At Risk

“You could be a model,” he said. “You should be one.”

She chuckled.

“Seriously.”

Just get on with it already, she thought. “Thanks.” She let her hands follow the firm, tight flesh covering his ribcage. They traveled to his waist. She brought them up and around, to cup his buttocks. She gave the compact globes a soft squeeze. “You’re pretty gorgeous yourself.”

He blushed. “I look like a Cro-Magnon.”

Or a Neanderthal, Diane thought. “Nonsense. You’re sexy as hell.”

“Am I?”

He seemed to want--to need--reassurance. What the hell kind of game was he playing? Diane wondered. None of the men she’d been with before had needed to be reassured about their appearance. They’d all been full of themselves. They’d been vain, arrogant bastards who had no doubts at all that they were studs built like Adonis. If anything, they’d implied that it was she who was lucky to be in their company; it was she who was fortunate enough to be beaten unconscious by them and left for dead. Inwardly, she shrugged. If Eric wanted to pretend he needed her reassurance, she could pretend to give it. “You’re an Adonis. I didn’t sidle up to you at the bar because you reminded me of a caveman.”

He smiled, reflecting on her words. Then, he kissed her again.

Diane was tiring of the foreplay, the game of cat and mouse. She needed sex, rough and raw and brutal. “Fuck me, Eric,” she whispered into his ear. “Please fuck me.”

Eric smiled. His hands unbuckled the thin belt at her waist. He unzipped the black leather mini-skirt. Diane raised her hips, and he tugged the skirt down, over her sleek thighs, past her delicate knees, and down her shapely, smooth calves. She drew her legs up as he slid the skirt over her dainty feet. Carefully, he set the skirt aside.

Diane could hardly repress a giggle as she thought of the surprise she had in store for Caveman Eric. He wouldn’t be much of a gentleman after he discovered her little secret. Already, she could almost feel the blows, like hammers, against her face, and she shuddered, both with fear and with desire. Beat me, she thought, but don’t kill me.