Xaden Riorson 🐲

Cat’s expression shifted the second she realized she was getting to me.

A smug little smile curved her mouth as she crossed her arms. “You know,” she said, her voice dropping into something almost casual, “Xaden didn’t always know exactly what he was doing.”

I frowned, not understanding at first.

“Not in bed,” she clarified, and the satisfaction in her eyes made my stomach turn. “Some things, I had to teach him.”

My whole body went still.

And the second she saw my reaction, her smile widened.

“I taught him what women actually like,” she continued softly. “How to make sure a woman really falls apart for him instead of just pretending.”

Heat rushed through me — anger, humiliation, jealousy — all of it crashing together so fast I could barely separate one from the next.

Then Cat tilted her head and delivered the final blow.

“So if he’s very good with you,” she said, her voice almost sweet, “you’re welcome.”

That one hit hard.

Not because I thought she still meant anything to him, but because she was dragging something private into the open and forcing me to picture a version of Xaden that had existed before me — one she had known intimately enough to use against me now.

And before I could say anything—

“Enough.”

Xaden’s voice cut through the room like steel.