AFTER 12

RYAN’S POV

I didn’t even let myself speak. I just scooped her binto /bmy arms like my life depended on it, holding her so tight I bwas /bscared I’d crush her. But I couldn’t let go. My chest hurt. My throat was tight. Everything inside me felt like it was burning with this sick kind of guilt I couldn’t breathe past.

“Put me down! Ryan, put me down!” she screamed, her fists hitting my shoulder, struggling to get free, but her voice cracked halfway, and that sound cut through me worse than anything else.

I didn’t say a damn word. I just carried her, tight against my chest, straight into the parking lot where my car was parked. I could feel her heart pounding through her chest, and maybe she could feel mine too, because it was mming hard, fueled with so much rage and helplessness I didn’t even know how I hadn’t passed out yet.

The moment we reached the car, I dropped her on her feet and mmed her right against the side of it, pinning her there with one arm beside her head. My other hand went straight to her face, forcing her to look at me. She kept her eyes down, and that only pissed me off more.

“What the hell are you doing here, Anna?”

She flinched.

“Answer me. What the fuck are you doing in a ce like this? Dressed like this?!”

Her lips were trembling, band /bher eyes were blinking so fast like she was trying to bhold /bback tears, but they were already falling. Soft streaks rolling down her cheeks while her mouth stayed shut.

“I’m talking to you, damn it! Answer me!”

She jerked slightly under the weight of my voice, and then finally, she whispered, “I didn’t want to go home after what

you said this morning. So Sasha invited me out… and I just didn’t want to think about anything.

I stared at her.

“So that’s it? You let your friend drag you to a fucking club dressed like this? Like you had no fucking self- respect? Half–naked, in a fucking bar full of drunk men? Is that what you bwanted/b?”

She sniffled and tried to turn her face away again, but I gripped her jaw band /bmade her look at me.

“That man almost raped you, Anna. You understand that, right? That piece of shit would’ve had his way with you if I hadn’t seen you on the damn screen! Is that what you wanted? Is that what you fucking nned when you put on this trashy dress?”

bShe /bpped my hand off her face and red up at me through her tears.

“Why do you care, Ryanb? /bYou made it clear I wasn’t wee anymore, so why the hell do you care what I wear or where I go? Why were you even watching me? Stalking me?”

I blinked.

She shoved my chest. “You kicked me out! You told me to get out of your house, bso /bwhy are you here ying the possessive brother now?!”

That word made my entire body tense.

1/03

She kept going. “This is my life, Ryan! I’ll dress how I want and go wherever the hell I want.”

My jaw clenched so hard I thought my teeth would bshatter/b. I could feel myself losing it.

“That’s why he almost raped you!”

She crossed her arms, her body shaking, but the defiance in her eyes still burned. “At least he wanted me. At least he wasn’t some coward pretending not to want something bhe /bclearly does.”

My breath hitched.

She didn’t say my name, but I knew exactly who the hell she was talking about.

I knew she meant me.

“So now I’m a coward because I haven’t thrown you against a wall and fucked you yet? That’s what you want? That’s what you think desire means, Anna? Letting some stranger grope you in public just because he wasn’t scared to touch you?”

She didn’t answerb, /bbut the way her chin lifted and her jaw stayed tight told me that’s exactly what she thinks

about me.

I bgrowled/bb, /bstepping closer until her back pressed fully to the car, her breaths fast and short. “You think I don’t want you? You think I don’t fucking dream about you? You think I don’t fucking wake up hard every morning wishing I could bend you over and fuck you senseless? Is that it?”

Her lips parted in a gasp, but before she could say anything else, I’d grabbed both her wrists and pinned them over her head with one hand, holding her in ce, and with the other, I crushed my mouth to hers.

My lips devoured her.

I didn’t go slow. I couldn’t. I kissed bher /bwith all the fucking frustration that had built up for weeks, months, years. Everything, I buried. Everything I tried to fight. Everything that burned while she touched me or called my name or just looked at me with those soft, innocent, infuriating eyes.

She kissed me backb. /b

Harder.

Hungrier.

My mouth moved down her neck, savoring the way she trembled. My hand slipped under that short dress, fingers trailing up her thigh, pausing right where her panties started. I didn’t wait. I tugged them aside, found her wet and ready, and my beyes /brolled to the back of my head.

b“/bYou wanted to be desired?” I whispered, breathing hard against her cheek, my fingers breaking her open, dipping into that bsoft/b, wet heat. “You fucking wanted it, bAnna/bb? /bThen feel it. This is me, losing every bit of control I had left. This is me not caring banymore/b.

iShe /i

was a moaning mess now, her thighs trembling, her head thrown back against the car, and my mouth found hers again, silencing every sound she tried to make, letting her feel every inch of the desire she thought I didn’t have.

b“/bI’ve always desired you,” I whispered against her lips. “Always wanted to bend you over the kitchen counter ever since youe. Always wanted to push your bface /binto the couch and slide my hot cock into you from behind until you screamed. But I held back because I fucking respected you.”

My voice broke.

“But if you call that being a coward, Anna… then fuck it.”

“I’ll be the worst fucking bastard you’ve bever /bmet.”

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