Skylar felt like velvet beneath Kylan’s fingers. He’d given into her too easily, his weakness getting the better of him after staving it off for so long. He’d also let her drink, paving the way for where he’d currently found himself.

He didn’t know anything about Skylar other than she was running and she was afraid of whoever she was running from. Those two reasons right there should have been enough to leave her alone. But when she’d leaned over and looked into his eyes with her smoky brown ones, his strength and resolve had melted like wax to a hot flame.

He didn’t know yet how far he could go, and he’d have to tell Sky this meant nothing more than what it was. She wouldn’t become his girlfriend overnight. He wouldn’t stop going out to work to stay with her, and this would not happen again. He was scratching an itch. A two-way street.

He’d been so preoccupied with finding the CCTV footage from Brookwood that a quick, no-fuss tug in the shower had almost become his outlet for frustration and pleasure more than once. Kylan didn’t often think about it, but with the blonde cheerleader in his bed two nights a week, getting his dick wet had started to take up more space on his list of needs than he was happy with. The one thing he hadn’t wanted Sky to turn into was a distraction. Sitting on his lap with her legs spread open was one hell of a distraction, but he couldn’t stop now. His willpower wasn’t rigid enough to turn her away and backpedal into safe, risk-free territory.

Curling his fingers around the hem of her tank top, he toyed with the notion of peeling the fabric from her body; the first glimpse of her breasts as she stretched her arms above her head to help him get her out of her pajamas.

He’d hardly laid a finger on her when a shiver rolled through her. It was probably from the cool air blowing in through the poorly sealed window, but Kylan egotistically hoped it had more to do with him than the wind chill.

“Are you drunk?” he asked. That would slow him down and make his decision easier.

“No,” Sky said earnestly. “I’m not drunk.”

With his eyes on hers, as though she was his center of gravity, Kylan’s hand dipped beneath her tank top, smoothing over her stomach, the tips of his fingers reaching just below her left breast.

A soft sigh escaped Sky’s lips, her eyelids fluttering closed as her head lolled back and her thighs clenched around him. Her reaction was more visceral than Kylan had been expecting, and he wondered how long she’d been waiting for this precise moment.

That was a future problem he could look beyond—for now. Sky wasn’t clingy, not around him, and he doubted with anyone else. Desperate wasn’t her MO, he could tell as much from the short time he’d spent around her, and that was one of the traits he admired most about her. And whatever, whoever, she was hiding from, she did so without the drama and theatrics. Licking her wounds in silence, just how Kylan preferred to lick his. She was easy to be with and be around, but Kylan understood to pay her too much attention could be detrimental to his plans and his mental health.

This was just one night. He had it and himself under control. He could get done what needed doing and take care of his baser needs at the same time.

At least, that’s what he’d thought. Hands full of Sky’s tan, supple skin, he wasn’t so sure there was any truth left in that.

He took his hand from her ribcage and wrapped his fingers around her throat. Using the weight of his body, he guided her backward onto the bed, so she was no longer on top of him and he was hovering above her, one foot on the floor and one knee pressing down on the spring mattress. There was a wildness in Skylar’s eyes that hadn’t been there before. A sign of fear or impatient anticipation, or an unhealthy mix of both.

He couldn’t do it. Couldn’t stain her with his darkness.

Letting his head drop forward, his hair brushed her flat stomach. He lowered his forehead to the silky tie on her shorts above her pubic bone, his hands gliding over her hips to cradle her waist. Sky lay beneath him panting. Brought her thighs up to cage him in on either side of his broad shoulders as her breaths began to regulate and slow down. She combed her fingers through his onyx hair and trailed them down the back of his neck.

Kylan’s own breathing set a more even, balanced pace as Sky’s fingers ran over his scalp and through the ends of his hair.

How close he’d just come to fucking it all up shook him from inside, and there was no way in hell he could let things go that far between them again. He had a goal to achieve—wrongs to put right—and unfortunately for his neglected dick, the girl who slept over at his place on Thursdays and Saturdays wasn’t any of those, and she never would be.

Skylar’s thighs relaxed around his shoulders, and he shifted into an upright position. He stretched out her legs, placing them either side of his waist. While she lay in front of him, her eyes on his face, his fingers glided behind her knee, down her calf to her ankle.

“Who’re you afraid of, Sky?” he asked, still stroking the smooth skin on her leg.

Skylar was silent so long Kylan didn’t think he’d get an answer from her. But then she averted her eyes back to the ceiling and inhaled a breath.

“I can’t tell you.”

“But they hurt you?” Kylan pressed, his fingers stilling on her skin as the anger within him stirred to life.

“They only hurt me if I let them. I try not to let them anymore.”

