I swallow the lump rising in my throat. “I don’t want to be alone tonight.”
His brows lift slightly, but he doesn’t protest. Just nods. “All right.” He pulls the duvet back on the bed without a word.
I toe off my shoes, slide off my leggings and crawl in, still wearing his old t-shirt. It smells like leather and soap and safety.
He climbs in beside me, fully clothed, and lies on his back like he’s afraid to cross a line.
I roll towards him.
He doesn’t move, but his muscles tense.
I place my head on his chest, just above his heart. His arm lifts slowly, then wraps around me, drawing me in tight. Strong like armour.
Tears come, hot and silent. I bury my face in his t-shirt and let them fall. His fingers brush through my hair, over and over.
“I miss this feeling,” I whisper.
He stiffens. “What feeling?”
“Wanted.”
His chest rises with a long breath. “Your mother doesn’t know what she had.”
I shake my head. “She doesn’t care. She just wants someone to mop the floor and keep her glass full.”
After a long pause, Hayden says, “I’m not standing up for her, but it’s like my sister Jodie. She has a baby, you know. My nephew.” His voice wavers with emotion. “He's living with Ash now, his dad. I’m sure Jodie loved her son, but there’s something she loved more.”
I look up with bleary eyes. “Drugs?”
Hayden nods. “Addiction is a disease that eats away at everything good until there’s nothing left. Only rot.” His fingertips caress the skin on my arm. “You’re not going back there.”
“I don’t want to.” I press my cheek to his chest, never wanting to leave his side. This is where I belong.
He kisses the top of my head. A promise, unspoken but solid. “I’ve got you, Sunshine. Always.”
11
HAYDEN
She nuzzles into my chest, murmuring something I don’t quite catch as she gets comfortable. I can’t tell if she’s asleep already, or if she’s just pretending, but when her leg hooks over mine and the delicious weight of her thick thigh rests on my cock, every nerve in my body lights up.
My cock hardens beneath her, painfully stiff. Fuck.
“Faith,” I breathe, my voice low and tight with restraint as I fight every muscle in my body and the desperate ache to roll her onto her back, whip her clothes off and fuck her pussy raw.
She doesn’t answer. Her leg shifts just enough to make me clench my fists into the bedsheets.
I shouldn’t be thinking about sliding my hand under her t-shirt. I shouldn’t want to roll her onto her back and show her all the ways I could ruin her for other men. But I do.
And that’s the problem.
She’s not just any girl. She’s Faith. My best friend’s baby sister. Eighteen. Off-limits.
He’s like a brother to me, one who took one for the team and is serving a three-year sentence. He’d kill me if he even knew shewas in the same bed as me, let alone rubbing her leg against my groin.
I try to move, to shift away from her body, but she clings to me, her grip tightening.
“Please… don’t go,” she murmurs, half-asleep. Her leg moves again, unintentional but torturous.
