Page 17 of Release Me

I hold up my hands in surrender. “You’re right, it’s not. I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.”

“Until tomorrow night, with the nextwhorewho can’t tell the different between right and left.”

“I’m not gonna be doing this every night.” I don’t think I can handle it. The familiar tingle of regret is settling in. I feel like I’ve cheated on Tasha, even though she’s with other guys.

“Bullshit.” Ryan shakes her head. “I work all day, and I have class four nights a week, plus a shit ton of schoolwork to do on weekends. Some of us don’t get to coast through life drinking and partying. We have to use our brains.”

These verbal lashings are getting tiresome. “I said I was sorry. What else do you want me to say?”

“That you won’t bring home whores!”

“She wasn’t a whore.”

Ryan crosses her arms over her chest, the stance screaming doubt.

“Hey, I might need to get laid every once in a while. Don’t tell me Connor doesn’t bring home girls.”

“He’s at the opposite end of the condo. I have to share a wall with you!”

“Fair enough. I’ll be quieter next time.”

“It’s 2:00 a.m. and I had to listen to some drunk woman scream—practically in myear—for the past half hour. Now I’mgoing to be exhausted. And don’t tell me this isn’t going to happen again. Neither of us are dumb enough to believe that.”

I sigh, my patience wearing thin. This is exactly why I don’t want female roommates. “I’ve barely looked at another girl since Tasha dumped me, and I wasn’t planning on bringing anyone home tonight. It just … happened. I’ll do my best to keep it to a minimum, but I won’t commit to living like a monk.”

I could be mistaken, but I think I see sympathy flicker in Ryan’s eyes. She pauses for a long moment. “I could give you my schedule for when I’m extra busy and you can work around that?”

I burst out in laughter. “Are you serious? I’m not fucking on your schedule, Ryan.” My focus drops to scan her bare legs. They’re short but shapely beneath that oversized, unflattering sleep shirt with the picture of a crab and the wordsI’m crabby in the morningscrawled across it. “Not unless you’re the one in my bed.”

“As if,” she stammers. But her body betrays her, her gaze flickering over my chest, her lips parting with a sharp inhale. She gives her head a shake. “I’m not into your kind.”

“Mykind?” I smirk.

She sets her jaw. “No ambition and low standards.”

I don’t like her tone or her words. They’re laced with disdain, like she’s too good to be with me. I don’t bother bringing up the fact that I have a business degree. I’m guessing she’d use it to prove her point, how a guy with a degree is doing manual labor at a hotel because he lacks ambition. I’ve heard it more than once from Tasha. “That’s right. You like accountants. They’re all so honorable, right?”

Pain flashes in her eyes.

Bringing him up was a jerk move. I open my mouth to apologize?—

“You need a shower. You reek.” Her nose wrinkles with disgust.

I can’t help myself. “That’s because I just finished fucking a woman into three orgasms.” I take a step closer to her. “Have you ever been fucked like that?”Is Ryan quiet or does she scream when she comes?

Her mouth gapes with shock for a split second before her small hand flies out to slap my cheek. With a huff, she storms back to her room.

“Yeah, I didn’t think so.” I chuckle all the way to my bed, ignoring the sting.

I definitely deserved it.

7.Ryan

I’ll bet the prick is sleeping soundly on the other side of this wall.

I stare listlessly at my clock, willing my brain to shut off, but all I can do is replay the events of the night—from waking up to a woman wearing nothing but overpowering perfume slidinginto my bed, to the sound of her lust-filled moans and the repetitive thump of Ronan’s headboard that seemed to go onforever.

That couldn’t have been real. I’ve watched porn before. That’s what she sounded like—like she was being paid to perform. Granted, she was drunk, but still …

---