Page 110 of Lust

I tense up, struggle to read his expression. After the incident, we only talked about it a little, and only for him to say he didn’t really remember what happened. I lied and said the same. But I keep wondering if any of it will come back to him. If one night he’ll suddenly sit up and start screaming at the horror of what transpired.

“You remembering anything else about that night?”

He stares at me for a few moments. “No. You?”

A familiar guilt rises in me over the lies I’ve had to tell Dan and Alexei. I tell myself it’s to protect them, but that doesn’t make me feel any better.

“Just going to the party,” I reply. At least it’s partly true.

He nods, studying my expression as if trying to work out if I’m lying. Or that’s how it feels, but I can’t imagine why I’d think that when Alexei doesn’t have any reason to think I’m lying.

“Maybe it’ll come back to us at some point,” I say, returning to our task.

“Maybe.” He’s quiet as we pack a few more dishes into the dishwasher before he says, “Luke…is everything okay?”

Our gazes lock.

No, it’s not, Alexei. Something’s coming. And I have a feeling it’s going to be terrible.

But I can’t tell him that. “Why do you ask?”

“You seem…different…since that night.”

“I could say the same about you.”

He lets out a nervous laugh. “Yeah. I bet.”

“Areyouokay, Alexei?”

He hesitates, his gaze wandering before he says, “I’ll be better once we get these dishes done.” He offers a charming smile, then changes the subject, which I embrace. Once we finish up, we join the others in the living room, and Dan encourages us to play a board game. It’s what Dan and I would do with Mom and Dad for holidays, and it picks at a familiar sting, like the one I felt on Halloween when I went to that party at Alpha Alpha Mu.

I can tell Brad’s caught on by the way he keeps eyeing me, how he moves closer like he wishes he could protect me from my past. But just like that night with the Slasher, he can’t protect me. Not from this.

I don’t want to spoil the night, so I do my best to get through it before Cheryl has to head to her hotel for the night.

“I really wish you’d stayed here,” Dan says as we say our goodbyes to her in the foyer.

“I didn’t want to be any trouble,” Cheryl says. “And it worked out, since now Alexei can get your guest room. I really just wanted to meet the guy who won my Brad’s heart.”

“Mom,” Brad mutters. It’s one of the few times I’ve seen him blush.

As Alexei snickers, Dan says, “Well, Luke’s a good kid.”

“I can tell,” Cheryl says. “And I don’t doubt my Brad to know a good man when he meets one.”

As she and Brad exchange a look, I sense the pain behind that statement…since he knew such a bad man when he was growing up.

She offers us all hugs before leaving, though we’ll see her again tomorrow.

Afterward, we all head to bed, where Brad and I finally have some alone time to make up for all the kissing we missed throughout the day.

“Mmm…” he says after pulling away from a kiss. He’s got me backed against the wall of my old room. “Did you see how good I was by not making out with you in front of Mom and Dan?”

“Did you want an award?”

“Think I deserve one,” he says with a cocked brow.

“If you want an award, you’re gonna have to earn it tonight,” I say, excitement pulsing through me at the thought of having a good fuck after our day of being decent.

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