I don’t mind being abandoned; what I mind is being left in a strange place with people I don’t know, and even if I did, I doubt I’d like them. But I’m also not the clingy type. I wander through the house, moving away from the moans of people fucking and the sounds of others getting high and cackling like hyenas at nothing particularly funny. It’s like walking through a museum. It kind of resembles one. At least, from what I know of museums and shit from online pictures and movies and TV shows. Fact is, I’d never been to one. But I imagined they’d all be something like this—with a cold atmosphere and impersonal pictures that could be in anyone else’s house.
This really was a mistake, I think. I should leave. I make the decision to do exactly that when I turn and slam into a massive body and nearly go down on my ass. The only thing that saves me is said massive body’s arm shooting out and catching me behind the shoulders. I blink up. “Thanks—” My words are cut off when I recognize the calculating gaze of the man holding me. Without hesitation, I yank myself out of his grip and straighten myself. “What are you doing here?”
“Nice to see you, too, beautiful,” Luc Kincaid responds, flashing me a smile.
“I’d like to say the same, but I’m not much for lying.”
He grins. “Oh no?” He moves closer. “Then tell me the truth, did your boyfriend send you here?”
“Boyfriend?” I scowl at him. “I don’t know who the fuck you’re talking about. I don’t have a boyfriend.”
I try to move past him, but his arm—the same one that had just been around me—comes down, his palm slapping the wall with a resounding clap that hurts my ears. “I thought you said you weren’t much for lying?”
My tongue slides across my bottom teeth as I glare up at him. “I was just leaving,” I say.
“No, stay, why don’t you?” Luc’s other arm comes up, his fingers grazing my side and making my spine stiffen.
“Don’t fucking touch me,” I snap. And asshole that he is, he doesn’t—but he gets damn close. So close I can smell the alcohol on his breath and the sea on his skin.
“Why are you so mean, beautiful?” he asks, the words little puffs of air that shift over my throat.
“‘Cause being a bitch is so easy,” I reply.
He chuckles, the sound vibrating through the otherwise empty hallway. “You know,” he starts, “I’ve done more research on you since we last left off. How lucky am I that I run into you here—at my house.”
“Your house?” I tip my head back as he leans up. “You’re Corina’s cousin?”
Luc’s only answer is a mischievous grin. “Want to know what I found out about you, Avalon Manning?”
I breathe through my nose, the muscles in my leg jumping as I try to think of a way to get out of his hold without touching him or him touching me. Irritation fans the flames inside of me. “No, I don’t.”
He ignores me and keeps talking as if he hadn’t heard it at all. “I took a little trip a while back. Met an interesting woman.”
“What the hell does that have to do with me?” I demand, shifting from one foot to the other. I might just have to fucking chance it. I’m ready to go and this dick is blocking my way.
“I find it fascinating that a woman as disgustingly ugly as that made you,” he answers. Cold washes through my body. No, I think. He couldn’t have. I meet his eyes, but there’s no hint of a lie there. He could just be really good at lying, but something tells me he’s serious. “I almost didn’t believe you were related,” he continues. “But I saw a few similarities.” I flinch as if he struck me. That’s one thing I’ve always prided myself on—how I don’t look a thing like Patricia. “Your eyes for example.” He stares at me. “They’re a similar shape, though yours are more perfectly aligned and hers a bit too wide for my taste. Your chin, too. Everything else, though, I think is all you, beautiful.”
“What the fuck do you want?” I snap. “Is this some kind of threat?”
He shakes his head. “Not at all,” he says. “It’s an offer.”
“An offer?”
Luc leans back down into my space. My skin heats up, but it’s not from embarrassment. It’s from anger. I can feel it underneath my skin. Getting hotter and hotter. “She asked me to fuck her, you know,” he whispers against my skin, “when I went to that club she works at. I wouldn’t touch that drugged out cunt, but you, darling … you, I could do all. Night. Long.”
I’m done. I’ve had it. Grabbing each of his wrists in my hands, I lean up into his face and spit my reply. “Not a chance in hell,” I say, right before I slam my knee into his balls.
The sweet sound of a groan choking in his throat reaches my ears and I smile as I shove him to the side and step over his body, looking up when I catch Kate gaping at me from the end of the hallway, a cell phone clutched in one hand. She scowls as I draw nearer. "Maybe you should keep an eye on that fiancé of yours," I say as I pass by.
"No need," she calls back. "You'll be out of here soon enough."
If she means out of this house then she's one-hundred percent correct. It's probably the most right she's ever been in her life because I don't even hesitate to leave Corina without even trying to find her slutty ass. I'm fucking out of here.
50
Dean
Cold beer. Cool breeze. Warm bodies. Life can't get any better than this, I think for a moment, except it could. I could be back in bed with a fiery little fucking brat who drives me insane and always pops off with an insult. Twenty-four hours hadn't been nearly enough time to explore every inch of her. From her small, dainty little feet, to her toned legs, and that ass that I most certainly wanted to fuck into a wall. Again.
"So, where's this chick I've been hearing so much about?" Marcus asks, distracting me from my less than PG thoughts.
"Pretty sure I saw her heading off with Corina earlier," Abel answers, tipping back his own beer and draining it before tossing the empty bottle towards a nearby black trash bag already laden down with them.
I scowl but Marcus beats me to the punch with a confused look. "You let her hang with Kincaid's cousin?"
Braxton snorts. "There's no letting that girl do anything," he says. "Dean's been trying to lay down the law with her since she arrived."
"Ahhh." Marcus shoots me a knowing look—the prick. "One of those, is she?”
"You have no idea, man." I drink the rest of my beer and toss it towards the same trash bag as earlier before stepping away. "I'm gonna go see if she's up at the house."
"And if she is?" Marcus calls after me.
"I'll drag her ass back so you can fucking meet her, asshole," I say over my shoulder. "But be warned, it might be a while."
The three of them laugh as I head up the staircase. I'm halfway up when I feel my phone vibrate in my pocket. Fuckers, I think. They probably want me to get more beer. Well, they'll just have to wait until after I'm done with Avalon.