A tall, curvy bleached-blonde, wearing a short pink dress, walked up to Blaise with a glass of whiskey in her hand. He took it from her, then reached back to take my hand as he made his way through the room. Everyone moved out of his way, like the parting sea.

  “We got jambalaya in the kitchen. The good shit that Tanya makes,” someone told him.

  Blaise kept moving until we were in the empty hallway. He was taking me to the cave. We weren’t staying up here with his friends. When he opened his door with the key, I didn’t move to follow him down. He turned and looked up at me.

  “You don’t want to stay up here?” I asked him. I felt like something he was trying to hide.

  “We’re coming back,” he said. “I was going to change and let you put your things away.”

  “My things away?” I asked, not sure I understood that exactly.

  The corner of his mouth curled up. “Yeah, this bag. Your things. Put them in the closet.”

  Oh. I was putting my things in his closet. Okay. I had not expected that. I stepped down and closed the door behind me. He continued on, and I followed him. The cave looked exactly like we’d left it earlier today.

  Blaise took my bag and dropped it on the bed, then turned around to look at me.

  “Come here,” he said sitting his drink down.

  I walked to stand in front of him.

  His gaze dropped to my shorts and he unzipped them before looking back at me as he slid his hand inside my panties and cupped me.

  “Still sore?” he asked while gently massaging my slit with his fingers.

  “A little,” I said, then gasped as he drove his index finger inside me. Okay, more than a little.

  “Mmm,” he replied as he sat down on the edge of the bed.

  He rested his forehead on my breasts as he continued to play with me. I whimpered and braced myself by holding on to his shoulders.

  “If I lick it, I’m gonna need to fuck it,” he said, then bit down on my right nipple through my top.

  If he kept touching me, I was going to strip naked and beg for it.

  His hand eased out of my shorts, and he held his finger to his nose and inhaled. I watched his eyes flare as he did it again before sucking it into his mouth. He zipped my shorts back up.

  “I want your panties wet,” he told me, then stood up. “I’ll go change, and we can head back up. You can unpack later. If I stay down here with you much longer, I’m going to fuck your brains out.”

  “Okay,” I replied, but it came out in a whisper.

  I didn’t move from that spot until he walked back out, wearing a pair of navy athletic shorts and a T-shirt. His feet were bare. Other than naked, I’d only seen him in his jeans and boots. He had tanned feet, which I found odd for a guy who always had on boots.

  “Let’s go,” he said and waved for me to go on before following me.

  It wasn’t until we were walking up the stairs and he ran a finger under the bottom of my shorts that I understood why he had wanted me to go first.

  I jumped and looked back at him.

  “Shorts barely cover your ass. You need more fabric,” he said.

  I rolled my eyes and opened the door. Once we were back on the main floor, he took my hand and walked me into the large living room. A guy who looked closer to my age jumped up from the sofa, and Blaise took his spot, pulling me down to sit on his lap. He let go of my hand and rested it between my legs.

  “Still got time to bet,” the tattooed guy told him.

  Blaise grinned and shook his head.

  “He only bets on the track,” Huck called out from the doorway.

  “He always fucking wins. I need him to bet on other shit so I can follow his lead,” the tattooed guy replied.

  The red-haired man leaned forward from further down the sofa. A brunette was on his lap, and she had on nothing but a bra. I hadn’t seen that earlier. Her boobs were enormous, and I wasn’t sure that bra was going to be able to hold them.

  “He bets on his horse,” Red said and chuckled. “Won’t bet on anything but his own.”

  The blonde from earlier walked in and put another drink in Blaise’s hand, then ran her hand over his shoulder before walking over to sit in Gage’s lap. Gage looked from the screen to her and slid his hand up her dress, shoving her legs open so that she was straddling him.

  I jerked my eyes off them and decided I might need to just watch the television. There were other females here, but not as many as there were guys. I was afraid to scan the crowd to see what the others were doing. I’d already witnessed the rodeo squad at the Hugheses’ pool. I knew they didn’t need to get a room to enjoy sex.

