Dulce

“Ashamed to be seen with me, Abe? If I had feelings, they might be hurt.”

He grabs a hold of me and pins me to the counter, his pelvis pressing against mine.

“Do I look like I care what any of these sheep think of me? If they know you’re here, there will be questions. Not just regarding you and my brother and me, but Mr. Aslanov and Mr. Gavin. You’ll find yourself very popular with people who want the same in you seem to have.”

“I have an in?” I laugh in his face. “In this house, you tolerate me mostly because you bow to Aslanov’s rules, and for whatever reason, he seems to want me here. In public, though, you don’t give a fuck. I’ve seen you laughing at the little bitch brigade’s antics. I sure as shit didn’t see you come to my rescue when I was doused with soup.”

He grins, pressing himself against me. What do you know? He’s hard. As if me being bitchy turns him on? Or maybe it’s because he has me pinned. I should give up trying to understand men. I’m just not wired the way they all seem to be.

“And miss your ass in that tiny little underwear set of yours? Fuck that. It was the highlight of my week.”

“Ah, spoken like the dickhead you are. It doesn’t matter that the soup was hot and I got burned, as long as you could check out the curve of my ass and figure out if I wax or not.”

“Oh, you wax.” He grins before it slips from his face. “You got burned?”

I wave him off. “I’m fine. I’m just saying. You pretend to care when we’re alone, but when we’re in public, you act like I have the plague. And when that doesn’t work, you mock and jeer like the rest of the assholes out there.”

“It’s for your benefit as well as mine.”

“Sure, it is, Abe.” I tap his chest with my palm, but when he doesn’t step back, I help him out by shoving him.

“You can dress it up however you want, but I’m nobody’s dirty little secret.”

His face flushes, his eyes on my tits as the bits fall into place.

“You know what I did with your brother. You want your taste of the cookie too. You just don’t want the others to know about it.”

He grabs me again, this time hoisting me onto the table. “I already told you, I don’t give a fuck what anyone thinks. Not even you.”

He pushes me so I’m lying down and shoves my legs apart. I move to kick him, but his mouth is hot and wet against me in the next second. So much so that I can feel it through the thin material covering me.

“I want a taste. I was going to wait until later, but it seems I might have something to prove after all.”

I have no idea what he’s trying to prove. Subtlety has never been one of my strong points. I’m a big believer in saying what you mean and meaning what you say. Of course, here in the school of secrets, nothing is what it seems.

He yanks my shorts down before spreading me wide and swiping his tongue over me from back to front.

“Hm…nice,” he groans into me, making me squirm. I don’t ask him to stop or try to fight him. He can see and taste how aroused I am, and this is what I do, right? I use my body, one of the many tools God gave me, and bring people to their knees if need be.

The problem is, I feel guilty. I’ve never felt guilty taking a dicking in my life until all these men started taking an interest in me. And I know I’m not the catch they all think I am, which means some of them are trying to play me before I play them.

I don’t want to hurt the ones who may be genuine. For good or bad, I like most of them in one way or another. But what happens when the masks come off and the truth falls at everyone’s feet like an anvil that narrowly missed their heads?

Hunter and Griff want to see where this thing goes, and my heart does too. I’ve rolled around at night in sleepy, fitful states, going over all the reasons it would be an awful idea. It doesn’t change that the thought of walking away from them again makes me hurt. It makes me feel like an emotional basket case, and that’s just not me.

Of course, I’m wary that it’s an act. Wanting payback is understandable. What I did to Griff is unforgivable to most people. He has more right than anyone to hate me, and yet he doesn’t.

When I look into his eyes, I see the truth of how he feels, and it sends my walls tumbling down like dominoes falling one after the other. If he’s not telling the truth, he’s the greatest actor I’ve ever seen.

That’s not taking into account the guys who live here with me. I wonder if it’s just Hunter and Griff that I would find hard to walk away from or if others have snuck into my heart when I wasn’t looking.

I’m not sure how I feel about the twins, to be honest. Or how they play into everything. Part of me should hate them. Hell, part of me does. Away from the others, I see sides of them I doubt anyone else does. But I wasn’t lying when I said I wouldn’t be anyone’s dirty secret.

They like me, even if they don’t want to. They’re sure as shit attracted to me. It’s just that I upset the apple cart, and they cannot help but feel the need to punish me for coming in here and tearing up their bubble of fake perfectness.

Dmitri, however, is another ballgame altogether.

The others might legally be men, but they are still mentally boys. Dmitri isn’t. He won’t be led around by his dick, and there will be no bending him to my will. He’s the definition of an alpha male, and yet he shared me with Cain. I didn’t see an ounce of jealousy on his face when I was spread out on his desk with Cain pumping away inside me. All I saw was heat, desire, lust, and a yearning to switch places with Cain, so he was the one who fucked me into oblivion.

Sharp teeth bite at my inner thigh, making my eyes snap down to Abe, who is now looking at me from between my legs.

“I’m sorry, Everly. Was I boring you? I thought you might have fallen asleep there for a minute.”

His voice is dark and patronizing. Instead of backing down and apologizing, which I would have done if he hadn’t taken that tone, I poke him some more.

“It’s okay. Oral can be tricky. It’s a skill that takes time to learn. Don’t beat yourself up about it.”

He yanks me closer before thrusting two fingers inside me. My body bucks at the intrusion, but I’m so wet that they glide right in.

“That smart mouth is gonna get you into trouble one day, little girl.”

“Promise?”