I rolled over onto my side and smiled at him. “Are you going to tell me what Chad said?”

His eyes widened, and his lips spread in a delighted smile. “Are you saying you won’t fuck me unless I tell you?”

I raised my eyebrows.

“Oh, that’s evil!”

I grabbed hold of his cock and started moving my hand.

“Jord-eeeeeeeee . . .” he moaned. With my other hand I began pinching one of his nipples. I placed my mouth on his throat and started licking the base.

“Oh God oh God Jordy please fuck me please . . .”

“Tell me,” I breathed into his ear, stilling my hands.

He opened his eyes. “Okay, man, but you wanted to know.”

I kept rubbing the head of his cock as he talked, even though what he was saying sickened me. His words washed over me like acid, flaying away my skin. It felt like my soul was shriveling inside of me, my heart was shattering.

It hurt, oh, God, how the words hurt.

When he was finished, he closed his eyes.

I climbed on top of him, spread his legs wide, and slipped a condom over my cock. I grabbed the lube bottle and squirted some on myself, then shoved myself into him as hard as I could, as far as I could go.

His mouth opened and a loud gasp came out of him.

I started fucking him, raping him as hard as I could.

I pounded him, going deeper inside of him than I had the first time. He tried to form words, but couldn’t. He could barely catch his breath as I pounded him, my movements so rough and powerful that his head banged against the headboard a few times. His eyes were half-closed, his breaths coming in gasps as I tugged at his nipples, bit them, all the while pulling myself almost completely out of him before ramming into him as hard as I could.

At some point he stopped being Brandon to me.

He became Chad.

And I wanted to hurt him as badly as he’d hurt me, as he’d hurt others and would hurt still more men in the future, men he hadn’t met yet, men who didn’t even know he existed, men whose lives he would wreck and damage, the way he’d wrecked me.

I heard Chad’s voice sneering the words Brandon had repeated to me.

He’s such a loser. All he has going for him is his money.

Wham!

No one would want him. He’s so lame, such a loser.

WHAM!

He’s acting like a whore, though why anyone would want to fuck him is beyond me. There’s no accounting for taste.

His voice kept echoing inside of my head as my climax began to build inside of me, but I kept pounding him, deeper and deeper. I was slamming him hard, but all he could do was moan, louder and louder, and I kept fucking him. . . .

And then I came in a violent convulsion, an orgasm that wracked my entire body, and as I came, Brandon started to come with a loud scream.

And I collapsed on top of him, both of us trembling.

“Wow,” Brandon said after what seemed like an eternity. “Just—wow. That was—wow.” He pushed me off and sat up, turning to put his feet on the floor. He shook his head. “I—I don’t know if I can stand up.”

“Sorry,” I said between gasps. “I—I don’t know what came over me.”

He looked back over his shoulder at me and flashed his gap-toothed grin. “Never, ever apologize for fucking someone like that, Jordy.” He stood up and walked into the bathroom, holding on to the wall. A few moments later, I heard the shower start running.

I rolled over onto my back and stared at the ceiling.

Now that I was alone, I waited for the tears to come.

But they didn’t.

All I felt was anger.

My original plan of vengeance was too, too simple. It was predicated on the notion that Chad was a human being with a heart, feelings, and emotions. That would never work. He was evil, pure and simple. He was a user. He’d treated Roger like shit. He pretended to be my friend and laughed at me behind my back. I could even almost forgive him for dismissing me as not attractive enough—and even had been willing to do so. But this? No, this was far, far worse. He was a monster, and he always got away with it. Chad would never want me. To him, I was always going to be a sad, pathetic loser.

No, Chad’s payback had to be bigger than what I’d originally planned.

I had to drive a stake through his rotten, foul heart.

Brandon came walking back into my bedroom, a towel wrapped around his waist. He sat down on the edge of the bed and pulled his sweatpants on. He looked at me. “You’re not going to tell Chad, are you?”

I looked at him. “Why would I do that?”

“Good.” He let out a sigh of relief as he pulled his tank top back on. He leaned over and kissed my cheek. “I guess we should get back to work on the paper.”

“Screw it.” I smiled at him. “You can just use mine, right? It’s not like your professor would ever find out.”

His eyes widened. “Really?” He leaned over and kissed me. “Can you e-mail it to me? When I get back to the house I’ll put my name on it and send it in.”

“Sure.” I touched his back.

He put a finger over my lips. “Maybe I could come back over next Thursday and you could help me with some other things?” He smiled.

“Yeah.” I smiled back. “That would be great.”

“Okay. See you then.”

I heard my front door close behind him.

I put my hands behind my head and stared at the ceiling.

So, I’m just a sad, pathetic loser, huh, Chad? I thought to myself. We’ll just see who the sad, pathetic loser is, you worthless piece of shit. When I’m done with you, you’ll be sorry you were ever born. Your days of using and abusing people are over. I’m going to see to it that you’re punished, once and for all.

I picked up my cell phone, and texted Dante: Hey, babe, Brandon just left. You up for some company?

He answered almost immediately: Sorry, I’m tired. And something came up on Sunday.

I stared at the message.

Was he blowing me off?

I got up and walked into my study. Tapping the phone against my chin, I e-mailed the paper to Brandon.

Jay was fired today. Now Dante’s blowing me off.

Maybe I was just being paranoid, but—

I scrolled through my in-box. Most of it was junk, but there was one from one of the brothers—Bobby Dunlap. I frowned. Bobby was a nice guy, but we weren’t exactly buddies. He liked to gossip too much. The saying around the house was “telephone, telegram, tell Bobby.”

There was a file attached to it.

I clicked the e-mail open. The only message was Have you seen this yet?

My heart sinking, I saw it was a video file. I clicked to download it, and when it opened—

It was me and Jay in the steam room.

I clicked it closed.

Everyone at the house has probably seen this.

I fought down the panic.

Chad.

It had to be Chad.

My jaw set. Okay, then, so that’s how it’s going to be, so be it.

Let the games begin.

Chapter 12

Iwoke up the next morning feeling a lot better about everything.

I sat up in the bed and glanced over at my alarm. It was almost ten. I turned on my iHome and yawned as Lady Gaga’s “Paparazzi” began playing. It was a particularly apt song, I thought, given as it was about stalking. The sun was shining in through my windows—it was a beautiful morning. My bed felt comfortable, and I thought about staying in bed and trying to go back to sleep for another hour or so, but dismissed it. I had a lot of damage to repair, and lying in bed wasn’t going to get any of it done.

And I could smell coffee brewing. I’d set the automatic timer on my coffeemaker before going to sleep, and the aroma was too much to resist.

I got out of bed and walked into the bathroom, then washed my face and brushed my teeth. I looked at myself in the mirror and smiled at my reflection. “Today,” I said to my image, “you’re going to kick some serious ass, take no prisoners, and make some people sorry they were ever born.”