My eyes shoot to my hairline and I blink my eyes several times. “Are you kidding?” I chuckle at the audacity of this man. For trying to scold me and potentially tap into my submissive headspace that we used to play in. “Get the entire fuck out of here.”

He takes a step toward me and he rolls his sleeves up which used to be the signal that I was about to go over his knee and then fucked very hard. Do not react. Do not react. “You have about one more fuck, Whitney Jade.”

“My middle name, really? You can’t manipulate me, Jacob.” My pussy seems to disagree with that as it’s already on fire from just the few words he’s spoken.

“I’m not trying to, but you’re like a bull ready to charge—”

“Can you blame me?”

“No,” he says and I’m actually surprised I didn’t get an argument from him.

Neither of us says anything for a moment and I pull my gaze away from him. The sun is almost completely set, making the room almost dark and the last thing I want is to be alone in the dark with him. “And second of all?” I say as I turn on the lamp on my nightstand in attempts to prevent the atmosphere from getting even more intimate.

“What?”

“You said first of all, watch your tone,” I say in a deep voice as I imitate him. “What’s the second of all?”

A smile pulls at his lips. “That’s how I sound, huh?” I cock my head to the side, trying to show my annoyance and not the slight amusement I feel at his response. “Second of all, Trey and Chloe do still talk from time to time.” I furrow my brow in confusion because that is definitely news to me. “Seems like that’s a shock to you. He misses her. It’s no secret that he was in love with her too back then, he just fucked up.” He shrugs. “That’s not my business. But I saw the opportunity to give him a chance to talk to her and while yes it wasn’t a completely selfless act because I knew that would grant me some alone time with you, it was not something done maliciously. Furthermore, I certainly do not see your cousin as collateral damage here even though she is a pain in my ass.”

“She is just looking out for me.”

“She doesn’t need to do that where I’m concerned.” He frowns but even still he looks gorgeous.

“Oh? Because you weren’t here when she was picking me up off my bathroom floor once a week. You weren’t here when she was holding my hand through hours and hours of crying or holding my hair back when I drank my weight in whiskey. She helped fix what you broke, Jacob.” I wasn’t going to play games with him. I wasn’t going to pretend like he didn’t break my heart. But that part of my life is over and I had no interest in going back to it.