Her answer is immediate. “Yes.”
I swallow hard, nod, and let my hand fall. “Then put your nightgown on, Angel. Before I take you right back onto that bench.”
She laughs under her breath, slips the nightgown over her head, the hem brushing her still-sticky thighs. When she turns to face me again, her cheeks are flushed and her eyes bright with satisfaction.
“Do I look like I just got railed in a sex club?” she asks.
I tuck a piece of her hair behind her ear, my voice a low growl. “You look like a woman who was worshipped. And everyone out there is going to see it.”
Her mouth curves. “Good.”
We leave the room and head back through the main floor. The club feels louder now that my blood has cooled. She walks close to my side, that faint wobble in her step making satisfaction purr under my ribs.
Outside, the air is cooler, smelling like rain and asphalt. The parking lot lights cast everything in a harsh white. We make it ten steps before I hear it.
“Penelope.”
Her name lands sharp and cold.
Abi stands near our row of cars like she materialized out of spite. Designer coat, perfect blowout, makeup flawless. Her eyes are a different story, she’s furious.
Penelope’s whole body goes rigid beside me.
“Abi,” she says, voice flat. “What are you doing here?”
“I could ask you the same thing,” Abi answers. Her gaze flicks over Penelope’s nightgown, her flushed skin. Then she looks at me. Her mouth twists. “Of course.”
“Of course what?” I ask.
“Of course it’s you,” she says. “Dominic’s brother. The one who always thought he knew better. The one who dragged him into every bad decision he ever made.”
My jaw tightens. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“No?” Her laugh is brittle. “My husband is dead because he couldn’t keep his dick in his pants and couldn’t handle the consequences. Now you’re out here screwing his son’s classmate in a sex club.”
Penelope flinches. “I’m not his classmate.”
Abi sneers. “Oh I’m so sorry, I forgot you’re a TA. And a whore. Just like your mother. Trading bodies for attention.”
Heat races up my spine. “Watch your mouth.”
She turns that venom on me. “You’re pathetic, Silas. Too old for her, too damaged to be with anyone your own age, so you hitch yourself to the first broken girl you can find. Just like Dominic. He cheated, he lied, and then he checked out when things got hard. What are you going to do when she leaves you? Put a gun in your mouth and join him?”
For a moment the world goes silent.
I step between them without conscious thought. My body blocks her from Penelope, my hands clenched so tight they ache.
“You’re going to shut up,” I say calmly. “Right now.”
Abi’s eyes flash. “Or what? You’ll hit me? Real gentlemanly, Silas.”
I take a breath through my nose. “I don’t need to lay a hand on you. But you should pick your words very carefully from now on.”
A flicker of real fear flashes behind her anger. It’s small, but I see it.
She masks it fast. “You think you scare me?”
“I don’t care if I scare you,” I say. “I care that you understand this. You don’t touch Penelope. You won't talk to her like that again.”
