Page 42 of On Your Knees

When I pull out, I pull her tutu down before stepping back on wobbly legs with a chuckle.

She pushes up straighter and comes to stand in front of me. “You were perfect, sweetheart.”And she bops me on my nose.“Such a good boy.”

My smile almost breaks my face. Good boy and sweetheart—fuck me, her words make me weak. Who would have thought I would love praise so much, but it strokes my ego to hear her say I did a good job.

With that, the masked men whisk her away, and I watch them vanish. I’m on cloud nine as I get dressed and leave the carnival, the gates already open when I reach them.

I’m no longer a virgin. Arlo Atlas Kross can stop being embarrassed about the fact that he was a twenty-three-year-old virgin. Did I fuck a stranger for content? Sure, but it wasn’t as if I was saving my virginity for the love of my life. I was a fucking pussy who got embarrassed over one stupid sexual encounter that still haunts me to this day.

I get into the old beat-up shitbox my mom bought me for my eighteenth birthday. It’s my pride and joy because I know how hard she worked to save up for it, even though I insisted I didn’t need a car. I blast the stereo and sing at the top of my lungs all the way home—I swear no one could ruin my mood tonight. As I pull up to the curb, all the lights in the house are off, meaning Mom is at work already. “I Got a Feeling” by the Black Eyed Peas is playing as I turn off my car, and I hum the tune as I walk up to my door.

Tonight was a damn good night.

Chapter Sixteen

Ridge

Mistakes are a funny thing; in hindsight, you know what you should have done. Can it really be a mistake when it’s something you want so fucking badly, yet the mistake is because it goes against everything you believe in?

I should never have watched Aspen on the security cameras; it has become an obsession. She dances around my house in her underwear, cleaning, even though we have a housekeeper. I know she does it because she enjoys being watched; she is vocal about it, which only feeds my obsession.

I should never have watched her and Zeland fuck. It just made the itch worse. And I should definitely nothave come down to observe her with Arlo. Seeing her like that—it took a lot of willpower not to step in and pull the mask from her face simply so I could see how she looks when she comes.

But these are all mistakes I can learn from.

“Are you ready?” Zeland asks, popping his head into my room as I pull my tie into place. I nod, though I can think of a hundred things I would rather do than attend Carmichael’s birthday party.

“Good, let’s get this party started.”

I don’t dignify that with a response. For Zeland, any excuse to party is all he needs. We walk downstairs together, and I shake my head at him in a tux with his stupid shoes. I still haven’t forgiven him for making me wear them to a meeting with Ford, which actually went surprisingly well. His girlfriend sat in the corner, whispering with Aspen, and I still haven’t asked what they were talking about, even though I watched discretely the entire time while one of her boyfriends, Zeph, explained a minor flaw in our security systems. He claims he found it by accident. Accident my ass—Ford has wanted to meet with me for a while, and he finally found a way to score one.

I pause at the top of the stairs, staring at Aspen, who stands at the bottom dressed in a tight black halter dress with a gold strip around the middle. Her hair is pulled into a high ponytail and her makeup gives her a seductive look. I blink a few times to disperse the lust.

“She looks fucking hot, right?”

I clear my throat. “You invited her?”

“Of course I did—I’m not getting stuck with the snake. I told your father I had a date.”

“Will you two old ladies hurry already? Lenny is going to be there tonight, and we have things to talk about.”

“Lenny?” I ask Zeland, and he laughs.

“Elena—Ford’s girl.”

That weasel is using his woman to get to mine. No, notmine,but he knows what he’s doing and I don’t like it one bit.

“Calm down,” Zee whispers. “Lenny was just telling her how she met Ford and the others. It’s actually a funny story.”

“Don’t care,” I snap as I reach the bottom step. Zee pushes past me and takes Aspen by the arm, then leads her outside to where Malachi is waiting.

I need to get myself in check; I don’t lust after women—I barely ever fuck them. They are a complication I do not need, nor want. Yet day by day Aspen gets under my fucking skin. She is an enigma—one I want to break apart, then put back together just to see how everything fits. And I really don’t like not knowing what makes a person tick, especially when they are close to me. It leaves me vulnerable, and that makes you weak.

Zee helps Aspen into the limo, and I slide in after them. I pull out my phone and mindlessly scroll through all my unopened emails to stop myself from staring as Zee tips champagne into Aspen’s mouth. They both laugh, and as I look up, Zee is licking the liquid from the side of her neck. I’m not jealous—if I want Zee, he’ll come running, but it takeseverything in me not to spread her legs and feast before we arrive as I try not to wonder how she would feel beneath me.

With a shake of my head, I look back down at my phone. I’m Ridge Ellington, and I do not fantasize about strays in the back of limos—that is not who I am. People fall at my feet and beg for whatever scraps I’m willing to give them.

Malachi pulls up to the obnoxious mansion that Carmichael lives in, where everything is over the top, and I know tonight it’s going to be so much worse.

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