by Mary Martel
"I don't get why you're making such a big deal out of this," Damien spoke up from his stool. "She's home safe and looks perfectly fine to me. You're being a dick to her and I don't like the way you're speaking to her. You should really stop before it's you whose mouth gets you in trouble and you find yourself with someone's fist in your face. Deservedly."
My mouth dropped open and my eyes widened in shock. This was the Damien I had first met. I'd forgotten how he could be, because once he’d decided he liked me he’d lost a bit of the haughty and all of the prick. He gave me nothing but goodness, and right now was no different. It was just that Quinton was now getting that other side of him.
Poor Quinton. When I'd walked into this room he'd thought it was me who was going to have a bad time, and it appeared the tides might be turning on him for the worst.
Quinton's body remained where he stood, but his head slowly turned to the side to look back over his shoulder toward Damien. I couldn't see the look on his face, but I knew it must have been unfriendly to say the least, and I knew normal people would have been terrified at seeing it.
Damien didn't seem fazed in the slightest. His ultra light brown eyes were clear and framed by eyelashes so thick they looked fake and made me want to pluck them off his eyelids so I could glue them onto mine. His cheekbones were hollowed out and helped aid him in his haughty look, even when he was going for normal.
"So now you're siding with her?" Quinton ground out between clenched teeth. I caught sight of a muscle ticking in his jaw and feared for Damien's life.
"Uh, yeah," Damien shot back immediately. "Wake the fuck up, man. I'll always side with her." He jerked his chin in Tyson's direction. "And I’m not the only one."
Oh boy.
Didn't that just fill me with happiness and dread all at the same time.
I did not want to be the thing that came between an uncle and his nephew. Further, it made me uncomfortable to think of Tyson always picking me before Quinton. Why hadn't I thought of it like that until now?
Not good.
Not good at all.
I stepped around Tyson and blew a kiss at Damien. He preened as he plucked the kiss out of the air and clutched it to his chest. "Do you have any more of that you want to give me?" he asked, taking his own life in his hands.
I smiled at him and it stretched so wide my cheeks immediately hurt. "Absolutely."
Without hesitation, he pushed up from his stool and headed directly for me. He pushed his way through Trenton and Simon, shot Quinton a dirty look, and elbowed his way around Tyson. I thought that last part to be a bit rude, but I wasn't going to scold him for it in front of everyone else when he was one of the few on my side and willing to stand up for me.
Damien wrapped his arm around my neck and pulled my body flush into his side. My front connected with his side and in order to keep the breath in my lungs from escaping in a rush my hands went to his front and back where I gripped his shirt tightly in an effort to ease my landing. I didn't let go after making contact, and he didn't let go of me either. He shoved his face in mine, stopping mere inches from our foreheads touching, and he smiled flat out. His eyes even twinkled in what I thought of as delight.
I realized in that moment I absolutely was not the only one who enjoyed handing the shit Quinton dished out on the regular right back at him. I was simply the only one who got away with it. Therefore, the others rarely tried unless they knew it'd be worth it.
Damien tipped his head forward and sweetly rubbed his nose against mine, melting my insides.
"You smell like you might need a shower," he whispered to me. "Please tell me you'd like assistance with that. I'm happy to wash your back for you. And anything else you might need a hand with."
Oh dear.
I pulled my face away from his, leaned back, removed my hand away from his back, and covered my mouth with it. I giggled into my hand and I imagined my eyes twinkled right back into his. I didn't even mind that he'd called me out for not smelling like daisies. Tyson hadn't minded, but we'd smelled a whole lot like each other, so maybe he hadn't even noticed.
"She doesn't need your fucking help," Rain snapped harshly. "Ariel, go upstairs and take a shower. Alone. The rest of you, stay the fuck away from my daughter."
I tore my eyes away from Damien's to scowl at Rain. He missed my look because he was too busy scowling himself. At Quinton, of all people.
And I suddenly wanted to laugh again.
