Zoey ran a hand through her pink hair, breathing out evenly, trying to slow it down. She’d gotten just as lost in me as I had in her; it was good to know, even under her defiance, I affected her so much.
Don’t get me wrong, I was still pissed at what happened while Carter and I were out of town—of course I had cameras put in her furniture, just to keep an eye on her. You never knew when something like that would come in handy—but I supposed, albeit begrudgingly, she was right in some respects.
Lake was there when I wasn’t. He could give her things I could not. I was not so thrilled about either of those facts, especially the second one, because I was under the impression I could give her anything and everything.
But I couldn’t. I would never be a twenty-year-old boy masquerading as a man, geeky and awkward. I would never be a kind man; I would always be abrasive and harsh, my words and my actions often considered rude or evil or what have you.
Zoey’s voice rose in the room, bouncing off its empty walls, “I meant what I said before, Roman.” She stood before me, folding her arms over her chest, back to her usual self—and how I enjoyed it. She really was a brat, but I liked her all the same. I needed to keep her, needed to have every piece of her.
Not just that curvy, sexy body.
I wanted her heart, her soul, her mind. I wanted everything she had to give, and in order to do that, I had to at least hear her out and not outright murder that Lake… even though I really, really wanted to kill him.
And when I said I wanted to kill him, I meant that I would in a heartbeat if I knew Zoey would eventually forgive me for it. But, staring into her eyes, I knew she wasn’t lying when she said I’d never have her fully if I hurt him.
So, I would play nice. For now. Until that fucking Lake fucked up and I put a bullet in his skull for fucking retribution, all with Zoey’s blessing.
“Don’t hurt him,” she added, as if I needed clarification on what she meant. “I like him.”
I ground my teeth, itching to get my hands around Lake’s throat and choke the life out of him, watch the light drain from those eyes and be the last thing he saw before he died. “What would you have me do, then? Would you have me let him go, pretend as if none of this happened?”
She nodded. “Yes. No more kidnapping.”
I scoffed. “And, what? You would still continue to see him? Do you think that boy would even want to continue to see you while knowing you’re mine?”
Zoey shrugged. “I don’t know, but I owe it to myself to figure it out.” Such honest words, words I knew she meant with her whole being. After discovering her ex with her sister, she wanted to find herself. I’d thought that, perhaps, she would find herself with me.
But maybe I wasn’t what she needed.
Or, perhaps, maybe I wasn’t the only thing she needed.
She breathed in hard, sighing softly as she went on, “I would never pretend to know what you think, how you feel, but… I don’t want to be just another possession to you, Roman.” It must’ve taken some gall to say that to me, and I was pretty sure I detected a waver in her voice. Standing up to me was not easy; most who knew what was good for them did no such thing, and they lived longer and happier lives because of it.
This girl, though… this girl was different, as she always had been.
“Go on,” I told her, resting my chin on a fist as I leaned to the side, my knees spread. The chair beneath me was comfortable, and yet I wanted to leap to my feet, sweep her into my arms, and carry her to my bedroom, bring Carter along, have him take her while her panties were stained with my cum. “Tell me what you want.”
“I want to be the only one you watch,” she said. “I don’t want you to pull other girls at the Dollhouse, or anywhere.”
I tilted my head, giving her a frown. “Surely you see how hypocritical that is.” She wanted me to remain faithful to her while she went off and continued to see Lake? How on earth was that fair?
Zoey met my frown with one of her own. “I’m not saying I’m going to go out and fuck anyone I want. I’m saying I want to see Lake.”
That was not a deal I would consider making with anyone; Zoey was truly special to me, for me to even think about it.
“Give me two days,” I said, “and I’ll have an answer for you.” She said if I forced her to choose, she would choose none of us out of spite, and I believed she would do just that. However, before I could even think to agree, there was something I needed to do.
Here’s a hint: it involved Lake.
