“London’s looking for you, Melanie,” I lied blandly. “She told you not to come out here, remember? There’s a reason for that. It’s not safe.”

“Perfectly safe with me around, babe,” Taz said, eyes dancing. I didn’t think he was seriously interested in her, but he was definitely getting off on annoying me. Fucker. He was one of Hunter’s brothers, and they’d never liked me. Em might be Hunter’s old lady now, but at one point she’d been mine for the taking. He hated me for that.

I’d hated him, too—he’d stolen her away from me. Looking at Mel, though . . . Fuck, what had I ever seen in Em?

“I probably should get back to the party,” she said slowly. Yeah. No shit.

“Fantastic,” I said, catching her arm and pulling her toward me. Taz laughed behind us as I dragged her off, not toward the gate in the back of the wall but around the side of the courtyard wall, into the darkness. She stumbled along beside me for a few, then tugged on my arm as we rounded the back corner.

Nobody could see us here.

“Hey,” she said. I ignored her, my blood pressure too high already. I could smell her in the darkness. Actually smell her. She wasn’t wearing heavy perfume or anything, but she smelled like oranges and spice and nice . . . What the fuck was wrong with me?

“Hey,” she said again, jerking on my arm hard this time. I stopped, turning on her abruptly. She took a step back, hitting the wall. “This isn’t the way back to the party.”

“You’re not going back to the party.”

She cocked her head, and I saw the confusion in her alcohol-glazed eyes as she wrinkled her nose at me. All cute, like a rabbit.

“You look like a bunny.”

“You look like an ax murderer,” she said, frowning. “And I thought London was looking for me. Aren’t we going the wrong way?”

“I lied. I do that a lot,” I told her, staring at her lips. I reached out, catching her chin in my hand, running my thumb across her lips. Our eyes locked, and I don’t know if her pulse started to rise but mine sure as fuck did. What the hell had I been thinking, writing to this girl? She was so pretty and perfect and had this amazing, magical life just waiting for her and all I could think about was dragging her down into the dirt and shoving my cock into every hole she had.

She’d scream while I did it, too, the same sweet screams that played in my head every night while I jacked off.

I hated myself.

“Why did you lie?” she asked, her voice a whisper.

“To get you away from Taz. It’s not safe with him.”

Mel’s forehead creased in confusion, her brain moving so slowly I could practically see the wheels turning behind her eyes. She might be smart as fuck most of the time, but she’d transitioned to drunker than fuck tonight. Kit. Kit and Em. They’d done this to her.

I leaned in closer, catching her scent. For an instant I swayed, so tempted . . .

“They told me all about you,” she whispered.

“Who?”

“The other girls. Kit, Em. Jessica. I know how you operate,” she continued. One of her hands rose, touching my chest. Fire burst through me, because if I’d wanted her before I was desperate for her now. She was so soft, so sweet . . . so perfect.

Then her words sank in.

“What did you just say?”

“They told me all about you,” she said, eyes dropping to stare at my lips. “They told me you have a Madonna-whore complex.”

I froze.

“A what?”

“A Madonna-whore complex,” she repeated, her voice earnest. “You like to screw dirty girls and you put clean girls on pedestals, where they can stay perfect and pure. That’s pretty messed up, Painter. There’s no such thing as Madonnas and whores. We’re all just people.”

The words stunned me. What the hell was she talking about? Just because I didn’t want her dragged down in the drama and bullshit of this life didn’t mean I had some sort of fucking complex. And who the hell were the Hayes sisters to have an opinion? I couldn’t tell what pissed me off more—the fact that they’d talked to Mel about me or that they hadn’t done a better job of scaring her off.

She wasn’t supposed to be here.

“Kit and Em are crazy, and that friend of yours—Jessica? She’s like a car crash. You don’t belong here, Mel.”

“And where do I belong?”

“With some nice kid who’ll treat you like a queen and work his ass off to give you everything perfect for the rest of your life.” The words were practically a growl.

Her eyes widened.

“What if I don’t want perfect?”

“Too fucking bad, because that’s what you’re getting.”

“Excuse me?” she said, her voice hardening. I saw a flash of anger in her eyes—good. Maybe it would clear her head enough to pull it out of her ass.

“I’m taking you home and you aren’t coming back out here again. And you can stay the fuck away from Em and Kit. Hell, you should stay away from Jessica, too. Why are you two sharing a place, anyway?”

“What do you want from me?” she asked softly, her lips moving against my thumb, which had somehow started sliding back and forth without my permission. I took a deep breath, looking into her face. Christ, but she was beautiful. Dusky skin, thick, dark brown eyelashes and all that hair I wanted to wrap around my hands while I skull-fucked her.