His hand went back to cupping my ass as one of his legs moved my knee so that I bent it up and out to the side. I felt him expand and get harder where he was still planted inside of me.

“Was your mom always a mess like that?” His other hand slid under the curtain of my hair where it rested on the back of my neck. He used his thumb to rub on the tendon there, making me lean into him like a cat.

“She was always moody and unpredictable. It actually made her kind of fun when we were little. I didn’t know it was depression or how dangerous it could be until I got into my early teens. She was medicated for a while, but when my dad started working all the time, I think she stopped taking pills and switched to booze in a bid for his attention. She knows about his gambling and agreed to get help for her own addictions. Now I just have to figure out how to pay for it. The least expensive place that can help her is still fifteen grand per patient.”

He made a noise low in his throat and I could practically hear him thinking. I should’ve known Race’s brain was just as golden and complex as the rest of him.

He kissed the top of my head and trailed his hand across the curve of my backside and along the slope of my hip. His touch was light and left tingles and shivers in its wake. I felt my inner muscles start to tense and squeeze him involuntarily. With a little whimper I pushed up with my hands planted on his chest and looked down at him. I loved the way his eyes shifted from one color to another. He would never be able to hide how much he wanted me, and that made my heart swell. He was holding on to both of my hipbones now and fully erect where we were joined. A flush worked into his face and he grinned up at me. He looked like some ancient ruler satisfied after conquering a foreign land.

Before he could move me up and down, wind us back up all over again, I reached out and cupped his too-pretty face in my hands. I ran my thumb over that dimple and lifted an eyebrow at him.

“What about you?”

His sandy eyebrows dipped low over his eyes and I saw his nostrils flare out a little bit.

“What about me?”

Why did all boys have to be obstinate? Granted, he was rock hard and ready to go, but I wasn’t going to lay all my past out at his feet and not get something in return.

“What about your family?”

He sighed and gave his head a little shake from side to side. “Bax and Dovie are my family. Even Bax’s brother, Titus, to an extent, but that’s where it ends. My dad is an amoral, murderous piece of shit and I thought my mom was just too delicate to deal with it. Turns out she actually loves that monster to the exclusion of all others. I tolerate her at best. I’m ashamed I have their blood inside of me.”

Wow. I knew there was dissension in his family, that he had been disowned and that there were issues with his father’s refusal to claim Dovie as his own, but I had no idea how strongly or how deeply Race’s dislike of his parents ran.

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. I was an asshole and a spoiled brat when I lived like them. It took making my own place in the world, finding my real family and my real place, to understand what life was really about.” His eyes glittered mischievously at me and one of his hands skated from my hip around the curve of my thigh and disappeared inside the damp folds already open and situated to accommodate his girth. “I know how to appreciate a good thing when it falls in my lap, Brysen. Don’t doubt it.”

I would have answered but he was using his fingertips to play with my clit and all my reason shut down to focus on the pleasure he was giving me and the lusty way he was now leering at me. I couldn’t just sit on top of him anymore while we rested together and teased each other. I think that was his intent. I moved my hands so they were resting on the defined cut of his abs and started a slow glide up and down that had his fingers dragging through the excitement our bodies moving together was generating. I felt his stomach contract and he moved the hand that was up behind his head to pinch the achy point of my breast. Man, was he good at multitasking. He seemed to be damn good at everything he did, and as I rode him, and he petted me and stroked me into yet another mind-bending orgasm, I wondered if that goodness made up for the badness that I knew wasn’t too far behind it.

HE WORE ME OUT. We were up all night, and the only time he let up on me was when I told him I had to at least text Karsen to let her know I wouldn’t be home. I didn’t get to sleep until well after the sun was up, and it was a testament to how exhausted I was that the noise coming up from the garage as the guys went to work in the morning didn’t even make me stir.

I finally pried my eyes open when the mattress dipped by my shoulder and a mug of coffee appeared in front of my blurry eyes. A kiss landed on my temple and I struggled up and shoved my hair out of my face.