  “You hungry, Blaise?” a female asked, but I didn’t turn to look at her.

  “Not right now,” he replied, then squeezed my leg. “Are you hungry?” he asked me.

  I shook my head.

  The girl walked off, and Blaise talked to a guy sitting to his right about the first prequalifying race of the season and who all he was sending. I didn’t know anyone here, except Huck, Gage, and Levi. I hadn’t seen Gina yet, but I didn’t really know her either. I realized Blaise wasn’t introducing me to people. While that made it easier for me, it also made me think that he didn’t see a point in it.

  Blaise’s thumb made circular motions on my inner thigh as we sat there. I watched the television mostly and listened to bits and pieces of information. No one engaged me in conversation, but I didn’t hear the other females talking much either. I made the mistake of looking over to where the blonde and Gage were and saw her still sitting in his lap, facing him now with her dress pulled down and her boobs bared while she rocked back and forth on him.

  I glanced around to see if anyone was watching them and saw the tattooed guy had his hand in his jeans, rubbing himself while looking at the blonde’s bouncing boobs. I swallowed hard, not sure how bad this was going to get in here as the night wore on. Shifting in Blaise’s lap, I thought about going to get a drink of something to calm my nerves.

  “You good?” he asked me.

  I looked down at his whiskey, then took it from him and drank. It burned, and I tried hard not to cough. When I handed it back to him, he was watching me with an amused grin. I covered my mouth to cough, and he chuckled.

  “Easy, baby,” he told me.

  I started to ask if there was something less toxic I could drink when things seemed to quiet down, and I turned to see what had happened. Blaise tensed under me just as my gaze landed on the reason why.

  Angel was here. Her eyes were on Blaise and me as she stood there with her timid, haunted look. She was wringing her hands nervously and looked ready to bolt, like a deer scared by a sound. Blaise moved me off his lap and stood up. He didn’t say anything or ask me to follow him. He made his way through the room until he was in front of her. I watched as he took her hands and talked to her, then led her out of the room.

  She was one of those questions I hadn’t asked him about. We’d not had time for that, seeing as all our alone time was sexual.

  “Here. Drink this and sit down.”

  I looked over to see Gina standing beside me. She had a clear drink with ice in her hand, and because I knew people were watching me, I took it. I felt like the elephant in the room. No one wanted to talk about what had just happened to me.

  “Sit,” Gina demanded.

  I sat down in the spot that Blaise had left. It was still warm from his body, and why that made me feel like crying, I didn’t know. I should be mad. Or embarrassed. Or asking questions. Instead, I wanted to cry.

  “I swear to God, if you fucking cry, I will slap you. Drink the vodka,” Gina hissed close to my ear and sat down on the armrest beside me.

  I took a drink and realized it wasn’t as hard to swallow as the whiskey had been. I drank the rest quickly. Anything to make this easier. I would leave, but how? This place was like a fort, all locked up. No one was getting in unless they knew it.

  “Let that sink in, and I’ll get you another,” Gina said to me.

  I nodded because what else was I going to do?

  “Mattia,” the guy sitting beside me said. “You want some chips?” He held out a bag he had been eating from.

  I looked down at the bag, then back up at him. He had black hair and an olive complexion.

  “Thanks,” I said, afraid to turn them down.

  I didn’t want to insult anyone. I was alone here, and right now, I was ready to cling to Gina, who I knew nothing about.

  Reaching into the bag, I took several out and began to eat one.

  “You bet?” he asked me.

  I shook my head. I had no money to bet, and if I did, I wouldn’t gamble with it.

  “Like boxing?” he asked me.

  I shook my head again, and then an unexpected laugh bubbled out of me. Mattia grinned, and that made me laugh again.

  “I’m Maddy,” I told Mattia, realizing he’d introduced himself and I hadn’t done the same.

  “I know,” he replied.

