Page 39 of Break Me Gently

The front door.

Voices.

Fuck.

“—don’t know why you’re worried, poppet’s a grown woman,” Luke’s voice drifted up, low and amused.

I went rigid. Amber’s head shot up off my chest.

“They’re back,” she hissed, already scrambling upright.

“You think?” I grabbed my jeans off the floor, hopping into them one-legged.

Amber sniffed herself, eyes going wide with horror.

“I smell like sex,” she whispered, already bolting for the door. “I smell like you.”

“Where are you—”

“Shower. Main bathroom. Stall them or hide.”

And then she was gone, bare feet slapping down the hallway before I could even process what had just happened.

Footsteps on the stairs.

Isabella’s voice, closer now. “I just want to check on her. She’s been quiet lately. Then there is this post. It has to be a joke.”

I stood there, shirtless, holding my socks like an idiot, weighing my odds of making it out the window versus just walking downstairs and owning it. I stared at the closet door for a moment.

We did post it on the internet for the whole world to see.

Might as well let Isabella hear it from us instead of Alisha’s rumour mill.

I opened the door before Isabella could open it herself.

“Hey,” I said, aiming for casual and landing somewhere closer to a man who’d clearly been caught.

Isabella’s eyes went wide. Then wider. Then they dropped, very deliberately, to my bare chest.

“Oh,” she said.

Behind her, Luke appeared on the landing, took one look at me, and grinned like Christmas had come early.

“Well,” he said. “This should be interesting.”

“Zach,” Isabella said, before looking behind me for Amber. “When did you get here?”

“Yesterday,” I said, staring at Luke as he stuffed his hands in his pockets.

“So, it’s true?” she asked, holding up her phone.

I may have miscalculated her online presence.

Luke came up behind her and rubbed her arms.

“Like I said. She’s an adult, sweetheart.”

“She’s still my baby,” Isabella murmured.