Cara McKenna

“I’m gonna fall in love with you,” Kelly said. His words hung in the darkness, bright as candle flames.”

“These past couple of weeks, I’d scaled Kelly’s massive wall and peeked at what lay beyond. But I’d made myself too comfortable, and he’d tossed me back out, stacked his defenses thicker and taller and coiled it with a halo of concertina wire.”

“You know your chances with me always get worse, the more you talk.” And Kelly finally shut up. For a block, anyway...”

“I watched him go, a tower of lean muscle and scar tissue camouflaging more secrets than I’d realized.”

“You ever been fucked by a man’s mouth?” The way he said it, I knew he wasn’t talking about any kind of oral I’d experienced. I’d been teased and spoiled and serviced by guys’ mouths, but no, I hadn’t been fucked…”

“Get your eyes off my dick and get your butt in the shower...”

“He smiled back. “I’m not awake enough to be a bossy dick yet.”

“He was the best lover I’d ever had. So far ahead of the competition, I couldn’t even recall their names or faces.”

“His lips were parted, lids heavy. This moment might not be about him and me, about two bodies unified in pleasure or anything profound, but goddamn he looked good. Looked exactly as he felt— strong and big and one hundred percent in control. And I felt exactly as he surely saw me, a hungry vessel, eager to please, at the mercy of his cock.”

“Right now, though, the world spun on Kelly’s cock. The sun rose and set around it, and I wanted it like I’d never known I could want anything.”

“My mouth could deny my interest in Kelly all day long, but my pussy didn’t lie. He felt like more than a single person. Two hands, a hard body, a mean voice. A one-man orgy. I’d leave here limping, just as he’d promised.”

“I spend forty to fifty hours a week at everybody’s beck and call. When I’m off, I want what I want, the way I want it.”

“His sharp eyes scanned everything, but they didn’t dart. Nothing about him promised sudden movement...”

“His mood-ring eyes were neutral gray, summer clouds that threatened no rain.”

“Behind narrowed lids his eyes were ice, and they followed my every motion...”

“His eyes looked pale green this afternoon, the color of corroded copper.”

“I studied his eyes. They were nearly a color today, a frozen lake reflecting a clear blue...”

“His pale irises had grown as dark as his intentions, lids heavy.”

“…his eyes looked different outside. Nearly blue, like a thick, antique glass bottle.”

“His irises were pale with a dark ring, gray like his self-designed uniform…”

“Laurel had gotten plenty of head in her time, but never like this. Flynn fucked her with his mouth…”

“You taste so fucking amazing.” He brought his head up and Laurel could see the violent rise and fall of his chest. “Sit on my face,” he said.”

“That gooey stuff inside a Boston crème donut. That’s what you smell like. Now I’ll get a hard-on every time I eat one.”

“I’m a selfish prick, and I want to be the greatest fuck of your life and ruin you for every man who comes after me. But I’m not a mind reader, so I need some help.”

“And I’ll tell you now, I won’t be calling you tomorrow or the next day or the day after that, so don’t get in a stink when I don’t. None of the normal dating rules apply to this.”

“Well, draw yourself a pretty little blueprint and do me a favor and don’t show it to me. I like fighting, and I like fucking. I don’t care much for thinking.”

“What we got,' Kelly said, 'we're stuck with it, even if our stubborn, rational brains might decide we're through. It'll always be there, whether we like it or not.”

“Only for you, fan-girl.” He tossed her towel. “And I like when you blush, so go ahead. Mop my sweat, you kinky beast.”-Michael Flynn, Willing Victim”

“Listen, kiddo,” he said. “I’m a selfish prick, and I want to be the greatest fuck of your life and ruin you for every man who comes after me. But I’m not a mind reader, so I need some help. Otherwise I could end up as the douchebag who’s got shitty taste in wine and totally traumatized you when you were thirty.”

“Let’s quit our jobs and fuck all day.”

“Silence, please? I'm trying to watch this documentary." Laurel nodded at The Bachelor. "I believe one of the females is about to present to the alpha.”

