For me there’re several types of sex. There’s sex for sex’s sake, no emotions, not repeats, just the fun of shoving your dick in someone until you get off. Then there’s fucking, usually fun, sweaty and enthusiastic, sometimes repeated, but never taken too seriously. What Starling and I have done is angry fucking. Hot, intense, insanely good sex that you want to do again the moment you finish. It’s the kind of sex that you never forget, that changes you and bonds you to the other person for the rest of forever because it’s fueled by emotions that are so strong they may fade, but they’ll never go away.

Last night changed things for us. We’re still playing this game we’ve been playing since the first time I saw her, only now we’re in the final round with only a handful of turns left to take, winner gets it all. She doesn’t know it yet but I only ever play games I know I can win. I want her back in my bed by the end of the week and my ring on her finger by the end of the month. The best thing is that she’ll come to me willingly, admitting that it’ll only ever be us and that her future doesn’t exist without me in it.

My cell beeps and I grab it hoping it’s from her, but it’s from her security team.

Sec1: Just returned to campus

They’re more discrete now, watching her from a distance, but no matter what I told her and the guys, there’s always eyes on her when she’s not with me. I wait on tenterhooks for her to get back to the house, but thirty minutes later she’s not back so I contact them again, asking for her location.

Me: Location?

Sec1: Alistern House.

She’s at her friend’s house. I don’t like it, but it’s not as if I can go and retrieve her without confessing that she’s being followed, so instead I head downstairs and find the guys playing Xbox in the living room. “Hey,” I say, sliding onto the couch next to Clay.

“Hey,” Evan says, not looking away from the TV screen and the game he’s playing.

“What’s up with you and Starling? Her room’s not soundproofed, we could hear you making her scream all fucking night long,” Hunter growls.

I smirk. “Yeah, sorry about that. You hearing I mean, not me fucking her all night long.”

“She told us you bailed before she woke up?” Evan asks, a challenging gleam in his eyes.

“We agreed it was just for the night, so I booked before the sun came up and I broke her rules,” I shrug, feigning nonchalance.

“I thought you were gonna try and work things out with her. How is fucking her, then making her feel like shit by ditching her before she wakes up fixing things?” Clay asks accusingly.

“Hey I’m trying to make things right, I stayed away until she came to me. Last night I asked her if we could start over, try to be friends and she suggested we fuck. It was her idea; she made the rules, I’m just trying to follow them,” I say, holding my hands up like I’m surrendering.