Page 207 of Hide and Keep

“I fucked you because you begged me to.” Another kiss, this one half a centimeter higher so our lips do graze. “And because I was dying to sink my cock into your sweet.” Kiss. “Little.” Kiss. “Cunt.” Kiss.

Only after he sits back do I exhale.

“Little?”

“What? Isn’t that a good thing? To be tight?”

“It’s a normal thing. Vaginas aren’t airplane hangars.”

“I know that.” He frowns, not so much like he’s offended. More like he’s confused.

“Do you? You didn’t seem to know girls have to pee after sex.”

“I…didn’t. I’m not usually around…” He gestures vaguely. “After.”

“What do you do, run out while you’re still wearing a condom?”

His silence tells me everything…and nothing.

As uncomfortable as this next question’s going to be, it’s necessary. It’s a little late considering the deed’s already been done, but I’d rather find out now than not at all.

“You do use condoms, right?”

“Yes. Every time. Except today obviously. You?”

“Yeah. Same.”

Neither of us willing to expand on our previous partners, we both find different spots in the car to focus on for a while.

Crue speaks first. “It was so much better without one.”

I’m quick to agree. “Mm-hm.” It was. But for me, the lack of protection was only one small part of what made it so great.

“I’m new to all of this.”

“Sex?” I mock. Crue definitely wasn’t a virgin.

“Females.” He makes more random motions with his hands, causing me to glance back over at him. “The only woman I’ve spent a lot of time around is my mom and she never told me about…you know…anything really. Not this kind of stuff. Not anything that’d help me help you.” Those green eyes make their way over to my blue ones. “I’m trying to learn as fast as I can, but there’s a lot.”

I know he is. And he’s probably never going to know everything. Sadly, I probably won’t either. For all the ridicule females are constantly under, we’re not studied medically asmuch as we could or should be. Knowledge is power after all and the more knowledge we have about ourselves and how to not only survive in the bodies we’re in but also thrive, the more powerful we’d be.

What’s the biggest threat to a patriarchal society? Empowered women.

“Do you mind explaining to me what was wrong with calling your cunt little?”

“It’s not that it waswrong. I just have to question that descriptor coming from a man with seriously skewed depth perception. I mean,fourinches is—”

Crue’s laughter cuts me off before he exits my car. He’s still smiling as he opens the passenger door, maybe even while he’s putting my heels back on. I can’t be sure as I’m too focused on watching his back muscles flex beneath his shirt. I do know he’s not when he bites one of my thighs, promising to ruin my panties next time.

Next time.

Inside the tattoo parlor, the artist is still setting up his space, so Crue and I walk around, perusing the hundreds of sketches on the walls. All different styles. All different perspectives.

“You never told me why you’re getting this tattoo,” I say without taking my eyes off a snake wrapped around a sword.

“I’ve been wanting another one for a while.”

“But why a butterfly?”

---