Thistle is starting to look like she believes me, but that’s only enraged her more. ‘Did you ever stop to wonder if that was my choice to make? We both grew up in the same hellhole. You don’t think I have problems too? I can’t sleep without Ambien. I take stupid risks. I can’t handle a normal job, or make friends with normal people. I have terrible taste in men, you included. I—’

She has no idea what problems are. ‘You’re the only person I’ve known for longer than a week who doesn’t think I’m worthless,’ I say. ‘No one else cares about me, and I don’t care about anyone else. If I hurt you, how the fuck am I supposed to live with myself? I’d rather live and die alone in this piece of shit place than take that risk.’

She stares at me, amazed.

‘Sure, I’m afraid,’ I say. ‘But not of sex.’

She gulps down the last of her drink. Shrugs off her jacket.

‘Prove it,’ she says.

CHAPTER 31

CHAPTER 31

I always follow my brother but you cannot see me, only him. You cannot hear him, only me. What are we?

It’s not like I expect.

For one thing, no one gets bitten. Thistle pulls me off the couch and pins me to the floor, her hips on mine. Unbuttons my shirt one-handed while her other hand grips my hair. I couldn’t bite her if I tried.

And I don’t try. That’s the other thing that shocks me. I let her hold me down as I lift her blouse, exposing her soft belly, and slide my hands up the smooth skin of her back, all the way to the nape of her neck. When she shivers and bends down to kiss me, the tang of Southern Comfort on her lips, it doesn’t even occur to me to bite down. I just close my eyes, not wanting the moment to end, and at the same time needing more.

The sex itself goes wrong like all first times probably do. Thistle has condoms in her handbag but it’s a while before she finds them. I fumble with one until she exasperatedly takes over, rolling it onto me while I stroke her bare thighs and wonder where her panties went. When she tries to kiss me again I tilt my head the wrong way, bumping my brow against hers. It takes a lot of shifting and wiggling to find the right angle before she can lower herself down onto me, the electric feeling making me gasp. We go slow, because every time we accelerate, we can’t find a rhythm that suits each other. Her bounces don’t match my thrusts, and the whole thing keeps grinding to a halt. Her knees and my ass both get rubbed raw by the floor.