I did no such thing. Now was not the time to poke the bear.
"And you," Rain snarled. "Stop acting like her fucking warden. That's my job, asshole. Newsflash, you're not her dad, you’re her fucking boyfriend. Try acting a lot less like a controlling one before you find yourself kicked to the curb like yesterday's garbage and not even because she's the one who kicked your ass there, but because I did. Jesus Christ. It's a privilege to date my daughter and you damn well better start acting like it."
The or else was implied at the end.
From the couch, one of the twins snorted and the other one burst into loud, obnoxious laughter.
Dear God.
Quinton looked like he might murder us all with his bare hands.
Now I wanted to laugh even more than I had two minutes ago.
"Yes, Rain," Abel cheered loudly. "You tell him what's up."
"We'll hold him down if you want to give him a spanking," Addison shouted across the room. "We can take him. Swear on the full moon, we can take him."
I had a vision in my head of Quinton's pants being pulled down and him being bent over the back of the couch with his bare ass hanging out in the breeze for all to see. Then the twins took turns slapping his ass, each of them getting their own cheek to abuse.
Goodness gracious, great balls of holy fuck. Why did that make me feel so hot on the inside? And why couldn't that shit be real instead of simply fantasy? My heart was breaking by the second knowing that particular dream would never come to life. How depressing.
Every girl had to have dreams and fantasies, right? Lucky for me, I had several boyfriends to choose from and they all played starring roles in mine.
Abruptly, Damien let me go and stepped aside. I hadn't been paying attention to what had been going on around me, I'd been too lost in my own daydream of Quinton's ass cheeks turning bright red.
Delicious.
Rain got right up in my space.
Fantasy what?
Daydream who?
A sexy bared ass being spanked by two shit hot Salt and Pepper twins?
Poof!
All gone the moment my father shoved his face up close to mine. A flush covered my cheeks and I just knew my cheeks were blazing bright red.
Busted?
I couldn't even meet his eyes. Rain was crazy smart, he'd figure it out immediately, and then things would take an even more unpleasant turn.
"Glad you made it home safe, baby girl. Even if it is about ten hours past your fucking curfew."
Rain leaned in, kissed my non-scarred cheek, and then he was gone.
I blinked at the space he had once filled. Had he just said I was late for my curfew? Since when had I ever had a curfew?
Umm, never?
Having a dad was super weird sometimes.
I looked through the room. Quinton now looked down at his cowboy boots with his hands on his hips. I couldn’t see his whole face, but I could tell he was no longer angry, but he certainly wasn't happy either. He looked pensive, possibly even reflective, and he refused to look at any of us.
Whatever.
Rain had made a serious point when he called Quinton my warden. Though, I'd never toss him out as if he were yesterday's garbage. That was a bit too harsh for me.
Julian's eyes kept shifting between Damien and myself. They were shining brightly and the smile on his face was so big and so smug I had to shake my head at just seeing it. He was crazy, but I'm pretty sure he got off on watching Damien and me driving his best friend just a little bit crazy.
Addison an
d Abel were no longer seated on the couch. They were standing side by side and leaning on each other. Their hilarity from earlier had faded, but they still wore small smiles on their faces. They had just joked about holding down Uncle Quint and spanking him, and neither of them held any sort of remorse for it whatsoever.
I loved them both so very much.
Both Trenton and Simon watched me with faces clouded with remorse and strung up tight bodies. I couldn't help them with their remorse, it was theirs to deal with, not mine.
Dash stood before the sliding glass window, looking out into the backyard with his back to me and his hands shoved in his front pants pockets. I didn't know what that meant and I wasn't going to ask. He had hurt my feelings when he stood beside the firing squad. He was the last person I would ever expect to stand against me.
And it kind of pissed me off, because I was willing to do anything for him, and in the coming days I'd prove it to not only him but the whole lot of them. Coven and family above all else. Always. I had learned this from them, for goodness’ sake.
