Sweet Surrender by Kami Kayne

say anything. We’re glad to have you back home, and we hope you’ll be happy here, if you decide to take the place.” Justin gave her a crooked smile and her heart did a little flip flop. “You haven’t told us yet if you want the apartment. What do you think?”
    “I want it. It’s perfect.” She thumbed away the tears clinging to her lower lashes.
    “Good. Wait until you see the kitchen,” Cody said, coming out from nowhere, grabbing her hand and half-dragging her back out to the living room. “We gutted it, put in all new fixtures.” Hand in hand, they tromped back through the dining room. “Oh, second bedroom is there.” He hooked his thumb over his shoulder, pointing at the door centered on the right wall. “You can take a roommate or use it for whatever you want.” He paused at the arched opening to the kitchen, waiting for her to cross the threshold first. “Well? What do you think?”
    “Oh...Wow.” Her gaze jumped from the marble counter to the glass tiled backsplash to the cream painted cupboards and open shelving on top. It was gorgeous, as pretty as any kitchen she’d seen in a magazine.
    “We didn’t use wall cabinets to keep it feeling open and spacious.” He led her through the open space that could be an eat-in nook, motioning to the doors leading off to the left. “The first door is the bathroom. The second is a walk in closet with laundry.”
    She opened the laundry door and peered in. Full sized appliances sat side by side, shelves stacked overhead for storage. “You two thought of everything.”
    “We tried.” Still holding her hand, he turned to face her fully. “Now that we’ve settled this situation, and you have a place to live, I’d like to talk about the little misunderstanding we had yesterday.”
    “Are you ready to tell me what the hell is going on? You can’t treat people that way. I mean, what we did was...fine. But then you held me down while Justin...he practically raped me.”
    He motioned for her to take a seat on the wooden chair positioned next to what would soon be a breakfast bar. He didn’t say anything until she was sitting. “It isn’t that we want to keep secrets from you. We trust you. More than either of us can say. But this is something we can’t talk about with you.”
    She felt her eyes burning, and she couldn’t say exactly why. Was she angry? Yes. And hurt. But more than that, she was confused. In the span of a very short period of time, she’d more or less lost two very close friends. And, on top of that, her dreams of them becoming more were completely shattered. And why?
    “I’m sorry, Candi. This is all my fault. Justin tried to warn us both that it was a bad idea. But I care about you. And more than that, I...want you. As more than a friend. As a lover. As a confidant. As a soul mate.”
    Gah! That only made things that much more painful.
    “Yesterday, when Justin...got rough, was that real?”
    “Yes, of course.”
    “So he wasn’t doing those things to try to scare me away.”
    “No.”
    In other words, Justin liked it rough. And he thought she might get into that.
    A pulse of heat blazed through her body. Maybe she did, to a certain degree. She did enjoy feeling helpless, powerless. She did enjoy having Cody hold her while he fucked her with his fingers. But she had also been scared. Shocked. Yes, that was more like it. She’d been shocked.
    I think I understand now.
    “Good.” He looked glad. And relieved. Extremely relieved. “Neither of us want to hurt you. You’re very precious to us.” He reached up, as if he wanted to touch her face but then he pulled his hand back.
    She asked, “Can I ask you a question?” At his nod, she continued, “Have you or Justin ever had a long term relationship?”
    “Define long term.” His lips curled into a slightly naughty smile that made her insides get warm.
    “Longer than a year?”
    “No.” His answer came swiftly.
    “Why?”
    “There were a number of reasons. Bad