Her eyes got even wider. She was like fucking Bambi. Suddenly all that anger and rage I felt the first time I saw her, right after George had driven me from the rehab facility where my mother had cried and told me how sorry she was over and over, came raging to the surface.
 
 Ashleigh always wanted to make me feel better. She wanted to be my friend. She wanted me to save her from her pitiful, lonely life, when I had other shit I needed to do. Now she was standing here in her grown-up, sexy little dress, crushed to learn I had a girlfriend. Because I didn’t share this part of my life with her.
 
 I thought about what her father said. About how I needed to discourage her. It wouldn’t take much. Being mean to Ashleigh was something I knew how to do.
 
 Leaning down so I was close up in her face, probably closer to her than anyone had ever been. A breath away from her nose, her lips. Close enough I could close the gap and kiss her.
 
 Something I would never do.
 
 “Did you think I would wait for you to grow up?” I whispered. “Is that the fantasy you had in your head? That I would wait like a good little virgin boy until Princess Ashleigh Landen was old enough for me to finally fuck her?”
 
 I heard her gasp. Smelled the mint on her breath.
 
 “I didn’t. I’ve fucked already. Made girls come. Made girls suck me off. I’m going to be eighteen in a few months, and then, of course, you officially become jailbait. But here’s the thing, Ash. And I want you to understand this clearly. Even if you were eighteen and as hot as Kaitlin, which you’re not, I still wouldn’t touch you. Because you’re nothing but a useless, spoiled princess who doesn’t know shit about anything bad that happens in life.”
 
 I looked at her then. At her eyes that were too damn expressive.
 
 There,I thought.That hurt her. That hurt her good.Not in a way that made her cry, but in a deep-down soul way that would stay with her for a long time.
 
 I gave her credit, though, because when she walked away from me without saying a word, her spine was as straight as an iron rod.
 
 I’d done that. It had taken five years, but I’d given her just enough of a backbone so she could walk away with her head held high.
 
 Then I found Kaitlin and fooled around with her in the backseat of Arthur Landen’s Lexus.
 
 And when she was pulling on my dick, jerking me off hard, I leaned my head back and closed my eyes and thought of Ash’s eyes. Her big, soulful eyes that saw the things I didn’t want her to see.
 
 I thought about Ashleigh watching us. Staring at us from just outside the car, looking in the window and seeing everything. Kaitlin kneeling next to me on the backseat, her tits popped out of her strapless dress, working hard to make me come. It was only fair, since I’d made her come twice. I pictured Ash seeing me like this, wanting me despite how horrible I’d been to her.
 
 Ash’s face. Ash’s eyes. Ash’s hand around my cock…and then I came with a low groan in the back of my throat.
 
 Ash.