Dash had actually disappointed me.
My throat began to close up tight and the room blurred before me. Suddenly, things weren't funny anymore and I had to get out of here before I embarrassed myself and burst into tears in front of them all.
"I'm going to shower," I mumbled.
I turned around and forced myself to walk slowly away from the kitchen. My hands fisted at my sides, my nails cutting into my palms sharply.
I would not fucking cry.
Someone grabbed my hand, stopping me. I looked back over my shoulder, expecting Quinton, but came to a full stop at the sight of Trenton. My shoulders immediately tensed up. Whatever this was, I didn't think I had the energy for it. The day had just begun and already I was emotionally spent.
Now, I knew I had done him and Simon dirty by leaving like I did and not telling either of them where I was going. I damn well knew it, and later I'd find a time with just the two of them to apologize for it, but now wasn't that time. And I was also pissed they stood against me. Call me petty if you will, I didn't give that first fuck.
Trenton immediately let go of my hand. "Simon and I are going with you. Obviously we aren't going to follow you into the bathroom, but we're definitely sticking close."
I nodded, turned my back on him, and walked away. I didn't run. I didn't jog. Hell, I didn't even sprint. I forced myself to walk. I would not give Quinton the satisfaction of seeing me run away from him. Or worse, make him give chase like a predator who'd just caught the scent of his prey.
Down the hall, through the dining room, into the pantry closet, and up the stairs I went. The door at the top of the stairs stood wide open and I rolled my eyes at seeing it. What was the freaking point of even having a lock on the damn thing if Dash or someone else left it wide open at every other turn.
Their footsteps were heavy on the stairs behind me. Thankfully, there were only two sets of them.
I stormed through the living room, down the hallway, and shoved the door open into my bedroom. I didn't bother closing the door behind me. What was the fucking point? I'd likely never be alone again for the rest of my life.
Ignoring my two bodyguards, I barged into my closet and started banging hangers around in search of something to wear for when I got out of the shower that would bring me any semblance of comfort.
Black tank top with a thick strip of lace at the hems and spaghetti straps so thin they looked in danger of snapping due to the weight of my boobs every time I wore it because I never wore it with a bra because, hello, I said it was for comfort. I found a black thermal that looked like it would mold to my body when I put it on with a line of small hearts across the chest. It also looked comfy and warm. I dug around in one of the drawers until I found a pair of black fleece lounge pants that didn't have the tag on them, but I knew were brand new because I had never worn them before.
Great, now Damien was cutting off tags in order to hide shit from me.
I pulled open another drawer, and dug out a pair of bright yellow fuzzy socks with little white hearts on them that would match my thermal. I rooted around until I found the plainest bra and panties set I could find. White with no lace or frill, just simple and comfortable. I didn't have it in me to color coordinate my underwear with my outfit today, and hopefully no one but me would see it.
I picked the pile of clothing up and walked out of the closet.
Surprisingly, Trenton and Simon had made themselves comfortable in my space. Trenton was on my bed, his back against the wall, his legs stretched out straight in front of him, feet crossed at the ankles. His arms were up and cocked at the elbows with his hands behind his head. He was barefoot and looked completely relaxed. Only his eyes came to me as I walked out of the closet.
Simon was on my white rug on the floor, sprawled out on his stomach with the remote control to my television clutched in his hand. He didn't even bother looking up at me when I walked past him.
Whatever, it wasn’t like he hurt my feelings or anything.
"Please, make yourselves at home," I muttered snottily under my breath.
Trenton's eyes left me and moved back to the television. Simon clicked a button on the remote, changing the channel. Fine, they could ignore me, but it was my room and if I didn't like what they were watching on my television when I got out of the shower then I'd be kicking both their asses out. They could lurk in the hallway for all I cared.
