With Extreme Pleasure Read Free Page B

anyway.”
    His gut tightened up again, her voice was so small, so fragile. “Who was it?”
    “Alice’s boyfriend, Tyler.”
    Heat flared behind his eyes. “Are you going to tell me what happened? In case I run into him on the stairs? I’ll need to know whether I should let him pass or dump him over the banister.”
    It was the first time since she’d climbed into the SUV’s front seat that he’d seen her smile. At least it looked like a smile. It was hard to distinguish the movement of her mouth from the grimace that followed when she brought her fingers to her split lip.
    “We were drinking last night. Me and Alice and Tyler and Renee.”
    “Renee’s the third roommate,” he guessed, and Cady nodded to confirm.
    “I woke up around four to pee, and realized Tyler was in my bed. He was passed out, but neither one of us were dressed. I grabbed my panties and T-shirt from the floor and ran to the bathroom. Alice gave me this”—she said, pointing to her lip—“while I was sitting on the toilet.”
    Christ Almighty. “Did he rape you?”
    “I don’t think so. Things didn’t smell like sex, if you know what I mean, and I wasn’t sore or raw, not that I necessarily would be.”
    Yeah, definitely TMI. All of it.
    “But I really don’t think we had sex. Tyler was wasted long before I even started drinking. And he was still going at it when I went to bed. If he was able to get it up after that, then Alice’s one lucky girl.”
    King had thought before that something was wrong, but this was even too weird for him. “The sex thing. It’s not a big deal? Not knowing if you were raped?”
    “Like I said. I doubt Tyler did more than crawl into the wrong bed. The clothes thing, I don’t know about. Last night’s not a blur, it doesn’t even register.”
    “At least until four A.M. ”
    As if she had no intention of leaving her seat, Cady pulled both of her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. “The bashing hour.”
    King wasn’t much for coaxing, but if that’s what it was going to take…“What happened after Alice hit you?”
    “She hit me again. And again. Renee finally dragged her out of the bathroom long enough for me to wipe and pull up my underwear. By then, Tyler was up stumbling around, deflecting Alice’s accusations that he’d been after me for months and telling her I’d seduced him. He slapped me once, called me a liar when I told him he was full of shit.”
    “Had he? Been after you for months?”
    Cady shrugged, the motion small. “It’s news to me if it’s true. I’m hardly ever home to see any of them. I work long hours. I go out with friends.”
    “Your roommates aren’t friends?”
    “We’re friendly, but we don’t hang out.”
    “Who do you hang out with?”
    “Depends on the occasion. Girls I work with, usually. One who works at the coffee shop on the corner.”
    “Then why climb into my truck instead of going to one of them?”
    She cut her gaze up to his. “None of them were leaving town.”
    “A girl beat you up because she thought you slept with her boy toy. And you’re leaving town?” Yeah, she’d given him a story, but it wasn’t making sense in the scheme of the other things going on here.
    No one left town because of a split lip, a busted cheek, and a hellacious black eye. Move out, sure. Lay low, keep her distance, disappear, okay. That he could see.
    But hitching a ride to Louisiana—or a yet-to-be-determined point along the way—was taking things way too far considering she wasn’t even friends with the jerkwads who’d done the job on her face.
    Before he could press further, Cady jumped from the Hummer and hurried down the sidewalk to the stoop. Hands in the pockets of her sweatshirt, she jogged up the short flight of stairs, stopping when she got to the door.
    She looked back, her eyes big and wide and scared as she met his gaze. “You coming with me or not?”
    He slammed the door she’d left open, set the locks and the alarm