Chapter 2

I didn’t open it immediately, I waited, stood there in the dark of my new room, still wearing the black lace that smelled like his cologne, and listened to Cash Harlan lose his mind on the other side of the wall.

“Vi.” He growled, his voice was rough, low, the same voice that used to whisper filthy things against my neck two years ago. “I know you’re awake. Open the door now.”

I stayed quiet. My pulse beating so fast. The private dance had left me aching and slippery, and the fact that he was right next door only made it worse. I could still feel the shape of his cock between my legs, and hear the broken sound he made when I denied him access to me.

Another knock came. This time around it was harder and more intense.

“I’m not playing. We need to talk.”

I pulled out the lace and shoved it into my wardrobe picking up my nighty, I walked to the wall and pressed my palm flat against it. Thin enough that I knew he could hear me breathing if he tried.

“About what?” I asked, voice calm. “The weather? Your next game? Or the fact that you used to call me toxic and now you’re banging on my door like a man who suddenly grew a conscience?”

Silence. Then a soft thud, like he’d dropped his forehead against the wood.

“I was a dick,” he said. “I know that. I’ve known it every day since you left.”

“Cute. Does that line usually get you into girls’ rooms? Because it’s so perfect.”

“I’m not trying to get into your room.” He paused a bit. “Okay, fuck, maybe I am. Just open the door, Vi. Please.”

The please almost undid me. Almost.

I unlocked it.

Cash stood there shirtless, only his joggers hanging even lower than before, eyes dark and restless. He looked like he’d been pacing around, like he was one second away from kicking the door in. The second he saw what I was still wearing, my tiny black lace nighty, the outline of everything he’d just had grinding on him, his expression went feral.

“Jesus Christ,” he muttered.

I leaned against the doorframe and crossed my arms under my breasts, pushing them up on purpose. “You said you wanted to talk. So talk.”

He stepped inside and shut the door behind him hard enough to rattle the frame. The room shrank instantly, he was too big, too hot, too close, literally too much of everything. I could smell the club on him. Or maybe that was me.

“You’re different,” he said, eyes dragging down my body like a physical touch.

“I grew up.”

“That’s not what I mean.” He took another step. “You look at me like you want to ruin me for what happened.”

I smiled slowly. “Maybe I do.”

For one second he was staring and the next he had me pinned against the wall beside the door, one hand braced above my head, the other gripping my hip hard enough to bruise. His mouth hovered over mine, not quite kissing, but close enough in sharing breath.

“You left,” he growled. “You disappeared. And now you show up looking like this and acting like you don’t even know me,”

“I don’t know this version of you,” I cut in, tilting my chin up. “The one who begs, knocks on walls of people he humiliated, or the one who’s hard right now just from looking at me.”

His hips jerked forward on instinct, and I felt every thick, heavy inch of him press against my stomach. A broken sound left his throat. I reached down and palmed him through the joggers, slow and deliberate, and watched his eyes roll back for a second.

“Fuck! Vi!”

“You don’t get to say my name like that Cash” I whispered, squeezing. “Not after what you did.”

He dropped his forehead to mine. His hand slid from my hip to the bare skin of my waist, thumb stroking, testing. “Then punish me. Do to me whatever you need. Just don’t shut me out again.”

I hated how much those words got to me. I hated how wet I still was from the club. I hated that part of me wanted to drop to my knees and finish what Raven had started.

Instead I shoved him back a step and kept my hand on his cock, stroking him through the fabric like I owned it.

“You want forgiveness?” I asked, voice silky. “Earn it. Starting with your hands off me until I say otherwise.”

His hands lifted immediately, palms open, like a man surrendering. The power of it went straight between my legs. Cash Harlan campus god, Ice King, untouchable, standing in my room with his cock twitching in my grip and his hands in the air because I told him to.

I gave him one more slow stroke, then let go.

“Get out.”

His chest heaved. “You’re not serious.”

“Dead serious. Leave before I change my mind and do something we’ll both regret.”

He stared at me for a long, charged second. Then he reached down, adjusted himself with zero shame, and walked to the door. He paused with his hand on the knob.

“I’m not giving up,” he said quietly. “Not this time Vi.”

“Good,” I answered. “It’ll make breaking you more fun.”

The door clicked shut behind him.

I locked it, leaned against it, and slid my own hand between my thighs, fuck! I was soaked, swollen and throbbing. I came with two fingers and his name trapped behind my teeth, quiet enough that he wouldn’t hear through the wall.

When it was over I stared at the ceiling and smiled.

Tomorrow night Raven would see him again, maybe she will agree to more than before.

Tomorrow day Violet would keep pretending she wanted nothing to do with him.

And somewhere in between, I was going to make Cash Harlan fall so hard he wouldn’t know which girl was destroying him.