Never Have I Ever by Alisha Rai

completely gagged and restrained. The face was blurred out, yeah, but that blonde hair up in a bouffant and the killer body identified her to both of them. Man, even as a sex-crazed adolescent he’d known he and Eli should have found someone else to have a good time with. “I am so sorry, man. I had no idea how she took these pictures or that she would lose her shit so severely as to send them to Ana. She had to know I would find out and deal with her.”
    Had it been anyone else, Taylor might have felt a moment of sympathy for the way in which Eli would deal with Lucy. But since she’d helped punch a hole through his marriage, he couldn’t spare much thought for her.
    No. Place the blame where it belongs. On you.
    “Are you just going to stand there?” Eli asked, shoving him slightly.
    No, no he wasn’t. Driven by fear and desperation, he ran after her, coming to a stop at their closed door. He didn’t need superhuman ears to detect the noise of weeping inside the room. In the two years he’d known Ana, he’d never heard or seen her seriously cry. A few tears at a sappy commercial or movie, sure. Not this bone-deep misery.
    You caused it. You fix it.
    “Honey?” he asked and tried the knob. He hadn’t expected it to be unlocked, and it wasn’t. He gave a tentative knock. “Honey, open the door. I want to talk to you.”
    “Go away.”
    He knocked again, harder. “Ana, please.”
    “ No. ”
    That didn’t sound very promising at all. His fear rose. “Baby, didn’t we talk about how we’d never have locked doors between us when we got married?”
    “I think there was something in there about always being honest with one another too, you jerk!”
    Oooh. Snap.
    “Just let me explain.” He didn’t know how he’d explain, but he’d do it.
    The sound of her sobs got louder, gutting him. He rested his forehead against the door and swallowed. He might be a guy, sure, but he wasn’t stupid. The new super-sexy, willing-to-try-anything Ana? He had his explanation for that. “Why didn’t you just show me from the beginning?” he said hoarsely, not expecting her to hear. They could have talked it through.
    If you can’t blame Lucy, you can’t blame Ana either. God, how could he have screwed up the best thing to ever happen to him? His forehead hit the hard wood with a heavy thud.
    “Why don’t you just knock down the door?”
    He snarled and looked over his shoulder, happy to find a ready outlet for his feelings of impotence. Eli leaned against the hallway, his expression that of a spectator watching a very interesting play.
    “The door is solid oak and a hundred years old. Do I look like superman?”
    “No,” Eli answered calmly. “You look like a werewolf.”

Chapter Eight
    Taylor stilled. He turned to face Eli, his hands at his sides, fists clenched and ready to attack. “I am not.”
    “Yes, you are.”
    He didn’t remember moving, but suddenly his hands were locked around Eli’s neck and he’d pinned the other man to the wall. “Reynolds, the last time you called me that, I warned you what would happen if you ever said it again.”
    “Did you? I don’t recall.”
    He slammed his friend’s head against the wall, but it didn’t even seem to faze the bastard. “Say it again. I dare you.”
    Eli’s eyes shifted to a point just over Taylor’s left shoulder before they returned to his face. He leaned in closer until they were nose to nose, their breaths mingling. “You. Are. A. Werewolf.”
    A red haze covered his vision as he tightened his grip on Eli’s neck. The other man gurgled, choking.
    Hurthurthurthurt… Hurt like you hurt.
    It was the insistent tugging on his shirt and his name being called in a tear-filled voice that brought him a modicum of sanity. He blinked sweat away and glanced down to find his wife by his side.
    Not for long though. Ana took one look at his face and backed away. Fucking backed away, her eyes wide and her hand covering her mouth. In horror. “Taylor.