Don’t let him get to you. Don’t let him get to you.

Taking a deep breath, I close the car door behind me, wave to Kayla and start walking to the porch of Cale’s two bedroom home. I’ve been here before as a guest, but it was back before Cale had a roommate. I have known Cale for years because he and my sister were best friends growing up. He’s a good guy and I love him like a brother. I was excited to come here, but now . . . I’m not so sure.

Before I can even step onto the porch, I can see Slade’s eyes burning into mine. Hell, I can almost feel them. They’re so dark and broody. Is everything about this guy so intense?

I bet sex is.

Mentally slapping myself, I shake off the thought and walk over to Cale. He wraps his arms around me and squeezes me in his usual hug. “Oh man. I’ve missed you,” I say. “Thanks for letting me crash here. You have no idea how much you are helping me out.”

Shaking me roughly, he lets go and kisses my forehead. “I missed you too, gorgeous. My house is yours whenever you need it. No need to even f**king ask. You know that.”

When I turn back to Slade his eyes look me up and down, branding me into the portals of his memory. He’s undressing me with his eyes like he’s formulating a plan of attack in his mind; the ultimate predator. I feel it; everywhere. He knows it too. He’s a pro at this game.

Now that we’re in the lighting of the porch, I can see a scar on his right cheekbone. He catches me staring and lets out a little growl before turning and opening the door to let us in.

I follow behind Cale, in a hurry to get this night over with. I’m so tired I can barely keep my eyes open. I want to ask where I’m sleeping, but I’m afraid Slade might have too much fun with that.

I take a glance around the house to see it looks exactly the same as before: Black furniture, black curtains, sixty inch TV with a huge surround sound. Pretty much everything manly. This place really needs a woman’s touch; just not mine.

“So . . .” I lift my eyebrows at Cale, hoping he gets the hint as Slade walks into the kitchen. He doesn’t. He just looks at me and raises his eyebrows back in question. One of the things I’ve learned about Cale is he never gets the hint, ever.

“What do you want to do now?” As the words leave Cale’s lips, he then glares over at Slade as he walks back into the living room, shirtless, with a bottle of Whiskey pressed to his lips. “Oh boy.”

Slade pulls the bottle away from his mouth and smiles a devilishly sexy smile that makes me wet. “You don’t need to ask her that. She wants to come up to my room so I can bend her over my desk and f**k her.”

I wrinkle my forehead in shock and anger at him being so outspoken and straight forward.

Seriously!

Taking the only thing I can think of in my outburst of anger, I toss my phone at his head; better that than my favorite heels. He dodges just in time and leans against the couch. The muscles in his arms and stomach flex as he holds the bottle up and takes another swig. “You’re a real piece of f**king work. Do you know that?”

“So I’ve been told,” he says stiffly. “You haven’t seen anything yet. The next time you’re ready to inflict pain, you better be ready to follow through. I’ll show you what a real f**king piece of work I am, then.”

“You ass**le! I will . . .” Bending over, I reach for my high heel and almost fall over. Cale reaches for my arm and steadies me. We’ll see what he says when I stab him with my stiletto.

“Whoa, whoa.” He turns to Slade and gives him the nastiest look I’ve ever seen on Cale’s pretty face. “Dude, I f**king told you to leave her alone. If she kicks your ass, that’s on you. Then, I’ll kick your ass just for pissing her off.”

I feel my nostrils flare in anger as I find myself checking out Slade’s sexy body. His faded jeans are fitted and hanging low on his slender waist. I swear I could kill him just for being so sexy. That ass**le.

“All right. Your loss, Pen.”

Without glancing back, he heads for the stairs and I watch in utter shock as he holds my phone up, smiles and tosses it to me. “You’re going to make hating you easy,” I growl. “And don’t call me Pen, man whore.”

“I’ve heard worse,” he says calmly. “Oh and I texted your friend Kayla and asked her to join me tonight.”

That prick!

Pulling my eyes from his muscular back, I turn to Cale and growl. Yes, I f**king growled. I am so pissed, I could scream at poor Cale.

“I’m sorry. I’ll get his ass in check by the morning.” Leading me toward the back of the house, he rubs my shoulders and kisses the top of my head. “You can take my room. I cleaned the sheets for you last night. I’ll sleep on the couch so you don’t get mauled like a bear in your sleep.”

Thankful, I exhale and give his muscular frame a hug. I would kiss him if it wouldn’t be so weird. “Thanks. I appreciate that. I hope there’s a lock on the door now.” I look at him with a raised eyebrow, remembering the image of me walking in on him getting sucked off by some girl once. That was awkward.

Laughing, he pushes me into the room and starts closing the door as he takes a step back. “Don’t worry, he won’t come into my room. He’s just being an ass because he’s used to all the girls wanting him. I’ll keep my eye on him.” He rubs his chest and yawns. “I’m crashing.”

“Goodnight,” I mumble.

As soon as Cale is out of the room, I clutch my phone in my hand and scroll through my text messages. I take a deep breath and exhale when I see that he was lying about texting Kayla. For some reason that pissed me off. The thought of him having sex with her is not something I want to picture.

I strip down to my panties and bra and make a quick phone call while hopping into Cale’s bed.

The phone rings a few times and just when I think it’s about to go to voicemail, he picks up.

“Hello,” Jay yells into the phone. I can barely hear him over the loud music. My heart sinks just knowing what he’s up to.

“Jay, are you busy?” I ask with a sigh.

It takes a second before he answers and all I can make out is a female giggling. “Yeah, Aspen. I’m a little busy right now.”

I don’t say anything for a few seconds. I just listen to his heavy breathing and the sound of her whispering and then giggling. I feel like puking.