We finally seemed to have come to an understanding. By the time we’d finished the wine, eaten the strawberries, and made out in the hot tub, I was feeling a bit sleepy.

“Caught you yawning,” Harry murmured into my hair as he tucked me against his side. “Come on. Tomorrow promises to be a long day. Let’s get to bed.” Then he stood and held out his hands so he could help me from the hot tub.

I took them and reveled in his strong touch as he helped haul me from the water. “Thank you.” I grinned. In fact, I’d been so happy for the past few hours, my face actually hurt. This man was so much more than he seemed, so much more than he let on.

Harry held up my robe and I slid it onto my shoulders. Then he threw my towel over one shoulder and his towel over the other. He wrapped an arm around my waist and we wandered toward the bedrooms. My heart began to pound in my chest. What if he wanted to share a bed? What if he didn’t? I tortured myself the entire way down the hall. We stopped in between our rooms. I bit my cheek and gazed up at him expectantly.

“Hi,” he whispered. Then he pulled me into his arms.

This was it. This was the moment. Harry knew it too.

“Tonight has been perfect,” he announced.

“I think so.” I laid my chin on his chest and smiled up at him.

Harry pressed his lips to my forehead. “I’d love to share a bed with you. I’d love to fall asleep cuddled together like kittens and wake up wrapped in happiness, but I wanna do this right. I want to do this righter than I’ve ever done anything before. That means I refuse to hop into bed with you tonight.” He sighed and my shoulders drooped. “This isn’t a commentary on the degree of attraction I feel for you. If it was based on that, I’d be carrying you to bed right now.”

Dating wasn’t my area. I’d had little experience in this department. I stared down at the floor a moment before I stepped back and proudly looked him in the eye. “Listen, there’s something you should know about me.”

He reached out and laced his fingers through mine. “Is this the sex talk before we actually have sex?”

I nodded with my lips pursed.

“Okay then. Let’s go sit.” Harry opened my door and entered the room. My heart raced as he walked me over to the love seat at the end of the bed.

Curling up in the corner, I tried to give myself as much space as possible despite the confines of the arm rests. “I’m not a virgin.”

With a grin, Harry nodded. “I rather thought not.” Then he leaned in conspiratorially. “I’m not either by the way.”

My head tilted. “I rather doubted it. Look who you hang with.” I shrugged. “The first time I had sex, I had been jogging. I was a senior in high school, back home after nearly a year at boarding school. The neighbor’s son was impressed with how much I’d grown and we had sex in the pool.”

Frowning, Harry murmured, “That sounds…terrible.”

I sighed. “It wasn’t great, but I was no longer a virgin, so there was that.”

He chuckled. “Actually, that’s how I felt about my first time too.”

A smile played at the corner of my lips. “I haven’t really had sex since.” His eyes widened in shock. “I mean…no penetration. Some fondling, but I could never bring myself to move past that.”

“Was it because the first time was meh? Or is there more to it?” His brow furrowed while he waited for a response.

“I don’t know. I guess I kinda wanted to wait for someone I cared about. I’d gotten it over with, and from then on, I wanted it to matter.” I frowned. “And here we are.”

“All the more reason to take it slow,” Harry murmured as he leaned in for a kiss. “This is the part where I leave you. I’ll be right across the hall if you need me.”

My whole body exhaled. I felt better in every way. Smiling, I nodded. “Thank you, but I can’t imagine I’ll need you. We’ll talk more over breakfast.”

Harry stood, tilted my chin up, and then pressed his lips to mine. “Yes. I’m awesome at breakfast. I’ll cook.”

“Well, I’m not arguing.” I yawned.

He squeezed my hand one last time before he disappeared. I glanced at my phone. Already, it was past midnight. I rarely stayed up past eleven. I was so lame…and exhausted. I quickly brushed my teeth, changed into a cami and shorts, then dropped into bed.

Though I normally tossed and turned for hours, I quickly passed out. For the first night in a long time, my mind rested and my dreams were pleasant, until I woke. There was a weight on the bed behind me. This was what first roused me. Then he slid closer, wrapped his arms around me, spooning me.

“You smell so good,” he whispered as he kissed his way down my neck.

I shivered and inhaled deeply. “You smell like a still.”

He chuckled. “I may have had one or two,” he murmured.

“Go easy on the liquid courage,” I teased.

Suddenly his hand cupped my breast and he squeezed. “Nice,” he hissed.

“Gentle,” I pleaded. I hadn’t imagined our first time being anything like this. At the moment, I struggled to hide my disappointment.

He laughed. “Really? You seemed like the kind of girl who’d like it rough, Jenna.”

Jenna? I froze. This explained everything. I tried to break free of his grasp, but he was too strong for me, and I had no leverage the way he held me. After failing to get away, I rolled toward him, completely enraged.

