bathroom. If I try to talk to you before I do that, I can’t be held responsible for how I behave.”
Victor pulls me away from the kitchen and into the half-bath near the front door.
“Are you insane?” I ask him as he steps inside with me, slamming the door behind us. It’s dark in here, but for a single nightlight. I notice Vic doesn’t exactly rush to turn on the light. Instead, he sits me on the counter, just like Aaron did. Does he know he’s mimicking what happened between us earlier? Not likely.
“I can’t stand the thought of you hating me,” Vic admits, and my brows go up in surprise. He sounds … different, like his voice is fractured in places. Vulnerable and hating it. That’s what he is. “You’ve barely looked at me since the Halloween party. You’re not afraid of me, are you, princess?” Victor growls at me, nuzzling against my neck and making me shiver.
I laugh at him.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” I say, curling my fingers around his strong upper arms and digging my nails into his skin, marking him as my property. God help the next girl who thinks she can look at my man, let alone touch him. Because, even if I’m not ready to admit it aloud to him, that’s what Victor Channing is.
Mine.
“Then what? You’re upset about the video, I understand that.” He kisses my neck, and I shiver. “You want to run, because of what I told you. Because I’m selfish and I want you, have always wanted you. Or maybe it’s because of what we did to Aaron? Making him give you up …”
“Victor, shut up,” I snap, and he leans back, curling his lip at me. The nightlight illuminates the room just enough that I can see his teeth, and the shine of his dark eyes. “Yes, all of those things are bothering me. I felt like you betrayed me and honestly … it was almost a worse feeling than watching Neil hurt my sister. Are you stupid or something? I’ve been lusting after Havoc for years, watching you guys for even longer. I’m not going anywhere, not even if you’d truly deserve to see me flee.”
For a few moments, the room is quiet. Then I hear Aaron’s footsteps, moving away outside the bathroom door. He was listening, and I’m glad for it. At least the truth is out there.
“You know it wasn’t just me, right?” Vic asks, and I nod, which in reality just rubs my head against his some more. Primal marking, nuzzling, togetherness. I want more. “Nobody wanted to let you go. They’re all into you, Bernie. All of them. And that terrifies me.” He leans back and exhales. “I haven’t been afraid since I was five and here you come, sauntering in and shattering everything. That’s what you’ve done, Bernie, you’ve ruined me.”
“Good,” I tell him, reaching down to unbutton my jeans. Victor helps me get them off—along with my panties—so he can grind his own denim-clad pelvis against my bare heat. It feels amazing, little aftershocks from Aaron and his body echoing through me. “I like ruined things. Perfect things make my soul and my teeth ache.”
He chuckles at me, desperate and dark, and then lifts his head so that our eyes meet.
“Aaron isn’t the only man in this family I’m worried about. If they get the chance, each and every one of them will try to take you from me.”
“Even Oscar?” I quip saucily. Sorry, but there’s such a thing as stretching reality too far.
“Yes. Even. Oscar.” Victor stares right at me as he says it, each word enunciated and thick with jealousy. “You’re our dark angel, Bernadette.”
I’m flooded with a double sense of disbelief and perverse pleasure at the idea.
Oscar Montauk? No fucking way. Then again, what did he just say to me? Before I left to go with Aaron to the soda fountain … “For what it's worth, this particular incident wasn't just Victor's fault. Some boys just don't know how to share their toys.”
“At the same time, that means they’d all die to protect you. We all would. You know that if we could’ve taken Neil down and kept you safe at the same time, we would’ve?” I nod, but I’m having trouble responding to Victor’s words when his body is singing a siren song that I can’t resist. “If you’re ever in trouble, Bernie, you just call us. You don’t have to say anything, you just let it ring.”
I have