I locked the bathroom door behind me and sprinted across the room to lock the door on the other side too. You could never be too safe in this house. Leaving the door unlocked was always taken as an open invitation to join me. Heck, I even had to lock the door when I was going to the bathroom. Once the twins had walked in on me while I was peeing and they'd acted like this was a completely normal thing for them to do, even though I'd been completely mortified. Neither cared and they'd attempted to keep the conversation going, asking me about a customer who'd come into the shop earlier in the day.
Do you know how hard it was for me to pee in front of those two? Next to impossible.
I'd locked both doors after that. And I had since, going to the bathroom peacefully and on my own. That didn't mean I didn't hear the doorknob often rattle because I did, I just chose to ignore it. This house was full of bathrooms and no one needed this one while I was using it, ever. Those twins didn't understand the meaning of the word ‘boundaries.’
I stripped off my clothes and left them in a small pile on the ceramic tile just outside the shower. I could dump them in the hamper in the closet after I got out of the shower, but I knew I wouldn't leave them where they were on the floor. I wouldn't ever allow myself to be that kind of a slob. You didn't live with Dash, share his space with him, and act like a pig. It was simply impossible.
I opened the glass door and stepped into the shower. I didn't bother standing to the side of the spray when I turned the knobs, turning the shower on. Ice-cold water blasted the top of my head and immediately changed to warm before turning to scalding, burn your tits off, hot.
I closed my eyes to savor the heat as it seeped into my skin when a memory hit me like a sledgehammer to the face. I flinched and let it roll right through me.
I had just turned nine the day before and I'd been locked inside my bedroom all day and all night for what Vivian had called “my own damned good.” Then she'd gone on to slap me across the face when I'd had the nerve to ask her why. My lip had been split wide-open and bloodied. Then, while watching the blood leak out of me with a look of disgust on her pretty face, she'd sneered,
"That's what you get when you question me, you little sniveling brat. You need to learn or you're going to get more of that." She'd pointed at my bleeding lip before cuffing me upside the head and dragging me into my room.
She'd thrown me down onto the dirty floor and strutted out on her outrageously high heels. I'd lain there crying as I wiped the blood off my face with the back of my hand. That was when I heard the padlock click into
place, locking me inside. I got up and raced for the door, throwing myself at it. I grabbed the knob, twisting it this way and that, pulling while silently crying a river of tears.
The door didn't budge.
The last time she’d locked me in my room I had gotten so hungry and she'd been gone for so long I had thought I was going to die. Of course, there had only been Saltine crackers for me to eat when she'd finally let me out, but I hadn't cared, I'd been so hungry I would have eaten anything.
I hoped she'd come back sooner this time because I didn't want to feel like I was going to starve to death on my birthday.
I gave up on the door and curled up into a tight ball on the middle of my bare, dirty mattress and cried myself to sleep.
It wasn't Vivian who came to get me early the next morning, but some man I'd only seen once or twice before he woke me up by roughly kicking at my mattress over and over again with his worn construction work boot until I sat up and looked around in confusion. Only then did he stop.
He grabbed me by my arm and yanked me up to my feet so fast and with such brutal strength that I’d cried out in pain and tried to pull my arm out of his grasp. He squeezed a little bit harder, his fingers really biting into my flesh, before letting me go.
"The bitch puked all over everything," he muttered. "Herself included. The whole place now smells sour. Fuck, if I stick around any longer I'm gonna puke. Sorry to say it, little Cinderella, but you gotta get your ass out there and clean that shit up."
He shoved me out of the room, down the dank hallway, and into the living room.
Immediately, I raised my small hand to cover my mouth and nose because the man had not lied. There was puke everywhere and it smelled sour.
I ran to one of the windows across the room and pushed it up and open. It went up with ease and I lowered my hand to suck in some of the clean, fresh air wafting in from the now open window.
Vivian lay on the floor in a mess of her own vomit, completely naked and moaning with her hands clutched to her stomach. Believe it or not, this type of thing happened all the time and sadly, I hadn't grown up in a world where I could afford to be embarrassed about it.
