I stroked her jaw once, trailing the sharp ridge with my finger. “I want you to go into the hedges,” I told her in a low voice. “Over there.”
I gestured to her right with my eyes where there was a hedge line around the property before it gave way to the forest, the cliffs, and the ocean beyond. There wouldn’t be anyone back there.
Her eyes fell to my mouth, and she looked like she liked that idea. “And what are you going to do to me behind the hedges?” she asked.
“I’m going to watch you.”
Will laughed quietly at my side, and while a sliver of guilt nipped at the back of my mind, making my gaze falter, I dug my fingers into her jaw a little tighter, feeling the heat I needed coursing through me all of a sudden.
“I’m going to watch someone touch you,” I told her. “I want to watch someone have you.”
She paused, her face falling a little as realization hit. Her gaze shifted, looking unsure, and she was probably wondering if this was a joke or if she should back out now. Surely, she’d heard the stories.
She probably just thought she was so hot that how could I not want to fuck her myself, right?
Her blue eyes flashed to Will. “Him?”
I shook my head once.
Her eyes then wandered hesitantly, landing on someone behind me.
“Kai?”
I shook my head once again.
Will shook his head, too, sounding amused as he finished his beer. “Jesus.”
“Marko Bryson,” I said, eyeing the guy on the patio behind her.
He stood with a group of people, no shirt on, and a half-full bottle of Fireball in his hand. Arion looked behind her, seeing him for herself, and turned back to me.
“He has a girlfriend,” she said under her breath.
“That’s what makes it hot.”
I’d already watched plenty of people have sex in my short lifetime. All the men hanging around my father’s house and the whores they kept. The secret lives of the mothers and fathers in this town. The girls who ruled the underworld of our decadent little school just as much as the guys did.
Yeah, I’d seen some shit.
But now… Stronger, harder, more. Always more.
“But I want you,” she protested.
“And I want you to like what I like.”
She stared up at me, the wheels turning in her head, but she closed her mouth and didn’t argue further.
She could leave. She could say no. It wouldn’t break my heart, and she knew that. But she also knew if she said no, that would be the end of it. I wouldn’t want her otherwise, and I certainly wouldn’t make her my first girlfriend if she didn’t accept everything I was about. I wasn’t going to change.
“Someone will find out,” she finally said.
And I couldn’t help but tilt my lips in a little smile. It was the last protest. Her final attempt to find an excuse out of it. Or a reason to give in.
“He won’t say no to you,” I told her.
It was always subtle, but I could see when it happened. The last argument dying in her eyes like it did with anyone I played with.
She started to open her mouth to agree, but then her eyes shot up, above me. “What?” she barked, and I realized there was someone standing behind me.
“Arion, can you help me find the snow village in the basement?”
Snow village? That voice.
I closed my eyes, the little hairs on my neck rising.
Winter. She was home, after all.
“What? Now?” Arion whined. “Have Mom help you when she gets back.”
Get the fuck out of the pool and get her what she wants.
“I don’t know why you want it.” Arion took my beer again. “It’s not even Halloween yet, and you can’t see the damn thing anyway. What’s the point?”
Bitch.
But even as my aggravation with Arion Ashby rose, the skin on my back warmed, knowing Winter was right there behind me.
And even if I tried, I couldn’t think of anything else right now.
What was I about to do to her sister just to get that same, exact feeling?
How did she get out here anyway, and how did she find her sister? I wanted to turn around, but I just stayed planted, listening.
“It has music,” Winter said, her tone growing defensive. “I like it, so what do you care?”
But Arion didn’t answer, and after a moment, her gaze dropped back down to me. Winter must’ve walked off.
Now that I knew she was home, any lukewarm interest I was able to muster for Arion had all but disappeared.
It has music. I like it.
I didn’t know if I felt responsible for the fact that she now only had four senses by which to experience the world, but it was a strange feeling to want to protect someone from others when I knew I’d be worse for her health than anyone.
I nudged Arion off and turned around, hopping out of the pool. Walking over to the table, I grabbed a fresh towel and glanced around, finding Winter near the pool house. Her hand was hooked around the arm of another girl about her age. That must’ve been how she made her way out here and found her sister.
