One

Kye—Twenty-One Years Old

June 1

I bent down to pick up my keys, placing a hand on the door to steady myself. Swaying, I caught myself before I fell over. Fucking hell, the keys were moving. I squinted hard and tried to focus. Slowly, I reached down and grabbed the keys. Success. Standing back up, I managed to find the right key and jam it into the lock on the door.

When the door swung open, the sweet smell of Genesis hit me, and, damn, I loved it when she made my childhood home smell like her in the summers. Stepping inside, I grinned, then stumbled and had to grab on to the side table by the door to keep from falling over. I should have stopped after the fifth shot of tequila. But, damn, those tits with that little shot glass between them had been too fucking tempting.

“Honey, I’m home,” I called out, dropping the keys and hearing them clatter to the floor.

Silence.

I made my way to the living room. It was dark. Where the hell was Genesis? It was my birthday. Leaning against the wall, I groaned as things began to spin. Slapping my hand around until I found the light switch, I slowly opened my eyes against the sudden brightness. Maybe I should have left the lights off.

My gaze locked on the coffee table, covered in all our favorite snacks. The cupcakes in the middle brought a goofy grin to my face. She’d stuck a candle in the center one again this year. I liked that new addition to our tradition.

“Baby Doll! Where are you? I’m ready for movie night,” I yelled and managed to make it to the sofa without tripping over the other furniture.

Sinking down on the worn leather, I sighed in contentment. This was what I had been missing tonight. Sure, the drinking, strip club, and fucking had been great, but I did that pretty regularly. My birthday movie night with Genesis was special.

I laid my head back on the sofa and closed my eyes. She’d be in here soon. I just had to wait. She was probably getting a shower. I loved the way her hair smelled after she used that coconut shampoo. I needed to bury my nose in it, listen to her laughter, feel her snuggled up against me as we watched one of the horror movies we already knew word for word.

Happy birthday to me.

The pounding in my head made opening my eyes a bad idea, but my fucking mouth was so dry that I couldn’t swallow. I needed water. Groaning, I rolled over and realized I wasn’t in a bed. Where was I, and how much had I had to drink? Jesus Christ, I felt like I’d been hit by a truck.

“Here,” my favorite voice in the world said. “Drink.”

My eyes opened, and Genesis sat on the edge of the coffee table, holding a glass of water. A smile curled across my lips. The sight of her was a relief.

“Baby Doll.” My voice sounded gravelly and hoarse.

She gave me a tight smile that concerned me. What was wrong? I sat up and took the glass of water from her and drank it all down while studying her. Something was off, and if I wasn’t so fucking hungover, I’d know what it was.

Had I done something or said something last night? Why was I here anyway?

“You okay?” I asked her, trying to remember why I was on the sofa.

She laughed softly and shook her head, then stood up. “I’ll get you some toast and an aspirin.”

I reached out and grabbed her wrist, stopping her. She was acting weird. It wasn’t like I hadn’t shown up here drunk before. That shouldn’t have been an issue. Unless … fuck, had I come on to her? I winced, thinking about it.

“What’s wrong, Baby Doll?” I asked her, trying like hell to remember last night.

The last thing that I could clearly recall was drinking shots out of Chyna’s cleavage. Levi held her big, fake tits together while I drank from the shot glass between them. Then … oh, wait. I also remembered Levi spanking her ass with his belt, then me kissing the welts before fucking her from behind. She’d sucked Levi off, and then he’d left. I thought we’d fucked again after. Things got blurry.

Genesis sighed, and the tight smile she’d been giving me just looked sad now. My chest tightened. What had I done?

Think, Kye! Fucking think!

She was upset. I’d messed up somehow.

“I’m fine. Let me get you something to help with your hangover, and then we can talk.”

I shook my head. “No. I want to talk now. You’re upset, and if I did something, then I need to fucking know so I can fix it.” Standing up, I winced as the pain in my head sliced through me.

She narrowed her eyes as she looked at me. “Do you remember last night?” she asked me.

I stalled. I wasn’t going to give her details on what I did remember. We joked around about my sex life, but that was it. She knew little about what I did with women. I had never even told her about my four cock piercings. That was just shit you didn’t tell your girl best friend.

