Swinging my legs onto the floor, I hurried over to the desk and flipped the laptop fully open, not quite believing what I was seeing. I was even more surprised to prove myself right.

“What are you doing?”

Turning back to Dakota with the laptop, I exclaimed, “You watch Black Butler?”

Dakota, who up until this point had been lazing in bed, ignoring me, was now sitting up and watching me with a heated glare. The way his eyes darkened combined with his sex hair shouldn’t have been as hot as it was.

“Put it back.” He demanded, climbing out of bed.

I ignored him. “You have every episode! How long have you been watching this? Have you read the manga series? I think you can download it on-“

The laptop was snatched out of my hands. A glowering Dakota stood over me. “What,” he demanded, “do you think you are doing?”

“Isn’t it obvious? We’re bonding!”

“We’re not bonding. You’re just too ignorant to understand the concept of boundaries. Go home, Taylor.”

“Nope.” I smirked. The fact that we were both still naked wasn’t lost on me. “I told my mum I was seeing a movie tonight so you’re stuck with me for at least another hour.”

“Oh, absolutely not. I’m not having that.” Dakota crossed to the room to the door and opened it wide in gesture. “Get out.”

“We need to talk about your manner of hospitality.”

“Great,” Dakota drawled, “why don’t you write it down and put it in a little glittery envelope under my pillow? I’ll be sure to read it each night before I go to bed.”

“You’re an ass.” I said. “There’s no reason you and I can’t have a civil conversation.”

“I can think of a reason.”

“Which is?”

“I don’t like you!” Dakota tilted his head back and banged it against the wall. “We’re not friends, Taylor. We play soccer and we fuck. That’s all there is to it.”

I folded my arms across my chest, flashing him a smirk. “I think you just managed to sum up your entire personality in one sentence.”

“Oh, screw you.” He gestured again to the doorway. “Leave.”

“Nah,” I picked up the laptop again and carried it to the bed. The cursor moved and I saw he was on the sixth episode of season two. “This is one of my favourite animes. I’m watching it even if you don’t.”

Dakota made a noise of exasperation. “Oh, for gods sake.” He stormed over to the bed. “Go home, Taylor. I’m not telling you again.”

“Thank God.” I collapsed against the stack of pillows against the headboard. “You were starting to sound like a broken record.” I pressed Play on the laptop and settled in as the opening theme song began to play.

Waves of anger were rolling off Dakota where he stood beside the bed. I could see he was attempting to make sense of the situation and figure out my motives for refusing to leave. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t get a kick out of seeing him so worked up, but there was a flicker of curiosity in me that I wanted to explore before extinguishing.

Up until today I hadn’t thought we had anything in common. There was an undeniable polarity in every aspect of our lives, from schools to friends to appearances to personalities. We weren’t even part of the same economical class, for god’s sake. Having something in common with Dakota Anderson was as dangerous as it was intriguing.

I’d been attempting to focus solely on the show as if to make out like I was ignoring Dakota. My plan worked a little too well because I startled when the bed shifted and Dakota dropped down beside me.

“Fine.” He snapped. “But only because arguing with you means I have to hear the sound of your voice longer. Just don’t forget whose bed you’re in, jackass.”

My lip curled upward. “As if I could ever forget.”

Dakota resumed his position of laying down with one arm tossed over his eyes. For all I knew, he was sleeping or had perfected the art of ignoring me. I’d have assumed the former if not for the quiet fury that seemed to be humming beneath his skin every time he exhaled.

An hour had passed when the episode credits began to roll. I hit Pause before another episode could start automatically playing and climbed out of bed. Mum had texted half an hour ago asking when I would be home. I sent her a message now telling her I was on my way.

“You’re leaving?”

I turned at the sound of Dakota’s rough voice. He must’ve been dozing. “Yeah. I told my mum I was heading home.”

“Oh, thank fuck.” Dakota sat up. The sheets had tangled around his waist, leaving his legs and torso bare in all their muscled glory. “I was ten minutes out from calling the cops on you for trespassing.”

“You invited me here.”

“You overstayed your welcome when I told you to get out.”

I scoffed. “You didn’t seem to mind when I was getting i-“

“Finish that sentence and I’m going to end the night in a cellblock.”

“At least you’d be humbled.” I gestured to encompass the entirety of his bedroom. “How can you have everything and still be an asshole?”

“I don’t have everything.”

“Right.” I drawled. “Daddy bought you a red Mustang instead of the bedazzled blue one. It must suck getting everything handed to you just because you ask. Really, I feel so sorry for you.”

“Taylor,” Dakota fixed me with a glare. “Shut up.”

“Oh,” I faked a pout in his direction, “am I upsetting you? I didn’t realise you could feel anything outside of that silver spoon lodged in your mouth.”

“I’ll lodge it somewhere else if you don’t stop speaking.”

“Wow, you’re threatening me. How original. I almost believed it, if only you’d-oof!”

Dakota wrenched me back on the bed and pinned my body below his. In my desperate attempt to escape, his elbow had caught in my stomach. I I coughed violently, desperately sucking air back into my lungs after its abrupt exit.

Dakota was smirking above me. “You deserved that.”

“Did you have to do it so hard?”

“Never heard you complain about that before.”

“Let me go.”

“Oh,” Dakota said in a sing-song voice, “now he wants to leave. Imagine that.”

“Dakota. Let me up!”

“Say the magic word.”

“Fuck you.”

He caught my left wrist and pinned it above my head. “That’s not the magic word.”

“Dakota, I swear to God-“

“I’ll give you to the count of three.”

“-if you don’t let me up this instant,”

“One.”

“-I’m going to kick you in the-“

“Two.”

“-balls, and trust me when I say it’s the only thing you’ve got going for you.”

“Thre-“

“Okay!”

His hand moved away from my side, eyebrow raised. “Okay?”

I huffed. “Okay. Just-“ I smacked his hand aside, “let me up.”

He leaned back on his knees. “Are you going to keep being a little shit?”

I pushed him off me in response and rolled off the bed. I dressed silently, pulling my keys from the pocket of my jeans and toeing on my shoes. Before I left the room, I walked back over to the bed.

Dakota was watching me, unashamedly still naked. “What are you doing?”

Smiling sweetly, I leaned in to kiss him, pleased when he responded easily, “That’s for the fuck.” Bringing my fist back, I drove it into his gut, grinning devilishly when he groaned and collapsed into a pitiless ball on the bed, “and that is for being an asshole.”

“What the hell,” Dakota groaned, “is the matter with you?”

“Since you don’t have a sub for aftercare,” I headed for the door, still smiling as I turned back to face him. “Now you have yourself to tend to.”

“Eat glass, Taylor!”

“Lick rust, Anderson!”

The door swung shut on my victory.