THE PROMISE

🪝ADRIANA'S POV🪝

"Fuck... Klaus." I moaned, a shudder running through my entire body as I caught my bottom lip between my teeth.

Pleasure coursed through me like a live current as Klaus took my left nipple into his mouth, sucking like his life depended on it.

His hand slid into my soaked panties, fingers finding my core and stroking with expert control.

"Oh Doll," he groaned between kisses. "You're so wet. So ready for me."

He began circling my sensitive flesh in slow, torturous motions while his mouth worked my breast, creating a pattern that had me arching off the bed.

I couldn't help but cry out for more.

"More, Klaus... please, more," I whimpered, cradling his head against my oversensitive peak.

"Keep it down, doll," Klaus whispered, his voice hoarse and thick with desire. His dark eyes met mine, pupils blown wide with hunger. "You don't want my sister hearing that I'm about to fuck her best friend, do you?"

His sister. Molly. My best friend.

Thinking about her should have snapped me out of this. Should have made me push Klaus away and run.

But I didn't.

Instead, I lay there at his mercy—spread wide, my core glistening and exposed, letting him do whatever he wanted while I begged like I'd lost all sense.

This wasn't me. I'd never imagined myself like this.

But here I was.

And it had all started with a stupid dare.

🪷A MONTH AGO🪷

"We are not watching Sex and the City again, Molly." I groaned, rolling my eyes at her puppy-dog expression and pouty lips.

"Oh, come on, Ana!" She bounced on her bed, clutching a DVD case to her chest. "

I crossed my arms."We've seen it a hundred times in the past week alone."

She grinned—that mischievous, knowing grin that meant she'd already won. "You promised I could pick the movie for our next sleepover night. A promise is a promise, Ana."

I sighed in defeat. She was right, and we both knew it.

We’d been inseparable since kindergarten, doing weekend sleepovers for years, alternating between her house and mine. Like clockwork, she always chose the same movie. Not that I could complain—I loved her too much to say no.

I watched her insert the disc into the DVD player and snatch the remote from the console table with a triumphant smile.

"Don't you ever get tired of watching the same thing over and over?" I asked, giving her a side-eye and a small frown.

She plopped down beside me on the bed and nudged my shoulder playfully. "This will be the last time, I swear—"

"Oh, fuck! Yes!"

A female voice cried out from the room next door, cutting Molly off mid-sentence.

Molly and I exchanged a knowing look.

"My man whore of a brother is at it again," Molly muttered with an eye roll and an exasperated scoff.

I sighed, pinching my thigh softly to ground myself. The sounds coming through the wall were... explicit. "Doesn't he ever get tired of sleeping with different girls?"

Molly's jaw tightened. "Ever since Julia left, he hasn’t been the same.”

Julia. Klaus's ex-girlfriend. The one who'd broken his heart and apparently turned him into this.

Molly continued, her voice bitter and frustrated. "And I keep losing friends because of him. Girls only want to be close to me so they can get stories about Klaus or try to get him to notice them. It's exhausting."

I gave her a sympathetic look and a small smile. I knew exactly what she meant. We all went to the same school, and I'd witnessed it firsthand—girls hovering around Molly, pretending to care about her just to get close to her older brother. It was even worse because Klaus was captain of the hockey team, which made him famous at Classic High.

"It's okay," I said softly, trying to comfort her. "You've got me, right? I'm not going anywhere. I'm not like the others."

Molly pouted and threw her arm around my shoulders, pulling me close and resting her head against mine. "I know. That's exactly why you can never fall for my brother, Ana."

Her tone shifted, becoming serious in a way that made my stomach twist.

"He's a charmer and a cheater," she continued quietly. "And I don't want you on his endless list of conquests. More than that, I don't want to lose you. So promise me you’ll never fall for Klaus."

She pulled back and locked eyes with me. Her expression was intense, almost desperate, and I saw the shimmer of unshed tears in her eyes.

