But once my back is to him, he speaks again, “Stop.”
I do and look over my shoulder. His eyes have darkened, and his hands are clenched.
“Bend over and touch your toes.” His voice stays the same, with no change in his tone. Like this is the kind of request he makes everyday.
“We aren’t doing Ring Around the Rosie,” I say snarkily. He shuts me up from saying any more with a sharp glare.
“Bend,” he commands, angrier now.
“So fucking bossy,” I mutter to myself and do as he asks. Granted, I’ve been asked for worse. I once had a guy pay me five thousand to shit on his chest. Do you know how hard it is to force a shit with someone watching you?
It’s fucked.
Bending over is a walk in the park.
Until him.
Because for some reason, he makes me feel even more naked than I am, and that’s not possible. Considering I am butt-ass naked.
“Stand.” I do as he says. He indicates with a finger for me to come to him. When I reach him, he looks up at me again. “Turn.” Again, I follow his instruction. Fucking hell, what game is he playing? “Stop.” My ass is more than likely in his face. “Now, bend.” If I do, my ass will literally be in his face, no doubt about that at all.
“Are you serious?” I ask, not quite shocked but completely bewildered.
“Did you come into my establishment and cut me?” he barks.
“Yes.”
“Now, bend.” I relent and do as he says, then a second of silence later, I feel him right there. At my entrance. But he doesn’t touch me, just breathes me in.
What the fuck is wrong with him?
And why does it turn me on?
He takes his time, and when I feel him pull away, I stand and turn around to face him.
“You can leave now.” I’m impressed that my voice doesn’t come out shaky at my demand.
Lucas stands before I can even think to move, and he grabs me by my throat, looking me in the eyes. My breathing picks up and I feel my heart start racing in my chest—I like his hands on me. I hate his hands on me. His other hand comes down on my thigh, stopping me from grabbing my knife, and he whispers against my mouth, “It’s a dangerous thing to play with the viper.” He runs his tongue along my lips and it’s not a kiss, more of a taste, my breath hitching at the sensation. “Once we have a taste, we become addicted to the poison. And then, there is no escape.” I close my eyes at his touch, and when his lips leave mine, he pulls back and stares at me. “You like it. You’re just as fucked-up as I am.”
Then he turns and walks out the door, leaving me standing there, naked and wondering what the fuck just happened. And why I didn’t hate it.
As they walk in the door, I manage to pull my dress down. Brody shakes his head as he looks me over and Merci just locks eyes with me.
“What did he make you do?” she asks, her arms crossing over her chest.
Fuck that! I don’t want to tell her. How would I even begin to do that? I mean, I’ve told her everything I do for clients, including the down-right dirty shit, but somehow this feels…different.
“Don’t worry.”
Her eyes pinch and she looks to Brody.
“I didn’t mean for this to happen,” Brody says, lifting his hand and rubbing the back of his head. I forget that he’s almost a grown man. When I look back to Merci, I see her biting her lip.
“It’s fine. Go watch a movie. I’m gonna shower and change.”
Brody nods and goes to his room.
“He’s trying, you know. He knows what you have to deal with.”
“He got kicked out of school.” I huff and walk into the kitchen, more than a little fed up with everything right now. I unclip the strap around my thigh and put the knife on the counter. She looks at it, and her brows pinch.
“What did you do?” She picks it up. “It has blood on it.”
“His blood,” I tell her.
She drops the knife like it’s on fire and shakes her head.
“You know better than that, Chanel. Why would you do that? Are you wanting us to bury you?” She grinds her teeth and then takes in a long breath.
“No. Brody shouldn’t have been there. He knows better.” I try to keep my voice low, so Brody doesn’t hear me.
Merci shakes her head, glances back to the knife, then whispers, “What did you do?”
I shrug, as if it’s nothing. “I put the knife to his throat.”
She gasps so loudly that Brody opens his door and looks out. When he sees it’s just us, he goes back into his room and shuts the door again.
“This can’t happen. You need to pack your shit and we need to work out where you can go, because now you’re on his hit list, and we know everyone who turns up on his list ends up dead.”
“I have nowhere to go,” I respond on an exasperated sigh.
And I’m not lying when I say those words. I literally have nowhere to go. Our parents were both only children, and they hardly had any friends. It was Brody and me, no one else. It’s pretty much the same thing now, the only difference being that I have Merci, who’s practically a sister to me. She’s helped me so much with Brody. I don’t know what I would’ve done without her.
I shrug, and she does this thing where she sucks her bottom lip in, then pops it out, before she turns and walks back to our tattered little couch, sitting down and groaning.
“He will kill you.” I should be worried because what she says is what we know is the truth. Lucas is, as he says, a viper, with large extendable fangs that can reach anywhere.
A viper hunts, they strike, then they kill.
And I absolutely hate the fact that he’s the first man ever in my life to make me feel something other than it’s just sex. Yes, it would still be just that, but why did my stomach flutter when he was near?
And why is he so good-looking?
It has to be because of the power he holds, right? Or maybe it’s just my concern and my body is acting a different way to protect myself. Yeah, that has to be it.
I understand the appeal toward him now, though. Why he’s whispered about. I always thought it was a joke. I mean, some women even want to risk their own lives to be with him. What a bunch of idiots.
“As long as he doesn’t kill Brody, that’s all I care about.”
Merci shakes her head at that. I’ve never really lived this life for me. I dropped out of school to look after Brody. I sold myself—my body—so I could put a roof over our heads and food in our mouths. When you love someone and you come from nothing, you will do anything possible just to have something. No matter how shoddy this place is, it’s what we call home. And to Brody, it’s his safe place. No work comes here, no drama comes here—it’s just Merci and us.
Until Lucas.
“You know Brody’s right. He is old enough now to help. To pitch in. You were what? Seventeen, when you started?” I nod my head. It’s been years, and I stopped for a while, then started back up again. The money was good, and in the end, it was the only way. It’s like a hit of some drug. You tell yourself it’s only once, but you keep going back for more, and more.
“I don’t want the same for Brody,” I tell her. “You know this.”