Effie breathed in King’s scent, both familiar and somehow intoxicatingly exotic, as she pressed her cheek against his bare chest. It was inching towards morning, but she didn’t want it to end.

Maybe it had been stupid or careless, she thought to herself.

But she’d never felt more secure. Effie hadn’t known what to expect, but it wasn’t this. It didn’t feel like a fling.

She steadied her breathing when he shifted. There was no telling what might happen when he woke up.

No matter what he said or thought, her heart was already on edge and prepped for breaking. She’d have to leave, likely in a few hours, and never see him again.

As hard as she tried, she couldn’t stop the tears as they silently lapped down her face. She’d spent the entire night before wrapped in his arms and going over possibilities. There was no way this could work.

She thought about the entire dynamics with his family. Sure, his parents had accepted it when she’d gone from King to Thorne—but there was no way they would stand by and let her go back.

The first time, they’d all been young and dumb. She could still remember his mom calling their high school romance “puppy love,” though it was said with a sweetness.

And Thorne?

No way in hell would he ever let this happen. She didn’t know what he would do, but she also apparently didn’t know what he was capable of. She never thought he would have been bitter enough to kick her family out on the street.

Shit. My family.

And what would her mom say about this? Or Yaya, in her lucid moments? It was hard enough as it was, but to go back to King, otherwise known as “the one who won’t bankroll us” as her mom would likely put it.

Effie choked as she tried to swallow the tears and King stirred.

“Hey,” he murmured.

She quickly pressed her face deeper into his chest and wiped away the tears. He was groggy, his eyes still halfway closed.

When she looked up at him, her lips met his without thinking. Last night, she thought, or maybe hoped, that perhaps it was just a one-time thing. All that pent up sexual energy between them throughout the years.

But as soon as he kissed her in the morning, she knew that wasn’t it. There was a spark between them that refused to go out.

King bit her lip and it edged on too hard. Effie yelped. As she did, King swiftly rolled on top of her. His weight pinned her instantly.

Effie could feel his hardness pressing, insistent, against her thigh. Even as she pressed her lips together and checked for blood, she felt herself grow wet at the idea of him inside her.

“You just can’t get enough, can you?” King asked as he kissed his way along her jaw and to her ear. “Seems like my brother hasn’t been fucking you proper.”

Effie let out a gasp. Embarrassed and shamed as she was by the comment, she couldn’t stop herself from opening her thighs wider eager to take him in.

King let out a laugh in her ear. He didn’t flinch as she clawed at his lower back and tried desperately to pull him into her.

“You’ll get what you need,” he said. “But first you have to answer my question from the other night.”

“What question?” she asked, breathless.

“Who’s better in bed?” he demanded in her ear. “Who fucks you like the little whore you are?”

“You,” she said. “Only you.”

Saying it aloud, admitting it, washed away any lingering reservations she may have had.

King positioned himself at her opening and teased her. Effie let out a groan of frustration. He lowered himself to her neck and sucked hard to leave his mark. Effie lifted her chin and presented her neck. She wanted to feel it, to be branded by him.

When he finally slid his length into her and filled that ache within her, a fresh stream of tears spilled down her face. She’d never wanted anything so much before.

If King saw the tears, he either didn’t care or knew what they meant. He began to pound into her steadily. Effie tried to hold him down deep, delight in being full of him, but he swatted her hands away. She wrestled briefly, but he grabbed her hands and held them above her head.

The sounds of their slick skin slapping against each other put her in a state of frenzy. Somewhere in the distance, she heard an animal begin to keen and yowl. It wasn’t until he plunged his tongue into her mouth and explored violently that she realized it was her.

His fingers dug into her wrists, a dull pain that seemed far away.

I could be anyone, she thought.

This morning, it was all about his pleasure. She should have hated it, pushed him off her, but her body wasn’t cooperating, not with her head or her heart.

It turned her on like nothing before, being used like this.

“You’re going to miss this, aren’t you,” King said as he fucked her harder.

“Yes,” she said. She felt his cock grow bigger, harder, close to coming inside her.

“Tell me, you fucking slut. Tell me what you’re going to miss.”

“I’m going to miss your cock,” she cried out, on the verge of coming herself.

At the last second, King pulled out of her and exploded across her abdomen. Effie heard the cry that came out of her, one of disappointment and frustration, but it didn’t sound human.

This is what I deserve, she told herself.

Her clit was so swollen it burned with pain. King braced himself over her. He trailed a thick finger through the whiteness that covered her belly before he pressed it to her lips. Greedily, Effie took his finger into her mouth and sucked. She’d take him however she could have him.

As his taste, slightly sweet, coated her tongue, she closed her eyes and felt his other hand between her legs.

“You’re so goddamned wet,” he said as he slid three fingers into her. “You really are a good little whore, aren’t you?”

King started to finger fuck her brutally, only occasionally letting his thumb slide across her clit to keep her on the edge. He was so rough she felt her entire body being moved back. Right before her head hit the couch, Effie raised her arms and braced herself.

“Come for me,” King demanded.

“I’m close. Please …”

“I said come for me, you fucking slut. Isn’t this what you want?”

His words shot her into orgasm. Effie called out his name over and over, relentless, but as he took her into oblivion she felt a flood like no other between her legs. A warm wetness sprayed up her thighs. King stopped briefly before continuing slower, controlled.

