Chapter Three
TYSAN
Not him.
Anyone, but him.
“Get out.”
I was not noticing how he had stopped. I wasn’t noticing how his eyes went wide, then his lips pursed as if he were going to whistle. I really wasn’t noticing how he stepped inside, shut the door, locked the door, and then his gaze traveled down my body.
And I was really, really not noticing how my body was reacting to that perusal.
Fuck Aiden. Honest to everything good, just. fuck. Aiden.
“What happened?”
I glared at him, raising up, and if I could’ve lunged at him, I would’ve.
If Aiden had stood for good and saintly, then his best friend Kase Croux was everything against him. Bad. Evil. Sick. Twisted. Name the bad shit and that’s what he was. And I’ve had to deal with him since Aiden and I started dating. He moved to Calcito the beginning of that year. It was like he and Aiden both had ‘popular guy’ radar. Like they looked at each other and were like, “He’s popular.” And the other one was like, “Oh, he’s popular too.” And, of course, they had to become best friends.
Aiden was the golden boy, with his adorable golden hair and you name it. Kase was dark. Dark hair. Dark eyes. Dark soul. His hair was shaved on the side with a good amount on the top, which was either left loose and wavy or slicked back. If he could’ve picked his own nickname, I’m sure it would’ve been ‘badass,’ but he was being a pain in the ass for me right now.
Our mutual hatred was known to many and all of Calcito. The only things, and I was starting to shorten that list, were that we both loved Aiden and we both had seriously active sex lives. We’d never talked about it, though Aiden had made mention a few times that Kase and I were almost the same person, just I was a female and he had a dick. That was it.
Too alike to like each other, and that was putting the like to a mild ‘I’ll deal with him being around.’
He was waiting for me to answer, but dammit, I couldn’t.
I felt tears burning at my eyes, and fuck no. Hell no. I would not cry, not in front of this asswipe. But my throat wasn’t working either and I couldn’t speak.
I couldn’t break down.
That wasn’t me either.
When shit came at me, I handled it. The same as being panicked. If someone broke into my house, took my mother hostage, murdered her in front of me, I wouldn’t get scared. I’d get even. I’d murder the guy back, and I could say that because that happened in real life except I hadn’t murdered him. Cops busted through the door and stopped me from doing what I had every intention of doing.
Crap.
Why’d I go there? Thinking on that night?
I never remembered. That was locked down, just like those sorts of feelings.
Fuck Aiden. Can I say it again?
He was making me feel shit and I didn’t want to feel any of this shit.
“Coda,” he prompted, moving closer to the bed.
“What?!” I snapped, this time shooting upright and actually trying to get at him. If I jerked hard enough, maybe I could’ve broken the ropes.
Nope.
I was slammed back, and my wrists were starting to burn.
His gaze went to them, and a slow smirk started to form.
I didn’t want to react, but I couldn’t help it.
Intellectually, I knew my body was having a response because it didn’t want to have a different response.
“I’m in love with Sadie.”
I winced, hissing and tasting my tears.
“I was going to tell you in two days…”
Two days.
Wait.
I frowned. “When does your sister get back?”
He frowned, but distracted as his eyes were lingering on my breasts. “Sadie?” He shrugged. “Uh, I don’t know. Two days?” He lifted up his chin, nodding at me. “You and Aiden have a fight?”
“What gave you the first clue?”
He shifted and looked, then his smirk turned cruel. “The fact that I can smell you?” His eyes moved to mine, and he winked. “He tore out of here, told me to take care of you.” His hand gripped his dick and stroked it. “How about it? We had that one crazy weekend.”
He was kidding.
Kase Croux would never touch me, not unless he got permission from Aiden and that weekend—I suppressed a shiver at the mention because there’d been a lot of permission going on that one and only weekend. It’d been Aiden’s birthday and he had a request for us. He wanted to watch.
Yes. There was some kink in our sex life. Look down on me, if that made you feel better.
