I’d experienced the same thing myself, the adrenaline that needed somewhere to go.

I wanted to lift her, slide my cock into her heat, and fuck her hard enough for both of us to forget what had happened today.

And I could tell she would welcome it, probably expected it.

But I didn’t.

Instead, I touched her, feeling her rock her hips, could tell from her breaths and the way she moved that she wanted her pussy filled.

But I didn’t, not immediately.

Instead, I teased her clit until she was writhing against me.

Only then did I finally put one, two, three fingers inside her and fuck her deep and slow until she shattered in my arms.

Held her until her breathing return to normal.

Let her go when she whispered, “I’d like to go back to my apartment.”

Five

FIVE

Kayla

Three days.

Three days since Armen had taken me.

Three days since Elias had saved me.

Three days that I’d had to struggle to come to grips with what had happened.

And agonize over what would happen now.

I stood in my postage-stamp-sized kitchen and pulled open one of the two cabinets. I kept my cleaning supplies down there, a single bucket that held my collapsible mop and broom, microfiber cleaning cloths, all-purpose cleaner, and bleach.

The scent of the cleaner filled my lungs when I took a breath, and I immediately felt better. That smell transported me back to a simpler time when I’d been under my mother’s feet, watching her every move as she’d taken care of our home, and I eventually had begun to do so myself.

I grabbed the bucket and my cleaning gloves, but before I could get started, I changed my mind and put it all back and made my way back to the slightly bigger living room.

Over the last three days, I tidied, re-tidied, then tidied again every square inch of this place. So much so that the faint scent of my cleaner still lingered in the air.

At this point, if I mopped again, I’d be stripping the floors. So I knew there was no distraction there. I looked around the pristine apartment, one that couldn’t have been any cleaner if I’d tried, searching for something to occupy my mind.

Tried to ignore that sinking feeling that hit me, knowing that if I allowed those thoughts to take hold, they would start to sink in and would soon be all-consuming.

So instead I turned to others, no less consuming, not entirely comforting, but something I could handle. Or at least I thought I could.

It had also been three days since I had heard Elias’s voice, felt his touch.

All those hours had passed, but he was still everywhere.

He had said I belonged to him. Maybe not in those words, not specifically, but his meaning was clear enough.