Sweet Temptation (Sweet #4)(22)

Apart from David, Damon was the closest Micah had allowed anyone. Oh, the guys at work were his buddies. There was no doubt about that. Great friends. He liked them all. But he’d never confided in them anything of his life before his arrival in Houston. Only Damon knew of his relationship with Hannah and that he and David had ... shared her.

Before he was fully out of the truck, he looked up to see Damon standing in the open doorway of his home. He was leaned against the door frame, watching Micah as he walked toward him.

When he was a foot away, Micah stopped and shoved his hands into his jeans pockets. “I need to talk to you, Damon.”

Damon nodded. “Come in. We can go onto the terrace. I hope you won’t mind that Serena will join us in a moment. This is our day together, and I don’t like to be away from her.”

“I don’t want to interrupt,” Micah began.

But Damon ignored him and merely gestured for him to follow. Micah sighed. Damon was a smooth bastard. It surprised Micah that as alike as they were they got along so well. Neither liked to budge, and both were accustomed to doing things their own way.

“Want some coffee to go with all those cigarettes you’ve smoked?” Damon asked as they stepped outside the back.

Micah grimaced. “Smell that bad, huh.”

Damon smiled. “Thought you’d quit? Or was that last week.”

“Fuck you,” Micah grumbled. “I hadn’t had a smoke in three weeks until today, and before that I’d narrowed it down to one or two a day max.”

“So what prompted today’s black lung?”

Damon sat and motioned for Micah to do the same. Micah sank into one of the patio chairs and briefly closed his eyes.

“Have you ever done something that you knew in your bones was unforgivably wrong? Not just a mistake, but something that went against every one of your principles?”

Damon’s expression grew pensive. “I can’t say that I have.”

“It sucks,” Micah said bleakly.

There was a brief hesitation. “What happened?”

Micah struggled with what to say, how to say it. And then he figured there was no pretty way to put it.

“I pretty much raped Angelina at The House last night.”

To Damon’s credit, he didn’t react. He didn’t say anything, nor did his expression change. He just waited.

Micah related the entire episode, from the time he walked in to see the three men with Angelina to the time he tossed her over the end of the couch and f**ked her. Without a condom.

“You lost control.”

“I raped her.”

Damon shook his head. “Even Angelina refutes that. You said so yourself. She wanted what happened.”

“I didn’t give her a choice. Goddamn it, Damon. What we do is all about choice. We take, we take a hell of a lot from a woman, but it’s because she chooses to give it. I’m demanding. I like submissive women. Completely and utterly submissive. But never, never have I ever lost control like that. Never have I hurt a woman.”

“Have you spoken to Angelina? Told her all this?” Damon asked.

Micah sighed. “It’s complicated. I get the feeling ... I get that she wants more from me. What I mean is that she wants something I can’t give her. And I won’t use her as some sexual toy. She deserves better than that. I don’t understand my reaction to her. I’ve had women since Hannah. I’ve enjoyed women. But with Angelina there is something that I just can’t explain. It’s not fun and laid back with her. It’s not sexy and casual. I can’t be around her and not want to take her over. I have such dark thoughts. And goddamn it, Damon, she’s David’s sister. Of all the women in the world, she is off-limits.”

Why?”

Micah stared at him like he’d lost his mind. “What the hell do you mean, ‘why’? It’s self-explanatory. Hell, she lived with me and David and Hannah for a year. She’s ... family.”

“She’s not family, Micah. She’s your best friend’s sister. Big difference.”

“I can’t believe you’re being so calm about this,” Micah muttered. “For God’s sake, Damon, I raped a woman in your damn club.”

“Is that why you came? You want me to punish you? Want me to kick you out and tell you never to come back? I’d say you’re doing a good enough job of beating up yourself. You don’t need my help.”

Micah let out a sound of frustration.

“Go home and talk to Angelina, Micah. I get that this has knocked you for a loop, but what you did wasn’t rape. She was willing. Very willing, I’d say. Are you going to sit there and tell me you’ve never f**ked a woman when she was tied up and helpless under your hands?”

“Uh maybe I should come back,” Serena whispered from behind them.

Both men turned to see her standing there, her expression unsure as if she was afraid of intruding. Micah gentled his expression, not wanting to put her off.

She glanced down self-consciously at her silk robe that fell to mid-calf, and Micah knew that was all she had on. Her feet were bare, but Damon always teased her about her love of being bare-footed.

Damon simply held out a hand to her, and she walked over to kneel beside him. She laid her head on his lap and rubbed her cheek lovingly over his thigh.