Sweet Poison *Updated every Friday @ 1PM*

Seven

"I can't." Liam pulled back. "It wouldn't feel right."

It didn't take me long to figure out what he meant.

I was shocked and confused by his sudden display of moral fiber. If it weren't for me he would have just given me a baby.

"After what we just did?"

"For the last ten years I've only kissed my wife on the lips."

Ten years was a long time to be with someone. I wasn't sure if he'd been married that long or if he was including time before their vows were said at the altar.

Cheap is the only way to describe the way I felt. I was more shocked than upset or hurt. It was hard to process what Liam was telling me in the moment with him still hovering over me. All I knew was that was it. He'd jerked off inside me. He used me.

I shifted and I guess he sensed my discomfort and fell away from me. He relaxed on his back for a while, breathing deeply. I watched him watch the ceiling through the corners of my eyes. I was careful not to make eye contact. I wanted to leave. Fast. Regret rushed in the way that feeling rushed into his loins and made him pause inside me. I didn't know how to do it though, without looking like a bandit leaving from the scene of a fresh crime.

I hardly let myself breathe until he ran a hand through his damp hair and got off the bed. He stretched, then a languid strut took him to the spot where we'd gotten his pants to the floor. His ass was perfect. But his rejection stung deep. One moment was so different from the next.

I went from feeling warm and safe, to exposed and vulnerable. The sweetness had worn off. All that was left was a bitterness that made me feel like running.

I sat up in his huge bed, pulling the top sheet up to cover myself. I eyed my clothes, then pulled at the rest of the sheet so I could turn myself into a Grecian goddess and make my way to them without exposing myself to him anymore. He didn't deserve it anymore.

Liam came back to me straight naked just as I put my feet to his shaggy rug. There was a lot on him to admire, but I was distracted by what was in his hands. I squinted my eyes at the thin black mystery he carried. He opened it and I paused. I hadn't anticipated someone else joining us that night. There was another man in the room. I stared at his face in shock, disbelief.

Liam whispered, "Take it, gorgeous."

I lifted my eyes from the bill with Benjamin Franklin's portrait on the front. I opened my mouth but no words came out. I was speechless. Utterly humiliated.

I left Liam standing there ass-naked, his flaccidity dangling between his legs unlike that crisp bill that extended firmly in the air.

I couldn't look at him. I didn't give a shit about my panties. I didn't even make a fuss to find my bra. I threw on my t-shirt, then jumped into my shorts.

"Kassandra."

My mussed hair was in my face while I bent over to strap myself into my sandals. I saw his nakedness ease into my periphery and started working my fingers faster. When I was done I shot up to storm past him, but ran right straight into his solid chest when he sidestepped in front of me.

"Hey. You alright?"

"I don't want your money," I snapped, snatching myself around his big body.

"Kassandra. Hang on." He grabbed me by the top part of my arm, his firm grip practically making me immobile. "What just happened?"

"So that's what you thought?" I snapped, flipping my hair from my cheekbone. "You thought I'm some kind of underaged hundred-dollars-an-hour whore?"
"No. Nothing like that."

"You didn't? Then why are you paying me?"

"It's for a cab, silly."

I was worked up, breathing heavy. He was so calm. Almost amused.

"It's too late for you to go down in that hole and get on a train." He slipped the money in my hand, only because I was too shocked by his explanation to protest. "I'd let you stay the night, but I have to get the place straightened up. Clean the sheets."

Just like that the sincerity was back. The trust.

I looked at the bed. There was no blood. No evidence of what I'd just given him. It was the smell he was talking about getting rid of anyway. Even in that moment he was steady thinking about his wife, her acute sense of smell and all.

Liam touched my cheek with the pads of a few fingers, then curved them under my chin and stroked my cleft with the tip of his thumb. I fought not to meet his eyes.

"Take it so I know you'll get home safe," he whispered.

That was his story. I knew better. He was paying me as a way to entice me to keep him company another night.

Either way, he cared about me getting home safe. Not too many people cared about me. The people at the group home were given a salary to at least pretend to care about me. This was different. It was like he was paying me to care about me. I had nothing to lose, nothing to risk.

"I have to get back to campus anyway." I folded the crisp bill so it would fit inside my back pocket. "I'm Level Two. If I'm not there for breakfast there will be a search party out looking for me."

His laugh was awkward, maybe forced a little. "Thanks for spending the night with me, gorgeous."

He leaned close, pressed his lips into my cheek. It was the way an uncle kissed his niece.

Ouch.
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