Girls swarmed around her, and she looked overwhelmed but happy. Her mouth changed a lot, showing that she was a little nervous with all the commotion, the music, the people in her backyard… Folding her lips between her teeth, pursing it to one side, various hesitant but sweet smiles… She wasn’t used to this at all.
What kind of parties did she have at her blind school in Canada? And why the fuck did he send her all the way to Canada, as if she’d needed to be buried behind the curtain of some foreign country, so everyone would just forget about their less-than-perfect daughter? A wealthy family like hers could afford tutors for her to stay home if they thought regular school was too much. And if not, there were schools in the city.
Hooking the towel around my neck, I sat down at the table, instantly patting my shorts out of habit.
“Fuck,” I muttered.
I needed to find a cigarette.
“Get your sister a sweatshirt,” I heard Kai say to someone. “Everyone can see through her shirt.”
I shook my head, about to laugh.
“So don’t look at her tits,” Arion replied as she reached over the table to grab a towel. “She’s a kid.”
Sister.
Arion’s sister. I looked over, seeing Winter nodding to something someone was saying as her eyes lingered, unfocused toward the mid-section of the person in front of her.
She was barefoot in jeans and a white, ribbed tank top, a little stretched out and worn like she just did not care, but her face was clean of makeup, lips a natural dark pink and the barest remnants of curl left in her blonde ponytail as it draped past her shoulders. She was perfect.
A smile pulled at my lips, but I stopped myself and took a deep breath.
And that’s when I noticed the outline of her breasts through the fabric. The faint curves of the half-circles and then the points, more prominent with the chill in the air tonight. I darted my gaze left and right, noticing one group of guys looking over at her, speaking amongst themselves and laughing in unison at whatever was said.
Dumb fucks.
Kai picked his sweatshirt up off his chair and tossed it to Arion. “Do it now,” he commanded.
And from the tone and the look on his face, he wouldn’t allow her to disobey.
“Fine,” she spat out and got up.
But I grabbed the sweatshirt and yanked it out of her hand, throwing it back on the table.
Kai glared at me.
“She’s fine,” I told him, more as an order rather than a statement.
He rose up out of his chair, the hint of disdain on his face as he picked up the hoodie. “Not every woman in this world will be for your personal amusement,” he bit out, staring down at me. “Someday one of them will be your kid, and you’re gonna damn well worry when she’s drawing the wrong kind of attention.”
“You teach your daughter to hide in everyone else’s world,” I shot back, “and I’ll teach mine everyone else exists in hers. Go fuck yourself, and leave the kid alone.”
I wasn’t sure where the hell I was coming from, because if Banks walked out of our room like that, I’d lose my shit. But with Winter…
Nothing she did would be wrong. It was their fault for looking.
He straightened, breathing hard but not blinking.
And grabbing the sweatshirt again, he turned around and headed toward Winter.
Fucker.
Kai and I weren’t friends. We were brothers. In every way except biological. Whether we liked each other or not, we were family, and we had each other’s backs.
But that didn’t mean we liked each other, either.
He was the noble one. The voice of reason in our little group, and while I sometimes envied his happy house, I knew there would be a time when he’d have two choices—and he wouldn’t choose me.
Noticing Arion still next to me, I looked up at her. “What are you waiting for?”
Her lips tightened into a line, knowing I was referring to Marko Bryson, and finally, she walked off, either to get to work on him or tell me to piss off and to get back to her friends. Either way, I didn’t care. I just wanted her gone.
I turned my eyes back on Kai, watching as he approached Winter and the girls around her parting to let him in.
Winter’s smile faltered as he leaned in and she listened to whatever he was saying. She pulled back a little, her spine straightening and her head bowing in embarrassment.
My fingers closed into a fist.
Then he took her hand and held the sweatshirt up to it, so she could take it and put it on.
But much to my surprise, she shook her head and waved him off, adding a small smile for good measure. Instead, she reached out to touch the brick column of the pool house, using it to feel her way as she left.
He watched after her, threw a look at me, and I just shook my head at him. She wouldn’t cover up, but now she was leaving the party good and humiliated. Great job, asshole.
He threw the sweatshirt back over to the table, and I turned my eyes over to her, watching her trail the perimeter with her hand grazing the hedge line. How long did it take her to map out a new place in her head? She seemed pretty self-sufficient. Even at school already. Of course, she’d be familiar with her home the most. If she followed the hedges around the corner, they would take her all the way back up to the house.