Total pages in book: 131
Estimated words: 125121 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 626(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125121 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 626(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
Victor held very still. He gazed at me for a long time, expression unreadable. “Are you going to stop me if I do?”
“Yes.” There was no hesitation.
“Are you going to tie me up and make me kneel on that piss-stained carpet too?”
“Yes.”
“Even though you love me?”
My heart thumped to hard, bruising on my ribcage. “I loved Winter first.”
There was a thump behind me. “Don’t let her scare you, man. She’s not going to do anything. She’ll let this freak do it for her, and we can take him together.”
We locked in our stare. Neither moving. Neither breathing.
“You got no reason to be loyal to her,” Wesley burst out. “She’s fucking your brother!”
I whirled around, jaw slack. “What did you say?”
“Don’t bother denying it.” He smirked past Cato as he thrashed on the floor, struggling against him. “You had me stalked, so I stalked you. Friend of mine found the little love letter you wrote your English professor—also known as your fiancé’s brother.”
No. No, no, no—
“I’m a dirty, little cum-hungry slut who will do whatever you ask, whenever you ask,” he mocked in a high-pitched voice, then laughed. “That was my favorite part.”
Cato hauled him up onto his knees. He growled a terrible warning as he dropped the lighter and grabbed the blowtorch. But it was far too late.
“Victor, listen to me,” I rushed. “It’s not what you think—”
“Of course it is! She’s a slut, Wilson. We all fuck around on our forced fiancés, but us Royals have the decency not to do it with fifty people at one time. And never with their brother or sister.” He strained his neck leaning away from the torch, but Wesley wouldn’t be stopped. “The filthy Dreg whore told your brother she’d do things I haven’t seen in porn.
“You can do better than her,” he spat. “You always could. So call the cops on these freaks and be done with it. Your ring doesn’t belong on that piece of trash.”
“Shut up!” I ran to Victor. “Let me explain. I didn’t mean for it to happen the way it did—”
“Stand aside, Luna.” His voice was flat.
“Adonis and I have a real connection. I wanted to tell you so many times, but he asked to do it himself. I... I...” I was speaking to a brick wall for all the emotion I was getting out of it.
Heart sinking, I understood. In that moment as everything small, fragile, and growing between us crumbled into nothing, I finally realized what Victor was asking of me. Months and months of this guy driving me out of my mind, but I kept opening the door when he showed up announced at the beach house—filling the empty, silent tomb with passionate bickering. Months of him mixing flirts with insults, but I kept doing it back. Months of me falling for him... and pushing away the guy who’d bring me into the world that ruined my sister.
“Victor,” I whispered. “Will you marry me?”
Grasping my shoulders, Victor firmly moved me out of the way. He stepped up to Cato and held his hand out for the torch. Over his shoulder, I nodded at Cato to let it go—tears streaking my cheeks.
“Thanks, man,” Wesley said. “I owe you. Let’s get away from these fr—”
Victor smashed the cannister across this face. Wesley did a complete one-eighty, spinning on his knees and crumpling on the carpet. Mouth gushing blood, he spat out a tooth.
Victor yanked him up by the collar and hit him again. “Don’t ever fucking talk about my fiancée like that. You’ll have some respect on your tongue, or I’ll cut it out.”
I stared round-eyed—not knowing what I was seeing. Not knowing what to say if I did.
Victor dug a finger in one of his burns. Wesley’s scream was all sob. “Apologize.”
“S-Sorry. I’m sorry!”
He tossed him back and returned the torch to Cato, who was looking at him in a whole new approving light.
“Victor?”
He flashed a wide grin on me. “The answer’s yes. I’ll marry you.”
The words barely penetrated. “Did you just...?” Savagely beat a man and then hand a torch back to his torturer so he could finish the job?
“Why aren’t you calling the police? Stopping us?”
“Why would I do that? You ask me, you guys are going too easy on him.” Victor straightened, and the sarcastic, playboy, asshole side of him faded away. “I never did finish telling you about the time I drowned. I told you what those guys did to me, but I didn’t get to the part about what I did to them.”
“You’re one of us,” I whispered. “You’re a Rogue.”
“Well don’t spread it around,” he said, smirking wolfishly. “I’ve got a reputation to protect. But let me stick around. If this guy did to Winter what you say he did, I want a piece.”
I took a step, then two. Then I was running.