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and the graffiti that Royce sprayed over the rocky mountain wall will be on full display for everyone to admire. My eyes fly up to the art, all shades of the color green. Lime, forest, ocean, turquoise, jade. The numbers 2000 tagged in graffiti font. The year I was born and adopted into the Kane family. I don’t think anyone else notices the significance of it except for Orson and Storm. Every time I see it, my heart skips multiple beats. There’s never been a shadow of a doubt of what I mean to Royce and I him. Love is love, but when it’s unconditional, it’s for life.
just as Royce slips in beside me, his arm hooking around my waist. He nuzzles his nose into the crook of my neck, balancing his red cup in his other hand. “Mmmm, you always smell this good?” His voice is deep, vibrating over my flesh and hitting every nerve on its way out.
As we’ve gotten older, our connection or bond has become stronger, and that’s a testament for how strong it is because when we first laid eyes on each other, we were done. It was as though the universe just fucking shifted anytime we were around each other after that. He embedded himself into my heart and I sewed my name across his limbs. We fight a lot, but we love hard and when it comes to him and me, one cannot exist without the other. Royce Kane is undeniably my best friend.
Why the fuck am I crying? Deep down I know I’m being unreasonable, and to be fair, Royce is always with someone, prancing around. Why is it different now? Why am I beginning to feel different toward him?
“He just wanted you.” I cross my arms in front of myself defensively. Pain anchors my heart and refuses to let go. “He will always have me. Forever. Reg—” My voice breaks and my knees buckle. “Oh my god, what if I lose him?” The mere thought of ever losing Royce was enough to make me hurt physically. I couldn’t and wouldn’t survive the absence that he would leave.
“I love you, you know that, right?” “I love you too,” I say softly,
can’t bear the thought of being away from him. Not right now—not ever. That probably makes me sound crazy, and maybe I’m somewhat—wholly—dependent on him,
She can’t know. Leaving her is going to cripple me, but I have no choice. Not now. Not ever. And not when it comes to her.
I’ve blocked people out, shut down, and turned to things I shouldn’t to pacify the raw hunger I feel for the one person I should never have lost
I’ve always loved the defiance of the ocean. It’s moody, beautiful, and could kill you if you’re not smart enough to handle its currents.
My brother who left me. He fucking left me. Abandoned me just like everyone else. He was no better.
I’ve found myself having to drag my ass back to this house for the very reason I fucking left. Her.
After Royce left, I was a shell of the girl I once was, and I don’t think I’ll ever find a home there again. My friends did their best, but the best didn’t help when all I wanted was him.
“I thought he would still be all about his little pet, but I am wrong.”
“To me?”
“You is what happened, Duchess.”
Royce is a nightmare wrapped in a dream, but Wicked is the Devil’s pet.
And why am I not so bothered by it anymore? The biggest secret I’ve ever held was the one of James and I. Silenced, but not sure why.
To Royce Kane. The possessive older foster brother who jacked off to the thought of his underage sister behind his closed doors, but I can’t. Never. Time hasn’t just aged us. It tore us apart too.
“One, I don’t give a flying fuck about your trust. All I want is to have you stay the fuck out of trouble and keep your head down. Two? Stop making this about something other than what it is. You are my sister, one I didn’t fucking ask for, but I protect anyway. I don’t give a fuck who you fuck in your free time, where you stay, or…” He pauses, licks his bottom lip and then catches it with his teeth. His grip around my throat tightens. “Or how fucking good my hand looks around your throat. Now swing those fucking legs over my bike.”
James took all that I had and replaced it with hurt and pain, and the one person I leaned on for most of my life hates me now.
“Fuck you, Royce!” I scream into his face on my tippy toes—and I still don’t reach his neck— “Fuck you for leaving me and then coming back and thinking you can tell me what to do like I’m some little puppy that you keep on a leash. You!” I point my finger into his face, which is the exact moment I realize I fucked up.
“Royce doesn’t let anyone ride bitch on his bike. You came in like that.” Wicked stretches his legs wide into a spread and my mouth waters. “No one will so much as breathe near you now. He knows he doesn’t have to worry.”
I raise my brows at him in challenge, feeling the heat of Wicked beside me. Why do I feel him so deeply?
“I’m going to ask you once.” My blood turns cold as he takes a step closer. Don’t ask me anything, because I will have to lie. “Has someone hurt you?”
