Rain. I'm standing in the dimly lit aisle of a sex store and I'm going crazy. I push a shopping cart overflowing with glittery bath bombs and scented candles–my stuff. While Emma pushes a small basket filled with items that hum and buzz. "I just can't, Em! I can't function!" I yank a stress ball shaped like a cartoon brain off a shelf and squeeze it hard. "It's been...what, fourteen days? And every morning I wake up and realize I slept with my ex-boyfriend's elder brother. Not just that, I had angry, vengeful, phenomenal sex with him!" "He must have made your toes curl if you describe it as that." She turns on a vibrator shaped like a lipstick, making a comment about needing a new one. Then she turns to me. "You've never for once called sex with Colt phenomenal." I nearly hurl the brain ball at her. "Stop joking around with my predicament. It's wrong! It's a violation of like, five different morality codes!" Emma, still completely unfazed, holds up two bottles of creamy liquid. "Which lube should I get? Strawberry or peppermint?" "I don't care about the lube," I whine, throwing the brain ball back onto the shelf. "Be a supportive friend for once in your life. Support my sexuality," she whines right back, pouting. "I'm trying, Em, but I hate it. I hate that I did that! I hate that I felt justified! I hate that I can't stop thinking about that penthouse and Rhysand–" I lean closer to her, dropping my voice to a conspiratorial whisper, "fucks too well to just forget about it. That's the worst part. It just makes everything worse." "Look, Rain," she finally says, putting the peppermint bottle in her basket. "You got revenge and pleasure as a double combo. Colt is still reeling from it, so stop with the guilt complex. Rhysand is hot, available and you were drunk. See it as a win-win situation." "But he's his brother! That's the line! It's messy! It's unforgivable. What if he thinks I'm desperate? What if he thinks I'm chasing Colt's attention? I just...I just wish I could forget it ever happened." "And so what if you slept with a hot stranger who turned out to be his elder brother? You didn't even know he existed until that night. He served purpose well. If Colt feels disgruntled about that mistake, he can suck on that ginormous purple cock." Bubbling over with frustration, I grab a display item without looking. My fingers close around something smooth and firm. "I wish I could erase the whole stupid night and the way that man..." I trail off, confused on why Emma stands frozen in time. Following her gaze, I find the devil himself standing behind me with a smirk equally as devilish. "Indeed." His eyes drop for one second to my hands before coming back up. My blood freeze at the way he's just casually leaning against the shelving unit at the end of the aisle, wearing a fitted black t-shirt and has a basket of his own. Emma clears her throat awkwardly, eyes drifting to the item in my grip. Slowly, I look down to the item I am currently cradling in my hand. It is long purple cock, battery-operated and vibrating. It's one of those models that move when you turn it on. I must have accidentally hit the switch. I snatch my hand back, dropping the jerking, purple dildo back onto the shelf as if it just burned me. My cheeks are on fire. "Rhysand? What are you...what are you doing here?" I stammer, my mind scrambling to sound dignified while standing in a sex toy store. I feel the need to defend myself, to shimmy out of the humiliating situation. "I–" I choke on my words, then try again. "I was just h-holding that for Emma. She's...she was looking at the new motor." Rhysand's silver eyes narrow with amusement dancing in their depths. He takes slow strides closer, picking up the peppermint blue Emma just put in her basket. "Indeed," he says with that cocky look that makes me want to slap him. "It looks like you were conducting very serious quality control here." Emma's phone begins to ring out of blue. She bumps my shoulder. "Urgent call. I'll just take this basket and pay for the items. Gotta run, girl! You guys talk." She dashes off like her ass is on fire. And now I'm left standing in the middle of the aisle with the one person I don't want to talk to in the whole world–the ex's brother who's been inside me. Worse, he just caught me with that stupid jerking dildo which currently is still jerking on the shelf and I have no idea where the switch is. The ground should swallow me whole right now. Gathering the remaining shreds of my pride, I cross my arms over my chest. "You're getting lubricants?" I demand, motioning to his basket. "Are you just trying to prove you're a creep?" He ignores the jab, grabs the dildo and turns it off with a deft click. Then returns it back carefully. "I'm looking for a gift, unlike some people," he lets his eyes roam over the abandoned buzzing toys which Emma abandoned. "Whatever. What do you want this time?" He doesn't answer me straight away. "I prefer the real thing. I'm starting to think you're ignoring my calls because these things are giving you pleasure that you could have gotten from me." His stare bores into me now, that same heated look i'd seen in his eyes two weeks ago. "You know you only have to make one phone call." "I am not ignoring you," I lie, pushing down the memory of his name flashing on my phone. "How the hell did you even get my number because I don't remember you asking for it. Only a crazed stalker does things like that." He chuckles. "You should have thought about that before you used me to get revenge on your little boyfriend." And then it clicks in my head. "You bastard," I seethe. "You knew I was your brother's girlfriend and yet you led