I'd never seen her this serious with me except during our worst fights.

My chest tightened. "I promise, Molly.”

It wouldn't be hard to keep that promise, I told myself. Klaus and I never saw eye to eye on anything. We'd barely exchanged more than a few sarcastic remarks over the years.

I couldn't fall for someone like him. Definitely not for a player like Klaus Brennan.

"Harder! Yes, just like that!" the girl's voice moaned again from next door, even louder this time.

Molly groaned in frustration and crawled across her bed toward the wall separating their rooms. She balled up her fist and pounded on it hard.

"KLAUS!" she screamed.

"Tell your loud-ass hookup to keep it down, or I'm breaking down your door, ripping out her tongue, and telling Mom and Dad you snuck a girl into the house!"

"Fuck you, Molly!" Klaus yelled back through the wall.

"You're gonna catch something and die from screwing half the school, you idiot!" Molly shot back.

I couldn't help but smile, my eyes drifting back to the TV screen as their argument continued. They never stopped fighting. Ever.

🪷NEXT MORNING🪷

I jogged down the stairs, my bare feet slapping softly against the hardwood as I turned the corner into the kitchen.

My throat was parched. I'd slept at Molly's, and when I woke up, all I could think about was water.

I crossed to the fridge, pulled it open, and grabbed a cold bottle. I twisted off the cap and took a long gulp

"You must've been really thirsty to be chugging like that."

I whipped around, startled, pressing my free hand to my chest. Water sloshed in the bottle I was still holding.

Klaus stood in the doorway, leaning against the frame with his arms folded across his bare chest. His eyes gleamed with amusement.

We locked eyes, before my gaze traced down from his face to his body.

He was shirtless. Completely. His hair was a mess—dark strands falling across his forehead like someone had run their fingers through it repeatedly. His gray sweatpants hung dangerously low on his hips, revealing the sharp V of his lower abs and a trail of dark hair disappearing beneath the waistband.

I swallowed hard and forced my eyes back up to his face.

He was smirking now, like he knew exactly what I'd just been doing.

"Yeah," I said, trying to steady my voice. "I was thirsty. So I came down to get water."

I set the bottle on the counter, trying to regain some composure.

"What about you?" I asked, lifting my chin. "Why are you here?"

He pushed off the doorframe and walked toward me—slow, calm steps that made my heart race for reasons I didn't want to think about.

He stopped just inches away from me. So close I could feel the heat radiating off his skin.

Then he raised his hand toward my face.

My eyes snapped shut on instinct.

I waited.

But nothing happened.

After a few seconds, I peered my eyes open to find Klaus staring at me with a curious, almost amused expression.

"This is my house, doll," he said, his voice low and rough. "I can be anywhere I want."

My face heated up, but I refused to let him see how flustered I was.

"Don't call me that," I said, crossing my arms over my chest.

He pulled his hand back, and I noticed he was holding a chocolate bar and a bottle of water. He'd just been reaching past me to grab them from the counter.

Klaus's smirk widened. "Call you what? Doll?"

"Yes. That." I glared at him, even though my cheeks were burning. "I have a name, Klaus. Use it."

"Doll suits you so much better," he said, leaning back against the counter like he had all the time in the world. "All pretty and delicate. Easy to play with."

"I'm not a toy," I snapped, hating how he always managed to get under my skin.

He'd started calling me "doll" three years ago, right after Molly and I became best friends. At first, I thought it was just a casual nickname. But then I realized he only used it when he wanted to annoy me—which was every single time we talked.

I'd told him to stop countless times. He never did.

"Could've fooled me," Klaus said, his eyes traveling over me dazzlingly before meeting mine again. "You sure looked like you were ready to be played with just now."

"I was not—" I started, my voice rising.

"You closed your eyes, Adriana." He said my actual name this time, and somehow that felt even more intimate than "doll."

"What were you expecting me to do?"