Here I was, sitting in the Dollhouse, waiting for Carter to come back with the boy. Zoey took issue with me calling him a boy, but to me, that’s what he was, and what he would forever remain. If Zoey wanted to continue seeing the boy when she was not with me, he would be put to the test.
He would be put to the test, and how he responded to it would decide his fate. I would not let Zoey make a mockery of me; if she wanted to play the martyr, if she wanted to claim she would say goodbye to all of us, then so be it. I didn’t want that to happen, but I would not let her give herself to someone who didn’t deserve her.
When I had him at my house, I didn’t speak with him for long. Tonight, I planned on rectifying that, along with giving him some temptation and watching what he would do. When no one was around, when you could get away with it… most good men proved they were not, in fact, good. Men gave into temptation as long as they could hide it; I was not like them, but I never claimed to be a good man, so.
I could not say how long it took for Carter to return, but it was a while. He had to wait until the perfect moment to strike, so to speak. Zoey was in her apartment, and the last thing I needed was for her to see him there, what he was going to do.
Yes, I’d agreed to no kidnapping, but this was part of the test, so my hands were tied.
I did not get up when I heard the door open, didn’t even look to see them. Carter shoved Lake inside, and Lake stumbled on his feet, not hogtied or blindfolded. This time, he was very much aware of where he was, and the moment he saw me, his worry only intensified tenfold.
“No,” he muttered, “not you again.”
I smirked. “Me again.” I gestured to the sofa across from me. “Sit.”
Lake looked like the last thing he wanted to do was sit on that sofa, but he knew what was good for him; basically, he knew he had no choice in the matter, so he cautiously took a seat across from me, running his palms against his jeans, looking completely out of place in a club like this.
My eyes darted to Carter, and I waved him off. He left the room, though he did throw a glance at Lake, frowning. Carter… well, he wasn’t exactly thrilled about this, either.
Carter had just taken Zoey and Lake home, dropping them off. I knew he’d been itching to get his hands on her, his dick inside of her, but tonight wasn’t the time for that. Tonight had been… I didn’t know if enlightening was the correct word to use here.
When he got back, I was in the study, pouring myself a glass of whiskey, my favorite choice of drink. “Well,” Carter huffed, “that was… interesting.”
I turned toward him, giving him a frown. Interesting was definitely not the word I’d use, but to each his own. I took a sip from the glass, my frown intensifying as I leaned my back on the liquor cabinet. “What do you think of him?”
Carter laughed, though it was a bitter sound. “I think he’s nothing more than a pussy who should keep his nose stuck in a computer, not Zoey.” The exact response I expected from him, considering his feelings for Zoey. He hadn’t outright said he felt for her, but the man got distracted because he’d been thinking of her, which set this whole journey off.
Yeah, I’d thought time away from her would be a good thing. He’d needed to learn to separate work life from his personal life. Plus, it gave him some time to heal. He was still a little stiff, depending on how he moved his arm.
I finished off my glass, shooting him a stare. “She likes him, Carter. She’s willing to go against me to try to keep him.�
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That got Carter to sneer. “I’ll fucking end him, and that’ll be that.”
“No,” I said, staring down into the now-empty glass. “No killing.”
He did not appreciate that. “If we aren’t going to remove him from the equation, what the fuck are we going to do?” Carter blinked, his green eyes studying me as it dawned on him. “Don’t tell me you’re thinking of letting her keep him? She’s yours, Roman—”
I turned around and poured myself more whiskey. “She’s just as much yours at this point as she is mine,” I muttered, baring my teeth to the glass as I lifted it to my lips. “If we want to keep her, if we want to have every single part of her, we might have to learn to make some secessions.” It was not something I took joy in admitting aloud, nor was it something Carter liked hearing, if his discernable unhappiness meant anything.
“Surely you don’t mean…” Carter stopped when I glared at him. He let out a great sigh, moving to my side. He said nothing else as he grabbed his own glass and poured himself some. Normally, I wouldn’t let him touch my liquor, but tonight—or, rather, this morning, since it was now dawn—had been a momentous day, one that will inevitably go down in history.
