After pulling away, she almost looks drunk, with her red cheeks and ear-to-ear smile on her face. “Go to work, you little brat,” I whisper, and she pouts.

“Fine.”

Then I watch as she walks away, rubbing her ass and grinning like a fool.

Shelby

When things get too good, I get worried. It’s a natural reaction from having life never going my way growing up. When our dad left, when Ezra got arrested, when Mom remarried and moved on with her life...things just never ended up as well as we wanted.

So with as good as things are feeling with Rafe, I’m nervous. He’s opening up, letting me in, and I feel like there is a momentum here that can’t be stopped. In fact, I have a very good feeling that before long, he’s going to let his guard down completely so that we can truly be together.

Physically and emotionally.

But underneath it all, I still have residual guilt over the way this all started. If I really wanted to break him now, like Ezra asked, I could.

I won’t, but I could, and that’s enough to keep my ear-to-ear grin laced with shame.

When I unlock my apartment door, still smiling from that sexy as hell spanking on Rafe’s bed, and I find myself staring face-to-face with my brother, I’m not exactly surprised.

Having Ezra staring at me with a look of disappointment on his face is just the reminder I need that this is not a normal relationship with Rafe. We are not going to come out of this as a happy couple, walls torn down and together, riding off into eternal bliss. That is not in the cards for us. He’s still the guy who turned my brother in and had him sent to jail for two years, and Ezra will never let me live with that if I choose Rafe.

“These walls are a little thin for an apartment I know you’re paying a shitload for,” he snaps at me.

“It’s so we can hear the ocean waves,” I answer without greeting him. “I have to get to work. I’m sorry I can’t stick around and chat.” As I move toward my bedroom, Ezra reaches out and takes my arm.

“What are you doing?” he snarls. “Tell me you’re fucking him so you can break his heart into a million pieces, Shelby. Tell me this is your way of getting into his life so we can shatter him together. Just fucking tell me this is part of your plan of revenge and not you falling for him because what I heard through that wall was a hell of a lot of laughter, and you walked through that door with a smile on your face that said...I can’t even say what it said.”

Gritting my teeth, I pull my arm away. “I’m not the one who wants revenge, Ezra,” I argue, even though I regret it immediately.

“Oh right,” he says, and I can see him winding up. “Because you’re not the one who went to jail.”