  “You do?” I asked, wondering if I’d been introduced to him and not remembered.

  “Everyone knows who you are,” Gina informed me.

  I turned to look at her. “How?”

  “Gina.” Huck’s sharp command stopped whatever she was going to say.

  She pressed her lips together, but said nothing.

  I turned to look at Huck, who was standing behind the sofa with his arms crossed and his eyes on the television. He didn’t look at me or Gina.

  “It’s time!” someone called out, and everyone’s eyes went to the television. It got quiet again.

  Gina stood up, and I looked up at her. She nodded her head toward the kitchen, then turned to walk in that direction. I stood up and followed. I didn’t want to sit in here with strangers.

  When I walked into the kitchen, I found Gina and one other woman I didn’t know. She looked to be in her mid-twenties and had long, dark hair that hung straight around her shoulders. She was drinking a beer and looking at her phone.

  Gina took a tortilla chip from a bowl and dipped it in salsa. She looked over at me. “Get whatever you want,” she said before taking a bite.

  The other girl looked up then and studied me for a moment. I smiled at her.

  “Hi. I’m Maddy,” I said.

  “I know,” she replied, then looked back down at her phone.

  “Jesus, everyone knows who you are. Stop introducing yourself,” Gina said. “That’s Rose. She’s pissy tonight. Ignore her.”

  I looked behind me to make sure Huck hadn’t shown up in here to stop me from asking a simple question. When I didn’t see him or anyone else, I turned back to Gina.

  “How?” I asked her, knowing she’d understand.

  She took another chip and waved it around in a circle. “You’re his,” she replied, as if that explained everything.

  There was that possessive-belonging thing again. I didn’t belong to Blaise. Currently, I wasn’t sure I would ever come back to this place or have anything to do with Blaise. He’d been gone for half an hour now.

  I wished I hadn’t left my phone in the damn cave. I could call Trev since I didn’t want Saxon getting in trouble with his parents. He could pick me up at the gate. I felt insignificant and abandoned.

  I glanced at the phone in Rose’s hand, then looked at Gina.

  “Do you have a phone?” I asked her.

  Gina raised her eyebrows at me and smirked. “Yeah, and I’m not handing it over to you so you can call the Houston kid to come get you.”

  I smiled, impressed she was so close to my idea. “I wasn’t going to call him. I was going to call Trev,” I replied.

  She laughed then and shook her head. “I wish you would. That would be epic. But it’s not happening on my phone. I know better,” she said, then took another chip while laughing some more. “God, Rose, could you see it? Trev showing his ass up here to take her away?”

  I looked over at Rose, and she was smirking now as she looked down at her phone. Maybe she’d let me use hers. I started to open my mouth, and she lifted her gaze to meet mine and shook her head.

  “Who is she?” I asked Gina.

  Gina frowned and picked up her glass. “You talking about Angel?” she asked me in a whisper.

  “Of course she is,” Rose replied while tapping away on her phone.

  I nodded, finding myself relieved that he didn’t call her angel as an endearment. It was her actual name.

  “I don’t think I can talk about that,” she said, still whispering.

  “Not if you want to live,” Rose replied.

  Gina glanced at the other woman and nodded in agreement, then went back to eating chips.

  Secrets. There were still things I wasn’t being told. The racing thing, the boss thing, the power thing—he’d explained those, but what about the weirdness with his friends? What about Angel? Why did everyone act like I was his possession?

  “Can I have another drink?” I asked.

  “That I can do for you,” Gina replied and pulled out a glass. Then, she put in ice cubes and poured vodka and soda water into the glass. When she handed it to me, she smiled. “Drink up!”

  Cheering came from the other room.

  I drank it down quickly and looked at the food, but I wasn’t hungry. I’d lost my appetite along with my date.

  “I’m guessing you wouldn’t give me a ride?” I asked Gina.

  She scrunched her nose and shook her head. “Sorry. I like you. But I can’t do that.”

  Rose chuckled again from her seat.