The day Roman Russo caved. The day Roman Russo let a woman dictate how he would live his life. Never thought I’d see the damned day when that happened, mostly because no other woman had ever affected me quite like Zoey did.
“Unfortunately, I do,” I spoke with a grimace. “But I have a plan.” And then I proceeded to tell Carter the plan. I didn’t think he was quite as into the plan as I was, for he only wanted to get rid of Lake entirely. I did agree with him, but we would only get rid of him if he failed the test I would lay before him.
Then and only then would I decide his fate. Would Lake live or would he die? It would depend on what kind of boy he was.
Lake sat across from me, looking terribly uneasy, kind of like he wanted to vomit. His blonde hair was a little messed up, his shirt wrinkled. With Carter now gone, I held all of his attention, as much as it was. I had to admit, he was not very impressive, not intimidating in the least. Frankly, I had no idea whatsoever what Zoey saw in him.
It would be one thing if he was on my level, but he wasn’t. I do suppose that might be the point, as I doubted anyone could handle more than one me in their life, but still.
“What is this?” Lake asked, shaking his head. “Why did you bring me here?”
“I did no such thing,” I said. “Carter did.” All he did was shake his head at my correction, as if he didn’t care about the semantics. “I brought you here to speak with you about Zoey. I did not get the chance to have you alone the last time we saw each other.”
“The last time you kidnapped me, you mean,” Lake spoke, frowning slightly. The expression did not sit well on his face.
My chest heaved a sigh, and I dug my fingers into the leather armrests on the chair beneath me. “I hear you’ve been ignoring her.” How I hated the fact that he’d dismissed her after our first meeting… only because it bothered Zoey. She thought I had something to do with it, which I most certainly did not. “You mean a lot to her, as much as I hate to admit it.”
“You’re… you’re not from her family, I take it?”
I let out a short chuckle. “No, I’m not, and neither is Carter. Is that what she told you?” His silence was all I needed to know. Perhaps, if I riled him up enough, he would fail the test and we could be rid of him for good. “There’s a lot you don’t know about her, Lake, such as the fact that she works here, at the Dollhouse.”
Lake shifted in his seat, appearing a tad uncomfortable. He obviously saw some half-naked women while Carter dragged him in here, so he could put things together on his own. “Okay, what does that—”
“This is where I met her,” I said. “Where she agreed to be mine.”
His azure eyes widened, and suddenly he realized just what shit he’d stepped into. “She never told me she had a boyfriend.”
“I’m not her boyfriend.”
“Her fiancé?”
My frown deepened. “No.”
Lake’s brows came together, the confusion plain on his face. “Then what are you to her?”
I thought on it, I thought on it hard. What was I to Zoey Marbella? A good question, something I’d never asked myself before. If I was not her boyfriend, not her fiancé, how could I lay claim to her as I so desperately wanted? Perhaps it was time to make it official, so to speak.
“Look,” Lake started, trying to get up—although a single glance from me stopped him dead in his tracks. “I don’t know what’s going on with you and Zoey, but I—”
Still deep in thought, I managed to say, “But you what?” Lake had given me some food for thought, which surprised me. Honestly, all I thought I would take from this conversation was whether or not Lake deserved to live in the same building as Zoey, let alone possibly continue to see her.
“I like her,” he said, sighing the words out, defeated. “But this is all too much. I’m just a normal guy. I don’t do kidnappings or anything like that—and, please don’t shoot me for saying this, but I don’t think Zoey should be involved with you. After everything she’s been through, she needs someone who can be there for her, and you…” Lake paused, eyeing me up, bold in the face of a man who could literally strangle him within seconds. “All you seem to want to do is control her.”
What was love if not control?
I gave Lake a smile. A slow and deadly thing, deceiving in its origin. I would not argue with him there; I wanted to control Zoey Marbella in the worst of ways, and yet I knew she was serious when she said she’d never give herself to me fully if I hurt him. However, if I proved to her that he was unworthy of her, I was hoping she would take that back.