His thumb swipes at the bottom rim of my lip. “If anyone has hurt you while I’ve been away.” His mouth slams closed and the muscles on either side of his jaw pulse. “I’ll fucking kill them, and that’s not a threat. That’s a goddamn promise.” My legs wobble beneath my weight, my restraint pulling against me. I want to tell him everything.
“I couldn’t bring you with me.” His voice is low, soft. As if he didn’t want to say the words, but knew he needed to give me
something. “There’s a fucking lot that you don’t know, Duchess. I couldn’t have you around me. I couldn’t take you. I knew you’d be safe at home.”
“See, when you say shit like that, it makes me want to kill people. Do you understand my problem here?”
Sloane: You and Royce have the longest sex buildup in history. I feel like when you both finally fuck, he’s going to accidentally kill you.
I lean up, my nose touching his, eyes crossed from his proximity. “You—” His tongue slides across my mouth and my insides solidify, either from shock or sheer emotion. Probably a combination of both. Royce chuckles, pushing up from the bed. “Since I can’t beat you and then fuck you—in that order—I’ll just have to lick you every time you want to open that fucking mouth.
For a second, it’s just he and I. He stands, towering over my small frame. “You’re lying. He knows it, but thinks he doesn’t care right now, but Jade, when he finds out whatever it is that you’re hiding, it’s going to be catastrophic, so do me a favor.”
“Don’t fucking tell him.”
Warmth fills my heart at the sight of him, which makes no sense. I shouldn’t be filled with anything but hate when it comes to Royce. Realization imprints the truth into my brain. Our souls have recognized each other.
I’m addicted to Royce Kane, and if you try to lock me in a rehab clinic, I’ll only find my way back to him. You can’t separate fate, no matter how hard you fuck it.
He grinds himself into my stomach and my body flushes searing heat. “I’m about to fuck you on this floor if you don’t watch that mouth, Duchess, don’t try to act like you don’t know I’ve wanted into that pussy since we were kids.”
“Of course he kept his car, just couldn’t keep me.”
His other hand comes up behind my neck, pulling my face closer to his. “Fucking stop pulling away from me then.” My lips drop to his and he opens slightly, sucking my bottom lip into his mouth. I deepen the kiss, bringing him closer, his hips meeting the inside of my thighs.
The scar that’s poking out behind his shirt becomes more visible. My eardrums pulse as the lights flick over his neck. I can’t expose the fact that I know what that scar is or means, for the very reason that I have the exact same one on my ankle.
She’s a walking, talking, fucking witch that is everything my soul wants and craves. My body craves her, but my soul fucking needs her. Having her lips on mine was every fucking thing I thought it would be, and that’s what pisses me off the most.
“If you do not leave—” Here it was. The big I’ll kill you. “Your sister Jade Olivia Kane—” The blood drained from my veins and if I wasn’t physically a completely healthy man, I’d bleed out on the ground from the mere whisper of her name from his lips. “Will become mine. When I say mine, I mean you would wish that I had just killed her by the time I was done. I would haunt your every single step with her, hang her in front of you like my ragdoll, tearing her at the seams and never stitching her back up, and if you think I don’t have that kind of power, I urge you to go home, check out the
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“What about Wicked?” Orson asks, his eyes on mine. “Asked him anything?” So fucking Wicked.
“She’s the fucking switch to my rage. She is what makes me fucking crazy. She is what I rip for. So I’ll ask you one more time, and brother or not, I will fucking murder you.”
I’m somewhat pleased to see no one watching, until my focus falls on Wicked. He’s leaning back in his chair, a toothpick rolling around between his swollen lips. His eyes are dead, cold, and emotionless.
“I’m never letting you out of my sight ever again.” My heart explodes in my chest, the shards of the aftermath ricocheting through my flesh.
“No one will take that path.” “Why’s that?” he asks sleepily, his lips now relaxed against my forehead. “Because one look at both of us and people know it’s only supposed to be us on that road.”
“You motherfucker! You think I wanted your father to rape me every goddamn day after you left?!” The room instantly grew cold. I didn’t think twice about the words that flew out of my mouth, because I gathered, they had known.
I lean forward and press my lips to his. “Have your moment, but have it with me.” I watch as the first tear falls from the corner of his eye and he sniffs.
She’s not just my rock, she’s my whole fucking world. I knew that from day one. My life began with her, and it’ll end with her.
“To get you away from Jade. I knew you were going to be an issue the second I picked up on the love you both had for each other. I couldn’t have you taking what was rightfully mine. She is mine.”
