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“Seriously? Again, already?”

“Sweetheart, I’ve come inside you. I’m hooked. I’m never going to stop,” he said firmly.

Never? What did that even mean?

Then he tugged the covers down to trail kisses down my body.

“Wait!” I tried to draw the covers back over my body. The streaming broad daylight was intimidating. Sure, I’d laid my heart and soul bare last night, but that didn’t mean I was ready for Brody to see every single scar and mark on my body.

“It’s too bright,” I complained.

“It’s perfect. I can actually see you this morning.”

“That’s exactly the problem.”

He pulled back and grabbed my arm, looking at the little healed lines from when I’d cut myself a few weeks before.

I was about to argue that we needed to close the curtains, when Brody leaned in and kissed the scars.

My heart all but jumped to my mouth. He kissed every single one and then moved to the other arm. That one was far worse. It had the brand. He studied it, my arm hitting the light just right to illuminate every ugly rivulet of melted skin.

Then Brody leaned in and touched his lips to it. He kissed the ugliest part of me, and after last night, I knew that he saw me. All of me. With all my issues and failings and weaknesses.

Then he continued downward, pressing my legs apart, and I stopped caring about the light.

“Now, Selena, I want you to read it again, but this time, you dare to look Claudio in the eyes. Your ladies-in-waiting are fluttering around you, protecting you from his robust, hearty male energy,” Director Cho announced.

Everyone around us chuckled. Lincon puffed his chest up and swaggered over, making everyone laugh more.

“Am I doing it right? The robust, hearty male energy?” he asked in a mock-serious tone.

I laughed. “Until you speak, it’s great.”

“Damn it.” Lincon grinned.

“Okay, and go!” Director Cho called.

I took a second to steady myself and then looked up at Lincon, gave a small, shy smile, and started my lines.

Time melted away, and before I knew it, Director Cho was clapping loudly when the scene ended, and conversation hummed around us.

“Excellent, you both nailed that. Let’s move on to Lincon talking to the guys. Selena, you’re done for today if you need to go.”

I nodded and grabbed my water bottle, bidding goodbye to the rest of the cast as I made my way out of the drama department.

Late summer was turning swiftly into fall in Hade Harbor. The trees were already turning, tinges of gold and yellow ripping through the woods that circled the HHU campus. Fall was my favorite season. Not too cold, sunny and bright, but not hot. This year, I was looking forward to cozy fall nights.

Because of Brody.

I pushed that smug, knowing voice from my head. It was dangerous. I couldn’t be falling this hard for Brody. Sure, messing around was fun, and it was healing me in a way I’d stopped hoping I could be healed, but he was still my stepbrother at the end of the day. There was no changing that. It was the truth I tried to run away from in my head. Weirdly, Brody didn’t seem to care. The same Brody who had such strong paranoia about his family’s reputation. It was odd.

I hit the main path through campus and turned toward the ice rink. Winter had been asking me to meet her there to watch the evening practice. I’d pretended it was a pain; I’d even gone as far as to beg to meet somewhere else, when honestly, I wanted to watch the Hellions train. I wanted to watchhimtrain.

I spied Winter sitting right at the edge of the ice. Coach Williams sometimes sent fangirls away from practice, because there were just too many of them, and they often distracted the players by shouting out or lingering by the ice to talk to them. But Winter was an Ice God’s girlfriend. Coach Williams would never tell her to sit farther back.

“Here, I got you this,” Winter said and passed me a red paper cup.

“Ooh, what is it?”