Free How to Misbehave (Short Story) by Ruthie Knox Page A

ear, making him feel like the biggest fucking thing in the whole universe.
    “Amber,” he said. Like an experiment, an acknowledgment that she was who he was with, the woman he wanted more than he wanted to be smart.
    “Oh my
God
.”
    “Amber.”
    And then he had to kiss her again, because he wanted to say it a dozen more times.
    “Holy shit, Tony.”
    “You like it.”
    “Don’t stop. Ever. I’ll kill you if you stop.”
    “Can you come from this?”
    “I don’t know. Maybe. Yes. No. Don’t stop.”
    Tony groaned. All the tension and heat gathered in his balls was pulling tighter. He couldn’t make this last much longer, couldn’t think about box office scores or whatever the fuck he was supposed to be thinking about to keep from coming because Amber was wrapped around him, and she was the only thing in the world that mattered.
    He worked his hand between them. When he found her clit, she dug her nails into his arm so hard, he hissed. “Bad?”
    “Good. Do that. Keep doing that.”
    So he did, clumsy until he got the thrusts timed against the pulses of his finger, and she raked her nails up his back, the bed creaking hard now, the headboard pounding into the wall.
    “I’m going to. Don’t you dare stop, I’m going to come.”
    Tighter. Harder. Higher.
    He bent his head and sucked her nipple into his mouth, closed his teeth around it, and she clamped down so hard around him that he just about lost consciousness.
    “Oh!”
    She came like a firecracker, like a whole fucking chain of firecrackers exploding one after another, and there was no way on earth he could keep his shit together, so he let go, let it rush up and overtake him.
    He had to close his eyes when he came. God only knew what he said or what noises he made, his hand gripping tight around the iron bar of the bedstead just to keep him grounded in some kind of reality. The pleasure lasted so long that it felt like pain, and she was with him the whole time, clutching his back, holding him close. Saying his name.
    When he collapsed on top of her, he barely had the presence of mind to keep his weight braced on one arm, he was so wrung out. Both of them were panting, their breaths lengthening out as they started to come down again, to settle back into their bodies, heavy and limp.
    He rested his cheek beside her ear. “How’d I do?”
    She exhaled and flung her arms out on the bed. “Mother
fucker
,” she said.
    He laughed. For a long time, he couldn’t stop. He laughed so hard his stomach hurt, and he made a mess with the condom on the bedspread, but she didn’t seem to care. She just kept smiling, and when he finally got himself under control, he kissed her.

Chapter Ten
    Her phone rang, shrill and intrusive as a nosy parent.
    Which was probably who was on the other end of the line.
    “You gonna get that?”
    Amber stretched. Every single cell in her body was singing with contentment. She didn’t ever want to get up, and she didn’t ever want Tony to move off her. “It’s my mom.”
    “I thought you called her already.”
    “I did, but she probably wants to rehash the whole storm now. She’s chatty.”
    Cool air met her skin as Tony shifted to the side. “She doesn’t live downstairs, does she?”
    “No, she lives above the office, right by the entrance.”
    “Good. That means she was too far away to hear the bed slamming into the wall.”
    Amber covered her eyes with her hand. She hadn’t actually noticed the bed hitting the wall on a conscious level, but now that he mentioned it, yes. That had happened. There was probably a dent in the drywall. A dent that her father or her brother would fix, in the normal course of things.
    Lord
.
    “I hope the downstairs tenant didn’t call her.”
    Tony pitched his voice high. “ ‘Mrs. Clark, your daughter is having crazy ape sex upstairs.
Do something.
’ ”
    Amber’s bark of laughter sounded too loud in the silent space between rings.
    “Why isn’t your machine picking