“Not all of it,” I admitted.

She simply nodded and looked away from me. This was not good. I was going to have to spend the summer making this up to her, whatever it was. The summer … holy fucking hell! My gaze swung back to the coffee table, where the snacks had been last night. I remembered them. The table had been full. The cupcakes, the candle. Motherfucker!

I shoved my hand in my hair, furious with myself. The pain in my chest was now worse than the pounding headache. “Baby Doll, I am so sorry. I drank too much. Fuck.” I closed my eyes, trying to find the right words.

“It was your twenty-first birthday. You went out with friends and got drunk. That’s what people do. It’s fine. I shouldn’t have expected you to come back here. That was silly.”

No, please stop talking. She was killing me.

“Don’t do that. Do not let me off the hook like that. I can’t handle it.”

I opened my eyes to look at her perfect face. Her heart-shaped mouth with the beauty mark right above the corner of her lip, the slightly upturned nose, and those aquamarine-colored eyes. It was painful sometimes to see just how beautiful she was.

“I’m not letting you off the hook. It’s just the facts. No reason to get worked up over it.”

“You are upset. It’s all over your face. I fucking hate myself,” I said, reaching out and pulling her to me in a hug.

She smelled so good. This was what I’d needed last night. Why had I drunk so damn much?

“We can celebrate tonight. Have our tradition with me sober and right here with you all damn day.”

That was what we needed. What I needed. I wasn’t going to feel right without it.

“I can’t,” she said against my chest.

I pulled back and looked down at her. “Why not? You’ve already got all the stuff. We don’t need to waste it. Besides, I want my cupcake, and I need to blow out my candle and make a wish.”

She let out a soft laugh. “We can do that this morning. And I packaged up all the snacks and put them in a bag for you to take.”

“No!” I said, shaking my head.

I wasn’t fucking taking anything. We were eating them right here on this damn sofa. She was going to curl up next to me as we watched movies.

“We’re having our movie night.”

Genesis sighed and stepped back from me. “I’m leaving, Kye. I’m going to take the summer semester at school.”

My world felt like it had just stopped spinning. Panic sank its claws into me.

“What? You’re leaving me because I messed up last night? I’m sorry! I swear to God, I will make it up to you all summer. I’m yours. We will have movie nights every night. I won’t get drunk or go to the strip club. Just you and me.”

Genesis put her hand on my chest, and I reached up and covered it with both of mine. She had to stay. All I got of her anymore was the summers. I could convince her.

“It’s not about last night. I registered for it back in April. I was going to tell you, but you’ve been busy, and we haven’t seen much of each other since I got here three weeks ago. You’ve got a lot going on and I get that. This was something I’d been considering since last summer. I left most of my things at my apartment back in Savannah. I thought I’d get a chance to talk to you about it, but you canceled on me last week. You had to handle an issue with the underworld and all. Anyway, I planned on discussing it with you last night. But …” She gave me that sad smile again. “I start my job tonight. I have to leave in an hour if I’m going to get there in time.”

She was leaving me. The only light I had in my world was really walking out that door. And it was my fault. She’d been here for three weeks, and we had barely had time together. I’d been busy, but even when I could have made time for her, I hadn’t. As much as I hated it, she had a life in Savannah. One with friends and a job. Here, I was the only thing she had, and the deeper I got into the workings of the family, the less time I had to be with her. I wanted her happy more than I wanted my next breath. Even if it meant letting her leave me.

“I’m gonna miss you so fucking much,” I told her. The thick emotion in my voice was impossible to mask.

She turned her hand over and clasped mine in hers. “I’ll miss you too. But life is changing for both of us. You’ll always be my best friend. Even if we aren’t in the same city.”

I pulled her back to me and wrapped my arms around her.

Genesis Stoll had been the best thing in my life since the day she’d walked into my backyard and ruined my eighth birthday party. Every good memory I had, she was in it. When life got dark, she was the thing I reached for to keep me sane. I was selfish with her. I always had been. This time, I wasn’t going to be. I loved her too much to hold her back.