Kylan wasn’t sure what exactly Sky meant by that, but to him, it didn’t sound like she was putting up much of a fight. More like shutting it out, and he knew firsthand how effective that was.

He knew she wasn’t going to like what he was about to say, but he really had no choice.

“I won’t be around forever, Sky. Can you take care of yourself when that time comes?”

Skylar jerked her gaze back to him. “Where are you going?”

“Places. I don’t know exactly where yet, but I can’t take you with me.”

She studied his face with a measure of distrust that undulated in Kylan’s stomach, like he’d let her down in ways unimaginable. He’d trained himself to handle just about anything. Anything except the raw hurt flashing in Skylar’s eyes.

“I’ll be fine,” she said shortly.

There was just enough bitterness in her tone for Kylan to see that, no, she wouldn’t be fine. But she was stubborn, so she was already halfway there.

***

Night dissolved into dusk, and with the start of the new day came the same stiffness between Kylan and Skylar before they’d caved to each other and almost started something that couldn’t ever be finished. Kylan was constantly on tenterhooks with Sky. Keeping her at arm’s length so he could dispose of her with necessary quickness when the right time came, never getting too close for fear of not being able to let go. She may need him, but he needed no one, and he hadn’t for a long time.

This morning, for reasons he didn’t entirely understand, Sky got dressed in his bedroom, stripping out of her tank top from where she sat on the edge of Kylan’s bed with her back to him. Braless, and now topless, Skylar reached for something from her bag and stretched it over her head. She shimmied out of her shorts as she pulled the jersey dress over her ass, to her thighs. The pale pink material clung to her curves, and she untwisted the thin, delicate straps over her shoulders.

Kylan frowned. “Put some panties on before I make you leave here in my boxers. You’re not stepping foot outside of this apartment dressed like that.” If she bent over a few degrees, there was no doubt he’d see everything a stranger shouldn’t be seeing, and the thought of that was enough to make him chaperone on the train journey home if she left him with no other choice.

“I have underwear,” Skylar said, rummaging through her open bag again. She stepped into the lace thong, discreetly pulling it over her thighs and correcting it under her dress. “I thought I’d just hang out here today,” she turned and said, swiping a chunk of blonde hair from her face. “If that’s okay.”

Kylan thought about it. “I might not be able to take you home until late. I’ve got stuff to do today.”

“I could come?” Sky asked hopefully.

“No.” Kylan’s quick response wiped the hope clear off Skylar’s face, his unintentionally harsh tone too sharp around the edges. “I’m working,” he said in way of explanation. A vague, blunt one. But still. It was all he could give her. All he’d ever be able to give her if either of them was to stick around.

Escaping the wilted look he’d smeared on her face, Kylan sat up in one swift motion and stood from the bed, grabbing a plain T-shirt on the way out of his room.

Ivan’s bedroom door opened, and Kylan looked up to find Sasha in the doorway wearing a pair of high-waisted white panties and nothing more. Instinctively, his gaze dipped to her full, heaving chest, and the black paw tattoo crowning each one. He was too worked-up for this, and he dodged her and anything she had to say by anchoring his gaze to the threadbare carpet and heading into the kitchen.

He should have known she’d follow him. Her hands framed his biceps from behind, the soft peaks of her nipples grazing his back. He held his T-shirt bunched in his hand, and his muscles stiffened. Sasha’s warm breath, spiked with last night’s liquor, ghosted his ear as she reached up on her tiptoes to croon, “Morning, handsome.”

Kylan turned his head, catching Sasha in his periphery. “Morning,” he grumbled. That was just Sasha’s way: a fucking flirt twenty-four/seven. Didn’t matter whose bed she’d just rolled out of or who the teeth marks belonged to marring her alabaster skin.

Sasha’s fingertips drew a line over Kylan’s wrist, and then she freed the T-shirt from his grip and stretched it over head and shoulders. Pulling out the plastic chair at the fold-out table attached to the wall, Sasha spread her legs like it was the most normal thing in the world for a woman to do.

“You look tense,” she observed. “Anything I can help with?”

Kylan tried not to let his revulsion show. “I’m good.” As an afterthought, he ground out, “Thanks.”

“It wasn’t a fucking favor, Kylan.” Sasha’s eyes narrowed. “Who’s the girl?” Laughter chased the question. Laughter aimed at Kylan. She was brave this morning,Kylan couldn’t deny her that.

Bracing his palms against the counter, Kylan breathed in through his nose and exhaled silently through his mouth.

Plastic scraped over plastic, Sasha’s methodical footfalls padding over the linoleum. The warmth of her shadow fell over Kylan’s back, the damp heat of her breath fanning his ear. “You know where I am… if you change your mind.”