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“Chase King,” he introduces, extending his hand. “Aspen, right?” “Yep. Monroe.” I take his hand and shake it, my cheeks
Chase shakes his head. “I was a dumbass. It won’t happen again.” I extend my hand again. “Okay, deal.” “Deal?” “I’ll get coffee with you tomorrow as long as Steele doesn’t chase you off.” “Puns,” he murmurs. He takes my hand again. This time, he doesn’t shake it. He just holds onto it and squeezes gently.
slide her panties to the side, and the tip of my cock touches the apex of her legs. She’s wet. Soaked. For no fucking reason. She’s asleep. That pisses me off. She should only be wet when she’s thinking about me—not whoever is starring in her dream. I look down at her cunt. Did she rub herself to orgasm before she fell asleep? I pick up her hand, lifting it to my nose. Her fingers curl around mine, and I sniff. Then lick the pad of her index finger, just for the hell of it.
The last girl I was inside was her. Over the summer. Six fucking months ago.
My palm fucking stings, but I keep going until her knees buckle. She sinks to the floor, and I follow her. Always fucking following her.
“You have a safe word, little viper.” “Why do you call me that?” He chuckles. “Because you’re going to be the death of me.”
“Punishment,” Steele suddenly says. I snap to attention, my lips parting. “What? Why?” He shakes his head. “Not now. If I catch someone looking at you like they want to fuck you—” “No one is going to look at me like that,” I snap. “Because I’m invisible. Because I’m not as pretty—” “You’re fucking gorgeous,” Steele answers. The volume shocks me into silence.
“Why?” I grit out, squirming under him. “Because you’re beautiful. Because you’re sin. Because you’re a distraction. And I’ve never hated anyone more than you,” he confesses. He leans forward and presses his lips to my chest.
Before he can stop me, I stick my fingers down my throat. My stomach contracts, and I puke into the can. All his cum mixed with bile. I’d have more if I had eaten, but I feel strangely proud that I was able to eradicate him so quickly. I gag again and spit. I set it aside and wipe my mouth on the back of my hand. “Fuck,” he groans. “You’re so fucking stubborn.”
Aspen ignored me. Fully. Even at lunch, when she and her roommate sat at the end of our table with the dance girls, she didn’t even look at me. Not when I called her name, not when I stood behind her like a giant freaking shadow. Nothing. She may as well be a stone wall.
“No enemy jerseys allowed,” I correct, smirking at her. “You can remove it if it’s that important for you to get in.” Her eyes narrow, and she seems to contemplate it for a minute. Then her fingers go to the edge of the jersey. My chest tightens as she pulls the fabric up, exposing the rest of her high-waisted leggings. Then the pale skin of her upper stomach, her ribcage… and then her bra.
“What are you doing?” I growl before I can stop myself. She removes the jersey the rest of the way, dropping it on the sidewalk beside her.
“I’m going to the party.” She bats her eyelashes at me.
Miles has his mouth covered, hiding his growing laughter. “That backfired,” he murmurs. I’m going to kill her.
I’ve never had an interest in girls beside the occasional fuck. But even then, I usually hit it and quit it. Never recycle the same girl twice, or else they’ll start getting ideas. Aspen, though… the thought of anyone else seeing her nipples is more than I can bear. We talked about this, and she broke the rules.
“Did you leak my address?” Now that’s new. “What? To who?” “To the sick fucks who want to try and toss money on my stomach for a quick fuck.” She crosses her arms. I can’t even blame her for being mad. A simple joke got out of control. How was
“We drove by it after the game. There were some guys waiting across the street… I don’t know if they were waiting for me or not, but I can only assume.” I stiffen. That is fucked. “You’ll stay here. And I don’t want to fucking hear it, little viper. You said it yourself—it’s my fault. So you can sleep here until we get it figured out.”
“Let me up,” I say. I haven’t peed, and the urge is getting insistent. “What would you do if you got pregnant?” I freeze. What would I do?
She pulls another toothbrush from the drawer, shaking her head at how many there are. Not a lot, per se, but more than a normal house would have. Someone clearly went out and bought a dozen toothbrushes for their conquests. “Who do you think handles the toothbrush inventory?” she whispers. I shrug, but I meet her gaze in the mirror. “Knox,” we both say at the same time.
“Should’ve come in here,” he says in my ear, then kissing the spot just behind it. “When is your period due?” I narrow my eyes, looking back at him. “Why?” “Because I’m just trying to figure out if you’re pregnant.” “I’m not.” “You’re sure?”
She’s perfect—and she doesn’t even know it.
I want her to come with me. At the same time, crashing into oblivion together. I don’t know why. It just feels right.
“You are going to talk about this, Aspen. Because knowing what happened to you lets me inside you just a little bit more—and I won’t stop until I’m buried so deep in your bones that I’m impossible to remove.”
“Tell me, and I’ll be yours forever. Just let me in, viper.” My gaze slides away from his. “Tell me, Aspen.”
“We can’t—” “So help me god, Aspen, if you finish that sentence…” I shake my head. “You’re mine. Okay? Here, there, on fucking Mars. There’s nothing you can say or do that’s going to derail me from you.” This obsession has gotten out of hand. I know that.
Chase and I follow the crowd out of the stadium, and we wrap around the building toward where the players will exit. A short time later, Steele emerges. His gaze goes right to Chase, who backs up with his hands raised. “Take it easy, jackass,” Chase says. “I was just making sure your girl was okay. None of her friends were with her.”