me on. The gall of you." The sides of his eyes crinkle, before he burst out laughing. "Put that blame back on Colt for hiding the fact that he has an elder brother and on you for not asking questions. Not like it was your fault anyway." "Asshole," I mutter. "What do you want?" "You. You don't need the toys when you have the real deal standing before you in the flesh." "I don't want the real thing. I regret the whole night, in case your eavesdropping didn't catch that part." He leans in, his scent–a mix of expensive cologne and something uniquely his–hitting me. "You don't regret it. You hate that you crave it. You hate that your careful moral lines are crossed because it felt good." My breath hitches. He's right. I hate the sex, but I hate what I feel even more. It's forbidden and crosses all the lines of my morality. I hate that I crave his touch when I absolutely shouldn't. He reaches out, his finger coming toward my cheek. "Stop." I slap his hand away hard. Letting him touch me again might unravel every hate I feel toward him. Not here with all these...items. Not ever again. "I'm going home. You should do the same. And stop...thinking about me." "Hear me, Rain," he grips my hand before I can turn. "You walked into my life. That was your choice. I'm afraid walking out is no longer an option." "What are you-" "I don't play games, is all I want to say, and I will never lose what I decide is mine. You will try to run and you will try to hate me..." The truth in his words burn deeply into me as he tilts up my chin slightly, forcing me to meet the power of his eyes. "And every time, I will find you and bring you back." The rough pad of his thumb strokes the skin next to my ear as his stare grows intense. "I can't let you go, Rain. Not now. Not when we are old and they put us both in the earth. You are mine until the grave closes over us both." It takes every will I have to break out of the power of his hypnotic words. Turning on my heel, I practically run out of the store, leaving him standing alone in the aisle. *** I cross the threshold of my apartment a few minutes later, relieved to be home. The relief lasts less than a second when the atmosphere shifts. There's someone else. My blood runs cold when I catch the whiff of a signature cologne that can only belong to one man: Colt. My purse drops to the floor. Colt is standing in my living room by the window, hands in his pockets as he looks out at the city. He didn't break in; he must have still had the spare key. I make a mental note just then to have the locks changed and all his belongings sent back or burned. Still having a hard time deciding which. "Surprise," he says, dropping the sheer curtain and turning to me with a cruel, smug look on his face. You're so fucked, Rain. Fucked.

Rain. Surprise," he says, dropping the sheer curtain and turning to me with a cruel, smug look on his face. You're so fucked, Rain. Fucked. "Get out," I grind out. "Oh, I'm going. Just had to see your face and just like I predicted, it's so pathetic, Rain. You're so desperate to get my attention that you actually fucked my brother just to get a rise out of me." "You don't get to talk about desperation. You lied to me for years. You're the one getting married to a woman you swore was just your cousin. You get to move on to the next phase of your life, but I can't move on to someone else?" "Not with him," Colt snarls, taking a defensive step forward. "Not with him. You think I'm the worst man you've encountered? Then he's poison. After all, we're cut from the same cloth. He's doing this just to hurt me and you turned out to be nothing but a convenient puppet." His words sting, hitting dangerously close to home. "Go to hell, Colt," I whisper, tears building behind my eyes despite my own restraints. "I'm already here," he says with that empty smile. He takes lazy steps toward me. "The minute I realized you were on my brother's arm at the party, I knew it wasn't over. You think you're free? You think you can just walk away?" He stops inches away, his breath hot on my face. "I can do whatever the fuck I want and that includes whomever I bed." I snap. "No," he snarls. His eyes glaze over me with a deranged possessiveness as he stops just short of me. It rattles me to the bone. "You still belong to me." I cross my arms with a glare I don't feel. "I belong to no one." "Don't be dramatic, Rain. We have years between us. You can't just cut that off with a text and one scandalous scene with my brother." "I didn't cut it off. You ended it." I take a step back until my shoulders hit the cold, hard wall. "You brought your fiancée to what I thought was a proposal dinner and humiliated me. You don't get to show up here two weeks later like nothing happened." He doesn't apologize. Does he ever? Instead, he just stares at me, his eyes running a slow, possessive trail from my face down to my trembling hands. With slow deliberate movements, he places his hands on each side of my head, locking me in place while his gaze lingers too long on the swell of my chest. My breath hitches, heat spreading across my face like an unwelcome blanket. When he looks up, his voice drips with honey, smooth in all the right ways. "You're still my girl." Just four words, and my entire traitorous body reacts. The heat that has been building in my cheeks floods my entire core. I've been here before, I know what comes after, and I know not to fall for his charm. And yet, my body craves him like air. I hate that smug cocky look on his face. I hate that despite the years of lies, the emotional manipulation, the public cruelty, a dark, bruised part of me still craves him. Colt Walden has been my