Page 9 of The Aftermath

“We are going to the party tonight, right?” Tamsyn asks, looking at Rylan.

“Yeah. Why wouldn’t we be?”

“Just asking. I have to wear a fucking dress,” she whines, causing me to laugh. I know how much Tamsyn hates wearing dresses. She’s more of a tomboy.

“It’s a hot dress,” I tell her.

“It’s a dress,” she states.

“One I plan on fucking you in,” Rylan tells her.

“Speaking of dresses,” Silas says, running his hand over my panties. “Make sure you’re not wearing these later,” he says in my ear. I gasp, turning my head to face me as he grins at me.

“And if I do?” I challenge him. His eyes grow dark as he looks at me, a chill spreading across my body.

“Then you’ll have to be punished for not following orders,” he tells me. His lips come to rest on my neck before he sinks his teeth in gently. I moan, but he quickly pulls away from me.

“I, for one, don’t want to go,” Levi chimes in now.

“Why not?”

“I don’t like dancing, and the fact I don’t know which bitch is mine is a little annoying.”

“None of us know, Levi,” Rylan tells him, and I see the hurt in Tamsyn’s eyes. He’s right, though. None of us know who the hell we’re promised to, and the fact that we’re fucking any of the Kings is illegal in our world. It’s okay to have friends and to mess around, but nothing serious is supposed to come of that because we’ve already been chosen for someone, and that’s who we are to marry.

The thought alone makes me cringe. There are a few I wouldn’t want to be married to if my life depended on it. Silas, Levi, and Rylan are the only ones I would want, and even then, Rylan wouldn’t be completely mine since he’s never going to let Tamsyn go.

“And that doesn’t bother you?” he asks, looking between all of us.

“Yeah, it does me. But this is what we were taught, right?” I reply.

“Doesn’t mean we have to like it.”

“That’s true, but we were raised to be this,” I remind him.

“What if you could be something different? Would you?” he asks. That’s a loaded question. I’ve thought about that before. I’ve thought about being someone else and actually having choices, but I quickly swept them away because that isn’t reality.

“I would,” Tamsyn chimes in quickly. I glance over at her, but she just shrugs.

“Fuck this. Let’s get out of here,” Rylan says. Silas grunts his agreement over my shoulder, and we all stand to leave. I don’t know where the fuck we’re going, and I don’t really care as long as it isn’t here.

Tamsyn and I follow the guys out to the SUV and climb in. Levi takes off driving as Tamsyn and I talk about our dresses for the party. She isn’t happy about it, and I find it a little funny. At least she’ll let me do her hair and makeup.

We arrive and the car stops when I look to see where we are. Glancing over at Silas, I see the devilish look in his eyes.

“We don’t have anything to swim in,” I point out.

“You don’t need anything,” he adds before climbing out. Tamsyn and I share another look before climbing out of the car and following them down to the lake. The guys are already undressing when we meet up with them. Tamsyn wastes no time undressing to her bra and underwear and climbs in, but I hesitate.

That’s when I glance over and see the heat in Silas’s eyes. He looks at me, damn near burning me to the pits of hell with that look. I slowly slip out of my skirt and then my shirt before kicking off my shoes and moving toward the water. Once I get it, he swims toward me, dragging me along with him.

“Swim. Follow me,” he orders me. He wasn’t asking, so I do as I’m told. I swim behind him down the lake a short way before he swims up near the shore. I follow him when he reaches for me and pulls me into him, kissing me like he hasn’t kissed me before. He devours my mouth with his, and heat builds inside of me. But then he pulls away and nods toward the rocks. I’m confused by what he’s doing when he climbs out of the water and grabs a rope. At first, I think he’s going to swing out and jump in, but then he lowers it down the rock.

“Grab the end,” he says. I grab onto the end of the rope and he comes back around to get back in the water. He swims over and takes the rope, making some kind of knots and twists in it. “Close your eyes,” he tells me. I don’t know about this. I don’t know what he’s doing with that rope, but I’m about to find out. When I don’t close my eyes, Silas grabs my head and dunks me under the water. I flail my arms around, trying to get back up, but he doesn’t let me. He holds me under.

When he finally lets me up, I gasp for air before being dunked back under once more. My lungs burn for oxygen as I fight against the hold he has on me. This time when he lets me up, I suck in a deep breath, but before I can think about anything else, his lips are back on mine. His tongue sweeps into my mouth, and I forget the fact he just held me underwater. All I can think about is him.

I’m dazed and confused when he pulls away from me this time, slipping the rope over my head and around my neck. I’m about to protest when he shakes his head at me. Silas moves to tug on the rope, and I feel it tighten around my neck. I gasp, my hands instinctively wrapping around the coarse rope and trying to pull it away, but it does no good.

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