We get there right as Royce is tearing the door open to what must be Jenson’s truck.

He grabs him by the neckline of the shirt he must have just put on and rips him from the seat.

I gasp.

Someone laughs beside me.

I look over to find Chloe grinning with her phone in her hand. She pushes some buttons, then crosses her arms and smiles at the chaos.

She looks to me. “Oh, honey, get used to this, catalog it even. It makes for some good after-hour thoughts, if you know what I mean.”

I meet her eyes and she winks.

“Your boy’s got stamina, lots and lots of stamina. And since you arrived?” She giggles with a grin. “He’s pretty much exhaling testosterone, he’s so repressed.”

Yeah, I’m not touching any of that.

I rush closer to the sidewalk as Royce grips the guy by the neck and lifts him from the floor. He says something, but nobody else can hear it, and then Jenson lifts his hand and what do you know, it points toward me.

Royce whips around.

A loud, cruel laugh leaves him and then Jenson’s head meets the side mirror. Both he and his mirror crash to the ground.

Royce isn’t satisfied, and steps over him, but I’m done with this.

I shoot forward.

Mac tries to grab me, but I cut left quickly and evade him, grab an abandoned bottle from the grass and smash it against the hood.

Royce’s wild eyes snap up, his lip curling.

They flash when it’s me he finds.

“Stop.”

He leers at me through thick lashes. “Get the fuck out of here.”

“No. I said stop.”

“Baby girl, I will tear you apart—”

“So do it. This isn’t on him.” I explain, “He and another guy were about to light up the living room in there. I was helping.”

“Helping. By letting people touch you. By touching someone. That’s not helping, that’s hoeing.”

Anger burns my skin, and I step closer. “You are a dick and he was only playing along to defuse the situation. You said—”

“I don’t care what I said!” His shout is rushed and wrathful. “Listen to what the fuck I’m saying now or you’re gone.” His chest heaves and he steps over Jenson’s forgotten body, slithering toward mine. “You will touch no one, and no fucking one will dare to touch you. Do you understand?”

I clench my teeth and look away.

This is what I asked for, isn’t it? Him to tell me what he expects, what he wants me to and not to do.

So I don’t argue.

I turn back and meet his eyes with resolved strength in my own.

I will not get kicked out of this place, especially not yet.

My brother said he’s headed home tomorrow, and when he gets here, he’ll find out I am too.

“Okay, Playboy. No one touches me. I touch no one.”

His chest rises and falls rapidly and with eerily slow movements, he licks his lips and closes the slight gap between us. His eyes slide between mine, his warm, cinnamon and zest hinted alcohol breath fanning across my skin.

My body starts to heat, but this time for an entirely different reason.

He’s looking at me like a broken boy, like I hurt him and he doesn’t understand how it’s possible.

That makes two of us.

Royce comes even closer, his thumb finding and pressing into the hollow of my throat. He pushes a little harder, a need to be rougher twitching against me, but it’s with a gentle pressure he glides higher, until he’s lifting my chin.

My heart beats faster as I meet his muddled gaze.

Blood from his busted knuckles splats silently against my collarbone, shocking the skin there and creating prickles around it.

“You want to play, Tink, play,” he rasps headily. “Take. Demand.” His eyes darken and he leans forward, pressing the left curve of his lips to my ear, gliding them slightly, as if he has a need to press them against me, but he refuses himself. “Demand... and receive, my little Tink.”

Tires screech against the road in the distance, the cease of brakes following.

Royce steps around me, and my entire body finds the need to follow his escape, spinning with his as he slips away, taking the air from my lungs with him.

Right there, in the center of the street, stands Maddoc and Captain, blank expressions on both their faces, one solid black SUV idling at their backs.

The back door opens and Raven steps out.

Her eyes fly from Royce to me and narrow.

He steps up to her and after a short stare-off, she finally slips back inside, Royce following.

He doesn’t shut his door and when I look to Maddoc, he drops his chin expectantly.

I don’t realize I’m moving forward until I’ve reached him.

“Get in.” He glares past me.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea. He’s mad at me.”

“It wasn’t a question.” The command is short and sharp. His eyes shift to mine, and while they’re brimming with a heady warning, there’s no anger there.

Room for discussion? Definitely not, but no anger.

He faces forward, and only then do I look behind me.

The house and back yard must be completely empty now as every partygoer is scattered along the front catching the show.

There isn’t a single one who isn’t staring at me. At Maddoc. At the car behind us and back to me.

Micah breaks through the crowd then, tension lining his features, and for a second I’m relieved. Maddoc must sense it, because he shakes his head, and in the same exact second one brother tells me no without a word, another wraps his fingers around mine hanging loosely at my sides.

I look down, following the tattooed forearm up until my eyes collide with a pair of clouded brown ones. Royce hangs half out of the door, holding on to me.

He tugs, and for some reason, even though he was a giant jackass just now, I let him.

I climb in beside the drunken playboy, trying to ignore how his hold on me grows tighter, more possessive, with each passing second, and pretending his lips aren’t slightly brushing against the side of my neck.

They are, but every time they meet my skin fully, they disappear, taking the air from my lungs with them.

I don’t know what it means or that he’ll remember this tomorrow.

I don’t know why he said what he said, did what he did, or if it even matters.

And I don’t know why, when the night basically went to crap, thrill burns me to the core.

I know it’s reckless.

But I’m not sure I can control it.

I’m also not so sure I want to.

Chapter 17

Royce

“Daddy, look it!” Zo runs ahead of me, damn near tripping over herself while trying to carry a giant-ass panda bear that’s a solid foot bigger than she is.

Captain comes around the corner with a grin, his steps slowing when he spots her, the panda, the new stuffed penguin backpack she has on and the two black bears in my hands.

His eyes pop up to mine and he frowns, but when he drops to his knees in front of his baby girl it’s with a smile.

“Uncle Bro taked me to make stuff, see!” She smiles, shoving it in Cap’s arms and runs to me, snags the bears and runs back. She hops into Cap’s arms, knowing he’ll catch her, and pushes the ballerina and basketball player dressed black bears in his face.