The corner of his mouth tilted in a smile, and he walked around me toward the door. “’Night, Little Monster.”

And I whipped around, just seeing him slip through the door and close it behind him.

Little Monster. Why had he called me that? I hadn’t heard that name in three years.

Not since that night.

Present

DON’T BE ALONE WITH HER.

My one rule. The one thing I’d kept to myself and promised to heed, and now I’d broken it.

I breathed hard, my arms folded across my chest as I glared ahead at the rising numbers on the elevator wall. No one else knew her.

Not the way I did. I knew better. I knew how good she was.

Erika Fane played her parts well. The dutiful, self-sacrificing daughter for her mother, the pleasant, agreeable girlfriend for my brother, and a shining student and beauty in our seaside community growing up. Everyone loved her.

She thought she was nothing to me, insignificant and invisible. She wanted me to open my eyes and see her again so fucking badly, but she didn’t realize that I already did. I knew the deceiving cunt that stewed underneath that perfect little sheen of hers, and I couldn’t forget.

Why the fuck did I take her to her apartment? Why did I have to make sure she was safe? Being near her made me falter. It made me forget.

She’d burst through the stairwell doors, frightened and flushed, looking small and fragile, and instinct immediately kicked in.

Yeah, she played her parts well.

Don’t be alone with her. Don’t ever be alone with her.

The elevator doors opened, and I stepped directly into my foyer, rounding the corner into my darkened living room, but then I slowed, noticing the girl I had sent up and nearly forgotten about. She sat in the middle of the floor, straddling a wooden chair.

Completely naked.

I held back a smile, surprised at her ingenuity. Most women waited for direction.

I narrowed my eyes, approaching the chair as her lips quirked in a small smile. Her forearms rested on the top of the chair-back, while her legs were spread wide and her high-heeled feet were planted on the floor on either side of the chair.

Stopping a foot in front of her, I let my eyes fall to her exposed body: supple, open, and ready for me. Her breasts were perfect and round, and I gazed down at her tan stomach, letting my eyes drop to her bare pussy and wondering if she was already wet.

I reached up, running the back of my hand over her cheek, and she leaned into it, eyeing me playfully as her long, silky hair draped over her breasts. And then she darted out, catching my thumb between her teeth and biting it gently.

I stared down at her, waiting to see what she would do next. Suck on it? Lick it? Maybe bite it harder? I liked it when I got as good as I gave. When a woman showed the fire in her instead of sitting idle.

But then she just let it go, offering me a shy look and leaving the ball in my court. It was my job to attack and hers to be the willing piece of meat, I guess. God, I was so fucking bored.

I tipped her chin up, ordering in a gentle voice, “Stay here.”

I needed a breather to get in the mood for what I no longer wanted.

I walked past her, up the stairs, slipping off my jacket as I climbed. Entering my bedroom, a large space with a king size bed and plenty of room to relax, I walked for the shower, which sat between the bedroom and the master bathroom. It was out in the open and completely visible from the bed. Sometimes it came in handy when I had a girl or two over and wanted to watch them play.

I stripped out of my clothes, tossing them on the ground and stepping into the shower, in no hurry to return downstairs.

The rainfall overhead poured down, immediately drenching my hair and spilling its heat over my shoulders and back. I wished I could say it was all the hours logged in at the gym, the personal trainer making sure I was ready for the season, or the constant practices we’d been attending since they increased our workout schedule, that caused the tension in my head and body, but I knew that wasn’t it. I was twenty-three, in the best shape of my life, and contending with demands I’d lived with for nearly my entire life.

It wasn’t basketball. It was her.

After three long years, she was here, they were here, and I could hardly think of anything else.

I wondered if she’d still want me when all was said and done. After all the years of watching me, probably wishing I’d touch her, wouldn’t it be fucking ironic when I finally did take her in my hands and pressed my body into hers, that she despised me?

Yeah, you’re going to be in my bed, baby, but not until you wish you hated me.

I let out a breath, bowing my head and closing my eyes.

Jesus. I wrapped my hand around my cock, feeling it throb and pulse as it grew thick and hard at the thought of her.

I ran my thumb over the fat tip, wiping away the cum that was only a small measure of what was begging to get out.

Goddamn.

All it took was the thought of her, and how I’d almost given myself away in the elevator with her earlier.

She’d been amusing. The way she tried so hard to not look like she was losing her fucking mind with me around. How her shallow breathing made her tits rise and fall, and how those nipples poked through that tight, little tank top of hers, making me want to take one between my teeth and teach her how to scream my name so well she’d say it in her sleep.

That golden skin, tan from her summer in Thunder Bay, looked like a feast, and that hair, blonde and straight and brushing across her face and neck as it spilled down her back. It looked so soft, I couldn’t resist touching the bright strands.

I’d done very well at ignoring her during my life, at first because she was too young for me to care and then because I needed to be patient.

Now, the timing was perfect, she was here, and so was I.

Only I wasn’t alone.

And the best part? She didn’t know that we knew. She didn’t know that we were coming for her.

Turning off the water, I breathed in and out, my cock aching and damn-near sticking straight out, needing release. I wrapped a towel around my waist and combed my fingers through my hair, walking out of the bedroom and down the stairs.

Alex, the young woman I’d taken to the team party tonight, still sat dutifully in the chair, her heart-shaped ass somewhat more appealing now that I was rock hard.

But I still wasn’t quite ready. Pouring myself a drink, I walked to the windows overlooking the city. The lights and the energy lit up the night, making it look like a sea of stars floating ahead of me, and it was one of the first things I learned when I’d visited this place as a kid. Meridian City was certainly more inspiring from a distance. Most things were, I’d come to realize.

The closer you got to anything beautiful, the less beautiful it became. Allure was in the mystery, not the appearance.

Letting my gaze fall, I spotted Rika through her windows. Her apartment sat on the level below but not directly beneath mine, so my windows offered an excellent view into the courtyard, as well as into her apartment. I narrowed my eyes, watching her flit about and wondering what she was doing.

She had splayed out a drop cloth below a wall, and there were cans of paint sitting on the living room floor. She stepped up on a ladder and arched up on her tiptoes, reaching for where the wall met the ceiling, smoothing something over with her hands.

She must’ve been putting up painter’s tape. It was nearly two in the morning. Why was she painting?

Her nice, little ass jutted out, and the black lace trim around the bottom of her tank top rode up, revealing the skin of her stomach.