Say it Again-Tell Me l'm not just another deal to you

There were more unpleasant manners in which to come home than by walking in on your mother spread-eagled, against the glass back door, being eviscerated by her fiancé. But I could not think of any of them while standing at the door with my hand clenched around the door handle, fighting-and losing-a battle with my gag reflex."Yes, Dean! Sì. Down there, up there, dio mio-stop it." Her choking screams, muffled by his hand over her mouth as he fought not to wake the baby lying above, dripped into my head, searing themselves into my core memory.The first automatic response of screaming, "MY EYES, MY EYES!" à la Phoebe Buffay and running out of the house, town, state, and world with my arms waving frantically in the air. Alas, I could not do so. One, for the fact that my three-year-old child slept upstairs and I was in no mood to abandon her. Two, due to the reason that at the age of twenty-six, I shared a place with my mama, although within the stunning mini mansion my brother had built

The last bad judgment I ever made, it was in the form of a burst condom against the arm of the couch, cheek to the top of a cushion. It had borne me my daughter. While I loved Gravity above life itself and would never go back on the path of that so-called mistake, my life had changed forever because of it. I'd become a craven, terrified of making mistakes.This, though, was a mistake. This town. This job. This pointless life.I ought to have had more, and Grav ought to have had more too. I might always go back. But something fresh alive and mutinous and untamed inside me said I wouldn't. That after getting out, I wouldn't glance back. That I'd continue running. I felt like waking from a coma, years and years. Like I was emerging after sitting on the bottom of a puddly pond.I grabbed my phone from the edge of the sink in a hurry and called Timothy before even flushing."Dot?""Please let me say yes.""I'm saying yes.""Attagirl."KLAUS"Shit, shit, fuck, shit." I banged my forehead ag

"Just get your bags out first. Our garage elevator is tiny and we're going to be forever shuttling bags."I resented that he was helping me. Resented that I was flustered enough to have been accepting said help. And I resented having a disheveled look about me at all of this happening.Flinn got out, tossed all six of my suitcases and duffel bags onto the sidewalk, and stopped a burly Amazon delivery guy and got him to shift the lane so he could push my car into the building's parking lot. They both pushed the trunk, rolling it into the garage underneath. I put Gravity onto a suitcase, her legs hooked over the handle, and dropped her iPad, covered in a butterfly-shaped sleeve, into her hands. I put her kitty-ear headphones on her ears. Her face lit up as she saw Caitie's Classroom. Then I went and fetched my broken phone from the pavement.With a mix of mortification and humiliation, I watched Flinn and the delivery guy work. When the car was wedged into the garage, Flinn once more ca

"Listen—" I started.The elevator made its metallic ding and opened its doors to the side. I carried the bags and followed behind her like a bellboy. She stood in the middle of the hallway, waiting for me to act. I could see she'd never been there before. Not to Pete's apartment and probably not in New York. Other than the occasional London trips to visit her brother and Timothy, Klaus hadn't seen much of the world."It's this one." I nodded my chin to the right door.She poked her chin out defiantly, and we both pretended the blood on her cheeks wasn't there.Klaus pushed open the door and gagged in amazement. Yeah, the room was really nice. Gravity let out a little shriek of delight."Big windows!" She squirmed out of her mother's hug. The little girl dropped her headphones on the floor and ran out into the hall to go see.I wheeled all the bags in, glaring at Klaus.Her brow creased in annoyance. "Oh. Sorry." Her scowl eased, and she removed the Target bag from her shoulder, rummaging thr

It was her turn to appear scandalized. She was not looking for me to be willing. Negotiating shoving my dick in Klaus Mikasa wasn't on my year's bingo card, either. But it was all theoretical anyway.No hurting me." She had stood up a finger for every rule, counting them out on her hand and starting with her thumb. "No audience, you always wear a condom—I am never getting pregnant again—and we'll have to be exclusive.".I nodded. That's not a problem. I'd been a huge pussy lover in my old gigolo job, and I just wasn't up for variety. If anything had been true about that job, it was that a pussy was a pussy.I enjoyed the hypocrisy of the situation. I'd been paid to pretend to date all manner of individuals when I worked in my old gigolo job, and now I'd be paying someone to pretend to date me back.Karma, nasty little beast."Sounds like a plan," I said. "We have a deal.""Wait—I'm not finished."I pinched the bridge of my nose between my fingers and breathed deeply. "Of course you're not.""