“A beautiful young clerk might flirt with him as he browsed, but she'd never see what I did. She'd see only his shiny shell, snapped shut to hide a jumble of secondhand parts, ticking not quite as they should, but ticking nonetheless. A bit rusty. A bit erratic, like my heartbeat in the moments before I press his buzzer.”

“I've never before met anyone whose outside so matched their soul. You could drill clean through Didier and find nothing but layer upon layer of beauty, dark and strange and kind and prurient, but all of it perfectly, utterly pure.”

“And I realized something I never had before. Deep down, I want to be seen as an object too. I want to be coveted and sought after. I want to be taken apart and understood, reassembled, filed away in Didier's cabinet. I don't even need to be pretty to have this. I only have to allow him to open me up.”

“Yes, I would be very honored to corrupt you in whatever ways you like.”

“After a moment’s hesitation, he (Jeremy) asked, “Would you ever ask her to do this for you? Bring another woman in…” He stopped speaking as Rasul grasped him once again by the shoulder, thumb pressed uncomfortably close to his throat.Rasul blinked and stared past Jeremy’s face, seeming thoughtful for several seconds before speaking. His words were slow and cold. “I would sooner die than allow my wife to wonder for a single moment if another woman could stir in me any fraction of the desire she does.”

“He pumped her roughly, filling the room with the sounds of their breathing and the smell of their sin. She felt drunk, this man’s harsh energy as intoxicating as ten bottles of wine. She stroked his chest and dug her fingernails into his shoulders. Spurs, telling him to make it rougher.”

“I really need to get better at participating in my own fantasies.”

“My soul had the flu.”

“Shane knew this wasn't love, at least not any kind of love that extended beyond the desires of two selfish bodies. No future, only fleeting pleasure. This was addiction, plain and simple...irresistible need coupled with painful consequences and regret, moments of pure happiness like islands, spread out in a thrashing sea of insecurity and interminable waiting.”

“He's young and tan and hung like Christmas has come early,...”

“If I get pulled over on the short drive between here and my house I'll have to say, "I had only two beers in two hours, officer, but then I made out with a lumberjack. You know how it is.”

“Call me traditional, but the whole manscaping trend turns me right off.”

“His expression transforms, looking mean in a good way, promising me greed and aggression, things I'd never ask for but long to see.”

“He watched her screen, her spell-checker halting at such spurious entries as "fuckwitism" and "Caliguliberal".”

“Let's quit our jobs and fuck all day.""Works for me. Think somebody will subsidize that? Maybe we could apply for some kind of research grant," she said.”

“You ever been in a fight?" he asked. "Not a proper fight...I got detention for kicking Shelly Walker in the butt with my muddy boot when I was in fourth grade."Flynn laughed. "What'd she do to deserve it?"She smiled down at her hand. "I think she badmouthed Joey McIntyre or something. I was a hardcore New Kids fan."Flynn made an amused, judging face. "I hope it was worth it.""Oh yes. Nobody puts Joey Mac down and gets away with it.”

“Is six a.m. too early to watch The Bachelor and mock all the giggly, desperate women?""Go for it. Though I bet it'd work better as a drinking game," Laurel said. "One shot for the flirty arm touch. Chug if they strip and bum-rush the pool." Anne hit play. "Like they'd get their hair wet."Laurel stared at the screen, laughed at Anne's comments but felt another weird pang upset her insides. "Would you say this show makes something incredibly complex--you know, relationships--into something mind-numbingly vapid? Or does it make something actually rather simple into a big fucking circus?""Both. That's why I love it.""I couldn't stand competing for a man like that," Laurel murmured. "I don't have the right...programming for it. Like to fight like that. Some people get an adrenaline rush and they're like foosh, give me somebody to beat down. I just, like curl up into a ball and want to hide." "I'm somewhere in the middle," Anne said. "I'm like a ninja. I'll like, come out of my shadowy hiding space and beat you down, bitches. You won't even see me.”