NO RULES LEFT HERE

🏑 KLAUS'S POV 🏑

Shit. Shit. Shit.

I was going to have a full-blown meltdown sitting here watching every expression cross Adriana's face while Madison grinned like she'd just won something.

I knew exactly what this was. Payback for Adriana’s intrusion into the storage room. Madison was still pissed about it. This fucking dare was her payback, disguised as a lame party game.

But, what was crawling up the back of my neck — was that every guy in this room had their eyes on Adriana. Tyler. Two guys I didn't even know. Ryan with that stupid grin on his face. All of them with their eyes on Adriana in that dress and not a single one of them thinking about looking somewhere else.

They'd better look somewhere else.

"You can't possibly be serious." Molly's voice came out sharp enough to draw blood. "Are you?"

"Oh, Molly honey, I'm dead serious." Madison's smile didn't budge, her words loose at the edges from whatever she'd been drinking. Her eyes slid to Adriana. "And if our little fragile Adriana can't do it, the clippers come out. No exceptions." She tilted her head. "She shouldn't come to places like this if she's too perfect for it."

"You're a bitch," Molly spat.

"So I've been told," Madison replied with a laugh.

Molly turned and hit me with the full force, say-something-right-now look. And I could have. One word and Madison would back down — I knew exactly how to handle her.

But Adriana was standing up.

Her bottom lip caught between her teeth, her eyes cutting to mine for just one second, and something in my chest pulled tight enough to make me forget what I was supposed to say.

"I'll do it," she said.

"Ana, what—" Molly grabbed her arm.

"It's okay, Molly." Adriana's voice was soft and steady. She gave her that small calm smile. "It's just six minutes."

"Of grinding on my brother," Molly said through her teeth, her eyes cutting to me like I had personally arranged this.

She could go fuck herself.

"You want me bald when you were the one who'd agreed to us coming here?" Adriana raised a brow at Molly and that was the end of that. Molly dropped her hand with a defeated huff, jaw tight, arms folded. Very deserving.

Adriana bit her lip once more, gave Madison one unreadable stare, and turned toward me.

My eyes moved over her before I could stop them. Her legs. That dress. The nervous set of her eyes that unnerved me more than anything ever could. I dug my fingers into the cold tiles and held on.

She stopped in front of me. And everything else ceased to exist.

Her eyes met mine — conflicted, asking, and something else underneath both of those that made my jaw lock. I sat back, hands flat on either side of me, and gave her room.

She let out a shaky breath and lowered herself onto my lap slowly.

Her weight settled into my thighs, her warmth hitting all at once — wiping every argument I'd been making with myself clean out of my head. She looked at me with cautious eyes.

"Are you ok?"

I nodded. Speaking felt like a terrible idea right now, though I was grateful she thought of how I felt, even when she seemed uncomfortable.

She didn’t believe me, but she let it go. Her arms came up around my neck, her gaze trapping mine, and I let myself take her in properly—her lashes, the slight part of her lips, the way her chest rose and fell just a little too fast.

She was nervous and trying not to show it — and it was wrecking me.

"How about some music?" Madison's voice cut in from somewhere behind us. "Let's make it a little more entertaining."

Fuck Madison. My eyes didn't move from Adriana's.

"Time starts now. Music."

The opening notes of Chris Brown's “Under The Influence,” came through the speakers, slow and sensual, his voice filling the room like it was made for exactly this moment, and Adriana held my gaze for one long second before she started moving.

My jaw clamped shut.

She rolled her waist to the rhythm, slow and circular, her body finding the beat like it was the most natural thing in the world, her lips parting faintly as she moved. She dipped forward as the bass dropped, her hips rolling deeper into the motion, relaxed, languid, and the thread I was holding onto wore thinner with every beat of that song.

She kept moving.

Her eyes stayed on mine the entire time.

"Way to go, Brennan—"Ryan cheered.

"I am not looking away—" A girl giggled.

