Dylan gave me the slightest smile, a hidden “chin up” that tried to warm my heart, but fell short. He didn’t know what Christmas would bring. I did.
The string quartet began playing “Silent Night” as I took Lucius’ arm and turned my back on the one small bit of sanctuary I’d found since all this began.
The car ride back was silent. I chose the front passenger seat before another idiotic fight could break out. Luke smiled as he got the door for me, perhaps aware of what I was doing.
As soon as we stopped at the house, I darted out of the car and up the front steps, my shoes left behind in the car. Farns opened the front door and I blew past him, seeking the shelter of my room. I had to think about what happened, to sort out what Dylan’s presence might mean for me. And, most of all, I needed to talk to the one person who might be able to shed more light—Renee.
Though I didn’t hear following steps, I closed my door and leaned against it. It felt as if the filth of the party coated me, Cal’s fingerprints meshing with my skin and tainting me just like everything else he touched. I stripped the dress off, not caring that I left it in a heap in the floor along with the panties and jewels.
I ran a hot shower and stood beneath the steaming rain, my makeup running down my face and my hair wilting. I just wanted to be clean, to have not a single trace of Cal or Red or anyone else left on my skin. I picked the bobby pins from my hair and shampooed all of it. Then I lathered myself up, scrubbing until my skin was raw. I rinsed off and stepped out.
I reached for my towel, but it wasn’t on the bar. Movement behind me had me whirling. It was Vinemont, the towel in his hands. He wrapped it around my shoulders and clutched it closed in front of me. He still wore his tuxedo pants, but his jacket was gone and his shirt halfway unbuttoned, as if he’d been in the middle of disrobing when he’d changed course and come to see me. His eyes were half hooded, lust and heat wafting from him like a fire.
My body tingled, anticipation and fear playing along my skin. “Were you watching me?”
“Yes.” His voice was a low rasp. He was so still, but his jaw was tight and the sinews in his neck even tighter.
I moved the towel down under my arms and tucked one end into the other over my chest. “If you’re done with your peep show, I’d like to get dressed and get some sleep.”
I edged past him even though he took up so much space. The room, my head, and my heart were all filled with him.
“Dylan can’t save you.” His words were cold, far colder than the heat of his eyes.
“I don’t expect anyone to save me. I expect to save myself.” I forced myself to walk slowly to my dresser, not even looking as Vinemont approached. I grabbed a pair of panties and shimmied them up my legs beneath the towel. Then I chose a tank top and pulled it over my head, dropping the towel once it was in place. I turned back to him, my hands on my hips. He was so close, having crept up behind me while I dressed.
“What do you want?”
“Do you think this will stop me?” He plucked the hem of my tank top and ran his fingers over the edge.
“One minute I’m beautiful, the next you’re in here threatening me?”
“This isn’t a threat. I’m simply telling you.” His eyes bored into me as he fisted the material of my top and pulled me to him. “Dylan can’t save you. You can’t get out of this. I will never let you out of it. Understand?”
“Understand what? That you want me, that you have feelings for me, but you’ll also gladly let me be raped by all your friends so you can win some game? I got it. Now get the fuck out.” His fist had tightened as I spoke, drawing me closer.
Without heels, I had to crane my head up to see him, to look into the dark pools of his eyes. “I will do anything to win, to make sure Lucius wins, to beat the others. Anything, Stella. Even if that means that every fucking man in Louisiana rapes you a hundred times over. No matter how much that sickens me. Yes.”
I should have seen it coming, should have known that nothing I thought about him was real. No one who had feelings for me could say such a thing. My eyes watered. I should have been used to pain. I’d endured so much of it over the past weeks, but his words struck at my very center, like a shard of ice skewering my soul.