Page 72 of Good Girl

“Even Derek.” Samuel laughed.

Derek, stroking up and down my arm, kicked out a leg to Samuel, who accepted the soft blow with another tired chuckle.

“They mock me,” Derek said, “but it’s true. I didn’t think there was a woman in the world who could handle me, who couldcare, and here you are.”

“What?” I rolled my head to look up at Derek through my lashes. “How could anyone not care for you?”

“You’d be surprised,” Derek remarked. “But what I mean is... this is different, Charlotte. You are different.”

“What we’re trying to say,” Matt interjected when Derek fell silent, wrestling with his words. “Is that we don’t just care about you, Charlotte. We came all this way because weknowsomething is wrong and we’re determined to show you that you don’t have to tackle anything alone. We’re all here for you. Because... well...”

Oh, no.

Reality slammed back hard and fast as I met Matt’s gaze.

“Weadoreyou. Every curve, every bump, every single big, beautiful detail that you have. Inside and out.”

“We do,” Samuel agreed. “Which, believe me, after my ex, I didn’t think I was capable of, but... but it’s true.”

“We do,” Derek whispered in my ear.

No.

How could they care for someone like me? Have feelings for someone like me? Learning that they felt more than just lust for a woman like me should have been the best feeling in the world, and yet somehow, it was now the worst thing to hear.

They cared for me. Me as a person beyond the sex.

And I was about to break all their hearts when they learned the truth. As soon as they found out that our secret was out, that Haley and Paul had the power to destroy all three of them, the adoration in their hearts would fizzle up into hate.

Tears flooded my eyes as I struggled to get my thoughts together, and Derek tenderly cupped my cheek, swiping his thumb over my cheekbone to catch a few tears that escaped.

“It’s okay,” he coaxed. “You don’t have to say anything back. Take your time. But we needed you to know that we’re here. And we’re always going to be here.”

Static flooded my chest, and a sharp sensation plummeted through my gut. The tears welled fast, and I gasped softly, pushing myself up to sit away from the nest of limbs.

“You don’t mean that,” I croaked as the guilt in my heart that had faded during the sex came roaring back tenfold. “I’ve done... I’ve done things you don’t understand.”

“Whatever it is, we can deal with it,” Matt reassured me, but his warm smile only made the guilt worse.

“No, no, you can’t. We can’t—”

“Is this to do with what you were doing on my computer?” Derek leaned up and tilted his head until he caught my eye. “Do you want to tell me what you were really doing?”

I did.

I absolutely did.

The words formed in my mouth—and died the moment knuckles rapped against the door.

“Charlotte?” My mother’s shrill voice bled through the wood. “Charlotte, are you in there?”

My heart plummeted and my blood ran cold. I grabbed the bedsheet and began to scramble off the bed as all three of my men darted toward their clothes.

“Charlotte, I heard you, I know you’re in there! Come out this instant!”

Fear flashed through me so forcefully that my head throbbed and the ground was momentarily unstable. I quickly contemplated how easy it would be for me to lie and not say anything, to act like I wasn’t here and that she had it all wrong.

The lock clicked, and the door flew open a second later. Everyone, in their various states of undress, froze, and I clutched the sheet to my chest like a deer in headlights.

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