RA

him for a

e me?"

heard

u a chance to rephrase before I turned

with that same stillness that had

own,"

t take

den, just landed flat and certain like it had never

was genuinely

straight, not because he told me to, because I decided to, there was a differ

s smart,"

poured myself a drink from the open bottle on the

uch that,

glass halfway to my

our for you or you

looked at him, looked at th

n glass and slid it across the table t

p and drank because the alternative was letting him see

u want Mr.

io

u want Mr.

, more like a man filing information away for later, "I com

atulat

for a private book

ely neutral, "So what

know the an

ally

ormance in it, just flat simple fact, "the same way

" I said, "whatever you felt

s

es

moving from his seat, and I held my ground because I did no

" he said. Eye

hat I'm h

corner of the room, and the second

r," he

ed, "Ex

heard

. Blackwood, you don't

eaned back, complete

hips moving in a slow figure eight, dropping low and letting my back arch on the way up, hooking my leg around the pole and spinning down to the floor, lett

ing, the way you feel

controlled, dropped into a squat and popped back up, rolling

him st

reathing even, because I was not acknowledging

rolling my hips, kept my eyes on the middle distance even as he got closer, even as I fel

said, quiet, rig

e middle o

around

y name did something I was choosi

steady, and he reached out and took my hand, pulling me away from the pole towa

you could touc

e didn't mo

rolled my hips, and his grip tightened just slightly with each movement lik

at this," he

kno

compliment abo

y face neutral, "whatever y

ep sayi

u keep not

nd on my waist pulled me closer, "I

nto my hair, gripping the back of my head and tilting my face to the side, stepping forward and walking

ice came out steadier

dn't

e, running along my skin, and he inhaled deep like he was looking for something

hispered aga

hing s

d's, Gerald's grip, the couch, the dark, please Gerald please please just stop, and my lungs l

voice, the real one, raw and cracked and seventeen ye

m with ever

bing my bag off the table, four steps to t

nce, I don't kn

es wer

ng like the green that had been watching me all night, and he was

second tho