1. Ethan #2
"Who's the woman?" Brax asks. He's got his VP voice on, the one he uses when he's already three steps ahead of the conversation, gathering facts before he decides what to do with them.
"She's my girl. Cassie."
Shadow doesn't say anything at first, just watches her across the room, his arms folded, the way he watches everything. It’s like he's cataloguing angles and exits without meaning to.
"Where do I know her from," he says finally. It’s not a question, more like he's talking to himself.
"Funeral. Older photo. Can't place whose. "
"A funeral?" I laugh, but neither of them laughs back. "You've never met her. She's not from around here."
"Big affair, whatever it was," Brax says, half to Shadow, half to me. "It had money written all over it. The flowers alone would've cost more than my bike."
"I don't know what you're talking about. She keeps to herself, she doesn't talk about her family, and she's never set foot in this clubhouse before tonight." I can feel my jaw tightening. "Where's this going?"
"Where'd you meet her?" Brax again, same even tone, like he's filling out a form.
"What is this, twenty questions? You do this to every prospect who brings a girl through that door, or just me?" I look between them. "She means something to me. I brought her here to meet my family, not to get interrogated."
"Nobody's interrogating anybody." Shadow's voice doesn't change, it doesn't rise. It never does. "It’s just an itch. I'll scratch it later."
"I met her at the bar in town. Caught my eye and I never let her go." I look back over at her, laughing with Rosie, and whatever's sitting cold in my stomach eases off a little just from watching her. "She's it for me. That's all you need to know tonight."
"Fair enough." Brax claps a hand on my shoulder, and just like that the VP voice softens back into something closer to a brother's. "Enjoy your night, prospect. Buy the woman another drink."
They walk off, and I watch their backs for a second, that itch Shadow mentioned is now crawling under my own skin too. I shake it off and go find my girl.
Cassie comes back flushed and laughing. She grabs a fistful of my shirt and pulls me down into a kiss that erases every thought Brax and Shadow just put in my head. My hands find her waist by instinct.
"Get me out of here," she says against my mouth.
"Yeah? You want to see my room?"
"I want to try your bed." She grins at me, and I don't need telling twice. I sweep her up and she wraps her legs around me, laughing into my neck while half the room hollers and whistles behind us. I don't slow down for any of it.
I get her up the stairs and kick my door shut behind us, setting her down on the edge of my bed slowly, like she's something I don't want to rush, even though every part of me wants exactly that.
"You sure about this?" I ask her, brushing a strand of hair off her face. "Being here, all of it. It's a lot to take in one night."
"I've never been more sure of anything." She reaches up and pulls me down by my collar. "Stop talking, Ethan."
I laugh against her mouth and give her what she wants.
My hands find the hem of her sweater and drag it up slowly, and she lifts her arms to help me, shivering when the cold air hits her skin before my mouth does.
I kiss down the line of her throat, over her collarbone, and she arches into me, her fingers threading into my hair and pulling just hard enough to sting.
"Ethan." My name in her mouth sounds like a prayer and a warning.
I get her out of her bra and just look at her for a second, because I don't think I'll ever stop needing that second, the one where I remind myself this is real, and she's mine.
She reaches for my belt, impatient, and I let her have that, let her drag my jeans down while I work her out of the rest of hers, until there's nothing left between us but heat and want and the string of lights leaking gold through my window.
I lay her back and settle over her, and she wraps her legs around my hips like she's done it a hundred times, pulling me in until there's no space left for anything but the two of us.
I go slow at first, just enough to watch her face change, watch her mouth fall open and her hips rise to meet mine, and when she whispers my name again, I stop being able to go slow.
"You feel that?" I say against her ear, rougher now, chasing the rhythm she's setting under me. "That's you and me. Nobody else gets this."
"Just you," she breathes, nails dragging down my back. "Only you, Ethan."
I bury my face in her neck and let her pull the last of my control apart, her body tightening around mine until she comes apart underneath me, gasping my name loud enough that I know the whole hallway hears it and I don't care one bit.
I follow her a few strokes later, groaning into her hair, holding her through it like I could keep the whole world out with just my arms.
Afterwards she curls into my side, tracing lazy circles on my chest, and I press a kiss to the top of her head and think that whatever Brax and Shadow think they half remember, it doesn't matter.
Nothing that happened before tonight matters.
She's here, she's mine, and downstairs my whole family is one door away, waiting to love her the way I already do.
I just wish the itch in my own gut would let me believe that as easily as I want to.