Page 108 of On The Rocks

“Ahh. I was wondering how you escaped the succubus.”

I laughed. “Pretty good assessment of her, to be honest. It drove her crazy that she couldn’t suck me into their drama. Then she finally did.”

She lifted her pruny fingers out of the water and trailed one along my jaw, then to my mouth. “She hurt you.”

It was one word for it. I nipped at the tip of her finger. “She hurt all of us.”

“The only one that matters to me is you. What did she do?”

“It’s late.” I rolled onto my knees.

She grabbed my arm. “What did she do, Griffin?” Her eyes were pure angry fire.

I stood and grabbed a towel. “Let’s get you out of there.”

She got up, water sluicing off of her drying my mouth. I could see the pain lingering in her eyes, and it was enough to kill the lust that came on me so damn fast. I wrapped her up and lifted her out of the tub and carried her out into my bedroom. I tried to set her down, but she held on.

“You think I’m going to be put off, you would be wrong.”

I sighed. “It’s a shitshow that you shouldn’t have to live with.”

“Now I really want to know.” She wrapped her arm around my shoulders. “I care about you, Griffin. A lot.”

I tipped my forehead against hers. “I care about you too.”

I knew it was more.

I tried to box it up and hold it down when it came to her, but I knew it was dangerously close to exploding out of me.

“Irene gets off on manipulating people to do what she wants. Marc and Baron always gave in. Even if it destroyed them to share her in every way.”

She drew in a breath. “What kind of sociopath was this chick?”

“She wasn’t happy until she owned me too. Even if I wasn’t a willing participant.”

She scrambled onto her knees on the bed and gripped both my shoulders. “What?”

“Easy, killer.”

“She assaulted you?”

“I...”

She cupped my face. “Griffin.”

“Not exactly. But she set me up pretty thoroughly by putting something in my drink.”

“Jesus.” She wrapped her arms around me, hugging me tight.

I’d been holding onto that night for so long, that talking about it tore it open. I crushed her against me. “She made it look like we slept together. I can’t be sure we didn’t since I don’t remember most of that night. Just waking up with her sitting beside me in my bed—naked.”

She wound around me, legs and arms—her small body so much stronger than she looked.

“And she must have called or texted Baron. He pounded on my door, and it was like a switch flipped. She started shaking and sobbing as she stumbled out of bed, wrapped in the sheet.”

I could see it like it just happened.

“I was so foggy and then Baron was on me, punching me. She made it sound like I had been the one to push myself on her. And we were all on the same floor so once the screaming started, Marc came to see what was going on and it got...”

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