He pulls out, flipping me to my hands and knees. He runs a hand slowly down my spine and then he drives his cock deep into my sensitive flesh. He rides me like that, his hands on my hips, his cock driving into me from behind. We’re like wild animals, grunting and groaning, heads thrown back.

“Coming baby,” he growls. “Fuck, I’m coming.”

“Oh God, Marcus,” I scream.

On a convulsion, we explode together. Marcus roars my name and I whimper his. When we come down, we’re both panting. We flop down beside each other and he pulls me over onto his sweat-coated chest. I can hear his heart pounding against my cheek.

“Some things never change,” I whisper.

“No,” he agrees. “They don’t.”

“Did you think this would be how we ended?”

He flinches, and the finger that just started tickling my back, stops.

“I didn’t think I’d ever see you again, Katia. So this . . . this is fuckin’ heaven.”

I clench my jaw, trying to push down the hurt rising in my chest. “Is there any way this can work?”

“Not with this Marcus, and that Katia,” he says, tapping my shoulder. “Those two are fucked up.”

I close my eyes. Pain radiates through my body.

“I never thought I’d feel anything but hatred for you, Marcus,” I whisper. “After everything, I thought that was it. I never thought I’d see you like this again . . . but here we are . . .”

“Then at least we ended this without hatred. For our daughter, that’s the best we could do.”

“Love sucks,” I mutter.

“Better to have loved and lost . . .” he says softly.

“Then to have never loved at all,” I finish for him.

He chuckles softly. “Never thought you’d know that one.”

“Come on, I’m not that young.”

His arm tightens around me. “Tell me about Penny.”

“What do you want to know?” I ask.

“Anything. Just tell me.”

I smile and close my eyes. “I remember the first time I saw her. All I could think is, of course nature would make her look so damned beautiful and so much like you.”

He snorts. “I see so much of you in her.”

“She’s more you. I saw it the moment she came out. It was so hard, so emotional, but she saved me.”

He’s silent for a long time. “I’m glad for that.”

“She was such a good baby, even when we had nothing. She was always so happy. Mom loved her.”

“I’m sorry about your mom, baby,” he murmurs. “She was a good woman.”

“She was,” I whisper. “But she was hurting, and it wasn’t fair for her.”

“No. Life can be a bastard like that, can’t it?”

“Yeah.”

We both lie in silence for a while before Marcus speaks again. “There was a night in all of it for me,” he says, low. “A night that broke my heart completely.”

“Tell me about it.”

“I was drunk, drugged, and God knows what else. I came to on a bed with this woman trying to get some.”

I stiffen.

He continues. “Mack came in, threw her out, and I lost it. I told him you could never know and he told me you were gone. I fuckin’ lost it, so bad. I was pathetic, and desperate, and fuckin’ lonely. Jaylah saw it all, and you know what she said?”

“Tell me,” I breathe.

“She said ‘That poor man.’ And I could feel her pity to my very core.”

I flinch. “I didn’t know you were so hurt.”

“I fucked up,” he mutters. “I just didn’t realize how much until you were gone. If I could go back and start again, believe me I would.”

“Would you sacrifice everything?”

He pulls me in closer. “To have you, baby? I’d sacrifice any-fucking-thing.”

Why is life such a bitch?

Why is love even worse?

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

KATIA

“Fuck, baby,” Marcus groans.

I wrap my hand around his cock, stroking softly as my mouth devours him. God, he feels good. I suck, my cheeks hollowing as I take him in as deep as I can. His fingers are tangled in my hair and the hot water of the shower is streaming down my naked, beautifully sore body. Marcus had taken me three times during the night. Once hard and fast, one soft and slow, and once almost lazily, just a mass of hands and mouths, and whisper-soft touches.

Now we’re in the shower and I want him again, just once more.

“God damn it, I’m going to come,” he hisses.

A moment later, hot cum spurts into the back of my throat. I groan with joy as I swallow each drop, and relish in the feeling of his fingers tightening against my scalp as his body jerks with pleasure. Then he slips his cock out of my mouth and reaches down, lifting me up under my arms and bringing my body flush against his.

“I don’t think I can come again,” he murmurs, pressing his lips to my neck.

“Me either,” I whisper.

“Shame. I was going to suck that sweet clit again.”

I laugh softly. “I don’t think my clit can take it.”

“Then it’s time for you to get some sleep.”

I yawn. It must be late, even early morning. “I texted Candy and she said Penny is fine, so can I stay until morning?”

“Baby,” he murmurs. “It is morning.”