That, or she’d bore of him. I mean, look at him. He was hardly a man.
Lake only appeared uncomfortable with my grinning, and he said nothing; the first smart thing he’d done since he came here with Carter.
Getting to my feet, I wandered to the door, keeping an eye on him all the while. I poked my head out, finding Carter standing near the door, his expression dark as he surveyed the Dollhouse. The old Carter would’ve been ogling the half-naked women working, but this Carter was too tense, too wound-up… too smitten with Zoey, not that I could blame him, of course.
That same logic I could not reasonably give to Lake, though. Lake was just so different from Carter and me, thus it was difficult for me to believe Zoey could possibly feel for each of us. It was just like someone claiming their favorite flavor of ice cream was Neapolitan. Just bullshit, and cheating, because that was three different flavors in one.
Carter’s green gaze landed on me, and I nodded. He knew what to do. When I returned to my seat across from Lake, the boy looked even more anxious than he did before, and that was certainly saying something, since he already looked like he wanted to be sick.
“Are you going to let me go?” Lake asked. “It’s funny, I really don’t feel like dying tonight—though I didn’t feel like being kidnapped either, and here I am, anyway.” His sarcasm fell onto deaf ears, and I only frowned at him.
Oh, how I would absolutely love to put a bullet in his head and watch him die, cut his throat and stand over his spasming body as he bled out under me. Hell, I’d watch him die regardless of what his death entailed; I wouldn’t be picky. That, however, had to wait until he was put to the test.
“There’s one thing I want you to do before I let you go,” I said, the anticipation rife in my veins. Zoey would hate what I was about to do, I knew that without a doubt, but her hatred for it would not stop me from doing it.
Lake gulped, eyes wide. “I’m almost afraid to ask. Does it involve Zoey? Look, I just needed some time to think. I wasn’t going to blow her off forever—getting kidnapped was kind of crazy, you know—” It was clear he had no idea what I wanted him to do, whether I wanted him to be nicer to Zoey or to stay away from her entirely.
I did not take kind
ly to dogs sniffing around what’s mine. He was fortunate Zoey had been the one to initiate the sex, lucky that I heard him tell her a few times that they could stop, that they didn’t have to do it; if it had been him, if Lake had been the one to do all that… he’d be dead already, whether or not Zoey would hate me for it.
See? I could be patient. I could be nice. I was a man of many talents.
It was at that moment when Carter appeared in the room, followed shortly by a bosomy blonde who used to be Carter’s favorite among the girls at the Dollhouse. A bombshell in her own right, Crystal sauntered in, her bleached hair kinky and wavy, wearing nothing but sparkling heels, a thong, and some kind of strappy thing around her tits. She was beautiful, and there had been many nights when I’d watched her and Carter together, but now…
Now it was the strangest thing. I only wanted to see Zoey, to see that hollow stare of hers filled with lust and life, her pink hair sweaty as Carter bent her over and fucked her.
Hopefully Crystal didn’t take it personally.
Lake swallowed hard when he saw Crystal, and though his gaze dropped to her practically-naked body, he was quick to meet her eyes. “Crystal? What—” He was speechless. Was he really so clueless that he didn’t know where Crystal worked, either? I knew they were acquaintances, since she also lived in the same building as Zoey, but come on.
If this was not temptation laid deliciously bare, I did not know what was.
Crystal glanced back at me, and I gave her a tiny nod as Carter once again slipped out of the room. Carter already told her what the plan was, though I instructed him not to tell her that this was all about Zoey. As far as Crystal was concerned, she simply thought I wanted to watch her and Lake go at it like animals. She didn’t need to know all of the details.
She turned her gaze back to Lake, who sat a bit too straight on the couch, suddenly. She moved to stand before him, cocking her hip, drawing attention to every curve on her body—and there were plenty. Her body was the kind of body that riled up most men, blemish and tattoo-free. Though my eyes roamed over her backside, I found myself wishing she was Zoey, wishing I saw that tattoo on her side.
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