A.J. Kinsey knew he was never meant to love until he meets the one woman he'll break all the Cheaters Club rules for...even if it leaves him broken.
written by @MarriedtoArod
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Everything is black.
I'd believe I was dead if my eyelids didn't weigh a thousand pounds, and my muscles didn't ache like the day after a three hour full body workout at the gym. Where am I? It wouldn't be the first time I'd passed out somewhere and didn't know where I was when I came to.
"Is he alive?" The voice is soft, delicate—I don't recognize it.
"Machiko, of course he's alive. No one ever died from sex." That voice I know. Marissa. I'm at The Cheaters Club—the past twenty-four hours wasn't some nightmarish wet dream. But I'm too damn tired from an all nighter and this morning's marathon pump fest to get up.
"You've never had a session with Ms. Penderghast before." The low, raspy voice belongs to Nyla.
"No one's died—"
"—yet."
"You should've warned him, Nyla—"
"—it was a test."
"A test? Nyla, you're evil."
"A test he happened to pass. The boy's a rock star. He's probably as good as Holden," Nyla says.
"Wait, wait." Marissa's voice hums with amusement. "Was that a compliment? Oh, Machiko, I do believe someone has a crush." The girls giggle. "She hasn't slept with—"
"I can hear you," I mutter, but I might as well be on another planet for how heated the argument becomes.
"—shut it, Marissa. We can't all be like you."
"What's that supposed to—"
"Okay, okay, I'm up," I say, forcing my eyelids open. Bright light offends my vision partially blocked by three blurry bobble heads hovering over me. "Can't a guy sleep? I'm exhausted."
Marissa's mischievous face comes into focus. She taps her cheek with her finger. "And why is that, Mr. Kinsey?"
"Don't make me show you. I'm tired, but not that tired."
"Ladies, I do believe that's an offer." Marissa leans over the back of the couch, her red locks tumbling over her shoulder, and grins at me. Machiko, quiet and reserved has traded her pale complexion for one tinged with pink.
I sneak a glance at Nyla, but again with the bored face. It's more telling than she knows—the more time I spend with her, it becomes more apparent she's not as good at hiding her thoughts as she thinks. Nyla crosses her arms over her chest and catches me watching her. For a moment, if you can call it that because it's gone in a flicker, the cold-as-ice-woman melts.
"I think A.J. needs a cold shower. He has business with Holden before dinner." And then it's gone and the ice queen is back.
Machiko and Marissa groan, but my gaze remains locked on Nyla. I will break through that hard exterior...in more ways than one.
