en's

taurant twenty minut

id-calmly, with little discussion. In truth I had been avoiding a face-to-face meeting for a long time. It was easier to remain a signature on transfers and a brief voice on the phone. Easier to keep

ands and clear my head before the meal. That was the

he wal

ook at me. She stared at the floor numbers as if they might offer an escape. When the doors closed she shifted her weight and the soft

I could see it in the way she held herself, in the empty look behind her eyes. I should have stepped back. I should have exited on the next floor and gone st

the words came out q

re sh

reak the contact. By the time the doors opened on the restaurant level, the

troom at the end of the hall and waited, giving her t

chest. Relief. Hunger. The knowledge that I was about to cross a

and need across her face. She was inexperienced and hurting and trying to lose herself in sensation. I gave her that loss of self. I took more than I s

ot ask

ft f

The girl I had financially supported for years was supposed to meet me properly for the first time tonight. I had just spent the last half hou

the familiar, practical smile of a woman who believed she knew the shape of her household. I k

a would finally meet me properly. I answered on autopilot. The name Ava meant litt

e door

ly flushed, eyes carefully blank. For a single, suspended second my mind refused to connect the two

d shifted

not a

tective concern, the same girl who had just taken me into her mouth and her body in a locke

I watched the first crack of recogni

elt the evening, and everything that would

was no longer

ing right in