Kara’s long black curls whip me in the face before her back is retreating, and fast.

I run after her, the bass of the club jarring me with every thump, as if I’m on a rocking cruise ship and can’t find my footing. She makes the rookie mistake of running for the front door, only I know what’s lying in wait for her there.

Grabbing her elbow just as she opens the door and the shutterbugs start, she gasps as flashes of light slither through the tiny opening in the entrance way.

“Get off me!” She may not want her picture taken by the paps, but she also doesn’t want me to touch her.

“You’re welcome for just saving you from the likes of them.” I point angrily at the now closed door, my temper spiking.

She has absolutely no gratitude toward me still, but then again, I guess I am like her captor. Have we developed such Stockholm Syndrome toward each other in such a short period of time that we don’t even realize it? Her sympathies lie with getting me out of a rape charge, and I can’t help but protect the one woman who threw loyalty to the wind at the first sign of complication.

Kara stalks to the other side of the hallway, the club music bumping through the entire venue, making the dark building vibrate.

“What do you want, Kara? Do you want to go home? Do you want to fight me? You want to call this all off? I’m tired of your hot and cold attitude, and if you don’t want to do this anymore, be my guest and leave! Fuck, at this point it’s too much of a hassle to deal with you, even if you are doing wonders for my reputation.”

She’s like a snake about to strike, seeming to grow taller in that black slinky dress that distracts me by showcasing her tits, her nipples about to spill over the seams of the top.

“Too much of a hassle? Oh, I’m sorry, I wasn’t aware that I was supposed to sit still and look pretty while helping you get off a rape charge. I also didn’t realize I was supposed to remain silent when you took me to the exact location you cheated on me in seven years ago.”

A light bulb goes off in my head, and memories of a night filled with smoke and booze slither into my mind like vapor.

“You have no idea what went on that night.” My teeth grind together as I try to maintain composure.

“Oh, spare me, Dean, I didn’t need to have details. There were pictures Goddamn it, and any innocent man would have fought much harder than you did.” She dismisses me with a flick of her wrist.

I charge her, her back flattening against the wall in a hallway where we were, thankfully, all alone. “No, you were just all too happy to believe everyone else but me. You threw what we had out the window in the time it takes to blink. Didn’t listen to anything I had to say, or ask what really happened.”

Her eyes flare and she bares her teeth, a lion with its back against the wall. “Don’t mock me, Dean. You betrayed me, stuck your dick in the first California bitch that came along.”

I slam my open palm against the wall, right next to her head. “Fuck you, Kara. I never cheated, is that what you want to hear?”

She shakes her head, trying to escape the pin I’ve got her held in. “Liar.”

“I’m not fucking lying! I never did. You chose to believe the Goddamn tabloids over your own boyfriend, the man you had all of your firsts with. You want to know what really happened that night? Fine! I was lonely as hell, missing you and feeling like there was absolutely no one out here I could trust. I was a twenty-year-old kid who had his first taste of money and could now slip past the velvet ropes, but the one person I wanted was thousands of miles away. I came here, had too many drinks trying to drown myself at the bottom of a bottle because I yearned for you so damn bad that I wanted to dull the pain in any way I could. I was half blind by the time I made it back to the hotel room I’d been calling home for three months because I couldn’t bear to buy an apartment without you living in it with me. That girl, she was a set up. Media out here tries it with all the new young stars, to catch them in some sort of fucked-up situation. I could barely comprehend what was happening as she wrapped her arms around my neck and walked me into my room. The minute she went for my belt though, I kicked her the fuck out. I passed out, and the next morning I wake up to seven screaming messages from you, telling me we were over and to never contact you again.”

The dizzy pain of that morning after, the harsh light that filtered into my room as I replayed every message, the numerous times I called Kara’s cell enough to fill her voicemail. I’d considered hopping on a plane after that, but the pictures in the tabloid that had set me up, they looked so bad. And then anger got the best of me. If she thought I’d actually do that to her, then fuck her. Good riddance. I didn’t need to fight for someone who didn’t want to fight for me.

It was only a month later that I realized how fucking wrong I’d been. And that I couldn’t make up for it, not now when I’d let so much time pass. So, I’d started to write, and every song somehow became about her. The album hit number one, but it meant nothing to me, my hopes so high that she would call after hearing all of the lyrics I dedicated to her.

She never did call.

Kara’s breathing is shallow, her eyes big with unshed tears, those violet orbs staring at my mouth.

I don’t think. That was my problem seven years ago; thinking instead of just acting and getting my girl back. My lips crash down onto hers, not giving either of us a second to pull back or breathe.

Everything I’ve held back, every word left unspoken or unexplained, I pour into the kiss. My hands bracket her face, my thumbs running across the smooth skin of her jaw in a frenzied, cathartic motion. Kara struggles for a split second, but then gives in, succumbing to my tongue as it invades her mouth. Her anatomy meets mine, stroking against the seams of my lips, answering every question I pose with my body and vice versa.

We’re nothing but animals, stripped down to our most base of urges. I can’t grab enough of her, taste enough of her, fast enough. It feels like time has stopped, but as if the world is turning too quickly in its absence. Everything is off kilter, but also so grounded that I’ve never felt more like my own self. Clarity chimes like a bell in my ears, and I know that in this moment, not even a speeding bullet could stop me from making love to this woman using just my mouth.

Noise from just outside the hallway filters into our bubble and bursts it. Kara tilts her head back, disconnecting us as she leans against the wall.

I don’t want to see her eyes; don’t want to ruminate over what I just did or how it changes everything. I just want one moment to breathe in the space where she and I exist again.

So, I turn on my heel and walk away from her, not even chancing a glance backward.