One Two Three(40)

I close it back up and stand there, my back pressed against the door, my thoughts wild.

Am I alone? I hate being alone. I can’t tolerate it anymore. Not after constantly being in the company of others for the past year and a half.

Ark, my mind says. Go find Ark.

But I heard that conversation last night when they thought I was asleep. JD extended an invitation and Ark refused.

I try anyway. He said he wanted me, so maybe if JD isn’t here, he will let me in his bed.

I tiptoe down the hallway opposite the one that leads to JD’s room and stop at Ark’s door. It’s open a crack, which is the same invitation JD left him last night.

I accept it and walk in. My naked body is shivering from the cold already, my sex throbbing with the need for release.

Ark is naked and uncovered.

I walk around to the empty side of the bed and kneel down on the mattress, waiting to see if he wakes. But he’s still. So I slip in next to him and close my eyes. Just this is enough to warm me back up. Just the fact that he’s within inches of me is enough to put a damper on my sexual frustration and calm me down.

I can wait for him, I tell myself. I can wait for him to want me. My fingers slip down between my legs and glide past my slit where the wetness of my arousal is waiting.

“I’m awake, you know,” Ark says next to me. “And if you think you can hop between us and get what you want each time, you’re wrong.” He turns over to look at me. “I’m a possessive asshole.”

I look for the humor in that, but he’s serious.

“So if you want to be fucked by me and him, you’re gonna wait a long time.”

“You already did it once,” I remind him. “What’s the big deal?”

“Number one, I don’t want to share. And neither do you.”

“I’m here.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

I search his dark eyes for a moment until the realization hits me. “You want information about me.”

“And you seem to be a sex addict.”

“So…”

“So?”

“So you’ll give in if I do?”

“What will you give me?” he asks.

I huff out a long breath of air. Why won’t he just take what I’m already offering?

“I’ll spell it out, then. I want to know where you came from. Who were you with the day you ran away?”

I bite my lip and weigh how much I can say.

“Let’s play a game, Blue.”

I look over at him, confused. What kind of man turns down a naked girl in his bed? And he’s not gay, he made it pretty clear he was not interested in JD.

“Twenty Questions. Ever play that game?”

“Of course.”

“Let’s play now. Think of your first kiss. Picture it in your head. Picture where it was, who it was with, and how it felt. Now tell me about it.”

“That’s not how you play the game. I think of something and you guess by asking questions. You get twenty in all. That’s why it’s called Twenty Questions.”

He’s shaking his head the whole time I’m talking. “No, sorry. The game we’re playing, also called Twenty Questions, is played by me asking you twenty questions and you giving truthful answers.”

I laugh at him. “That’s stupid. It’s not a game, it’s an interrogation.”

He shrugs that off. “Maybe it is, but let’s play anyway. Question one, what was your first kiss like?”

I open my mouth to protest, but his finger is suddenly there, tracing my lips. My heart beats faster at his touch. God, I need it. And then he slips it inside and my lips wrap around it automatically.

The throbbing between my legs is back and I’m just about to start masturbating when he withdraws his finger and drags it over my chin, down my neck, and then rides the crest of my breast until he stops on my nipple.

He squeezes it very hard and I arch my back a little.

“You talk, I’ll get you off.”

I look him in the eyes to see what this is about, but he’s stoic. Why is he so closed up? “Why do you want to know that stuff?”

“Because we’re going to start from the beginning, Blue. So long as you keep talking, I’ll keep touching. And if your story rings true, if you tell me real things, I’ll give you what you want.”

I swallow hard again. “How do you know what I want?”

“I sell sex, Blue. I can recognize a masochist when I meet one.”

“I’m not—”

“You are.” He says it definitively, like he knows this to be true. “Maybe you’re just realizing it. Maybe you’ve known it for a long time. But I’m stating the obvious. And I’m gonna go ahead and give you a little warning about JD. He’s a lot better at dishing it out than you might expect.”