“That’s more like it,” he joked.

“Drew, let me go!” I ordered

“Stop playing. You know you want this,” he grumbled.

I pushed on his chest and craned my neck to avoid his sloppy kisses. “I mean it. Let go. Let go or else.” My mind raced. It wasn’t as though I had much to hold over him.

“Are you threatening me? Do you have any idea who I am, bitch?” Drew released my arm with one hand and I tried to move, but I couldn’t get away quick enough. Instead, he managed to land a punch on my face. It was quite a feat, since I could barely see him in the dark. My cheek burned.

Then my bedroom door opened and light spilled into the room from the hall. Harry stood in the doorway long enough to flick the switch. He assessed the situation in a matter of seconds. From my vantage point under Drew, I could easily read the fury on his face. He’d gone completely red, his jaw was set, his eyes narrowed as he raced across the room.

Apparently, Drew hadn’t processed the lights or Harry. Maybe he was just hyper-focused on hurting me. Whatever the case, he pulled his hand back to hit me again, and since he’d managed to pin my arms and rendered me utterly defenseless, all I could do was squeeze my eyes shut and try to bury myself in the pillows. Only before he could connect, Harry had yanked him out of bed.

“What the fuck is the matter with you, Drew?” Harry growled as he pushed him up against the wall.

“What?” Drew glared at me. “Bros before hos, man. For life. Remember?”

Harry shook his head before glancing over at me. “Are you okay?”

I reached up to touch my cheek and Harry gasped. “What?” I rushed into my bathroom to assess the situation. I quickly understood his reaction. There was blood all over me starting with smears on my shoulders and upper arms, moving on to my chest where I found partial handprints, and even on my thighs. Turning on the water, I began to wash it away, looking for injuries. Almost instantly, I discovered the blood wasn’t mine. I rushed out to the bedroom. “I’m not bleeding. Must be Drew.” I strode over and began to examine him for injuries while Harry kept him pinned to the wall. Both of his hands were cut up, and he was covered in blood. “It’s him. He’s going to need medical attention. I’ll call for an ambulance.”

Grabbing my bathrobe from the end of the bed, I wrapped it around me, cinched it, and reached for my phone on the nightstand. As I started to make a call, Harry stopped me.

“Wait. Maybe he’s okay. Maybe he doesn’t need stitches. Let’s clean him up and find out.” He bit his lower lip and couldn’t quite meet my eyes.

My heart sank. My disappointment grew. I watched as he muscled Drew into my bathroom and sat him on the toilet seat lid. Then he turned on the faucet and pulled a towel from my linen closet. “Let’s get you washed up. We’ll see where we’re at.”

In the distance, I heard a phone ringing. I knew it was Harry’s, still in his bedroom. Without waiting for him to ask me, I sprinted to his bedroom. After pulling it from the charger, I answered Ty’s call. “He’s here,” I murmured. I could feel the sorrow building, constricting my chest.

“Wait. Who’s there?” Ty sounded genuinely confused.

“Drew. He’s here.” I hiccupped as I struggled to hold back the sob.

Ty growled. “I was afraid of that. Is everything okay?”

“No,” I whimpered. I began to pace in an effort to pull myself together. This wasn’t my norm. This was because of Harry. “Drew managed to get in the house, judging by his hands…broke a window or something.”

“Oh my God. Destruction of private property. Harry doesn’t officially own the house yet. He’s still waiting on the closing documents to get pulled together.” Ty sighed angrily.

“There’s more.” I stood taller and forced myself to leave the room. I tiptoed down the hall as I tried to figure out what he’d broken. All I had to do was follow the trail of blood. I rubbed my forehead.

“What else, Laney?” Kate whispered. “Sorry. Speaker phone. Ty and I have no secrets.”

“That’s nice.” I glanced behind me to see if I was still alone. Confident Harry was still working on Drew’s injuries, I continued. “He attacked me. Drew climbed into bed with me while I was sleeping, he tried to rape me, he even hit me.”

Kate gasped.

“Babe,” Ty murmured. Kate said something, but it was so muffled I couldn’t make it out. I guessed she was buried in his chest. I shook my head. Must be nice.

“He’s going to cover for him.” I stopped short of the front door. It was wide open. The sidelights had been broken out. Both of them. I’d found a pool of blood in the foyer and broken glass scattered for several feet. I slowly backed away and began to take pictures with my phone.

“How can he cover for him? Not after what Drew has done. Listen, I have the address. We’re on our way. Call the police. Call for an ambulance,” Ty huffed.

“I can’t. Harry has to do it or he’ll blame me forever.” I buried my face in the collar of my robe.

“Then wait if you want, and I’ll do it. He can try to fucking hate me all he wants. This is bullshit.” Then Ty ended the call without even saying goodbye.