Copping Attitude by Ava Meyers Page B

money.  Plus, I guess I had something to prove.  I was so much more quiet and studious than my friends.  Labeled the good girl of the group.  I wanted to do something shocking for once.   I knew people would make assumptions, but I couldn’t have known—”  She couldn’t have known men would view those photos as a challenge, one that entitled them to rough her up in order to get her to do what they wanted. 
    The enjoyment she was feeling from being in Noah’s company gave way to darker thoughts, including shame.  The fact was, she’d been abused by several boyfriends before one raped her.  She’d been too embarrassed to tell Noah that, so she’d implied the burglary had been committed by a stranger rather than by someone she knew.  Realizing what she’d been about to confess, she pressed her lips together.
    “What?”
    She shook her head and took a deep breath, then reached up to wrap her arms around his neck.  She desperately wanted to return to that place where being in his arms took her away from her past.  “Never mind.  You’re supposed to be telling me about you and your women, remember?”
    She tried to say the words lightly, teasingly, but she almost choked when referring to “his women.”  Jealousy was a living, breathing thing inside her.
    His eyes widened, then narrowed.  “Is this where you trick me into talking about other women, get pissed, and throw me out?”
    She flushed guiltily and lowered her arms.  Looked down and twisted her hands together.  “So what if it is?”
    “You don’t have to play those games.  If you want me to leave, then just ask me.  If you want me to talk about my sex life, then don’t get pissed at me when I do.  I told you, you can ask me anything, and I meant it, but I don’t want to get skewered because of it.” 
    She kept her gaze on her hands.  “I’m not—”
    “Look at me, damn it.”
    Instinctively, she did what he said.  He leaned close and took her hands in his, his golden eyes holding hers.  “I’ve been sexually active since I was fifteen years old, querida .  I’ve fucked a lot of women.  I’ve made love to a few.  I’ve loved even fewer.  Yes, I like to dominate sometimes, and that means I’ll use my body, my brains, and whatever else I need to get the job done.  I’ve used blindfolds, cuffs, ball gags, crops, dildos, ropes, and even a mask or two.  I’ve had sex with two women at once, I’ve fucked a woman while she sucked off another man, just like in the movie we watched, and I’m a member of the mile-high-club.  Is that what you wanted to hear?”
    She tried to pull away, but he shook his head.  “I’m not done yet.”
    Despite the way she struggled, he lifted her so that she straddled his lap.  So that the more she struggled, the more she rubbed her luscious body against his. 
    Breathless and afraid of the emotions swelling inside her, she stopped struggling.    
    “I’ve fucked women up the ass and let them use toys to do the same to me.  When I was just a stupid kid, I had sex while I was high.  Occasionally, I still like to have sex when I’m drunk.  I like the 69 position, but my all time favorite position is the one I was in earlier, with my head buried between a woman’s thighs and my tongue shoved up her pussy.” 
    “Stop it—”  Again, she tried to get off him and this time he wound her hair around one of his hands, effectively holding her still but not hurting her. 
    “But I have never hurt a woman, in bed or out.  I have never cheated on a woman I’ve been dating.  I have never told a woman I’d call when I wasn’t going to.  And I have never, ever fucked a woman who is planning on going straight from me to another guy just because she needs sex therapy, but more importantly, because I’m so desperate to touch her, to have any smidgen of contact with her at all, that I’m willing to sacrifice everything—even my pride—to have her in my arms.”
    He was