I crossed my arms. “I knew you were behind it all, Chad. It didn’t take a genius to figure that out.”

“So, you and Dante are over. He’ll never want to see you again, you know.” Chad mocked me. “And your gym—you’re done there. And Monday you’re going to get drummed out of the brotherhood. Are you happy? Was sleeping with Dante worth it?”

“This has nothing to do with Dante,” I replied. “I didn’t sleep with him until Thursday night. You had your little buddy at the gym tape Jay and me on Wednesday. How long had he been waiting for a chance to tape me doing something?”

He shrugged.

“You were out to get me from the minute I walked into this house,” I went on. “You were so hateful to me that first night of Rush, and then of course once you found out I was rich—well, that was really what it was all about, wasn’t it. You made me fall in love with you, didn’t you? You were playing a game with me. You showered me with attention, acted like we were friends—all so you could pull the rug out from under me.”

“Money isn’t everything—and you needed to learn that lesson.”

“The great irony of it all, Chad, is I would have spent every cent in my trust fund to make you happy.” I leaned back against the door. “But you had to be superior, right? Put me in my place?” I shrugged. “Money isn’t everything? I know that, Chad. But coming from your sad, working-class background, you have no idea what it’s like to have money.”

His jaw tightened. “Spare me the poor little rich kid story, okay?”

I laughed. “Oh, Chad, if anyone is pathetic, it’s you. You so missed the boat on everything, you know that?” I walked over to his bed. “When you have money, Chad, you learn very early on that there are some people who will suck up to you because of it. You learn there are people who will hate you for it. And you learn how to protect yourself.” I patted his leg. “Poor, poor Chad. Even now you have no idea, do you.”

His eyes were slits. “What are you talking about?”

“Poor people should never fuck with the rich.” I gave him an extremely pleasant smile. “It was bad enough that you played games with me, and deliberately hurt me. But you know, I could overlook that. I could even understand it, on some level. But when you start hurting other people to get at me, that I can’t overlook, Chad. I can’t let that slide. I need to teach you a lesson.”

“Fuck you,” he seethed. “There’s nothing I can learn from you.”

I walked back to the door and opened it. “When I am finished with you, Chad, all that’s going to be left is a smoking crater. And then”—I stepped out into the hallway—“I am going to sow the ground with salt so nothing ever grows there again.”

“Bring it, bitch.” He sneered at me.

I laughed. “Oh, Chad, poor, silly, stupid Chad. Even now you don’t get it.” I winked at him. “It’s already brought.”

I slammed the door behind me.

Chapter 14

Ifelt incredible as I walked out to my car.

I happily waved at the brothers playing basketball, a big grin on my face. The ones who didn’t return my wave just stared at me. I felt like I could read their minds. Why is he so happy? Doesn’t he know he faces expulsion from the brotherhood on Monday? That just made me laugh out loud as I started up my car.

Poor, stupid fools. Did they really think they could beat me?

I drove out of the parking lot, but rather than driving home I turned left on Shaw Avenue and headed out to Avignon. Dante was the only loose thread left, and since he wouldn’t take my calls or answer my texts, he left me no alternative but to go over and hash it all out in person.

He was out in the driveway washing his car when I pulled up. He looked amazing, as always. He was wearing a pair of white cotton workout shorts that were damp with sweat in the back, and beads of water glistened in the late evening sun on his amazing torso. Stubbled hair made his chest look like it had been tinted bluish. In spite of myself, I could feel myself getting aroused.

Don’t get distracted. Remain on point and stay focused.

He frowned as I got out of my car and turned the nozzle on the hose off before tossing it into the grass. “I don’t want to talk to you, Jordy.”

“You’ve made that clear,” I replied as I walked up the driveway. “But you left me no choice. You could have had the decency to answer my texts or call me back.”

He turned his back to me and picked up a sponge out of the bucket of soapy water. He started wiping at the front hood of the car, lathering it up. When he leaned forward, the shorts rode down a little bit, exposing the top of his butt crack and some white cheek. He really did have a phenomenal ass. “You’re a fine one to talk about decency.”

I picked up another sopping sponge and walked around to the other side of the car. I slopped some suds onto the hood and started scrubbing. “So, Chad did send you the video,” I said. “And that was all it took?”

“You had sex in a public place with someone,” he replied, not looking at me. “I thought I meant something to you.”

“That video was taken before our date—the day before, in fact.” I rolled my eyes. “When I was with Jay I had no idea you were even going to ask me out. I didn’t realize you were looking for a virgin—especially since you’d already dated Chad.” I laughed. “Unless of course you thought Chad was a virgin—but surely you’re not that naive.”

He stopped what he was doing and looked at me. “It was before?”

“I swear to you, Dante, it was on Wednesday afternoon.” I held up my right hand toward the sky. “I swear on my mother’s life.”

“Oh.” He looked confused. “But Chad said . . .” He threw his sponge down into the bucket. “I’m an idiot. Chad was trying to cause trouble.” He walked around the car and pulled me into a sloppy wet hug. “I’m sorry.”

“You’re getting me wet.” I laughed, pushing against his chest. “But there’s something else we need to talk about. Well, a lot we need to talk about.”

“Okay—just let me hose the car down and we can go to the sanctuary.” He kissed my cheek and walked back to the hose. Before I knew what he was doing, he’d turned it on and aimed it at me.

“HEY!” I ducked down behind the car. I was completely soaked. “Damn it, Dante!”

I heard him laughing, and I moved away from the car as he started rinsing the suds off, but I didn’t stand up again until he’d turned the hose off. When I stood up, he winked at me. “You look good wet.”

“You always look good, wet or dry,” I replied, following him into the house and then heading out to the backyard. He came out with two towels slung over his shoulders, a bottle of wine in one hand, and two glasses in the other. He put the wine and glasses down and tossed me one of the towels.

“Get out of those wet clothes,” he said, wiping his own chest and arms down with his own towel.

I kicked off my wet shoes, pulled off the socks, and undressed until I was standing there in just my underwear, which was damp. I laid my clothes out in the sun and wiped myself down with the towel before wrapping it around my waist and sitting down. I took the glass of wine he held out to me and took a sip. “Good wine,” I said, setting it down on the table. “I love that it’s so peaceful back here.”

“I guess I owe you an apology,” Dante replied. He reached across the table and grabbed my hands. “You know, the other night when you were here, I felt like we connected, like it was something special. Even with my long-term boyfriend, Cade, the sex wasn’t like that. That was, I don’t know, that was more than sex to me. I thought you felt it, too.”

“I’m not a saint, Dante,” I said. “I’ve been with other guys, but you’re right. It was never like that before. Every other time, it was—don’t get me wrong, it was always fun—but it wasn’t, I don’t know, I didn’t feel connected to the other person. It was just sex. The other night, I felt like we made love.” I cringed inwardly. I’d always thought that phrase was stupid, and it still sounded stupid to me, but it was the only thing I could think of to describe how I’d felt. “It was like we connected.”