Free Beauty and the Dark by Georgia le Carre

and I’ll take you back.”
    “Okay, okay,” she says, hugging herself. Her face is pale and pinched.
    I throw some money on the table and we walk out of the restaurant together while Paddy, the fool, irritatingly shouts, “Three babies. He wants three babies.”
    We walk in silence towards Lambo and I help her into the car before I get into my seat. She turns towards me. “Thank you for the meal.”
    I glance at her. Her hands are clutched into little fists on her lap. “You hardly ate anything, but it was a pleasure, nevertheless.”
    She stares down at her hands in abject misery.
    “Hey, relax. It’ll be all right,” I tell her.
    “I’m sorry.” The sound is torn out of her throat.
    “There’s nothing to be sorry for. I’m having you anyway.”
    Her face jerks up, eyes are glassy, the pupils large. She looks like a scared rabbit, wanting to bolt away. “What did you say?” she gasps.
    “What do I look like to you? A fucking quitter. If at first you don’t succeed just give up and go away? I’ll have you yet, Sofia Seagull,” I growl.
    “We can’t. You can’t. I mean, I can’t.”
    “I don’t know about you, but I definitely can and will have you.”
    We lapse into a tight, long silence from the moment I gun the car and join the traffic until we arrive at her home. I turn towards her and she presses her palms to her pale cheeks.
    “I really like you, Jack. Can’t we just be friends?”
    “Friends?” My voice comes out like a sneer. “Yeah sure. We can be friends when you’re under me.”
    Her lips tremble. “Now you’re angry with me.”
    I bite back the frustration clawing inside me and keep my voice even. “I’m not angry with you. I know you want me as much as I do, but you’ve arbitrarily decided that we shouldn’t be lovers. I want you, Sofia. And I’m not taking no for an answer.”
    “No, you don’t understand.”
    “No, you don’t understand. There is not one single thing that can stop me from having you. Not you. Not your mental state. Nothing.”
    She opens her mouth to protest, and at that unsuspecting moment I pull her into my arms and capture her mouth. The second our lips touch is pure magic. Her scent intoxicates me. Drives me wild and makes my soul tremble with need. My tongue pushes out and her mouth opens like a fucking flower. So innocent. No barriers. It’s soft and warm inside. I hook her tongue and suck it and moaning she melts against me. The sound makes my cock throb.
    With every cell in my body alive I suck her quivering tongue. It’s like putting your hand into a socket. The intensity of the desire is a shock to my system. I don’t think my heart has beat so fast for a girl since I was a teenager.
    My hands reach into her sweater and … suddenly she tears her mouth away. Pressing her back against the door, she stares up at me. She is panting hard and her eyes are bright. Our first kiss and I had to steal it, but stolen stuff is always sweeter. I’m so fuckin’ hard I hurt. I pull in a lungful of air, but it is heady with her scent, and it just makes me want to bury my face between her legs.
    “Why did you do that?” she gasps.
    I drag my fingers through my hair. “Because I wanted to.”
    “You think you want me, but I’m not what you think I am.”
    I frown. What kind of cat and mouse game is she playing? “So what are you then?”
    “I can’t tell you.”
    “Fucking hell, Sofia. We’re not kids here. I’m going to find out one way or another. Just fucking tell me,” I growl with a mixture of exasperation and frustration.
    She makes a cry like that of a trapped animal in pain. In a flash she hits the door handle and almost falls out of the door. I lunge to catch her, but she dashes into the night.
    Breathing hard, I watch her run like the devil himself is after her. She wrenches open the entrance door and disappears into the building. There’s a tightness in my chest. I reach forward and pull the passenger door shut. Then my foot slams