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up to me, and I’d taken it all.
    Fuck.
    I hadn’t been gentle. If anything, I’d been an asshole.
    Was that why she wasn’t in bed this morning?
    Had I hurt her without realizing it?
    I shut off the water abruptly and grabbed a towel. The way I behaved last night was un-fucking-acceptable. I knew better than that shit. Ivy deserved better.
    I had to make it right.

Chapter Five

    Ivy
    I couldn’t sleep.
    Even though it was a couple hours before I needed to be awake and the pull of Braeden’s warm, solid body beside mine was intoxicating, sleep was illusive.
    I lay there for a while, content just to be next to him—that is until I realized there might be a reason I couldn’t sleep. Once I allowed that thought space in my head, I knew there would be no use.
    The sound of Romeo working out in the gym down the hall was like a beacon. I didn’t even realize what I was doing until I was hovering in the partially open doorway while he punished a set of barbells with his muscle.
    Want a bit of stark honesty?
    Romeo intimidated me.
    There. I said it.
    Yes. Yes, Romeo and I had grown closer, and yes, there was this unspoken understanding between us. He even called me his sister, he and B were practically brothers, and I thought of him as my family.
    But still.
    Romeo and I were a lot alike in some ways. More so than anyone else in this house. Aside from the fact we were both blond bombshells (ha-ha, I had to get that in there), we both knew what it was like to be caught up in a social circle—a status quo, if you will.
    At one point, both Romeo and I had been willing victims (dare I say participants) in what was the social hierarchy of Alpha U. Romeo was laidback, charming, and everyone’s golden boy. He acted like it came natural, and I knew a lot of it did. But not all of it. There was no way. A guy like him (with a solid family background and values) didn’t literally rise to fame on campus overnight and become the king of everything without feeling the pressure.
    He had to live up to it all. He had to be the player everyone cheered for. The charmer every girl swooned for. And the bad guy still good enough that he could still play on the team.
    Romeo might not know it, but I understood the balancing act he likely juggled for the last several years.
    Sure, it wasn’t so prevalent in his life now, not since Rimmel tripped (literally) into his life and changed everything. He didn’t care about status as much—but it was still there—I knew he still felt the pressure. Maybe more now that his life was so changed.
    Hence, one of the reasons he was punishing the weights right this moment.
    And me? Just like him, I came to Alpha U free for the first time in my entire life. Free of my overprotective brothers. Free of the watchful eyes of my parents, grandparents, and large extended family. I hadn’t realized it then, but my freedom didn’t last long because I became a slave to the status race.
    I became the girl everyone thought I was. The one people seemed to want me to be.
    It got me hurt, violated, and betrayed.
    Just like Romeo.
    I watched him for a second longer. He wasn’t wearing a shirt, and his smooth skin was shiny with sweat from the punishing workout he was inflicting on himself.
    Damn. It made me feel bad for thinking about a donut for breakfast.
    I worked out, but what he was doing made what I usually did look like a freaking kindergarten nap.
    His muscles rippled as he lifted. His biceps bulged with every curl he completed. But beyond the curls, he was doing squats while standing on some half-circle bubble that made it hard to balance.
    I knew he’d already been on the treadmill. I’d heard the steady of hum of it just a little while ago.
    The waistband of his gym shorts was damp, the red color darker around the top than the rest of the fabric. I knew it was because he’d been dripping so much sweat, and as he moved, I couldn’t help but notice the muscles in his back.
    Suddenly, I wondered why I was