One Dirty Night

But I was restless and achy, both physically and spiritually.

Most days, I woke early and ran five kilometres around our local park before work, but the thought of doing that this morning?

Ugh, no thanks.

Burrowing into my bed, images of last night came back to haunt me.

Images of Hunter as he offered himself to me, all because I told him I wanted to be ruled. Snatches of him naked and the look in his eyes as he sank inside me while Nick whipped me.

Nick.

My core clenched; my breath caught.

The way he’d commanded me to crawl, ordered Hunter to lick me clean, then wrapped rope tightly around my wrists. The way he’d groaned as he plunged inside me for the first time—

Stop it!

I slammed a pillow over my face.

Stop it, stop it, stop it.

For the first time in my life, I had a real sexual experience to relive whenever I made myself release. Instead of fantasising about faceless men with growly voices and depraved demands, I had a night other girls would kill for. I had memories instead of fantasies and I couldn’t afford to recall a single one because the object of those hot and kinky thoughts was in a bed across the corridor, determined to pretend nothing ever happened.

“Arghhh!” I screamed into my pillow.

It was a mistake.

Last night was the biggest mistake of my life.

I should’ve just slept with Hunter.

I should’ve just fallen into an intense little crush and let Hunter rule my vibrating escapades for the rest of my life.

What wasn’t to like about him? Deliciously good looking, attentive, passionate, dominating. He even hunted bad guys and did his best to make the world a safer place, for goodness’ sake.

I was lucky I didn’t fall in love with the guy and if I was honest, I would never forget him. If I ever saw Hunter again, I doubted I’d be able to stop myself from begging for a repeat performance.

But…instead of last night belonging entirely to an unattainable man who’d probably already left this town, I’d had to stupidly include the surly one I lived with, and now my life was ruined.

Sitting up in bed, I flinched as my covers fell away from my bare skin.

I never slept in the nude, but after Nicholas finished smearing me in healing cream, I’d yanked up my blankets and hugged a pillow. I hadn’t moved—fiercely determined not to cry or follow him or bolt from this house and never return.

I’d managed not to do any of those things, but now I was awake, I wasn’t sure how successful I would be.

“If you want him, you’ll have to break him.”

Hunter’s voice echoed in my head just as the water boiler started humming and the shower hissed down the corridor.

My heart lurched.

My belly clenched.

Nick’s up.

Every muscle in my body tensed, earning me lashes of aches and pains. I flopped onto my sore back and glowered at the ceiling.

The click of the shower door opening and closing sounded. The hum of the boiler switched to a deeper groan as Nick fiddled with the temperature like he always did.