Vicious (25 page)

“My turn,” he said, dropping to his own knees. “Can I take you to the bedroom?” he asked, softly.

“No, it has to be here, in front of the window.” He didn’t question me, and helped me to remove my clothes before lapping between my legs while I lay on my back as he maneuvered my legs over his shoulders. As I came, I turned my face toward the window and looked out, my eyes wide open.

Milo collapsed down beside me on the carpet. “That was amazing,” he said breathlessly.

I gave him a slight smile. “It was a one-time thing, never to be repeated. You get that, right?” I asked him.

He nodded, still smiling. “Yeah, I get it.” He propped himself up on one arm to watch me. “I don’t think that I will ever understand how you can act so icy normally, and then be so hot and passionate when we do, well, this.”

I sat up. “You don’t mind if I don’t offer you a shower?”

He laughed. “I’m going, I’m going. But you know where I am if you want a repeat performance.”
I watched him as he gathered his clothes and dressed. Before he left, he leaned down to kiss me on the mouth. “Good night, Violet.”

“Good night,” I whispered, watching him until he disappeared out the door. I stood after he left, and still naked I walked to the kitchen and poured a glass of wine. It mixed unpleasantly with the taste of semen in my mouth
, but I drank it anyway.

I didn’t turn when my door opened. “I though
t you gave me back the key.” I poured myself another glass and sat at the counter to drink it.

Brody took another glass from the cabinet and poured his o
wn wine before taking a seat beside me. “Nice show,” he said.

“Thank you. I enjoyed it.”

“Was it for my benefit?” he asked dryly.

I smirked slightly. “Are you that arrogant?”

“You know I am.”

I straighte
ned. “Then I’m glad you enjoyed the show.”

He finished his wine in silence, before walking out the door without sa
ying goodbye. I calmly sat and drank my wine before going to bed.

I visited Damon’s grave.  There was an abundance of brightly
colored flowers lying there which I assumed was Lisa’s doing. I had brought my own small bouquet of white chrysanthemums, and I lay them gently to the side of his headstone.  I felt like I should tend the grave or something, but everything was neatly trimmed and weed free. No doubt Michael paid someone to make sure his favorite son’s final resting place lived up to family expectations.

Once I laid the flowers, there didn’t seem to be any reason to stay. I had imagined myself talking to him, as if the skeleton which lay underneath the earth could really hear me, but when I got there, it just seemed stupid, so I left. I walked around the city until darkness fell, then I returned to my apartment.

I ran a bath and sunk down into water so hot that my skin turned red. I stayed there until the water cooled, and my cell phone rang.

“Just checking to make sure that you didn’t drown,” Brody’s voice said.

I closed my eyes. “You’re creepy, you know that?”

“It’s not cr
eepy for me to take care of you.” He sounded vaguely amused as he said it. His words got my attention and made me grip the phone harder.

“How are
you taking care of me?” If I weren’t careful, emotion would take over.

“Do you really need to ask?” His voice sounded so far away
, but I had to remind myself that he was around here somewhere. “Do you want me to tell you what I did to that boy? How I gutted him personally? I did think about handing him over to you because I know full well that you’re capable of doing that yourself, but I must admit that I’m selfish. I took great pleasure in doing it.”

“Why?” But I already knew the answer.

“Because I don’t like it when people break my things.”

I imagined him standing over a pathetic Leon
, who cried and begged, but no emotion rose in my heart for that creature who had once thought that he had loved me. Instead I felt rage, and Leon was dead so the only person left to direct it at was Brody.

“I’m surprised that you care that much when you throw things away so easily.” I ended the call. It wasn’t that satisfying
, but I wanted the upper hand. Then I sunk down low into the water, so it covered my head. I stayed down and wondered how long it would take for me to drown. I remained submerged until my lungs started to burn before exploding back up to the top and gasping for air.

I let out a scream when I saw Brody sitting there beside the bath. He looked amused at that.

“Shit! You gave me a heart attack.” I struggled to get my breath back before snatching for the towel that he held out. I wrapped if firmly around my wet body as I stood. “You really are creepy,” I snapped, not caring how petulant I sounded as I stepped out of the bath.

I heard him laughing softly as he followed me into the bedroom. I grabbed my robe off the bed then let the towel drop, but he stopped me, holding on to the robe before I could cover myself with it. He pulled it gently from my grasp.

“I haven’t seen you up close yet without the bandages; only from a distance and in that man’s artwork.” His eyes were trained firmly on my long scar; he let the robe drop and used that hand to reach out and touched the marred skin. His hand delicately trailed down the swirls and twists as if intrigued or entranced. “It’s not how I imagined,” he said, almost to himself. “I had thought your beauty would be destroyed, I thought—“

I pushed his hand away with violence
, and he looked at me in surprise. I glared at him as I picked up the robe. “You thought that I was a monster, so you threw me away.”

He shook his head. “That’s not true.”

