My Brother Left Me With the Man He Told Me to Stay Away From, and Then Didn't Come Back novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: The Captain's Cottage

The cottage sat at the end of a shell road with the Anclote River going dark behind it.

I got there at nine on Friday night with his key in my fist.

I had told Despina I was going to the dentist's birthday dinner.

She had looked at me over her glasses and said, "Wear the green dress."

I wore the green dress.

It was a plain cotton one, with thin straps and a skirt that moved when I walked.

The porch light was on, and he was waiting on the screened porch with the ceiling fan turning over his head.

He had changed into a gray T-shirt and old jeans.

I had never seen him in anything but a pressed shirt, and it did something to my knees.

"You came," he said.

"You gave me the key," I said.

"I gave you a choice," he said.

"I made one."

I shut the screen door behind me.

I set the key on the table by the wicker couch.

Then I looked at him, and I said what I had practiced in the car.

"No rules tonight."

His eyes did not move off my face.

"Not yours," I said.

"Not 'I keep my hands off you,' not 'not in this house,' not any of it.

"Tonight you do what I say, when I say it.

"You can stop me if I ask for something you won't give.

"You won't, but you can."

"All right," he said.

"Say it back."

A muscle moved in his jaw.

"Tonight," he said slowly, "I do what you say."

"Good."

I walked up to him until my dress touched his jeans.

I put my palms flat on his stomach, over the soft old cotton, and felt him breathe in.

"Take your shirt off," I said.

He pulled it over his head with one hand and dropped it.

He was broad and brown, with a thick patch of dark hair across his chest and a long white scar low on his side.

I put my mouth on the scar and he said my name like a swear word.

"Hands at your sides," I said.

"Thalia."

"I mean it."

He put them there.

I kissed my way up his chest, slowly, over the scar and the ribs and the hollow at his throat.

His skin was hot and tasted of salt.

I took my time.

When I got to his mouth, he opened for me at once.

I bit his lower lip, and he made a rough sound, and his fingers curled into the seams of his jeans.

"You're shaking," I said.

"I've waited a long time," he said.

"Ten days."

"Longer," he said.

I pulled back.

"How long?" I asked.

"Not now," he said.

"I'll tell you after.

"Thalia, please."

It was the first time I had ever heard him ask for anything.

I reached behind me and unzipped the green dress.

It slid off my shoulders and fell around my feet.

I stood in front of him in my underwear with my hands at my sides.

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