“I want to get some damn sleep,” I snapped, and his mouth shut. “I’m not driving anywhere tonight, and I’m sure as hell not walking her ass home.”

Lucas grumbled, turning away from me and pacing to the other side of the garage. I didn’t blame him for not wanting her here, but we were all tired. Things probably wouldn’t feel any better in the morning, but at least then, I’d have the energy to deal with it.

Jason, who’d been sitting next to Vincent against the back bumper of the Mustang, said, “She can sleep in my room. I’ll be in the attic anyway.” He took a drag on Vince’s vape as he stood, the cloud of vapor curling from his lips as he told Jess threateningly, “If you touch a damn thing in that room besides the bed, I’ll spank you again.”

Her blush deepened. It drew my attention to the freckles on her nose, and I looked away from her, trying not to stare. How could she make me so angry and then…then make me feel like this? How was it possible to look at someone and feel simultaneously enraged and attracted?

“I won’t touch anything,” she said.

“Come on, then.” I jerked my head toward the house. “I’ll show you upstairs.”

She followed me quietly, her head down and her arms folded. I snapped my fingers as I opened the door, ordering the dogs to step back. Jojo was already wagging her tail, eager to make friends, but Haribo regarded Jess suspiciously, making small, uncertain barks toward her.

“They won’t bite,” I said as Jess nervously squeezed behind me through the door. “Unless I tell them.”

“That’s not very reassuring,” she said. The dogs stayed in the entryway as we ascended the stairs, her footsteps soft behind me. When I took a glance back at her, her eyes were wandering around, taking in everything she could. I would have been so ashamed if she’d seen this place when we first moved in. It had been filthy, damn near condemned. Now it looked like something worth living in.

I abruptly looked away from her, mentally scolding myself. Sigmund Freud could have developed a whole new complex around me being so obsessed with someone so unreachable. Then he could develop another one around the fact that I didn’t only want Jessica for me, I wanted her for us.

Bringing the woman I wanted into the family we’d built, intermeshing our lives and growing a relationship together, felt natural to me. But to most people, it didn’t. Society wanted things to be labeled, to fit into neat and tidy boxes. Sex was meant to be exclusive, romantic, and flawless. Friends were only friends and never lovers, nothing could grow or change. Who you used to be could never be separated from who you’d become.