As the after-burn of my orgasm curls through me, Colt and I lie next to each other in the huge bed, our breathing smoothing out. I’m sticky all over with his cum mixed with my own sweat. Cream coats my thighs, and I rub my legs together, reveling in the slippery, carnal sensation. My body is satiated, but my heart is restless, my pulse unsure, because all I want is for Colt to pull me to him and hold me all night, just like he used to do by the lake.

Dare to dream. He’s distant as he gets himself together, then sits up in bed and turns away, giving me a view of his muscle-banded back and wide shoulders. It’s as if he’s angry with himself now, and I don’t know if it’s because he gave in to me or if he thinks he revenge fucked me and he regrets that.

I reach over to him and rest my fingertips right above the sexy indentation where his perfect ass and lean hip meet. He goes still. Then he blows out a breath and slowly looks over his shoulder at me. His hair blocks part of his gaze, but I can see the puzzlement in him, the confusion of what just happened.

After a loaded heartbeat, he gets up and walks toward the bathroom. My heart fists, and there’s a wad of emotion in my throat, but when I realize that he’s coming back with a towel in his hand, I hold my breath. He moves with such fluid, muscled grace, so tall, so high on the pedestal I’ve put him on that I fall in love all over again.

Without a word, he sits on the bed, the mattress dipping with his weight, then offers me the towel. I think he’s wary of touching me again—afraid of what might happen. Afraid of how angry he still is with me, even though I know he’s fighting it.

As he watches me with that contained passion, I ease the towel between my thighs then look away from him. I’m aching again, not just physically, but deep inside where our beautiful, magical summer together still lives.

I finish wiping myself off and hold onto the towel. “I have to go back home to do some school work and watch Sebastian.”

A moment passes, then he reaches over to me and gently slides the back of his knuckles over my cheek. As if burned, he backs off, not saying another word as he turns away and waits for me to sit up and leave the bed.

We’re silent as I put on my clothing. The top of my dress is shredded from where he tore it, but the bottom is fine, and I end up buttoning my thin sweater over myself so that no one will know the difference. Then he follows me to the door that leads out of the suite. It’s only when I open it that he says something.

“I swear to you. The next time I see you, we’re going to talk. No games.”

I nod, my heart fluttering like a mad thing as I leave him, already counting down the seconds until we meet again in secret.

Just as we’ve always done.

* * *

When I arrive home, my brother’s BMW is parked at the curb. After I pull my car into the driveway, I take an extra minute to tidy myself, making sure there are no signs of what went down with Colt and me tonight.

I’m still under his erotic spell, still high on adrenaline and him as I replay every moment of his hands and mouth on me, his fingers and cock in me…

But you’re home now, I think. Time to put on a mask so no one will know you were with the one guy your family never wants to see you with again.

I lock up the car and walk into the house. Through the patio’s screen door, I can hear Mom and Dad in the backyard, enjoying the cool night next to the roaring outside fireplace, as well as each other’s company. They usually kick back out there after they put Sebastian down in his crib, and they’ll have the baby monitor with them, listening for any cries or sounds. I don’t hear my brother talking outside with them, though, and as I make my way into the family room toward the patio, I find out why.

Jack is sitting on a couch in front of the blank TV, his button down loose at the collar and untucked from his trousers. His auburn hair is slightly disheveled as he swipes with one thumb over the screen of his phone. He doesn’t even look up at me when he speaks.

“Another long night studying?” he asks.

“One of many.”

I wish I could brush off Jack and just go outside to hug my parents hello, then scamper over to my room to see Sebastian, but then my brother shows me his phone screen. On it, there’s a picture of Colt with his hair tied back, dressed in a white tee shirt and jeans. He’s standing in front of a table in a bar with his massive arms crossed over his wide chest. Everything in the dark background around him is washed out as if he’s the one thing in every room that draws all the light.

It’s a photo from when he stormed Lala’s in Portland the other night.

Anxiety bites at me. Please don’t show me a picture of me in that bar too.

Jack lowers the phone. “I didn’t know Colt was in Lala’s on the same night you were.”

I don’t say anything.

