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Fuck.
I can feel her move under me, reaching for me and I scramble back, leaping away from her and off the bed so fast the entire thing slams against the wall, its springs groaning, the frame shuddering. I stumble back, stuffing myself back into my pants, my footsteps so heavy I can feel the floor shaking under me.
Tess lays there for a second, seemingly as shocked as I am, her mouth hanging open, the flush in her cheeks rising and heating so fast I can barely blink before she pops off the bed.
“What?” she hisses at me, fist clenched so tight I think she’s going to pick them up and use them on me. She’s pissed. She should be. I told her I wouldn’t hurt her and then I—
“What is it with you Gilroys?” She keeps hissing, trying and failing to keep her voice down. “You have perfectly willing girlfriends, practically begging you to fuck them and you—” her voice spikes at the end and I can hear the hurt. The uncertainty. “Is there something wrong with me?”
“No.” I feel my shoulder stiffen. My chest goes tight. “Jesus Christ, no. Why would you even think that?”
She doesn’t believe me.
“Look at me, for fuck’s sake.” I hold my arms out, putting myself on display. I have no idea what I look like, but if it’s anywhere close to how I feel, I look strung out. Shaky and sick. Completely out of control. “Do I look like a guy who doesn’t want to fuck you?”
Her eyes go exactly where I knew they would. To the granddaddy of all hard-ons, currently making a circus tent out of my track pants. As soon as she looks at it, my stupid cock jerks like its being dragged by a plow horse.
She advances on me and I have fight to stand in one spot because half of me wants to run while the other wants to throw her on the bed and finish what I let her start.
“Then why?” she says, not even trying to keep her voice down. Down the hall, I hear the hiss of the shower cut off.
“Tess…” her name scrapes along the inside of my throat, half groan, half whisper. “I have to go. Your dad is—”
“I don’t care.” She shakes her head, planting herself in front of me. “My birthday is tomorrow. There’s no reason we—”
“I know.” I reach up to push her long, dark hair out of her face, call it a small victory when she doesn’t pop me in the mouth for my trouble. “Just trust me.” She still thinks my hesitation is about her age. That I’m just marking Xs on my calendar. Waiting for a number. She still thinks that because I’ve never told her any different. “I want to do this the right way. I want to take care of you.”
Before she can answer me, the bathroom door creaks open. “Tess, you okay? Thought I heard something.”
I can only imagine what he’d do if he knew I was in his daughter’s bedroom. He’s never liked me. Not really. He likes Ryan. The sun rises and set on my brother’s ass but not me. As far as he’s concerned I’m just an asshole kid who steals cars for kicks. It’s never bothered me before now.
She stares at me for a second. Long enough to convince me that she’s going to tell me to fuck off or start swinging on me. She does neither. “Shad knocked over my fan. Everything’s okay.”
He mumbles something before closing himself up in the bathroom again. A second later, the hair dryer snaps on.
It’s not okay. I can tell by the way she’s looking at me but she lets me kiss her anyway before I leave.