Flock (The Ravenhood #1)(38)

I shake my head furiously, tears threatening as I look over to Sean. “That’s not true, Sean, that’s not true.”

Setting his bag down, Sean curses and holds up a finger muting my defense before following Dominic up the stairs. Perplexed, I stand in the kitchen while my carefully planned apology dinner goes up in flames.





I’M ALREADY OUT OF THE house and halfway to my car when Sean catches up to me.

“Cecelia.”

“He’s the fucking devil,” I’m feeling guilty, humiliated, and furious.

“Trust me. He’s not.”

I open my car door and Sean slams it. “Don’t let him fuck us up.”

“I didn’t touch his dick.” I’m lying. I’m lying to him. “I did, but not that way.” Sean’s mouth quirks as I groan in frustration. “Not in a sexual way. He…I did see him naked. This morning. He had his door wide open and he was lying there. Naked. And I saw him.”

Sean’s lips twist up further into a smile. “That bastard would work naked if he could. He’s a nudist. Don’t worry about it.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, really. Is that why you’ve been jumpy today? You thought I’d be pissed?”

“Well, I didn’t know…” I shake my head. “It’s a weird position to be in.”

“Dominic is a master of flipping a situation. It’s nothing new.” He watches me carefully. “Did you like what you saw?”

“W-what?” I gape at him.

“There’s no other way to ask that question, Cecelia.”

He’s not backing down and he can read me, so it’s pointless to lie. I don’t want to lie to Sean.

“He’s attractive, but—”

“The blow job this morning?” He lifts both brows and his smile goes a mile wide. “That was either guilt, or you were hot, or both.”

“Can we talk about how your roommate is the Son of Satan for a second?”

“Deflecting,” he laughs. “Interesting.”

“Shut up. He’s attractive, and he knows it. He’s also several other choice adjectives.”

Sean grips the back of my neck and pulls us nose to nose. “I’m fucking crazy about you. You know that, right? Last night was incredible.”

I return his grin. “Feeling’s mutual. I just didn’t know how to tell you without—”

“It’s okay to look, Cecelia,” he drawls. “And I rather enjoyed that guilty blowjob.”

“I really, really don’t like him.”

“Doesn’t matter.” He releases me. “He lives here, so get in there and finish cooking or he wins.”

“Are you crazy? I’m not going back in there. He twisted my words—”

“You need to stand your ground with him and do it early, or he’ll walk all over you.” It’s an unapologetic order and his tone is borderline militant, much like last night. I deflate a little.

“Sean, how did he know we went to the waterfall?”

Sean’s eyes deaden and he stares on at me blankly. “So, you’re going to let him win.”

“Are you going to answer me?”

His silence is answer enough. I try and read into the look in his eyes, but he’s not backing down. He’s not going to apologize for someone else’s actions. And he damn sure doesn’t want me to play victim. As pissed as I’m getting, he’s absolutely right. If I leave and let everything Dominic says and does get in the way of Sean and me, he will win.

Tossing my shoulders back, I make my way through the cars and head back inside.

“Get ‘em, baby,” I hear Sean chuckle behind me.





Dominic glares at his well-done steak as I bite into a mouthful of salad, not bothering to hide my smile at all.

His eyes meet mine and he lets out a low whistle. Brandy, Sean’s spitz bounds down the stairs as Dominic tosses the whole steak over his shoulder.

“She can’t chew that, asshole,” Sean objects, picking up the steak and tossing it on the counter, using his silverware to slice it up without a cutting board.

Animal.

“Then maybe you should have gotten a real dog, not a fucking shower poof,” Dominic fires back.

I can’t help my giggle. I hadn’t expected such a lady dog when Sean introduced me to Brandy, and I gave him hell for it.

“At least she’s amusing,” Dominic sizes me up. “Do you do tricks too?” He stabs into his broccoli.

Sean gazes on at me expectantly and I briefly entertain throwing my plate at Dominic, but I decide not to waste a good steak.

And anyway, what in the actual fuck is going on? I look between them and see no sign of conspiracy, but why is Sean not defending me? Not even a little. I get that he wants me to stand my ground, but where’s the backup? Shouldn’t he at least say something? Using that anger, I turn to a freshly showered Dominic, his dark hair tousled on top of his head, his skin darker from his run. A smug smile on his beautiful bastard face.

“Look, Major Malfunction, I get that you have some sort of personality disorder, but can you, just until I finish my steak, try to play nice?”

Sean throws his head back. “Major Malfunction. Good one, baby.”