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Tommy’s lips brush my neck, and a smile spreads across my face. “Morning, firefly.”

My heart races. “What time is it?” Not that I care, I don’t want to leave this bed, especially with the stomping happening above us.

His lips find my neck, and he pulls me on top of him, kissing the soft spot on my neck. “It doesn’t matter. We don’t care about societal structures in this house, remember?”

I giggle. “You’re starting to sound like Talia.”

Speaking of Talia, we hear another door slam, and I cringe at whoever is on the other end of her fury. She has no idea the depths of what transpired last night, and I truly don’t know how she will react.

I wipe the sleep from my eyes as I fully adjust and realize someone is missing. “Where is Remy?” I ask, looking around the dark room. I don’t remember him leaving, but I suppose it makes sense.

Tommy tenses, just for a moment, but I notice it.

“Remy had to go to campus,” he says.

My heart sinks. “Oh.” After last night, I’m not sure I will be able to go to campus again. News of my presence was all over the party last night. They will be talking about me at school, blaming me for both fires. While I’ve gone to great lengths to hide myself, I’m positive Cindy already recognized me. Since bad things keep happening, it’s only a matter of time before the witch hunt commences.

Tommy runs his finger along my arm. “He’ll be back later, baby. He’s studying to be a lawyer, and he’s been missing too much school lately. He won’t admit it, but I think his grades are slipping.”

I roll my body on top of him, our limbs intertwined like they were all last night since we came down here. “What about you? What are you studying to be?” Putting Remy aside.

He shrugs, moving a strand out of my eye, looking so boyish and innocent. “It doesn’t matter anymore.”

I frown at him. “It does matter, Tommy. Why do you think it doesn’t matter?”

“Nothing I do really matters. Not when you have my last name and your father is the mayor of a corrupt town.”

He has a point.

I bite my lip, then trace my fingers down the bridge of his nose. “I want you to be proud of who you are. I think you’ll make a wonderful father someday.”

He arches his brows and tickles me. “I’ve always wanted to be a dad. I think I could be a better father than my old man. I really want a son. I’d teach him how to jam on the guitar or fish.”

I smile at the dimple that forms on his cheek. “Maybe you could become a high school coach, or a music teacher. I bet you’d be good at that.”

His teeth find his bottom lip, and we can’t take our eyes off each other. Both dreaming of a perfect life in one of those pretty houses with a white picket fence—a life unlike the one we have. This idyllic image is shattered by Talia’s shrieking voice, which echoes throughout the house. She’s screaming at Lucy about something, and it sounds as if she’s having a fit.

“She sounds mad,” I whisper.

Tommy chuckles. “Yeah. She gets like this sometimes. I usually try to avoid her.”

I exhale slowly and break the silence. “Do you still love her?”

“Not the way I love you. I’ll never love anyone the way I love you, Didi.”

I kiss him hard, and my entire body aches with burning pleasure as I grind on top of him. He fills my pussy with his heat, and his hands are impossible to ignore as he runs them all over my skin. “Good answer,” I murmur.

“But a part of me will always love her, Didi,” he finally says, and the way he says it is like an icy wind on my bare skin. His eyes radiate a dark look, his face serious. “I’m supposed to marry her. Our parents arranged it a long time ago.”

“But…” I whisper, and he presses his fingers over my lips, not letting me continue my thought. He squeezes me and turns me over, pinning himself on top of me. “Didi, it’s not like that. Talia doesn’t love me; we’re not in love, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t burn the world for her.”

My body bristles beneath him. I’ll never have the same level of loyalty they show Talia. “Remy is loyal to her, too, isn’t he? Above all else.”

He presses his cherry lips together and grabs my waist, rubbing his thumb over my burn mark lovingly. “You need to understand something about Remy and Talia. He’d kill for her, Didi. He’d kill me if I hurt her. I’ve never understood their relationship, but his loyalty to Talia is deeper than anything I’ve ever seen. Something happened to Talia; I don’t know what it was, but it has something to do with the Order. She has the same mark on her thigh as you. Promise me you won’t ever try to get between those two.”

My chest constricts thinking of those words he made me say last night. “You’re mine, little sacrifice.” Tommy says it like Remy will have to pick a side one day.

Heat rushes through me. How naïve of me to believe Talia doesn’t know I’m down here, or that I’m not merely a pawn in her game anymore.