gravity. The only person I ever envisioned a forever with, even if that forever is riddled with painful ifs and buts and a fucking fiancée. Rhysand, no matter how terrifyingly gorgeous, was merely a violent, desperate antidote to the pain Colt had caused me. He was a weapon I used recklessly to make Colt bleed. But Rhysand can never be the man who occupies the sacred, stupid, self-destructive place in my heart. That place still belongs to Colt. And the asshole knows it. I try to regain control, softening my stance, appealing to his ego, which has always been his most accessible weak spot. "Look, I know what I did was awful," I say, trying to sound genuinely vulnerable. "What happened at your party... It was out of anger. Pure, stupid, blind anger. I was just trying to get revenge, Colt. You have to realize that. I didn't even know you had a brother. I didn't know the man I had a one-night stand with was... him." I pause, breathing deeply. "I was supposed to be celebrating. Emma and I, we were going to raise a toast to what I thought was our engagement night. It turned into a break-up. I was a mess and just wanted to forget it all and she wanted to h-" "Of course, it's Emma," he cut me off, shouting the name with sudden, genuine fury. The mention of my best friend seems to ignite a different kind of rage than the one Rhysand caused. "That good-for-nothing bad influence! Haven't I told you to stay away from that fucking girl? She's a toxic liability, Rain, and the reason you make half your terrible decisions!" I recoil from him, the wall biting into my back. "Emma is my best friend! We've been friends since college. I love her and you know that. If you'll give her a chance and get to know her more-" "Get to know her? I know Emma. That wild bitch with her insufferable attitude. She's bad for you!" "Why are you trying to take everyone away from me?" "Not everyone. Only the ones bad for you because I care about you." I duck under his rigid arm, escaping his suffocating proximity so I can think. His presence is making me feel hot and lightheaded and stupid all at once. "Stop being ridiculous, Colt. I am not an object you get to control or claim." I try to inject fire into my voice, but a tremor betrays me. "And what are you doing here? Isn't it a little too soon for you to be regretting your decision to get engaged to your 'cousin'?" Colt throws his head back and laughs. A sound utterly devoid of humor. "Regretting? Quite the opposite, actually. I love my girlfriend and can't wait to be married." The dismissal grates on my last nerve. "Then get out!" My voice cracks fully this time, the facade of strength dissolving. He stops laughing, his eyes narrowing in cold seriousness. "I'm here to make sure my brother doesn't try shit, Rain. You know how he is. He's always been after everything that's mine-my reputation, my friends, my relationships. He's definitely coming for you, since he knows how important you are to me. He'll use you to get to me, so I'm making sure you don't fall victim." I stare at him, genuinely mad with confusion by the shift in his argument. "How important I am to you?" I repeat the phrase like it's a foreign language. "Important, huh? If I'm so important, why did you cheat on me? Why did you leave me for your 'cousin'? Why did you let me spend months thinking I was going to be your fiancée while you were planning a life with Lila?" The hypocrisy actually makes me think I'll choke to death on my anger and heartache. I can't believe how crazy I am for this man and a thought of revenge sparks my head. Before I can stop to think, the words pour from my mouth with as much venom as I'm able. "I'd happily choose to be toyed with by Rhysand to get to you rather than be continually cheated on and lied to by you!" My words are a match to his fuse. His eyes darken with chilling anger, and he moves with predatory speed, closing the distance between us, yanking me back and into the wall. His hands slam against the wall on either side of my head, trapping me completely in the shadow of his body. The scent of his familiar cologne envelopes me, and the intense heat returns with a screaming vengeance. I can practically hear my body whine for him. "You won't get the choice," he snarls, his face inches from mine. His breath is hot on my skin, his voice a low, dangerous rumble. "You are mine, Rain. And if Rhysand so much as breathes on you again, I won't stay still." A dull throb pulses between my legs at his declaration. There's no room for argument or anything else. Our lips are mere inches apart and for a second I want to beg him to cover that distance to put my traitorous body out of its misery by giving it what it wants. But Colt pulls back just as quickly as he'd advanced, giving a satisfied, superior smirk. He straightens his tailored jacket, smoothing out imaginary wrinkles. "I'll be sending you the final details for my wedding," he says, his tone suddenly light and casual, as if the last few minutes hadn't happened, as if the tension isn't still crackling between us like live wire. "Lila and I are getting married next week, quiet ceremony. You're invited, of course. To the reception, at least." He pauses at the door, turning back to offer one last, cutting smirk at me. "Just remember what I said. Come alone. And for God's sake, don't bring my brother." And with that, he leaves, closing the door softly behind him. The silence that follows is deafening, leaving me leaning against the wall, chest heaving, the remnants of his heat scorching my skin. Is it too late to start a new life? Leave this fucking city and go someplace without two hateful brothers using me as a pawn in their game?