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She smiled, though she continued to appear thoughtful. "Sounds like both of us had fucked up childhoods."

"We did," I agreed, moving on to the next tote. "But you raised Maya almost on your own and you were a kid yourself. I didn't have that kind of responsibility. I spent my first two years of college traveling the world and studying languages."

"How'd you afford that?" she asked. "I got all sorts of scholarships to Auburn University because I was a poor helpless youngster with no parents."

"You had it hard, Nor. You still do sometimes…" I drew in a slow breath when I tried not to think too hard on the time she disclosed to me that her father slut-shamed her on the daily. "College was paid for because of my circumstances as well. I worked just enough for airfare in between and pocket change, then backpacked my way around. Met Annabelle at seventeen and she had some access to money. Rode that train for a bit."

"How'd she die?" Nora's question softened her voice while she watched me drag the empty tote over to the corner of the room to stack with the others.

"You really want to know?" I asked, dropping down to sit on the bed beside her.

"I wouldn't have asked…"

"She was murdered." I leaned forward, my elbows on my knees while I avoided looking at her. Calmness fell over me in the way it often did in times of duress. I'd told this story a hundred times over. Wrote about it, published biographical accounts, spoke at United Nations conferences all before the age of twenty-five. It was, in fact, second nature to discuss it, but with Nora, I worried more about her reaction than the disclosure's impact on me.

"H-how?" She drew in a slow breath, turning to face me fully with her legs folded under her. She made to reach for my leg, though stopped herself before she made it halfway.

"In Egypt," was all I said, shrugging when I shifted away from her to lean against the headboard. I crossed my boot-covered feet and watched her. The edge of my concealed weapon jutted out from my right ankle.

"In Egypt?" Her brow furrowed and she shifted to sit closer to me.

"Yeah." I dropped my head back against the metal with a light thud. "You don't need to know anything more than that."

"Yeah, I do, Caroline." Her brow furrowed and she let her hand finally fall to my knee. I didn't push her off or put her down on the ground like I would've done to anyone else.

"Why?"

"Because it obviously hurts you and you're my…friend. And I care about you," she confessed, her bottom lip poking out when a wave of emotions seemed to strike her. Her gentle, kind eyes bore into me like a lure to a fish as she attempted to extract my story.

"No friend needs to know any information about anyone's past." I shut her down hard, reestablishing the boundaries that we often let fall by the wayside.

"You know about mine…"

"Because you're haunted, Nora. I'm not." I shrugged, folding my hands between my knees. "I've dealt with my ghosts and they've crossed over."

"I thought you were an Atheist." She narrowed her eyes at me, marring her baby-doll face.

I laughed, shaking my head at her. "Atheism doesn't remove my ability to craft a fine metaphor."

"Fine." She huffed at me. "Keep your belief-laden metaphors."

"I will." I grinned and watched her when she plucked a bit of fuzz from the hem of her shirt.

"What are you smiling at?"

"The fact that you're still naked from the waist down and I can see your delicious pussy when you sit like that."

"Caroline!" She rolled forward and snared me in a feigned chokehold.

I cracked up, grabbing her around the middle to stop her assault. "I'm not allowed to admire your pussy anymore?"

"No." She frowned at me, grabbing handfuls of my hair. "Not unless you plan to play with it."

"Hmm." I pulled her toward me, and she straddled my lap. "Since we've already begun the night as we did, what do you say we finish what we started before we call off our F.W.B. status?"

"What do you mean?" She shivered immediately when she slowly unbuttoned the rest of her shirt before urging it off her shoulders. "You're trying to distract me from talking about heavy topics."

"I am," I admitted, grabbing at her perky breasts. "I mean, let me fuck you all night, just like you like, in a grand goodbye tour."

She whimpered when I twisted her nipples between my fingers. "You're going to destroy me, aren't you?"

"I am." I grinned, raking my teeth over her chin before rolling her backward to drop down on the bed. My fingers wrapped around her ankle, and I yanked her toward me, her knees bent back to avoid collision.

"Oh God." She sucked in her breath, her arousal evident in the eager throbs of her most tender parts.

"Keep calling out for a god, kitten. No one is going to save you from me." I leaned forward, pressing her thighs wide enough to form a partial split before diving between her legs.

"Caroline!" she shrieked.

I devoured her, unapologetically, endlessly, and darkly enough until she was nothing more than a ragdoll in my arms.