Page 19 of Primal

Now, it was morning time, and I was freaking out. It wasn’t just about what happened, what Mason did. It was the way I felt about it. How much I enjoyed it.

The man was my stepdad. He was married to mymom.

I might have fantasied about him while touching myself yesterday, but it was a completely different thing to engage in a sexual act with him. I was a terrible person and guilt weighed heavily on my shoulders as I sat on the bed where Mason had fingered me last night. Just remembering it made me tingle between my legs.

I want to do it again.

Hell, I wanted to do more with him, and that increased my guilt by leaps and bounds. It didn’t stop the desire from flooding my body, though.

The one thing I didn’t feel guilty about was Joey, and it wasn’t because Mason didn’t really give me a choice. I didn’t feel bad for cheating on Joey. I didn’t even care he was drugged.

Both of those things should have bothered the hell out of me, if I still cared about Joey the way that I should. And that was the crux of the problem. Idid notcare about him enough. He killed the deep feelings I had for him the moment I saw him on that couch with his neighbor. I tried to recapture the love I’d felt for him to that point, but it was a lost cause.

We were done. All that was left was to officially end it.

Despite being seemingly drunk last night at dinner, he wasn’t hungover this morning when he got up, which confirmed Mason had somehow drugged him.

I encouraged him to go eat while I took a shower. I needed the time to think.

A small part of me wanted to postpone the conversation until after our three-day stay at the cabin, just to avoid any awkwardness. But I couldn't keep up the facade any longer. As I left the bedroom, I noticed the doors to the other two rooms were closed. It was a relief - if my dad and Mason were still sleeping, I could talk to Joey in private. When I entered the kitchen, Joey was already there, sipping on a cup of coffee. He had been downstairs for at least thirty minutes, but he didn't seem to have made anything to eat yet.

“Hey, babe. Can you make me eggs?” he asked, giving me a glimpse of the charming smile that had gotten him in good graces too many times in the past.

I paused halfway through the living room and stared at him as a realization hit me. Joey had alwaysusedme. Looking back on our relationship for the past six months, I could see it so clearly now. He was always so selfish, and I was the idiot who’d allowed it. I took care of him from the beginning. Acts of service were a part of my love language and the moment I started to develop feelings for Joey, I began doing things for him. I cooked and cleaned and gave him gifts. I helped him anytime he needed it and I went out of my way to make his life easier.

And what did he really do for me? He said he loved me but dragged his feet in moving forward in our relationship. He cheated on me, and I didn’t truly believe I walked in on the only time that it happened.

“No,” I said, folding my arms across my chest. “I won’t be making you breakfast. I think we need to talk.”

Joey frowned. “What did I do wrong now?”

My eyebrows shot up. “Does there have to be something new? I mean, it’s been hardly more than a week since I caught you balls deep in that slut.”

“You’re still upset about that?”

I let out a humorless laugh as I shook my head, remembering what Mason said about how I deserved better. “Of course I’m still upset about it! You cheated on me. Inevershould have brought you along this week.”

“You promised to give me another chance,” he snapped.

“Yeah, because you promised me you’d make things up to me while we were here. You swore you were a changed man. But we’ve been here for days, and you haven’t really tried at all.”

I knew he expected me to just fold, to accept what little affection he gave me and be happy for it. Maybe in the past, I would have. But I felt stronger now, and I was done with him.

“You expect me to grovel the entire time we’re here? How is that fun for me? You’re being so selfish.”

“We’re over.”

There really wasn’t anything else to say, but Joey didn’t seem to understand that.

“Well, we’re still stuck here for a couple of days,” he said, smirking as his eyes trailed lazily down my body. “We might as well keep fucking. There’s not much else to do, and you are a decent lay.”

A decent lay?

Yep, dumping this asshole was the best decision I’d made in a long time. I was just about to open my mouth and tell him where to shove his crude suggestion when my dad’s voice came from the bottom of the staircase.

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

I turned in his direction, wondering how much he heard. He was glaring at Joey like he wanted to throttle him, so I was guessing he heard enough.