She stared at me, no longer responding.

“She took care of me.” My voice dropped to nearly a whisper, and I didn’t care that she didn’t know who I was talking about. “She listened to me. Made me smile.”

No movement.

“Stood next to me,” I gritted out. “Fit in with my friends. She’s smart, clever, resourceful, and she took the shitty hand life dealt her and still knows how to love people, unlike you.”

Her eyes blazed, a fire kindling behind them.

“She’s hot in the shower,” I taunted more, “on the beach, against the wall, on the hood of the car in the rain, and in my backseat—”

She growled, flying out of her chair and swiping a hand at the candlestick, sending it tumbling to the floor where it extinguished.

I couldn’t hold back my shit-eating smile.

Charging around the table, she made for the door, but I grabbed her and backed her into the wall.

But before I could rub in my escapades a little more or wrap my hand around her pretty little neck, she shoved me hard in the chest.

I stumbled and fell into the chair, and then she was on me—glaring down and squeezing my neck in her fist.

I gasped, fully fucking hard now.

She breathed fast and shallow, seething like she wanted to end me with her teeth.

Holy shit.

I groaned. God, straddle me, please.

She glowered, and I searched her eyes, waiting for her to lose control. To show that she grew up, wasn’t afraid, and was willing to admit she liked it and she might like it a lot if I bent her ass over this table right now, fucked her, and used her hair as leverage.

She didn’t. Growling again, she whipped around and stalked out of the room, and it only took two seconds to bolt after her.

I threw open the dining room doors, storming into the hallway, and spotted her, running away from me.

I raced for her.

She glanced behind her, saw me, and bolted, hurrying away, but I caught her.

I took her in my arms, hearing her squeal as I pressed my chest into her back. I forced her into the darkened doorway of the drawing room and reached around, taking her jaw in my hand.

She tried to wriggle out of my hold, but I didn’t give a shit if she drew blood or ripped out my throat. I was seeing this through.

I had questions. Like why didn’t she tell me what was happening at home? Or why couldn’t she trust me?

I was patient. I would’ve understood.

I wouldn’t have disappointed her.

But not only did she not trust me, she attacked, and I didn’t give a fuck about the why anymore. We all went through shit.

I leaned into her ear, ready to finish everything I was saying at the table and make her listen, because it was the least of what she owed me, but…

Panting and moaning hit my ears, a thud hitting the wall, and I darted my gaze through the cracked door into the drawing room. I saw Micah pressed into the bookshelves, Rory behind him and thrusting into him in the dark.

“God, fuck,” Rory gasped, fisting the back of Micah’s hair and biting his neck.

Em’s chest caved, and she collapsed back into me as I pressed my cheek to hers, both of us watching the scene ahead.

Hell, if they wanted privacy, they’d be in their room.

Both of them shirtless, Micah gripped the shelves in front of him, his black hair in his eyes as Rory gripped the curve of his leg where it met his thigh with one hand and his shoulder with the other, driving into him, their pants hanging around their asses.

Emory had frozen, tense but having completely forgotten she was resisting.

Sweat glistened across Micah’s back as Rory’s normally well-groomed hair laid in disarray across his forehead, his brow etched in a mixture of passion, pain, and uncontrollable need as his mouth drifted across Micah’s skin, biting and breathing as he rode him faster and faster.

I exhaled, snaking my arm around her tighter and watching the looks flash across Micah’s face.

Looking at them, you’d assume Micah was the one in control. He was bigger, taller, more muscular, and he had that whole dark and dangerous vibe.

He wasn’t. Rory was the dominant one, and Micah loved every second of it because all he wanted was love.

I was like that. Emmy was like Rory.

Perfect for me.

When she let herself be.

We watched Rory reach around and dig Micah’s dick out of his pants, already long and erect, and stroke it as he thrust faster and harder. He threw his head back, growled, and Micah shook the shelves, books falling to the floor as Rory came, pumping his dick and spending himself.

He barely took a moment to catch his breath before he shoved Micah onto the couch, pulled down his pants, and dropped to his knees, taking his dark-haired boy into his mouth and returning the favor.

Micah’s abs and arms flexed as he slouched in his seat and stroked Rory’s head, drawing him down again and again onto his cock.

“You ever do that to a man?” I asked Emory.

She tried to pull away, as if just waking up and realizing I was here.

“I never did that to you,” she retorted.

I spun her around and slipped my hand straight down her fucking pants, diving into her cunt—hot and wet just like I knew it would be.

She whimpered, the feel of her tingling up my arm, and I snatched her bottom lip between my teeth, so turned-on and hard at how much I’d missed this.

All my friends loved the control. Loved to hold them down and make them beg for it like Rika, Banks, and Winter were their toys.

Not me.

She dominated me, and I didn’t want it any other way. In the classroom, in the library, in the movie theater, in my truck… Watching her cash in on my ass was better than actual sex.

I could be a bad boy, and I needed to be disciplined.

She growled, trying to push me away, but I brought my hand up, rubbing my glistening fingers in her face.

And then I crashed down on her mouth, kissing, nibbling, sucking, and tugging her sweet flesh and hearing a moan escape before she tried to push me away again.

“I know you know how to take a beating,” I told her, whispering over her lips, “but this isn’t the kind you’re used to.”

Crashing through the doors to the drawing room, I pushed her back onto the other sofa, ignoring Micah and Rory still going at it a few feet away, and fell on top of her, ripping open her shirt before grabbing her bra between her tits and yanking with full force, hearing it tear apart, baring the golden skin of her beautiful breasts.

She struggled, swatting her hands at me as I came down on top of her, smiling as her legs fell open.

“Hit me,” I whispered over her lips before diving in to kiss her. “Hit me for all the tail I fucked after you. For all the nights I forgot about you, ridden to kingdom come by tits and ass ten times hotter than you.”

“Ten?” she taunted me. “Really? Come on. You can afford hotter than that! Maybe twenty times hotter! Still got their numbers?”

I laughed bitterly, rising up and pulling down her pants, but she wasn’t wearing any panties, because I took those yesterday. I came back down, molding my mouth to hers and thrust against her.

I glided my hands all over her body. God, she was so damn hot.

“Damon was right.” She pushed at me. “You are smaller than him.”

My heart pounded against my chest, fire filling my lungs, and I rose up, yanking her ass down and diving into her pussy, covering it with my mouth.