Page 13 of My Summer Girl

Vex

Te Mudaste – Bad Bunny

I’ve noted her staring more and more during our sessions. We have a mutual understanding. I need to inflict pain to feel at peace and she needs to receive it to settle. The last few sessions we’ve had, she’s lingered when we usually separate. When I notice, she hurries and hides her face or shakes her expression. Maybe that should’ve been the first sign that our boundaries wore thin.

The question is whether or not I want to cut ties or cross every boundary we’ve created to protect us both.

Am I ready for this?

Dulce is stunning—the most beautiful creature I’ve ever laid eyes on. Even though her brother told me to stay away for my own good, I couldn’t. She came into my club and stole the blood from my veins, and since then, I’ve been transfixed.

We’ve never crossed our platonic lines. Promising myself that she was and always would be off-limits. But her text tonight, the one that’s burning a hole in my soul like it’s etching its way across my heart, that I can’t ignore.

There’s been a tug between us, one I can’t explain, and don’t really want to dig into. Her scent drives me wild, bringing me to my knees every time she leaves. It’s like I’m gasping for air and the only lungful I receive is her peachy scent. There are times when I’m feeding from her that my monster writhes within me to take her. Make her ours.

I want her.

There’s no denying that.

I want her touch, her lips, her hands. I want the connection she only offers others and never me. The intimate ones that should scare me but only make me question why I made the rules I did. Why can’t I have her? Just once.

In the last hundred or so years, I’ve not slept with a submissive. It’s not something I’ve ever been comfortable with. Crossing that boundary brings emotions that aren’t controlled by our environment. Companionship that we both have agreements to is all that’s offered.

And if there’s anything I’m strict about, it’s control. Rules and structure are things that make sense and are easy to follow. But the other things? They aren’t regulated or meticulous.

Love.

A capricious emotion.

People die. Monsters too. The last person I came to love passed before my eyes of old age and thinking of experiencing that pain again isn’t worth it.

I wasn’t even in love with that person, it was companionship, but the pain of their loss still lingers.

I shudder just thinking of the last time I felt pain. Now, I inflict it, and only with Dulce. She’s the first person I’ve felt a singular connection to in ages. And since we’ve been in this agreement of sadism and masochism, I’ve not bedded another. Not because I thought anything would happen between us. Instead it was a result of her holding all my attention.

Now, she wants to come here, and something in her text tells me it’s not for our normal exchange.

Pain, release, power, and blood.

Well, I take. I never give. That forms a bond I’ve never shared with anyone else. A soul bond that binds us forever. Anyone who ties themselves with a Saephyn becomes immortal. We don’t go through a death process—we’re born this way—but our internal clock stops ticking around thirty-five human years. I’m unsure if Cupid’s age and if they do, would this change her?

Would she hate me?

“What’s the long look for?” Beatrix asks, breaking me out of my internal debate.

“That’s not how that phrase goes,” I tease. Beatrix is my hostess, aside from Amadis—the only two people I trust managing Vex when I’m off-world or stalking Dulce.

Yes, I follow her. She intrigues me. She’s this soft woman who smells divine and tastes even better. Something about her calls to me and it’s never made sense.

“Then how does it go?”

“Why the long face?” I correct with a smirk.

She laughs, tapping her chin thoughtfully. “That’s exactly what I said, Vex.”

I shake my head emphatically. “That is not what you said, but it’s quite alright.” She stalks closer, her face all sharp edges and points. “I need you to prep the Viewing Room.”

“Oooh,” she croons, tapping her feather pen against her lips. “Is there something you want to tell me?”

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