I lasted another hour.

The guest room felt too quiet. Every time the house settled I thought it was his footsteps coming back. They never did. My body wouldn’t calm down. The place between my legs stayed slick and swollen no matter how still I lay. I kept replaying the car. His thumb. The way he pulled away right when I was about to beg.

At some point the wanting got louder than the shame.

I got up.

The hallway was dark. Ethan’s door stood closed at the far end like it belonged to another life. I walked past it on bare feet and stopped in front of Marcus’s room....