Page 217 of Five Brothers

My skin burns for him. My arms feel empty already.

“Macon …” I groan, arching my back and letting my head fall so he can suck on me. I hold his head to my body. “One more time.”

A screech hits my ears, and I pop my eyes open, seeing my mother standing in my open doorway.

“Oh my God,” I gasp, jumping down from the chair. Macon reluctantly lets me go as I grab my pillow and hold it to my body.Shit.

“Oh my God,” my mom says.

I glance at Macon, but he’s not looking at either of us. Just staring at the ceiling as he straightens his jacket, unfazed.

“Mom …” But I don’t know what to say to her.

Her travel case lies on the floor on its side, her eyes turning angry as she looks between Macon and me. She was supposed to be back days ago. I knew she could show up anytime. I don’t know why I just stopped thinking she would.

She’ll freak out because I’m with a Jaeger. She’d be happy if she found Jerome Watson in here with his hands all over me.

I start to head her off before she can speak. “Mom, I—”

But then I hear Macon’s voice. “Hello, Cara,” he greets my mother.

My gut knots. What?

I look up at him. He knows her?

She bursts into my room, her hair cascading in loose waves because of the one perm she got years back. She usually straightens it, but it’s clear she came from a beach. An island somewhere. She has a tan.

“What have you done?” she yells at Macon. Then she turns to me. “What did he do to you? What did he tell you?”

“What …?”

She shoves his chest. He arches back a little but doesn’t stumble. As if he was expecting it.

“You don’t get to have my daughter!” she bellows. “How dare you! You thought you could have one of us? You thought you could lay your hands on her?”

Her hand flies across his face, and I tense, my brain slowly unraveling what’s happening in front of me.

He rubs his jaw, turning his head back to face her. “I remember you liking my hands on you.”

My stomach drops, and the room tilts in front of me. “What …” I draw in a deep breath, one after another as I remember his words from last night.Her friends, he said.

Macon looks down at me, but I don’t meet his eyes.

He’d said the woman passed him around to her friends. One of them was my mom. Why didn’t he tell me?

“You don’t get to fuck her!” my mother yells.

But I’m shaking my head, even as Macon turns me to face him and covers my ears with his hands. He holds me close as she shrieks.

“How dare you!”

Her words are muffled, but I can still hear her. I squeeze my eyes shut.

She hurt him. She preyed on him.

Why didn’t he tell me?

I hug the pillow. What are the odds that he happens to fall for the daughter of the woman who coerced him into sex?