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Dead serious, he tells his sister, “I know, but a cheetah can still wonder why cheetahs have spots.”

“Cheetahs have no control over their spots. Men have complete control over their behavior. You don’t like the stigma? Change it.”

“Rome wasn’t built in a day, T.”

That earns another dramatic sigh from the back, then, “Nothing that lasts is.”

After a wave in my direction, Kota tells Guy, “Khaos doesn’t listen to me.”

The irony that I probably listen to her more than her own boyfriend.

Ex-boyfriend.

“Oh no? He just keeps it to undressing you with his eyes?”

I ignore the snicker from the back seat.

And Dex’s shifting.

“Dude, is that why you were so moody this summer? Because Kota was gone—”

“Would you two shut up? I’m trying to listen.”

I can feel the siblings exchange glances behind me.

One of them whispers, “Moody,” making me roll my eyes.

Then louder, Tina says, “For so long, too. I thought I was gonna have to call it in for the world’s longest period.”

“I don’t have a pussy,” I state for the second time. “I don’t have periods. I don’t have mood swings.”

“You are a sad boy.”

“Not a fucking sad boy either.”

“Why were you sitting alone in your truck during a party again?”

My muttered, “Fuck you,” makes both Mathewses laugh in unison.

I didn’t come out to my truck because I was moody or sad. I came out here so I wouldn’t stick my dick in Kota while she was blindfolded. I wanted to so fucking bad, but the first time I slide into Kota, I want her to be looking at me, knowing it’s me, wanting it to be me.

She didn’t know who I was during those seven minutes. She wouldn’t have thanked me like a stranger if she did.

There’s movement in the Land Rover, pulling Kota’s attention over to it.

Dex grips the grab-handle above his head. “Moment of truth…”

I unlock the doors.

“Tina.”

“At the ready, Captain.”

Did I just get a promotion?

“Is that who you spent seven minutes with?” Kota asks Guy with a much calmer tone than I was expecting.

At least she knows it wasn’t him between her thighs.