I roll over on my back, my breathing heavy, my heart racing. Closing my eyes, I swallow hard, trying to calm my overstimulated body. I hear the rustle of sheets, the comforter falling onto the floor softly. Turning my head, I crack open my eyes to see Jensen lying beside me, her golden body glowing with a faint sheen of sweat, her feet moving, kicking everything off the bed.

Reaching over, I slide my hand over her smooth ass, my fingers lingering. “Hot?”

She says nothing, just shifts closer to press her ultra-warm body against mine. I kiss her, my overused dick stirring to attention despite my bone-deep exhaustion, but I break away from her swollen mouth before it turns into something else.

With Jensen, it’s guaranteed to turn into something else.

“You’re insatiable,” she murmurs against my lips, her fingers slipping down, down until they’re curled around my cock.

“So are you,” I tell her.

We’ve been fucking around for hours. I don’t even know what time it is since I haven’t check my phone since Jensen walked in the door. All I know is that it’s dark outside, and the house is quiet. It feels like there’s no one else in the world right now. Just me and Jensen, doing the most primal, basic thing a man and woman can do.

Her stomach growls. Loudly. She coughs, maybe trying to cover up the sound, who knows, and then she’s moving away, rolling over on her side so her back is to me. “I should probably go,” she tells the wall.

I grab her shoulder and gently flip her over so she’s facing me again. “I can feed you if you’re hungry.”

“I’m not hungry.” Her stomach growls again.

“Really.” My voice is flat, because—yet again—she’s lying. About the stupidest thing possible.

She sighs. “I hate it when you look at me like that.”

“Like what?”

“Like…” She hesitates, pressing her lips together. “I don’t know, like you’re disappointed in me.”

I say nothing, since that’s exactly how I feel.

“Yeah, like that.” She crawls out of bed and is on the floor, no doubt searching for her clothes. “I don’t want you to act like you’re my dad, Rhett.”

“What the hell do you mean?” I spring to my feet, annoyed. She does this a lot. Gets defensive, purposely starts arguing with me.

Maybe this girl is too much trouble. Maybe she won’t be worth the heartache.

“If you’re sticking around because you think you can fix me, you’re wrong.” She pulls on the black leggings she’d been wearing earlier, forgetting all about her panties. “I’m unfixable.”

“I don’t want to fix you.” I touch her arm, and she pauses, her gaze meeting mine. “I told you, I have no expectations.”

Her brows wrinkle. “Is that supposed to make me feel better?”

I throw my arms up in the air, frustrated as shit. “What do you want me to say? You want me to tell you I’m just using you for sex? That seems to piss you off. Or should I say that I care about you and think I could fall in love with you? I’m guessing that would probably piss you off even more.”

I’m not sure if I mean either scenario. Sex with Jensen is amazing. But I also like talking with her. Even arguing with her. It all feels like foreplay. But could I fall in love with her? I don’t know. Considering I don’t trust her, that’s a huge barrier.

She grabs her sweatshirt off the floor and puts it on, leaving her bra on the floor. “Do we really have to define this? Whatever’s happening between us?”

“I don’t know. Do we?”

A sigh escapes her and she looks away, wrapping her arms around herself like she’s suddenly cold. It’s warm and stuffy in my room, and I’m tempted to open the window despite the fact I’m standing here buck ass naked.

“One minute all I want is to feel your skin pressed against mine and the next I want to punch you in your perfect face,” she murmurs, her gaze lifting to mine. “You frustrate me.”

“You frustrate me too.”

“I don’t want to like you.”

“I don’t understand why.”

“You are everything I should hate.”

I flinch, shocked at the passion behind the word hate. “What did I ever do to you?”

“Not the literal you, the figurative you. The kind of guy you are,” she explains.

“You’re making zero sense,” I tell her, and now it’s her turn to throw her arms up in the air.

“Because you confuse the hell out of me!” She comes at me, and shoves at my shoulders with both hands, making me take a step back. “I didn’t mean for this to happen. Well, I did, but I didn’t think I’d like you so damn much.”

“So you…what? Wanted a hookup and can’t believe that I’m actually decent human being?” She talks in circles. Acts like she had some sort of plan with me yet I’m the one who messed it all up.

“Yes! That. Exactly that.” She grips my shoulders, her fingers sliding down my skin. “You’re actually nice, Rhett. I didn’t expect that.”

“Then why would you even be interested in me, if you thought I was an asshole?”

“I’ve always been attracted to assholes.” She settles on the edge of the mattress, her entire body seeming to sag under the weight of her emotions. “The first guy I ever had sex with could burp the entire alphabet.”

I start to laugh, but when I spot the serious expression on her face, I stop. “What a talented dude.”

“He was a douche. The minute we started having actual intercourse, I was full of regret. But it was done. Couldn’t take it back.” She offers me a small smile. “The story of my life. I can’t take it back, no matter how much I want to.”

“Do you regret all of your sexual encounters?”

