I don’t know if I fell asleep so quickly and soundly because I finally got laid after months of a dry spell, if it was Xenia in bed with me, or just general exhaustion because I was drugged. Maybe a combination of all of the above. Either way, I have slept this soundly in a long time. I’ve also not slept with a woman in years, like sleeping in bed with a woman. Don’t look at me like that. It’s not a big secret that I don’t do commitments. I’m a one-night stand kind of man. And part of that means either the woman or I leave after sex. Yet Xenia didn’t leave, and I had no intention of telling her to either. And I wasn’t going to ask her to sleep elsewhere just because her going home wasn’t an option due to jackass Trevor. The last woman I shared a bed with beyond sex was the one I don’t talk about, even with Reese. Yes, I have kept my secret for ten years from my twin sister. And no, I’m not telling you about it. I’m allowed secrets damn it. Even if Reese and I generally don’t keep th

Could I have driven her to work in my truck? Of course, I could have. But then, I wouldn’t have had the fun of weaving through traffic with her clinging to me. I don’t think it was a hard choice; any guy would have made the same choice. And it’s not like I needed the truck for hauling anything for work. I'm the foreman at the construction site I am scheduled to be at today, so I don’t need to bring more than myself. Driving my Harley clears my head, and I need a mind wipe. A lot happened these past few days, especially in the last twenty-four hours. Some people would probably say I shouldn’t go to work. To those people, I say fuck off. If I’m at work, my mind will be on the job and not all the shit that’s happened. If I stayed home, I’d overthink and do something stupid. The drive to her job, which I knew where to go because I read the company name over her left breast, was over too quickly. The only way I’d have been willing to stay home is if it was her. I’d been okay with skipping

I didn’t get to stick around the construction site long to talk with dad and Tio Kevin. I’d been there for maybe twenty minutes when the door was thrown open, and my annoyed mamãe stepped in, narrowing her eyes around the room till they landed on me. I was pushing thirty, yet I gulped and tried to sink into the chair, wishing I could become invisible like a little kid in trouble. “Clay Ares Nikolaidis!” I gulped again as she used my full name and stormed over to me. I winced, and my shoulders bunched as she grabbed me by the ear. “Not only did you sign yourself out of the hospital against the doctor’s recommendation, but you also didn’t think to call your worried parents to tell us. I barely slept a wink last night worried about you in that hospital.” Mamãe started scolding me. “I made you sonho de doce de leite and a thermos of coffee to bring you so you’d not have to suffer through hospital breakfast and coffee. And instead of finding my son, I am told he left not long after we we

I should have waited to use the bathroom at my place. I shouldn’t have trusted Xenia’s apartment would be safe for her while I went into a bathroom that wasn’t even connected to her apartment. They share a wall, and it’s as thin as you’d expect. The minute I heard Trevor’s voice, I rushed out of the bathroom. I wasn’t letting him get away with this. The little prick, I mean that based on what my sister has said, is lucky to be alive. Because when Xenia kicked him back and grabbed him, I seriously considered snapping his neck. Walking in to see him pinning her to her bed like that made every drop of angry warrior Spartan blood, my grandpa Ares so proudly boasts about, boil. It would have been easy to kill him. I’m strong enough and know where to apply the pressure to do it. But the look on Xenia’s face was the only thing that stopped me. Ironic, I think I’m using that right, that he’s still breathing because the woman he was going to assault looked terrified of me, and I didn’t like i

I don’t care that she didn’t know. She was going to represent that scum despite everything. She stood there and was willing to defend Trevor and act like he was better than Don. Her words and actions are all that keep her from having a relationship with Reese and getting to know her grandchildren. Why can’t she open her damn eyes and see that we know what’s best for us? I don’t understand why or how, but the Frost women always alienate their children. It’s like a blood curse from great-grandma Emma, who so quickly and coldly abandoned my grandfather and his brothers to be raised by Nana Hazel. At the same time, she carried on her carefree life running the Frost empire, having affairs around the world with married men, and making many enemies. My mother, Aunt Emma, and Aunt Arieannah have followed that pattern. They were putting themselves above all else. Aunt Emma left her son to be raised by her parents so she could keep being a shallow Hollywood cunt that denied even having a son f