"Do it," he said, breaking off from the kiss. "You want to please me, don"t you?"

I know that I have never been that wet. I started to rub myself and the pleasure started building up, higher, and that was when I felt Thorne"s hand going up and reaching for the breast through the fabric, and it just drove me towards an o.r.g.a.s.m until my legs were shaking.

Soon, he was on top of me, unclothing himself and his erect c.o.c.k was ready and waiting, just like I was.

Afterwards, we just lay in bed, next to each other.

"Why did we come here?" I asked. "We could have gone to the loft."

"Lane was there," Thorne said. "I didn"t want him to go stay somewhere else."

I noticed a hint of seriousness in his voice. "Thorne?"

"Yeah?"

"Is everything okay?"

"Is it that obvious?"

"Kind of."

"Everything"s fine," he said. "At least I hope it is. I"m just worried about Lane."

"Lane? Why?"

"I don"t think he"s doing too well."

I turned to face him in bed. "What do you mean?"

"I"ve never told this to anyone," he said, looking at me. "But Lane, he"s not like other kids."

"What"re you talking about, of course he is! He has most of his hair in his eyes and the dangerously low-riding jeans."

"Well yeah, but...he went through some s.h.i.t about a year back."

"What kind of s.h.i.t?"

Thorne sat up, propped himself against a pillow. "Well, there was an incident," he said. "With another cla.s.smate. She died in a car accident. Lane was the one driving the car. He became all messed up over it, tried to kill himself. We sent him to a facility and we all thought he was cured."

"And you think he"s not?"

"A while back," Thorne said. "I caught him doing drugs."

"Oh."

"Well, I confronted him and he told me he was going to quit."

"And he hasn"t?"

"It seems like he has," Thorne said. "But I think maybe he"s having a rougher time than he"s letting on. But you know there"s no way to know for sure, because he won"t tell me these things. I just feel like I"m not doing everything I can for him."

"Thorne," I said. "You"re actually doing some solid parenting."

"Someone had to," Thorne said. "My parents weren"t exactly dying to do it."

"Why?"

"It"s complicated," he said.

I laid a hand on his. "Tell me, please."

"Elena," he began. "Lane and I we share the same father but we had different mothers. Lane"s mother was a prost.i.tute. She died from a drug overdose. So my father brought him to our home. My mother was already p.i.s.sed that he had an affair outside of the marriage and she wouldn"t let him keep his other son. But my father said he had no choice. So anyway, Mom eventually had to succ.u.mb because I guess she couldn"t stand losing my father. So she took Lane in, but she could never really love him the way she should have."

"Does Lane know all this?"

"He does."

"Can"t be easy," I said. "I mean, he basically knows he"s not wanted."

"I do what I can," Thorne said. "Elena, I"ve never for a moment felt anything less than love for him. I"ve always tried to show him that, but I guess it wasn"t enough, because he"s still taking drugs."

"Thorne," I said. "It"s not your fault."

He was suddenly quiet.

I went to sit next to him and put my arms around him.

"I just want him to be okay," he said.

"He"ll be fine," I said. "You just need to be there for him."

After a pause he spoke again. "There"s something else," Thorne said. "That I"ve been meaning to tell you."

My heart started beating faster in antic.i.p.ation. "What Thorne? What is it?"

"I think I"m in love with you."

My phone on the nightstand rang suddenly; there was a text from Nick.

I checked it purely out of habit.

I KNOW YOU AND THORNE RYKER ARE A THING NOW. BUT YOU DON"T KNOW HIM, ELENA. YOU CAN"T TRUST HIM. PLEASE. YOU HAVE TO BELIEVE ME.

ELENA.

The phone was in my hand and I could see that single text, clear enough.

> BATHROOM.

> NOW.

I checked to see if Thorne was in his office but the room was empty, and he was nowhere on the floor either. Everyone else was busy working, and it was not even lunch time yet. I typed back: > WHERE ARE YOU?.

The response was very concise.

> DON"T QUESTION ME ELENA. UNLESS YOU WANT TO DISPLEASE ME?

A smile started growing on my face. There was also this strange feeling inside me, making me excited for what was about to happen, what could happen. I almost wanted to displease him, just to see what punishment he would have in store, but I decided it would be far more interesting to see where this led to. I took my cell phone and headed towards the bathrooms. Thankfully, there was no one around. I headed into one of the stalls and locked myself in, and my hands were trembling dialing his number. He picked up on the first ring. He had been waiting too.

"Are you alone?" he asked, no greeting, no nothing.

"Yes," I confirmed.

"Are you wearing the panties I told you to wear?"

"Yes."

"Don"t lie to me, Elena. You know I"m going to check."

"I"m not lying."

"Hold the phone in one hand," he said. "With the other, I want you to touch yourself."

I had to do as he asked of me.

So there I was, in the restroom of my workplace with a hand down my pants and he was guiding me on the phone, from wherever he was sitting. He had control over my body, even from that distance. That was what this whole exercise was about. I could tell he felt better than I did.

"You want to make me happy don"t you?" he said.

"Yes."

"Then let me hear you come," he said. "I want to smell that c.u.m on you when I see you after work. I want your panties to smell like your pleasure, Elena. Will you do that for me?"

"Yes."

My hand had a mind of its own. I was standing there just touching myself and listening to his voice-that deep, beautiful voice that he had, and was telling me what to do with my body. My hands were soon covered in my own juices and it didn"t take me long to find a pace that promised to bring me to the finish.

"f.u.c.k!" I said at last, when the moment finally came.

My legs were weak and I had to take some support from the wall. I was still panting when I heard him speak again. "You"re a good f.u.c.king slave, Elena. You know how to please."

There was a long pause before I was able to regain my composure and able to actually speak, through which he was waiting.

"Thorne?"

"Yes baby?"

"I love you."

"I love you too baby. I love you more than you can imagine."

ELENA.

In the evening, Stanton drove us back to Thorne"s place as usual. Thorne made some deal that he kept talking about, that he was excited about. When we got to his loft, he went to take a shower and his phone kept ringing. I don"t like answering other people"s phones, so I let it ring. I went to the kitchen, hoping to make some tea, when Thorne came back out. He was nude except for the towel on his waist and he had another one in his hand that he was drying his hair with.

"What are we having?" he asked.

"Tea," I said. "Would you like to choose a flavor?"

"Anything you pick is fine."

He had barely finished the sentence when his phone started ringing again. Thorne excused himself to go pick it up. Soon, I heard him speaking in a raised voice to whoever was on the other end. When he finally came down he looked angry. "I can"t believe my mother," he said.

"What happened?" I asked, sliding his cup of tea in front of him.

"Lane stayed there one day," Thorne said. "One day, Elena! And now he"s all messed up and angry."

"I"m sorry."

"She acts like a child sometimes," he said. "As though Lane is the one who cheated on her."

The door opened and Lane walked in. He looked weak, unwell somehow. He wasn"t expecting me, that much was obvious but he gave me a polite greeting and Thorne walked over to him and took his backpack. "Did you bring the meds with you?" he asked and that seemed to annoy Lane a bit, but he still responded with a ayes."

"I want to sleep," Lane said.

"Sure," Thorne said. "You take the bed. We were going out anyway. We"ll talk when you wake up."

Lane wordlessly went upstairs.

I lowered my voice to ask the next question. "Is he not well?"

"Why do you say that?" Thorne asked.