The noise blurred around us. She moved again and a low breath scraped out of me causing something to flicker in her eyes — surprise first, then heat — and my hand moved on its own, pushing a strand of hair back from her face just to see her clearly without anything in the way.

At the moment, I didn’t care about Molly, Madison, or anyone else. They could all disappear. All I saw was Adriana—the girl I enjoyed teasing and watching fight back, the girl I’d always known as my sister’s best friend. Let me see another side of her—alone, with no one else seeing it but me.

The look that crossed her face had me almost finished, utterly undone.

The beeping sound of the stopwatch had her scrambling off me. She was up and pushing into the crowd before I even fully processed it. I stayed sitting there, hands on the floor, still feeling where she had been on my thighs.

Someone nudged my shoulder breaking my line of thought. One of the girls was giving me a look I recognized too well.

I scoffed and looked past her, hoping to see where Adriana had run off to.

But Molly stepped in front of me before I could shift my weight. Her eyes say one thing only.

Don’t go near her.

🪷🪷🪷🪷🪷

The game carried on. I sat through it with my elbows on my knees while people kept talking about what they'd just watched but my mind was somewhere outside with her.

My doll.

Because whatever line I'd been pretending still existed — it was gone now. Burned clean through the moment she sat on my thighs and looked at me like that.

Madison appeared at my side about twenty minutes later, dropping onto the step beside me on the balcony, her shoulder brushing mine. She held out a drink. I took it without looking at her.

"Quite the show," she said.

"Don't even start," I growled.

"I'm just saying." She glanced at me sideways.

"Madison."

"You know why I did it." Her smile was gone this time. "She walked in on us and I don't forget things like that."

"So you used a freaking dare to get back at her." I turned and looked at her properly.

Her jaw tightened. "You enjoyed it."

"That's not the point."

"Then what is the point, Klaus?" She shifted to face me fully now, the teasing stripped away, something raw in her eyes. "You're catching feelings for her? Your sister's best friend?"

I said nothing.

"She is not built for you," Madison said. "You know that and I know that. You're going to blow everything up chasing something that can't work." She stood, smoothing her dress. "She's Molly's best friend. Don't forget that."

She walked back inside.

I stood there with my drink, her words messing with my head.

She’s Molly’s best friend.

I knew that. I’d known it from the start. I’d been telling myself the same thing over and over like it was supposed to matter.

She’s not built for you.

I let out a quiet breath and looked down at the bottle in my hand, turning it between my fingers.

Not built for me? Based on what?

Molly? History? Some line I wasn’t supposed to cross?

I shook my head once, more to myself than anything.

That didn’t sit right.

No one else got to decide that for me. Not Molly. Not anyone.

If there was something there, I’d figure it out myself.

I set the bottle on the ledge.

Then I headed back inside.

🪷🪷🪷🪷🪷🪷🪷

She wasn't hard to find.

The garden was calm and dark, the party a low pulse from out here. She was at the far edge of it with her arms wrapped loosely around herself, her back to the house, her hair still falling over one shoulder from where I'd pushed it back.

She heard my footsteps and started to turn.

"Molly, I think I just need a—"

My mouth covered hers before she could finish speaking.

One hand curved around her nape, fingers pressing into her hair, the other finding the small of her back and pulling her in, and I kissed her as every second of restraint I'd held onto finally snapped. Not soft. Not slow. Ravishing.

She went rigid.

Her hands came up flat against my chest, not pushing, just resting there, her fingers curling into my shirt, her breath shallow and her heart pounding right through her chest.

I dragged at her lips, slower this time, my thumb pressing gently at the corner of her jaw. Her mouth stayed closed, and I let out a low, strained sound. My grip firm at her back, pulling her flush until there was nothing left between us.

She still didn't open up.

My hand dropped to her ass, and I spanked her once—not hard.

The gasp that left her was soft and startled and her lips parted.

I was already there, my tongue sliding against hers, and the moan she made — pulled from somewhere deep, vulnerable and unguarded — went through me from my chest all the way down my cock.

"Doll," I groaned against her mouth.