He goes on. “Some of the comments on the tabloid sites say that he was real interested in some girl with reddish brown hair wearing a black dress with fringe. A cute, wholesome girl-next-door type, they say. I can’t find any pictures of her, though.” Jack shrugs. “Weren’t you wearing a dress like that the same exact night?”

This calls for a lie, but I’m so tired of them. Lies have brought me nothing but grief. Still, I’m not about to tell my brother anything.

“Let’s just file this in a None of Your Business folder,” I say, already walking toward the patio.

“Wait, Serena.” He stands from the couch, still holding his phone. “This has been my business from day one when I realized you had a thing for Colt when you weren’t even out of elementary school. I thought you’d grow out of it, find a decent guy, realize that Colt wasn’t worth your affections, but you never did. I worried like hell that you’d get into trouble with him some day, but much to his credit, he never seemed interested. Not until he and I started going our separate ways.”

I’m standing there just listening, because even if it’s Jack saying it, I need to hear it.

He shakes his head. “After you did get into trouble with him, you swore this family to secrecy. I was so angry with that asshole that I stopped speaking to him for good—”

“As you said, you two were drifting apart long before then.”

“But I went along with your plan because you’re my little sister, Serena. I’ve only wanted the best for you, and now the same stands true for Sebastian.”

I shake my head, asking him to stop, but he won’t.

Jack spreads his hands out, nearly pleading with me. “Colt has been screwing up his life for years, and just because he’s come back into town as a Hollywood golden boy, that doesn’t mean anything has changed. He’s still getting into fights, popping off, and it’s only a matter of time before he’s back where he started. God, Serena, you were the girl Colt was seen with the other night at that bar, weren’t you?”

At my silence, his shoulders go rigid again.

“This family has supported you and Sebastian completely,” he says, “but if you take up with Colt we’ll—”

“You’ll what? Write me and my son off?”

Sadness falls over my brother. He loves his nephew so much, but he just can’t understand what I see in Colt. No one has ever seen what’s actually deep inside of the man I love, and if he would only let them discover how good, smart, and sensitive he is under all that bad boy, things would be so different.

Jack’s gaze doesn’t waver from mine. “Yes, Serena. If you let that asshole into your life again, you shouldn’t expect any support from us. Think of that little boy sleeping down the hall in your room. Think of how Colt would mess Sebastian up too.”

Anger kicks through me. Jack didn’t see Colt with Sebastian this afternoon. He has no idea.

I lift a finger, walking closer to my brother. “You’re talking about my child’s father.”

“Father? He’s a fucking sperm donor.”

My hand whips out, connecting with my brother’s face. As both of us stare at each other, I hold my hand to my mouth, on the edge of tears. Jack stares at me with growing frustration and disgust in his green eyes as his cheek starts to turn red.

Then he walks away and out the front door.

I brace my hands on the back of a leisure chair, my emotions splicing through me, choking each other out, because I don’t know what to feel, what to do. If Jack feels this way about Colt, I’m sure my parents do too, and—

When I look over my shoulder, I see them standing outside the patio’s screen door, utterly silent: my mom with her smartly styled banker’s hair, my dad with his slightly graying software engineer hair, both of them with their older and wiser gazes… They heard everything between Jack and me, and they don’t even have to say a word to tell me what’s going through their minds.

They hate Colt for knocking me up and obviously hate him again for daring to leave LA and come back here to prey on their innocent little girl. I almost laugh, because nothing could be further from the truth. All I have to do is think of how I shamelessly reacted to Colt earlier tonight.

My parents share a meaningful look, then my dad opens the screen door, letting my mom in before him. He slides the glass door closed behind them while my mom trains her gaze on the floor. My heart softens, because I really do owe my entire family more than I can ever repay them.

Before they can say anything about Colt, I beat them to it. “I know how much all of you have sacrificed in helping me care for Sebastian, and I don’t ever want to let you down or upset you.”

They look at each other again, and I can see that it’s too late—they’re already upset. And being the good girl I was raised to be, I rush to them, hugging them both to me.

They hug me for a long time, until I finally draw back from them with a wobbly smile that tells them I’m going to do the right thing.

But what I don’t say is that the right thing means following my heart straight back to Colt.