“What about him?” The question is a growl, low and deep and menacing enough to make me question if I’m safe out here with him after all. At the mention of his brother, Rebel’s entire mood has plunged into darkness.

Hesitantly, I remind him about their agreement. “Ransom said you two are going to, I don’t know, try to win my hand.” Now that I’ve said it out loud, it sounds so stupid.

“I agreed to his stupid plan, yes,” Rebel confirms. “But that doesn’t mean I intend to play by the rules.”

He turns to face me, and I am held fast by the intensity in his eyes. He looks so…lonely. No, not lonely. He looks lost, but he also looks like a man who’s made up his mind. Unshakable.

“That hardly seems fair.”

“Fuck fair!” Rebel yells. “You were mine long before he entered the picture. The only reason he got any part of you was because of his face.”

“That’s not the only reason,” I tell him. Ransom and I have a connection. I know it. We’re more than just sex.

Rebel shoves his finger in my face. “If you say you like him for more than his dick, I swear to God…” He spins away, growling in frustration. I watch Rebel pace the shoreline, ruffling his fingers through his hair and cursing to himself. When he finally returns and rushes toward me, I flinch, unsure of what he’ll do.

Grasping my arms, he gives me a sharp shake. “Do you have any idea how much I want to kill him for touching you? To know he was inside you, in my place, drives me insane. And he has the nerve to tell me I have to play him for you?”

I can see his point. If I were in his shoes, I’d probably want to kill him, too. But I’m not. I can only deal with this from one angle, and that’s mine. “Put yourself in my shoes for a second,” I beg. “I thought I was with you, and then I find out there’s two of you? I’m confused. I need time to sort everything out.”

“What is there to sort out, Josephine? You said it yourself. You thought you were with me. Doesn’t that tell you something?”

“Yeah, that I can’t trust my instincts,” I huff, disgusted with myself and the situation. “I connected with both of you, Rebel. In different ways.”

Releasing me, Rebel crosses his arms over his broad chest. “Then tell me what I have to do. Tell me how to play the game so I come out on top.”

I narrow my eyes. “You don’t have to be such a smartass. I told you, it’s not a game.”

“You’re right. What was I thinking?” Rebel says, his voice thick with sarcasm. “What do I have to do to win the competition?”

Hanging my head, I shake it in disbelief. “This isn’t how I wanted this to go.”

“What, you thought it would be simple? Newsflash, Josephine! You can’t pit two alphas against each other and expect it not to end in bloodshed.”

My head snaps up and my mouth drops. “You’d hurt your brother?”

“Why not? What has he ever done for me?”

I can think of at least one thing right off the top. “He gave you a place to stay, for one.”

Rebel’s mouth pulls up in a crooked, condescending smirk. “That’s my apartment, toots. Ransom could never afford a place like that on a teacher’s salary.”

My thoughts are a whirlwind, spinning around in my head as I struggle to realign everything I thought I knew. “So he stays with you?”

“That’s what I said.”

“Oh.” I rub my fingers across my forehead. This is just too much. Arguing with Rebel, dealing with all of this, it’s giving me a headache.

“What if I told you that you’re not the first woman my brother has tried to steal out from under me? Would that make any difference in your decision?”

I glance up at him, my brows pinched together. “Wait, what?”

A cruel half-smile crests and he repeats himself. “What if I told you you’re not the first woman Ransom has done this with? That all my life, he’s tried to take my girlfriends. Would that help you make up your mind?”

I shake my head, unsure what to make of his words. “I’m not sure how to respond to that, Rebel.”

“Just tell me the first thing that comes to mind.”

I cast my gaze around, thinking. “Well, the first thing that comes to mind is you’re lying just to get your way,” I tell him, thinking about what he just said about taking what he wants no matter the cost. “The second thing that comes to mind is that you can’t steal what was never yours.”

“What makes you think you weren’t mine?” Rebel asks.

I throw my hands up in exasperation. “Gee, maybe it has something to do with how you hid us from the public eye, or how I never met your family until Ransom decided to introduce us?”

“I just told you my brother has made it his life’s work to steal every woman in my life. I’m sure you can understand my reluctance to share.” His eyes narrow to slits. “But none of that matters anymore, does it? That decision has been taken from me, too.”

I refuse to pity him. His words make sense in a twisted sort of way, but I choose to ignore them, too.

Rebel steps into my personal space, looking down at me with an unreadable expression. “I can see you’re going to be stubborn about this, so let me tell you how this is going to work, Josephine.” The way my name rolls off his tongue is like a sinful caress. I know I shouldn’t like it, but I can’t help wanting more. “You’ll spend time with both of us, and you’ll pretend to give us equal consideration, but at the end of the day, you belong to me. Do you remember what I told you about letting other men touch you?”

“Yes,” I say softly, glaring up at him as I think back to that night at Mirage when a patron touched me and Rebel dragged me into the men’s room and screwed me against the wall.

“Tell me,” he rumbles, his head dipping lower so his lips graze along my jawline.

My thoughts scatter as his warm breath fans over my cheek. I know what he’s doing. He’s using my body and my desire for him to influence me. But even knowing this, I can’t stop myself from falling into the trap. “Never let it happen,” I reply breathily.

“That’s right, and did you listen?”

“Yes.” As far as I knew, I was listening.

“No,” he says firmly. “No, you didn’t. You let my brother fuck you.”

“I didn’t know.” My voice is whiny and pleading and I immediately hate myself for sounding like a little girl asking for her daddy’s forgiveness. I’ve come too far in my life to reduce myself to some blithering idiot. “If you had told me you had a twin, it wouldn’t have happened.”

His chuckle is a dark, dangerous rasp against the side of my face as he lifts his head and aligns our mouths. I gasp as his hand closes around my throat, his thumb tracing the side of my neck lightly. “We can play the blame game all day, but it’ll get us nowhere fast. So how about this. From this moment on, your pussy is mine. On nights you go out with my brother, which will be few, I’ll be waiting for you when you get back to make sure you’ve behaved yourself.”

“You’re a psychopath.”

“When it comes to getting what I want, I’m a lot of things. So are we in agreement?”

“No.”

He laughs again. “You say that like you have a choice.” Rebel’s mouth crashes into mine, stealing any complaint or denial I may have made. He’s taking over my mouth like he intends to take over my life—thoroughly.

Fuck me, but I like it.

SIX

“Are you okay?” Annie whispers in my ear.

“Fine, just daydreaming,” I dodge.

In actuality, I most certainly am not okay. We’re sitting in our shared Art History class. Ransom is front and center, giving a lecture on who-the-hell-cares. I’m too busy trying to sort through everything that happened at his parents’ house yesterday.

I still feel burned over Rebel throwing me under the bus. I don’t know how to feel about Ransom’s reaction to me being a stripper. Sure, logically, I understand why he’s upset. What man would be okay with his girlfriend taking her clothes off for other men? On the flip side, what kind of man is willing to share his girlfriend with his brother until she can decide which one she wants more?