One day, Willow Reed will grow a fucking spine—but that day isn’t today. “I’m bored,” I say, straightening. I’m sure as fuck not going to stand out here and commiserate with my brother’s girlfriend. Not when I’ve wanted her from day fucking one. Not when seeing him treat her like garbage—and her let him—makes me angry enough to stab another line in the railing. Someday, she’ll admit her feelings out loud, and my brother will stomp all over her heart. And all that’ll be left for me is broken little pieces.
“Oh, baby.” He rises and drags me against him. A hug. Takes a second to register it for what it is. An all-encompassing hug, his arms around me, his hands hot on my back. My head tucked under his chin. I don’t know the last time I was hugged like this. I close my eyes, and a foreign feeling washes over me. For the first time in a long time, I feel safe. And that scares me more than anything.
And while I know I’m a sucker, part of me enjoyed helping her, making her feel a little better. So with that in mind, I try not to think about what’s coming.
“You want to know why, little viper?” He twists those fingers inside me, finding some new way to elicit a moan from my lips. “Because obsession and love are the same fucking thing. And I’ve been obsessed with you from the start.” He dives back down before I can respond. I’m pretty sure he just told me he loves me.
I just know that when Aspen thought I took her music binder, it felt wrong. Like someone wanted her to suspect me. Well, why wouldn’t she? My love comes out like torture—it’s luck that I found someone who enjoys that sort of thing. Humiliation, pain. The desperate sort of shame I crave.
It hasn’t stopped me from staying at her place every night this week. Massaging the backaches away, giving her toe-curling orgasms that stave off the cramps. Being generally… I don’t know. Boyfriend-like. I wouldn’t even call myself her boyfriend. We’re together, sure, but boyfriend is too weak a word for what I am to her. And what she is to me.
Steele strides in as I’m applying mascara. I glance at him, truly not even surprised that he just let himself in. Boundaries like knocking seem beyond him. He drops a kiss on the top of my head and flops on my bed.
“I want you to do whatever the fuck you want,” he snaps at me. “If that’s play piano, then great. If that’s graduating with a degree in art or chemical engineering or fucking astrology, whatever. But just know that you’re going to be taken care of no matter what. I’m going to the NHL. I’m going to make a shit ton of money—I already have a shit ton of money, Aspen. Thirty thousand dollars to keep you in school and with a meal plan is a drop in the bucket. I’d give you more if it helps. I’d give you all of it if I thought for a second that you cared about that.” My mouth opens and closes. “I
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I’ve never killed anyone before, but I know in my bones that I would for her. Without hesitation.
I hurry to join him, and my stomach twists at the sight. Her room has been trashed—her bedspread and pillow are missing, half the clothes torn out of her closet. The bar that we put in her window, to prevent it from being opened from the outside, is on the floor. “Oh, god.” It slips out before I can stop it.
“Listen to me, Steele. You’re not to say a word to the police. Go to the hospital with Aspen and get checked out, but if they try to question you, give them our lawyer’s number and do not speak without him present. Same with Aspen. You’ve got to protect her.” I grit my teeth. “Of course I’m going to protect her.” I love her. He nods.
“Your sister?” the paramedic asks. My lip curls before I can stop it. “Soon-to-be wife,” I reply. “Oh, I’m sorry. Your father—” “It’s complicated,” I mumble.
His bruises are darkening, and I can’t help but reach out and touch his throat. The beautiful throat my father tried to crush— “Shh,” Steele whispers, shedding his matching shirt and tugging me into him. He binds his arms around me, and I tuck my head under his chin. “We’re safe.” “I know we are.” I hug him back. “But for a second, I thought…” I didn’t have hope.
“Look at me, Aspen.” His finger under my chin brings my head up, and I meet his dark gaze. “There’s no one who can tear us apart.” “I love you.” A weight lifts off my chest. Spectacularly. The expression on his face is nothing short of awed, and he presses his lips to mine.
I arch my back and lean more heavily on his chest. “You’re so fucking gorgeous.” His voice curls in my ear, while one hand dips down between my legs.
“Tell me you love me again,” he says, pulling back an inch. His nose brushes mine. I smirk. “Why?” “Because we almost died, and I would’ve never heard you say it. So now I need to hear it as much as possible.”
I dig my nails into his shoulders, and I put my mouth at his ear. “I love you, Steele O’Brien.” “Marry me,” he responds.
He catches my hand and kisses my ring finger. “Say yes, Aspen.” “This is a knee-jerk reaction to almost dying,” I reply. “You don’t—” “I’ve never been more sure of anything. You know you’re my soulmate. Deep down, we’re the perfect fit—and nothing is going to change that.” He presses another kiss to my ring finger. “See your future with me—then reach out and take it.” All that I was going to say, to protest, dies away. Really. Why should I deny myself this? “Yes,” I whisper.
“I love you,” he says. “I’m not a wordsmith. Not even close. But I’m so fucking obsessed with you, I can’t stand it. I love you. I’ll love you forever.”
“My dad called you Asp on the phone one time over the summer. A nickname he probably picked up from your sisters or mom. An asp is a viper. It felt appropriate.”
Also, our parents don’t know about the engagement. No one does. Steele asked me to keep it quiet, although he hasn’t been shy about telling his friends—and random people at the bars, and hockey games—that I’m his future wife. But that he proposed, and I accepted? Still a secret. Not even Thalia knows.
“Do you want to see the stencil?” Steele calls. “Nope.” “What if it’s on my dick?” I snort, keeping my gaze on the wall of art. “Then you’re shit out of luck on getting laid this trip, huh?” Steele groans.
“A viper,” Steele explains. “I can see that.” My cheeks heat. “Wouldn’t a tree have been more… apt?” He laughs. “You’re not a tree. Your venom went right to my heart.” He catches my hand and brings it to his lips. He kisses my knuckles. “And I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