“Since when do you squirt?” he asked her.

“I… I don’t know.”

When he’d yoked the last of the orgasmic waves out of her, King withdrew his hand and wiped his soaked forearm across her chest.

The harshness of what they’d just done was instantly replaced by that familiar kindness in his eyes. Effie didn’t know what it was about the sex that made them so wild, and there was no denying she loved it.

But how can this be the same person?

The bedroom door flew open and banged into the wall. Both of them jumped and Effie instinctively grabbed the sheet to cover up. Thorne nearly filled the doorframe, face flame-red.

“What the fuck, Effie?” Thorne demanded, outraged. “And… King? What—”

“Jesus,” she heard King mutter.

“Thorne! What are you doing here? How did you find me—”

“What am I doing here? What the fuck are you doing here? It’s my fucking family cabin. And I tracked your fucking phone, Effie—”

“You’ve been tracking me?” she asked, incredulous.

For how long?

“You don’t get to ask the questions here. Not in my house, not while you’re fucking my brother. Speaking of,” Thorne said as he sauntered into the room. “King, why am I not surprised? Always chasing after your little brother, lapping up those sloppy seconds.”

King raised his hands and shook his head.

“She just showed up here, man,” he said.

Thorne narrowed his eyes. “That may be, but you couldn’t wait to have another go at her, could you? I hope she wasn’t a dead fish for you, too.”

“What the hell do you want, Thorne?” she asked.

She felt more vulnerable than she’d ever been, still sticky from what she’d just done.

“What do I want?” he asked with a laugh. “I want that fucking million-dollar ring back, for starters.”

“Fine, whatever. It’s in the glove box.”

“I want you out of my fucking cabin, for second.”

“Alright! God, it’s not like I wasn’t snowed in or anything.”

Thorne considered the fading snow outside.

“Seems clear enough now,” he said. He looked back to her, his eyes full of steel. “And I want you to admit what a fucking whore you are.”

“Hey—” King started, but she wasn’t going to let them go at each other.

“Fine, okay?” she said and let the sheet drop. She felt her nipple harden with exposure to the sudden air, but she didn’t care. “I’m a fucking whore. You happy?”

“It’s a start,” Thorne said. “And you,” he continued as he turned to King. “You were just waiting to make your move weren’t you? Pathetic. You two deserve each other.”

Effie crossed her arms and Thorne made a sudden run at King. She yelped and scrambled to the side of the bed. Effie watched as King took a blow to the chest and another to the jaw.

“No!” she called out.

Why wasn’t King fighting back? He just stood there and took it, offering only the slightest of defensive blocks.

Thorne spit in King’s direction.

“Not even man enough to fight,” he said.

“And you—” Thorne turned to Effie and raised his hand.

For a second, he hesitated. She saw the entirety of him, and it wasn’t all bad. But there wasn’t much good, either.

In his hesitation, King made his move. She heard the connection of fist to skull and Thorne hit the mattress hard. King jumped on top of him and gripped his hands behind his back. Instantly, Thorne was incapacitated.

“Get the fuck off me, King!” he bellowed.

“If you get out.”

“Yeah, whatever, man! Get off.”

When King released him, Thorne scrambled to his feet and tried to straighten his button-up shirt.

“You two better watch yourselves,” he said as he backed towards the door. Thorne raised a finger in warning. “You, watch your family,” he said to Effie. “And you, watch your job,” he told King. “You think Dad won’t listen to me about this bullshit?”

He stormed down the hall and the front door slammed. When the sound of a roaring ignition filled the room, Effie started to shake. Tears filled her eyes and a tight ball formed in her throat.

Everything he said was true, she realized. Who cares if Thorne was the one who cheated first? If I’d actually done him right, he wouldn’t have. And everything King said in bed was true, too.

“Hey, it’s okay,” King said. He kneeled in bed and patted her shoulder. “He’ll get over it, you know how he is.”

“It’s not about that,” she sniffed.

“Then what is it?”

“I feel like a freaking failure,” she said.

Snot began to gather in her nose. She wiped at it with the back of her hand, not caring how she looked. “I got fired—and deservedly so. I lost my fiancée. My family is going to be homeless. And I did it all in the span of a week!”

King hushed her.

“Come back to bed,” he said and pulled at her hand.

Effie looked at him, baffled.

How could he just get over everything like that?

“Come on, don’t let him ruin your last day here.”

My last day? Are you staying—kicking me out?

Dutifully, she laid back and let him pull her close. He was the last lifeline she had in this world. The last thing she needed was to piss him off, too.

What’s going to happen to me when you’re gone? she wondered.

The worries filled her head, but began to disappear when he dipped his mouth to her breast and began to suckle her nipple.

Effie closed her eyes and let her body start to take over.

It’s only a matter of time before you figure out I’ll drag you down, too, she thought.

She didn’t understand how easily her body responded to him. Being with him like this made her forget everything else, even temporarily. King spread out on his back.

“Sit,” he said and pulled her roughly towards him.

“What?”

“Here,” he said. “Sit on my face. You’re going to fuck my face until you squirt on me like you did before.”

Effie blushed as she crawled towards him.

“I don’t know if I can again,” she said, scared to disappoint.

“You will because I told you to.”

Effie crawled over his face, unsure. Soon enough, though, she was screaming out her orgasm… and it was King’s name on her lips.