It was a mad dash to get here. To get inside. To get to her room. I have to keep reminding myself to slow the fuck down—we’re in no rush now, and she deserves to be worshipped.

I’m practically vibrating with pent-up energy and sexual tension. The combination of resisting her and then holding back over the last few days has been nothing less than torture.

I pull her away from her bedroom wall and walk her backward to the bed.

Her room is bright yellow, with one charcoal gray wall that stands out from the rest. It’s filled with framed pictures of friends and newspaper clippings touting her high school sports accomplishments. Her prom queen sash and crown hang off the end of a bookshelf next to an illustrated poster of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She has an ornate white vanity at one end of the room, covered in products and all sorts of girly things, then above it is a wall decal that reads “I am a rich man.”

The whole space is a paradox; a dichotomous collection that’s perfectly her.

She sits down on her bed and smiles at me, crossing her bare legs and looking coy.

“Where do you keep your condoms, baby girl?”

Her pupils dilate when I call her that. I can’t wait to see how she responds when we really get going.

“In this drawer.” She crawls across the bed to the side table, then shakes her ass, taunting me to come closer.

I make my way to the other side of the bed and peer inside the drawer, finding a variety pack—open, but more than half-full.

“Good girl,” I murmur, just to see if I can get a reaction out of her.

She turns back to me and beams.

“Is it okay if I use the ones I brought?” I ask, weaving a hand through her hair as she kneels near the side of her bed to kiss me.

She laughs. “Really, Dem?”

“Yes, really. What’s so funny?”

“You are.”

“What? Why?”“I don’t know,” she says, exasperated. “You’re just… different. Most guys my age act like wearing a condom is a literal death sentence. I had three guys tell me they were allergic to latex during my freshman year of college. Three! It’s like they all got together on Reddit and brainstormed ideas to get away with raw dogging a one-night stand.”

Fury rises inside me at the thought of some asshole trying to take advantage of her like that.

“What did you tell them?” I demand.She raises one eyebrow before answering. “I told them to get lost, obviously.”

“Good girl,” I murmur again before dipping my head to kiss up and down the column of her neck.

“You seem to like saying that to me.”