  “Madeline.”

  Blaise’s voice startled me, and I spun around to see him standing just inside the kitchen entrance. He seemed tense, but I didn’t care. He motioned with his fingers for me to go to him.

  I shook my head. “I’m good, thanks,” I replied and turned my back on him.

  This time, Rose looked up from her phone. She looked at me like I was insane. Gina’s eyes went wide, and she put another chip in her mouth.

  “Madeline.” His warning tone annoyed me.

  I didn’t care how he said my name. I wasn’t going to go running to him.

  I thought about telling him that just then when his hand clamped around my upper arm. I tried to pull it free, but he didn’t let go. Instead, he forced me to walk past Gina and Rose. We were headed to his cave, and I wiggled, trying to get free.

  “Stop it. You’re hurting me,” I said as he used his free hand to unlock and jerk open the door.

  He released my arm and pressed my back to the open door. “Calm the fuck down,” he ordered.

  I felt the urge to cry again. This was frustrating. Everything about this was confusing. He was confusing. He was giving me whiplash with his mood swings.

  “This was too much, too soon,” he said then, his tone and eyes softer now. “I pushed for too much, and I needed to give you time.”

  Was this how he was going to end it and send me home? My chest started to ache, and the idea of this being over, my time with Blaise ending suddenly, felt much bigger than all the other stuff. Tears stung my eyes. That wasn’t what I wanted.

  “Fuck,” he whispered, then picked me up and began carrying me down the stairs like a child.

  I buried my face in his chest, wishing the tears would go away. I didn’t want to cry over this. Having sex with him had made me this way. I wasn’t mature enough to have a sexual relationship and not get attached. My emotions were involved now. I was being that girl.

  Blaise sat down while still holding me in his lap. I wanted to hit him for making me act like this. I had lived through bad things. Much worse than this. A guy should not have this kind of power over me. Yet I stayed there in his lap and let him hold me.

  “I’m sorry I was gone so long,” he said.

  I understood that Angel had issues. I got that. I had witnessed it. This wasn’t jealousy. It was more of the feeling that I was being held at arm’s length. Not allowed inside the world of Blaise. He wasn’t telling me things. His world was one I was hanging on the outside of, looking in.

  I stayed silent, searching for the right words. To try to explain exactly what was bothering me. Also, the warmth of his body comforted me. I had never been held as a child, or if I had by my mother, I had no memories of her. My father hadn’t held me or hugged me. I hadn’t known what it felt like until now. This wasn’t sex or something sexual. It was simple comfort.

  His lips pressed against my head. “I didn’t mean to hurt you. I was trying to get us away from an audience. I should have been easier with you.”

  My arm wasn’t going to be bruised. He hadn’t hurt me that bad. I might have used that as an excuse to get him to let me go. Feeling guilty, I turned to look up at him. The concerned line between his brows eased some when my eyes met his.

  “I had to deal with Angel,” he said gently. “She had known about you, but she hadn’t seen us together yet. I knew if I didn’t take her upstairs and talk to her, then she’d find the first fucking knife she could and start cutting herself.”

  I sat up, and his arms stayed around me. I hadn’t planned on getting up, but his explanation of Angel wasn’t enough. He needed to expand on her cutting because of seeing us together.

  “Why would she be upset by us?” I asked, wondering if I wanted this answer. Was I ready for the truth I kept demanding?

  He sighed, as if he had hoped I wouldn’t ask more. That didn’t help my growing dread.

  “Angel hasn’t always been like this. We were kids together. Grew up in this world together. She was my first girlfriend. My first kiss. We were young, and at that time, we thought we’d always be us.” He paused and studied me for a moment.

  “She was with her parents when they were killed. She was shot last. She should have died, too, but the gunman didn’t check to see if she was dead. The gunshot to her head didn’t go into a critical part of the brain. It went in with a high enough velocity that it didn’t wobble or move, but it went clean through. Her parents weren’t as lucky.” He let out a heavy sigh.