I growled at him even bringing it up now. “Can you untie me?”
His smirk widened, one corner of his mouth curving up even higher. “What’ll you do for me?”
“Seriously!” I yanked on the ropes again, hoping I could break them, break the headboard, and then hopefully break him.
His eyes flashed, but that smirk never left him. “Calm down, psycho. Who’d ever think I’d willingly untie you, hmmm?” He moved forward, working at the knots.
I waited, closing my eyes, and went back over everything.
Every look Aiden made. Every move. Every word. How each word was spoken.
And then I started thinking farther back, and farther, and I was remembering a night here and there when he was at Kase’s. When he was at Kase’s family’s cabin. When he needed to pick up Kase some food…
Kase never seemed the type to ask a friend to bring him a burger. At nine at night.
“Hey, Kase…” My stomach was twisting, but I had to know.
He was still working at the knot. “What’s up?”
“For spring break, did you go to Aspen for skiing?”
“Spring break?”
“Yeah.” My throat was hurting.
My chest tightened.
He had to stop to remember. “Uh… nope. I was in Vancouver with Rosk and Martins.”
My chest imploded.
The knot that had stuffed up in my throat gave out, and I felt sliced open.
He never said Kase Croux. He said Croux. He said he went skiing and he’d be at Croux’s Aspen cabin.
He never said Kase…
My throat felt so raspy. “I don’t suppose you needed him to bring a burger over for you last week? Thursday, to be exact.”
He’d gone from me to her.
“What?” Kase laughed, getting one knot done and standing back to stare at me, but the laugh was fake. His eyes were dark and molten, and he cocked his head to the side. “Why you asking me these questions?”
Kase would murder him.
He loved his sister, adored her, worshiped her. All the guys were scared of dating her because Kase ended them at school. She’d been dating guys from other towns, a couple rival towns because Kase Croux was a vindictive and spiteful piece of shit. He gave no fucks who your daddy was, who your mommy was. He didn’t care about anything except hurting whoever was going to eventually hurt his sister, that’s how he thought about it. And I knew that for a fact because I overheard him saying it to Aiden. He was drunk, but he hadn’t lied.
I couldn’t tell him.
He’d find out.
For Aiden to say it to me, to stop mid-sex, he did that for her.
It’d come out. Kase would find out, just… not this way, maybe.
I didn’t know what I was thinking until my body was warming, and I was noticing his body.
I said that Aiden had a six-pack, but he wasn’t the most ripped guy at school and that’s because Kase was. He was a soccer superstar. He ate, lived, breathed, and if he could’ve, he would’ve fucked soccer. Or football because his parents kept him in the US to finish school, and once he graduated, he was packed and ready for a European club. They wanted him when he was twelve.
He got one night. We were done with school today, and then Saturday morning, he’d be airborne.
He wasn’t even going to graduation on Sunday.
“He’s been cheating on me.”
Kase took a step back, his eyes went flat. “No.” He was shaking his head, that smirk came. “There’s no way—”
“He literally left me, for her.”
His lips thinned, something flashed in his eyes, and he started around the bed. He went for the other knot, his eyes never leaving me. “Who?”
I waited.
That one weekend, it had changed things for us.
Aiden, Kase, and I went camping at a weekend rave. The plan had been to simply have fun. We didn’t do drugs, but it was one of the weekends that we thought it’d be okay to experiment. That’d been the plan. Then we got there. The music was already starting. Sex and sweat were in the air, and by the time the tent was put up, Aiden was on me.
Kase had dipped out.
He came back hours later, stepped inside, saw we were still going, and started to leave again.
“Wait.” Aiden rotated me, positioning me so that I was on full display for Kase. He ran a hand up my side, and I could feel him grin over my shoulder. “For my birthday.”
Kase’s eyes got dark, molten. His lips parted. “What for your birthday?” His tone had been grating.
Aiden ran a hand down between my legs, and then he slid a finger inside of me.
