“Is that really what you want, Reject?” I thumbed her chin. Abs tried to jerk away, so I gripped her hard, yanking her back. I don’t know what came over me. Maybe it was her red eyes. The fact she still hadn’t fixed her dress. Or it could be the pounding in my chest that wouldn’t stop. I don’t know. It happened in a split second. One minute she was glaring, the next I was kissing her.
Hard. Brutal.
Addicting.
Until sanity returned, and I let her shove me off.
When I was done her cheeks were wet, her glare was fierce, her bottom lip bruised from my teeth—and her taste was fucking imprinted inside me. I wiped her off with the back of my hand, as if it would do something. Then I threw her a smile.
“Remember, I’m the only one you have left.”
Seven
ABIGAIL
Theo and I climbed the stairs to my wing in silence, and he took his place just outside the doorway to my bedroom. Part of me itched to slam the door, but I knew I’d lose that battle.
I couldn’t lose another.
I’d said nothing to him on the way back, but I wasn’t a fool. That didn’t give me any bit of power. He’d stolen it the moment I’d urged him to go further.
Outside the Swan Swell after-party was in effect in the gardens, the trill of laughter and music floated in through one of my windows.
My dress had been made months before and once again required aid to put on, but Story still wasn’t anywhere to be found. I refused to let Theo help me get dressed again. I’d learned my lesson. So, I tugged on a black, plunging-neck dress with a lace bodice that hugged me much too well for this kind of party. It had a sheer black-lace stomach and a flowing black velvet skirt, with two high slits up my legs.
The Swan Swell dress code was a strict white.
What-the-fuck-ever. I guess I was going to officially embrace my role as the black swan.
I had my leg propped on my chaise, clasping the strap on my ankle, when I saw it. My dress had fallen away, the slit showing the oval bruise on my thigh. Light, but it would darken.
Just say it.
I couldn’t breathe, heat crawled up my neck, consuming my oxygen. I should hate him. I should. I shouldn’t wonder what it would feel like to have his marks elsewhere visible, for everyone to see.
He’d treated me like dirt.
Stepped on me with his fucking shoe.
And I… liked it?
I wish I could say there’s nothing left in our relationship, but that would be a lie. Theo and I are inverse, a dark, twisted version of love. We’re still connected, but not through sweet words, through torment and ache. Theo is still inside me. He’s still in my heart.
Now he’s just determined to break it.
I touched the bruise just as Theo’s bored voice drifted in: “Hurry up, Reject.”
Theo was looking at his phone when I came to the door, but he looked up at the sound. He all but froze.
“What?” His silence made me uneasy, almost as much as the foreign look in his eyes. I fought the urge to fist the velvet skirt of my dress.
Apathy returned, and he shoved his phone in the inner pocket of his suit.
Theo was divine in a tux. I’d never had a problem with our guards matching our clothing to blend in, but then I’d never had Theo as a guard. I thought casual Theo was gorgeous, but it was nothing to him in a tux.
I still wasn’t used to seeing Theo so dressed up. He’d come to parties with me in the past, but like everything else with us, I’d had to sneak him in.
It was perfectly tailored to his tall, lean build, and his bedhead brown hair made him look casually elegant.