“The ones from when I was a kid, yeah. They were meaningless.” Her gaze locks with mine, her blue eyes stormy. “I’m not good with my feelings. Expressing them.”

I’m no expert either. Growing up essentially motherless will do that to a person. Diane claimed she wanted to be a mom to us, but she just said that to appease our father. When Park and I got older, she neglected us big time, especially me. None of us mattered. She only cared about the money.

Still does.

Jensen is so bottled up, so tense and jumpy, I can tell she’s not comfortable with expressing any kind of emotion.

“Why not?” I kneel in front of her, resting my hands on her knees. “I know your mom is gone. Your father passed away. You have no brothers or sisters. Was it really that bad, just living with your father?”

She nods. Presses her lips together. “We were broke. He never worked, not really. And things got worse and worse as he got older. And sicker. He wasn’t well. Mentally, he could never handle my mother’s abandonment. He wasn’t strong enough to be there for me. He tried at first, but near the end, he gave up. He was too angry at the world.”

“He should’ve been there for you,” I say firmly. My dad isn’t the best, but when things gets tough, he’s there for us as much as he can be. Diane is a major roadblock, but I know if shit got serious, he would put us above her.

At least, I think he would.

“I don’t want to talk about this.” She rests her hands on top of mine and then shoves them off her knees. “I should go.”

I rise up so my face is directly in hers. “I don’t want you to leave.”

“You can’t fix me, Rhett. No matter how much you think you can, it’s impossible,” she says softly.

Reaching for her, I cup the back of her head, pulling her in for a kiss. “I don’t want to fix you. I like you just as you are.” I press my lips to hers, our mouths parting, the lingering kiss soft and perfect, and just like that, my dick stirs to attention.

“Then you’re crazy, because I’m a nightmare,” she says, but I kiss her again to shut her up. The kiss turns deeper, our tongues lazy, my other hand slipping beneath her sweatshirt to touch her soft, smooth skin. I slowly push her so she’s lying flat on the bed, her legs dangling over the side of the mattress, and then I’m reaching for the waistband of her leggings, tugging them off until they’re a crumpled ball on the floor.

“Just let things happen,” I tell her, kissing her stomach, darting my tongue in her belly button. “It’s like you want to control every aspect of what’s happening between us, and that’s not how this sort of thing works.”

“That’s the problem.” I watch her as she stares up at the ceiling, her expression woeful, like she’s so utterly confused she doesn’t know which way to turn, or how to think. “I don’t have any experience with…relationships.”

“I don’t either.”

She lifts her head, glaring at me. “Really?”

I shrug, not comfortable reviewing my relationships over the years when I’m about to go down on this girl. “I’ve had a few girlfriends. Nothing too terribly serious.”

“Uh huh,” she drawls, lying back down so she can look at the ceiling once more. I grab her thighs, spreading them slowly so she’s on full display, pretty and pink and glistening. I drape first one leg, then the other over my shoulders, pressing my mouth against her inner thigh.

“Take off your sweatshirt, Jens,” I whisper against her skin, my breath, my closeness making goose bumps rise. “You’re gonna be here for a while.”

Jensen does as I tell her without hesitation, whipping that sweatshirt off so she’s once again naked. She truly has the most beautiful body I’ve ever seen. All long limbs and perfect proportions, breasts that are a generous handful and topped with rosy nipples. A round ass and assured hands. I could feast on her for hours.

Days.

I dip my head and nuzzle her pussy just before I start licking. She moans, scooting down so her pussy is even closer to my face and I give her all I’ve got, licking and sucking and teasing with my tongue. Sliding first one, then two fingers deep inside her, my lips attach to her clit. She bucks against my face, her fingers going into my hair like she never wants to let go, and I slip a third finger inside of her, stretching her wide. Filling her up.

This is all about her, this moment, right now. I just want her to come. I’m here to make her feel good. That’s it. No expectations, no selfishness either. I’m here, at her service.

Going down on her like this is making me hard too. I grip my cock with my free hand and stroke. Once, twice, establishing a rhythm, the same one as my fingers inside her. She grinds her pussy against my mouth. I’m buried in her, and when I flick her clit in a particular way, her entire body goes tense before that orgasm washes over her, making her cry out.

I open my eyes, watching her fall apart against my lips. She’s so fucking sexy when she does that, completely uninhibited, offering me a glimpse of the real her. The raw, vulnerable version of Jensen. This is what I want, what I crave. The real girl, the sweet one who’s giving in bed, who wants me, who responds so beautifully to everything I do to her.

She’s not even finished with her climax and I’m crawling on top of her, slipping inside of her. I pound her hard, fuck her with everything I’ve got, grunting with every thrust, my vision hazy, my brain blank. I’m going on pure, primal instinct, and I feel like some sort of caveman, taking what’s mine.

That’s the weird thing about me and Jensen. Since the moment I first saw her, I felt like she belonged to me. There’s some sort of undefined connection to this girl that I want to explore further.

But first, I need to find out why she lies.

And what she’s hiding from me.