they’re gonna work. I try not to think of that, as I climb the stairs to Kat’s room.

I turn the key slowly, so as not to make any noise. Her room’s dark, the only light coming from the street lamp outside, and the red blinking light on the camera signaling that it’s off. It should stay that way.

Kat is just a blanket-covered mound on the left side of the huge bed, and I can smell her and sex clearly in the room. She seems to be asleep, but I don’t think she is. I can feel her presence too clearly in the room.

“Kat,” I whisper and close the door behind me, but don’t lock it. “Are you awake?”

She takes a shuddering breath, but doesn’t reply. I walk closer to the bed.

“How was your first day?” I ask.

She stirs, lifts up and twists to glare at me, her eyes glowing in the darkness.

“How do you think it was? It was awful. Terrible. And now you’ve come to fuck me some more, because I don’t even get a night’s rest between shifts, is that it?” she throws the blanket off herself in a huff, giving me a perfect view of her long bare legs. “Well here you go. Just join me in bed.”

She’s not wrong about me wanting to fuck her. And the Neanderthal in me is quite happy to ignore the fact that she’s dangerously close to tears despite the anger and venom in her voice. But it feels nice to be nice to her, just as much as it feels good to fuck her and hold her.

“I won’t force you to do anything you don’t want to do,” I say and just get an angry, derisive snort in return. Which I completely deserve, because look at where she is. But this wild anger of hers just makes me want her even more.

“What I meant to say was that I can’t stop thinking about you,” I say and sit down on the edge of the bed, which might have been a mistake, since it’s now harder to hold onto the reasons not to jump on her and fuck her until she screams. “And I’m done trying to.”

She gasps, and despite the darkness in the room, I can clearly read the confusion on her face.

I lay down on the right side of the bed and look at her. “I’ll go, if you want me to.”

She’s still just looking at me, her expression frozen, but her eyes growing bleary. I can literally see her trying to make a decision. So I sit up again, since making this even harder on her really wasn’t my intention.

“No, you can stay,” she whispers, and touches my forearm lightly to stop me from getting up all the way. Her fingertips are barely grazing my arm, but her touch feels a lot heavier than that, a lot stronger.

So I lie back down and she does the same on her side. But that won’t do.

I stretch out my arm and motion for her to come closer. She needs no words of encouragement before scooting over, resting her head on my chest and letting me hold her.

She starts shaking and her tears are soaking my shirt before I realize she’s crying. A woman’s tears make me more uncomfortable than facing five guys in a dark alleyway about to jump me. So I have no idea what to say or do right now. But my hand starts stroking her hair despite it.

“Come on, it’s not that bad, is it?” I ask.

“Yes, it is,” she hiccups and raises her head to look at me. “Can you take me away from here? Please?”

“Attempting that would probably get us both killed,” I say, and it’s not far from the truth. My father might go easy on me, but she’d be a goner, though not exactly dead. She’d be getting fucked 24/7 at one of those truck stop whorehouses until she was as good as dead, or at least wishing she was. Telling her she’ll just get killed right off is easier. And my father would never trust me with another command again. So my answer to her plea is no. But I don’t have to give it to her so harshly.

“It’ll get easier, I promise,” I tell her instead. “And besides, you can just think of me when you do it for those sleezeballs. Wouldn’t that be pleasant?”

I grin at her. Tears are still in her eyes, but at least they’re not flowing. The ones drying on her cheeks are glimmering as the light from the street hits her face, and I can’t hold back anymore. She’s too beautiful, and her sadness is making me sad. So I just kiss her before she can say anything, and then we just do that for a long while. Until even the light outside goes out and the only one left is the red blinking one on the camera. It flashes like a warning. But her lips taste so good, and her soft body feels like it was made to be embraced by my arms, and no warning is gonna change that.