Free When It All Comes Down to Dust (Phoenix Noir Book 3) by Barry Graham

hours. It’s called working for a living.”
    “Hey, I’m not afraid of hard work. Doesn’t scare me at all. I can lie down right beside it and go to sleep.”
    “Speaking of sleep, I need to.”
    “Yeah, me too.”
    “Sure you do. So I guess that’s not your cock I feel getting hard against my ass?"
    Before he could answer, she pressed back against him, and he started a laugh that turned into a groan. Then she moved again, and he felt how wet she was, and then he was inside her.
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    F rank lay on the dark in the institutional bed, a sheet covering his body, his cock in his hand. As he stroked it, he didn’t think about any of the things he knew people would expect him to think about. He thought about a woman, not a child, not at all, and it was okay, he came, and after he came he lay there and felt the spreading stain on the sheet turn cold in the air-conditioned chill, and he thought about having someone’s arms around him, someone who loved him.
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    L aura told David she wasn’t going to be able to come again, because she was sore from the relentless fucking they’d done earlier, but it still felt good to have him moving inside her, his hand on her flat stomach as he lay behind her, his mouth close to her ear, talking to her quietly. Eventually he pulled out and came all over her ass. She pressed herself into him, rubbing the come into their skin.
    She actually hadn’t come at all tonight, but she had pretended to, because she didn’t want to have to explain to David — or, worse, not explain to him — why she didn’t. The first time they had gone to bed together, her orgasms has been intense. It was always that way when she fucked strangers, or men she liked okay but could take or leave. That could sometimes last a while, even years, for as long as the guy saw no more of her than she wanted him to. It wasn’t like that with David now, and she liked it and hated it.
    She fell asleep without saying anything. He watched her for a little while, then leaned over and blew out the candle.
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    F rank had always loved to sleep, but he didn’t feel that way anymore. In the joint, his favorite time of day had been the moment just after the lights went out, when it felt as though the darkness was absolute, something no one could see through, falling on him and protecting him, keeping everything else away. He would close his eyes and try to fall asleep quickly, before he felt compelled to open his eyes and realize that they had adjusted to the dark and he could see everything and that anyone who wanted to hurt him would be able to see him too.
    Now he didn’t need the dark, and he didn’t want to sleep. He lay there with his eyes open, and he loved that he could see the outline of every item in the little room, see the shadows on the wall and the weak light from the street lamps coming through the window. He didn’t want to sleep, because he was happy, and because he wasn’t scared. He had everything, streets and diners and strangers who called him “Hon” and didn’t hate him, and it was so good he didn’t want to let go of it even for a little while, because dreams could never be as good as this. But when sleep finally came to take him, gently pulling him away from it all, it was okay and he was still happy because he knew he wouldn’t sleep for long and it would all be waiting for him when he returned.
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    L aura woke at five. It was still dark. She lay awake for almost an hour, enjoying David’s warmth as she watched the windows start to lighten. She hadn’t closed the blinds, but, even when sunlight was filling the room, David still didn’t wake. Laura got up, put on her sweats and running shoes, tied her hair back in a pony tail, ate a granola bar, drank some water. Then she drove to A-Mountain and did her usual workout. When she got back to her apartment, David was still asleep. She drank about a liter of