She nodded silently but inhaled in shuddering breaths, still trying to regain her composure.

"You're scared I'll end up falling in love with one of the other girls and marry her instead of you?"

She nodded again, still quivering a little.

“We're eighteen, B. Neither of us is getting married for a long time to come."

She gulped and shrugged and gave me that scared look again.

“And right now, you are FAR more in danger of losing me because I'm gonna kick you out of my house and swear to never see or talk to you ever again than because of me falling in love with someone else. I still can't believe you'd betray the others by seducing me. What were you thinking?"

“I was thinking I had a chance to make you happy after three days of going without because I LOVE you."

"I KNOW you do! And I love you! I've always Loved you. And I will continue to always love you. But if you keep turning into this psychotic stalker sneaking into my bedroom to watch me sleep I am going to STOP fucking Loving you right now!”

“I'm not psychotic.”

“Well you coulda fooled me!"

Belle clasped both hands over her face, took several deep breaths, and visibly focused on composing herself.

I shook my head, stood up, and paced away from the bed.

"Okay..." she began after a minute or so. "I'll admit that I didn't really think through all the consequences of seducing you tonight."

I frowned.

“On Tuesday you said you'd fucking burn down anyone and anything that ever tries to get between us."

Belle grimaced and covered her face with her hands again. "Okay fine, that sounds pretty psychotic."

“Damn straight it does."

“I just... Showing up here with a butt plug is not in the same category of burning down everything. I didn't threaten to kidnap you, throw you in the trunk of my dad's car, and drive us to Mexico."

I blinked. "The fact that you have such a detailed plan isn't very reassuring."

“I'm not psychotic!"

I held out both hands palms-up and looked skeptical.

"I was just gonna seduce you! That's all! I'm horny and you're horny!

Sam can have her fucking Rule but I thought, ‘You know what? That rule doesn't apply to us. And to be fair, I didn't really think through all the consequences of giving you a blowjob after the Halloween party, or to keep blowing you in secret for two weeks after that, and I think things still turned out pretty well, didn't they? I thought maybe we could still keep each other satisfied while you work through your issues with Neevie. I genuinely didn't think of it in terms of

‘betraying’ the BTC. ‘Betray’ is such a strong word. I mean, they already know I'm spending the night. I'm sure half of them already assume I'm seducing you right now."

“And resenting you for it. This is the kind of shit that will fracture the BTC and you know it!"