“You showed your true colors, and I think that I’m lucky that I escaped from someone like you,” I continued. “I
like
how I look. The only difference between you and I is that I don’t hide what I am. My ugliness is on the outside for all the world to see.”

He swallowed. “I don’t think you’re ugly. I would never think that.”

I stared hard at him. “Then why? It’s too much of a coincidence that you kicked me out right when this happened.”

He gave a frustrated sigh. “I didn’t exactly kick you out. I gave you this place to live in, I gave you an income—“

“Or is it because I told you how I felt about you? That’s it, isn’t it?” I laughed bitterly. “I broke the terms of our agreement and you couldn’t handle that. You—“

“
Stop it
.”

The sound of his voice and the hard look on his face made me shut up. We stared at each other for a few seconds before he sat down on the bed and rubbed at his temples like he had a headache. I had thought that he would storm out
, and I stood there stupidly in surprise until he raised his head to look at me.

“Would you
sitdown, please. I’m tired of fighting with you. I’m tired of having you angry at me, and I’m sick and tired of making you miserable.” And he did look tired and weary. I took a step forward and sat down beside him. His lips flicked up briefly into a smile. “That’s better.” Then he looked serious again as he sighed. “Believe it or not, I didn’t make you leave because of what he did to you. I did it to protect you.”

I rolled my eyes. “Jesus,” I muttered. “That’s the most cliché excuse ever.”

He frowned. “It’s true. It’s not because of protecting your fragile heart or any of that romantic bullshit. It’s because I associate with some very dangerous people. That’s something that you know better than anyone. Damon’s death was a huge warning that Michael is losing his power. That someone would dare to go after that kid is…that’s pretty huge considering who Michael is. They started a war.” He met my eyes. “Do you understand where I’m going with this? I didn’t want anyone going after you because of me. I should have had someone following you for protection everywhere you went, and because I didn’t, that guy hurt—“

“That was nothing to do with you,” I cut in. “He went after me for the bad things that I did
. I seduced him and his father and made them think that I loved them. I screwed up his entire life.”

He grabbed my hand. “I still should have protected you, and for that, I’m sorry.”

I felt myself tingle at his touch, and I remembered what those hands had made me feel and what they could do. I squeezed his hand tightly. “You don’t need to protect me. I’m not scared of anything. I have survived everything that life’s thrown at me so far, and that’s mostly with no help from anyone else.”

“I guess that’s true, but that’s not the way it should be,” he said softly.

I ignored his words. “And I’m no damsel in distress that needs to be saved. I don’t need a protector; I need an equal. I’m not your whore, and I’m not your plaything. I’m your
equal.
Understand?” I gripped his face so he had no choice but to look directly into my eyes and see that there was no compromise there.

He gave no indicat
ion that he agreed or disagreed. Instead he kissed me. I felt the hunger there because it matched mine. I kissed and bit at his lips in a desperation as I pulled him down onto the bed so I could straddle him as I started to rub against him. My lips kissed a trail down his neck and every so often he would grab my hair and force my head upward so he could kiss me forcefully on the mouth. Our mouths hit so hard against each other that there should have been blood.

When I finally pulled back, I looked him in the eye.
“I’m your equal, and you love me, that’s all you have to say,” I told him. He nodded before pushing his lips back onto mine so our tongues could dance together. This time, however, it was he who pulled back first from me and left me wanting.

“I love you,” he whispered, “and you’re my equal.” I grinned like the cat
who had got everything she wanted, and I leaned in to kiss him again. “But,” he said, before I could touch his lips, “I still have to send you away.”

The cramps ripped up my back, and I bit my lip to stop from moaning. I managed to make it out to the beach without help and started to strip off my clothes. The moon was full and red, it always seemed closer on the island that he had sent me to for safekeeping than it had at home, almost as if I could reach up and touch it if I really had the desire.

Another pain h
it me, and I doubled over and tried to remember to breathe.

“I’ve called the midwife,” Lisa’s voice called from the house. She was keeping
her distance as if pregnancy were like a plague that you could catch, and she would not allow anything to ruin her figure. My own stomach hung low, a sign that it was a girl according to the island midwife who was rumoured to be a witch. It was appropriate that my baby would be delivered by a woman who knew magic and appreciated superstition.

As the contraction passed, I staggered into the water. It was as warm as bathwater and still and gentle as if all the fish had stopped and scattered to await the new arrival. More importantly, the moon was reflected into the water as perfectly as if it were a mirror.

I heard footsteps behind me, then splashes in the water. Brody’s arms came around my bare breasts to hold me up as another pain rippled through me. “Here? Are you sure?” he whispered in my ear.

I nodded until I managed to speak. “Yes. It has to be here, whe
re the moon can see her. She has to be lucky. I
need
her to be lucky and protected.” I reached up and gripped his hands that encircled me and kept me upright and safe. I gripped them like they were the only thing in life that I could depend on.

“She already is,” Brody whispered in my ear. “This is the luckiest child that will ever be born. I promise you that.”