“Kai…”

“Banks, Jesus Christ.” He kissed me. “I love the way you feel.”

I gripped his hips as he nibbled my mouth and neck and ear, and before I knew it, nothing was uncomfortable anymore.

“Put one hand on my shoulder,” he said, leaning back up to look down at me. “I want you to feel me move.”

I did as he told, and slowly, he pulled out. I briefly registered something wet, but he rolled his hips, sinking back inside me.

“Oh, God.” I groaned.

It didn’t hurt at all anymore.

Holding onto him, I watched his body move as the room filled with the sounds of our pants and moans. He slid in and out, pumping faster as his eyes moved from my gaze to my lips to my body underneath him.

“What do I feel like?” he asked.

I pulled him into me as he thrust again, craving the fucking more and more.

“Like fingers in my hair,” I breathed out. “It’s smooth and hard—I want to take more. And the pressure…ugh, right there.”

I grunted, squeezing my eyes shut. I was coming.

I’d made myself come before, but it was different like this. Like it was a muscle locking up tighter and tighter and something swirling like a cyclone, getting higher, and I craved the release.

Pushing up, I grabbed his neck and kissed him hard and hungry. Sweat dampened his hair as I whispered in his ear, “Make me come, Kai.” I smiled. “Make me come, and I’ll let you watch me and what I do when I’m in the shower thinking about you. You like to watch, right?”

He growled, grabbing my wrists and locking them above my head with one hand. I laughed, surprised and nervous and so turned on.

“And here, I thought I was being nice, going easy on you.” He squeezed my ass in his other hand, pressing me into his cock.

I moaned. “Yeah.”

He pumped faster and rougher, going mad on top of me, until all I could do was hang on. Until all I felt like was a toy built for him to get off, and in the moment, I didn’t have one damn problem with that.

I loved that he saw me like this. Loved that he wanted this from me.

He thrust again and again, and my knees came higher, heat covered my body, and bursts of pleasure exploded low inside me, sweeping down my legs. I cried out, my body locking up as I held onto him, riding out the orgasm.

He grunted and pumped and finally thrust so deep, sinking into me and holding himself there as he threw his head back.

“God, baby. Fuck!”

He collapsed on top of me, our bodies and sweat melting together in heat and euphoria. Jesus.

I knew what I’d been missing all this time, but…I didn’t think I’d be unable to resist it.

I didn’t know if I was ever going to be able to.

Slowly, my breathing calmed, but I didn’t pull away from him or the brush of his lips on my neck. Reality would seep in soon enough, and I’d enjoy the last few moments.

We just laid there. I loved his warmth and being close.

I loved feeling this.

“Why are you waxed?” he suddenly asked.

Waxed?

Oh. Down there, he meant.

His nose brushed my cheek as he leaned back, flushed, and his eyes tired as he looked at me.

“I’m not complaining,” he assured with a half-smile. “It was just unexpected. Especially for a…for a virgin who’s not expecting any action down there.”

I rolled my eyes, letting his playful jab roll off me for once.

But then my amusement fell away as I thought about how to answer him. As if it were any of his business anyway.

I’d been waxing myself for years. It was hard at first, but over the years, the pain of the task became easier to bare, and hey, I only had to do it every couple of months.

I tried shaving it when it first started to appear in my pre-teen years, but it grew back too fast and the hair came in too coarse. Not long after, I started doing my legs and underarms, too. Dressing as a boy, covering my hair, flattening my breasts…everything I could do to not be a woman.

“I wasn’t supposed to change,” I said quietly. “I wasn’t supposed to grow up.”

Banks

Devil’s Night

Six Years Ago

“You were right,” Kai replied.

I nodded, absently, not believing my eyes. We both watched the dancing woman flutter around the floor, almost like a butterfly but also like a child. So innocent and ethereal. She was beautiful.

So beautiful and…familiar.

Who—

Her hair whipped around her, and I caught sight of her face, an aching sensation instantly covering my heart. I lost every ounce of air in my lungs.

Oh, my God. No.

The music. Night Mist. I’d heard this before.

I shrunk back behind the curtains.

It couldn’t be her.

“I thought it was just a story,” Kai said in a low voice, still watching her dip her head and move her arms and feet with weightless grace. She flew. She always floated and flew, like gravity wasn’t part of her reality. Still so exquisite.

“Do you know who she is?” he asked.

My eyes darted up to see him looking at me, his eyebrows etched in concern.

I nodded once. My stomach rolled, and I was too horrified to come up with a lie. “It’s Natalya Torrance. Damon’s mother.”

“His mother?” Confusion spread across his face as he turned to her again. “But…”

But nothing. She disappeared three years ago when Damon had finally suffered enough. He had hurt himself, made me hurt him, and retreated into the horror show of his own head until one night she came for him one too many times.

I watched Natalya, her long, silky black hair floating around her in waves. I didn’t know her well, but we’d lived in the same house for a couple years—before she escaped Damon’s rage that night and fled.

She’d been gone ever since.

She was still beautiful, though. Of course, she would be. She’d only be about thirty-four years old by now. Gabriel first saw her in a ballet in St. Petersburg when she was thirteen. He immediately coveted her. By the time she was sixteen she was his wife and had already given birth to Damon. She was closer in age to her son than she was to her husband.

I doubt she took the effort to know much about me, though. I was a non-entity to her. She knew who I was and what I was to Gabriel, but she never seemed to care, and I may as well have been a speck of dust under her bathroom sink for all she seemed to notice of me. She lived in a world all her own.

“Yeah, you’re right.” Kai studied her, finally recognizing her. “She left a few years ago, though? What’s she doing here?”

I shook my head to myself. God, I have no idea. And I didn’t know what would happen if Damon saw her here. She wasn’t supposed to be anywhere near him.

This was her husband’s hotel, though—she and Gabriel were still married, as far as I knew—but Damon had ordered her away. He’d said he would kill her if he ever saw her again.

I needed to get him out of here before he did.

“Should we tell him?” Kai asked.

“No,” I shot out quickly, taking his hand. “No, he won’t want to see her.”

Or he shouldn’t see her. I just needed to get to him and find some reason to get him out of the hotel. My father could deal with her without Damon ever finding out.

I pulled Kai out of the drapes and moved along the wall, quickly and quietly walking toward the doors.

“Oh.” I heard her say.

And I stopped, closing my eyes. Shit.

“I didn’t know anyone was in here,” she said. “What are you kids doing?”

I released Kai’s hand and slowly turned my head toward her. She stood there, in the middle of the dance floor, paused as if in the middle of a twirl with her arms slightly outstretched.

“You’re not supposed to be in Thunder Bay or Meridian City,” I told her, stepping forward.

She regarded me for a moment, probably trying to recognize me through the make-up, but then the light came on.

“You,” she said.

She remembered me.

But before I could advance on her, she turned toward the door, the light in her eyes brightening like a child. “Is my son here?” she asked. “It’s been so long.”