The dinner plates had long been cleared, but the table still stood witness—candles guttering low, wine glasses half-full and forgotten. The living room had become the only place left that mattered. Blankets dragged from every couch and bed lay thick across the rug in front of the roaring fire. Pillows were scattered like fallen soldiers. The tree lights blinked on, off, on, off—slow, hypnotic, counting down what no one wanted to name.
I stood in the center of the circle they formed around me.
Naked now. Skin flushed from wine and earlier touches. n*****s peaked from cold air and anticipation. Thighs still slick from the under-the-table torment. My heartbeat thundered in my ears, loud enough that I wondered if they could hear it.
No one spoke.
They didn’t need to.
Josh moved first—alwa