I had gasped, arching my back.
He added, “You and her. I want to watch.”
“You serious?”
“Hell yes.”
We never talked about that weekend. Not once.
Was I a slut? I’d been with two guys in my life. Did that make me a slut?
I didn’t think so, but the hatred had gone down a level between Kase and me.
Now, I couldn’t help but wonder if Aiden had already started with Sadie by then?
No—I shoved that thought out of my head, and I fixed Kase with a look.
“Untie me,” I rapsed out.
His eyes narrowed, but he undid the knot.
He didn’t step back. He stayed right where he was, his gaze not wavering, and he was looking over all of me.
I scooted to the edge of the bed, my chest starting to heave, my pulse picking up at what I was going to do, and I still couldn’t let myself actually think it, but hell yes, I was going to do it.
If any of that made sense?
He glanced down, seeing my legs coming down on either side of his. “What are you doing?”
I touched his jeans, expecting him to back away. He didn’t. I ran my hands up the sides of them, going to his waistband.
Going to the button.
“What are you doing, Coda?”
He still didn’t move back.
I undid the button, moving to the zipper.
Now he began to lean back.
“Coda.”
I let my gaze fall, taking in the entire rope’s course of his stomach muscles. It looked like a maze, one with dips and valleys, and the two obliques that led down, right to the dick. And I was remembering how his dick felt that night.
I was now remembering everything, not letting myself think of Aiden any longer.
I was remembering how Kase took me from behind.
How he held me, how he pounded into me, how he made me gasp his name and how he made me plead, and how I had loved every second of it. I was letting myself remember how his touch had started to become addictive, how Aiden left us alone, knowing what we were doing, and how time had ceased until I couldn’t remember when he came back.
I’d felt so guilty.
What a shitty girlfriend I had been…
Now, though.
Now was different.
I pulled down his zipper, and just as I started to reach for him, he caught my wrist. “What are you doing?”
I took my hand back, but I knelt on the bed, rising up and his gaze swept down, over my breasts.
I took the shield down.
I let him see everything, that I wanted him, that I was hurting, that I was trying not to cry. But I let him see the rage inside of me because he needed to see it.
“Want to know who he left me for?”
His eyes narrowed.
“Sadie.”
His eyes flashed, and his hand was at my throat in a split second.
I didn’t move, just swallowing against his hold.
I finished with, “He’s been banging your sister.”
“You’re lying,” he hissed.
His hand tightened its hold, but he wasn’t hurting me.
God.
I swallowed over a knot.
I was gambling here because I didn’t know how he’d react, but I wanted to hurt Aiden. I had to hurt him.
I needed it to breathe, keep going.
“All those questions, he told me he'd be at your family’s Aspen cabin. He took food to her last Thursday night.” I shook my head, the fight starting to fade, the hurt moving in. “There’s been so many nights I thought he was with you. I assumed, and …”
“When?” he grated.
A tear held on my eyelid, hanging there. “Pick a day. He was always with you, or her. I was with him two nights a week, that was it. He gave me Tuesdays and Sundays. Every other Thursday maybe.”
His eyes widened, his hand still holding me captive. “I’ll say it again. You are lying.”
“Why would I lie about this? You’d kill me. You’re that sick of an asshole.”
His hand tightened.
I didn’t care. I almost wanted it to get tighter.
I wanted the pain.
Cursing, he tore his hand away, and I slumped forward, hitting his chest, but he didn’t move away. He stood there, letting me rest against him, and I could feel how tense he was. He was coiling up, getting more and more rigid. He was like cement.
“My sister,” he hissed again, through his teeth. His hand came up, gripping the back of my neck, and he tipped my head back. His eyes were almost glittering at me. “My sister?!”
I gulped again, realizing this could go a whole different way than what I thought.
Hurt Aiden by actually hurting me? Would he—but as I thought it, his mouth crashed down on me, and I felt everything in me come alive.
Yes.
