Free Take (Need #2) by K.I. Lynn, N. Isabelle Blanco

to offer me any kind of distraction.
    Not that studying a foreign language is actually doing anything. I thought it’d be enough to help me forget. Clearly, I was wrong.
    I chew on my thumbnail and stare at my dark computer screen.
    Just one look. A single peek and my curiosity will go away, right?
    I drag my laptop closer and turn it on. Approximately thirty seconds later, I find myself on Facebook, pulling up a profile I haven’t checked in forever.
    Brayden Hunt.
    Amid what has to be close to a thousand birthday posts, I see a picture that Ryan posted and tagged. It’s just him, Dana, and Brayden in the picture. They seem to be at some bar.
    The picture is totally different from what I expected to see. They seem to just be chilling instead of hardcore partying. The caption reads: “Had a blast with my boy on his twenty-first.”
    Had?
    The picture was posted almost two hours ago.
    So, the party is over? Ryan and Dana probably went off to do their own thing then.
    Brayden . . . I refuse to think about it. In the back of my head, I know what he’s most likely doing right now.
    It hurts to think that.
    Fuck! It actually still hurts.
    Footsteps sound out, coming up the stairs.
    Wait. Mom and Steve are supposed to be gone until tomorrow. They’ve been going out on more getaways lately. A desperate attempt to save their failing marriage.
    Curious, I get up and open the door to my room.
    Brayden stops just outside his bedroom door, fingers on the buttons of his black dress shirt.
    He’d been midway through unbuttoning it.
    My eyes slide down the length of him, pausing on the bared skin of his chest. I should look away. At the very least, be more discreet.
    I can’t. His smooth skin calls to me. If it was up to me, I’d lick every part of his chest, then move lower.
    “Kira.” His voice is strained. Probably because I’m eye-fucking him shamelessly.
    I swallow and look up into his eyes. “What are you doing home?”
    A smirk tugs at the corner of his mouth. “What? I can’t come home early on my birthday?”
    That smirk of his is too fucking sexy. Paired with that black, half-buttoned shirt and those black dress pants, he’s one fine looking man.
    Holy shit. It’s official —t he little boy I met so many years ago is now legally a man .
    I look away, throat tight, and jerk my shoulder in a shrug. “I figured you’d want to party all night since it’s your twenty-first.”
    “Nah.”
    My head jerks back in his direction. “Nah?”
    He shrugs and throws me this adorable little smile.
    I cross my arms and repeat my question. “Why are you here?”
    “The one thing I truly wanted for my birthday wasn’t there.” He looks straight into my eyes as he says it.
    I inhale sharply, trying to hide it, trying to ignore everything I feel. I can’t ask him what he really wants because I’m afraid I already know the answer to that.
    He lifts his hand and runs his fingers through his hair. It’s a slow movement. Almost deliberate.
    My eyes lock on the inside of his wrist.
    For the last few weeks, he’s been walking around wearing that leather cuff. The one that drove me insane, made me want to rip it off so I could sink my teeth into the inside of his wrist.
    There’s something on the inside of his wrist all right, and it’s not my teeth marks.
    It’s ink. A tattoo.
    A dark, gray adorable cat. But it’s not the cat itself that shocks the breath out of me.
    I only see it for a few seconds, and I’m standing at least five feet away from him, but I still make out the cat’s eyes.
    The unique color of those eyes.
    A color both I and my brother share.
    One last smile from Brayden. “Goodnight, Kitty.” Turning, he walks into his room and slowly closes the door.
    He doesn’t lock it.
    The urge to follow him into his room leaves me shaking. I don’t know how I manage to get back into my room, but when I do, I make sure I lock the door, hoping it’ll be enough to deter me.
    To keep me inside.
    To stop me from