Page 29 of Ruining Vanessa

“You heading back to bed?” Giulio asks, glancing toward the door. “I bet Damien and Slayer are missing you.”

I shudder. Yeah. I’m sure they are missing me, but not in ways I want to be missed. Damien had been out cold, but I know Slayer will wake up the second I try to get back into bed. I’m not ready to be used like a human teddy bear just yet, but I don’t know what Giulio has planned, either. “I’m pretty awake,” I say cautiously. “What are you going to do?” Hopefully just watch some TV or something normal for once.

“Go take care of Antonia and watch some of the others. I’ve got a few nocturnal reptiles that are more interesting to observe at this time of night.” Giulio grins at me. “You want to watch me feed one of them?”

I blanch at that. Why would I want to get closer to those things than I need to be? I still remember the last time he showed me his reptile room, far too well. “I… Not really,” I say honestly. “I don’t like them. And you like scaring me with them.”

Giulio chuckles and shakes his head. “Nah. I mean, yeah, you’re fun to scare, but I’m really not a teenager anymore. Plus, I don’t want to stress them out too much. There’s no point in investing this much money in my pets if I’m going to endanger their health.”

He has no problem scaring me, or endangering my health, I think darkly. He’s well aware of that, though, and there’s no need to point it out. I do give him a look, though, one he only returns with a smirk.

Yeah, he definitely knows what I’m thinking.

If sex is off the table, it might be interesting to see the things. After how many times the guys had fucked me earlier that night, I’m not surprised he needs recovery time, and I’m pretty sure I can count on him not being up for it any time soon.

“They still scare me,” I say. “Can I just watch TV or something?”

“And risk you getting more ideas? Next you’ll want to read books!” Giulio hooks his arm around my waist. “Come on. They’re only scary if you don’t know anything about them. You’re hundreds of times bigger and heavier than most of them. Trust me, they’re more worried you’ll squash or eat them than the other way around.”

“Okay,” I say weakly. “But I want to be able to go back to bed if I get too freaked out.”

“They will never leave their enclosures,” Giulio promises as he leads me out. He hits the light switch on the bathroom before we go, plunging us into darkness.

I glance over to the bed, and although it’s hard to see, I think Slayer and Damien have drifted closer to the center of the large bed. There isn’t space for both Giulio and me in the middle anymore.

Maybe I can convince Giulio to take that spot, and I’ll just sleep on the couch.

The rest of the condo is just as dark, and I have to rely on Giulio to guide us through the place.

“Do you walk around in the dark a lot?” I ask in a whisper.

“Only when I’ve got guests I don’t want to disturb,” Giulio answers. I can hear the smile in his voice.

He stops in front of one door and pushes in. I expect it to be just as dark, so I’m surprised by the low, red light that illuminates some of the enclosures. Dim floor lights highlight a path around the room.

Giulio shuts the door behind us and lets go of me. “Any of the red light enclosures are the nocturnal reptiles. Leave the other ones alone. They’re all asleep.”

Yeah, somehow I don’t think that’s going to be a problem.

He wanders away to a wall with shelves, a mini fridge, and a sink. Giulio takes something out of the sink with tongs and places it on a plate.

He really is going to feed something. And it was sitting in the sink for at least the entirety of dinner, while they were having their way with me. Ugh.

I quickly look away from him to focus on the nocturnal enclosures. It’s hard to see what’s in any of them from over here. I don’t want to go closer, but I don’t just want to stand there like an idiot, either. I inch a bit nearer to one of the larger enclosures, startled when I see a lizard moving along a wide branch suspended from one end to the other. I freeze like it’s going to jump through the glass and maim me, but it only flicks its tongue in the air.

“What’s it doing?” I ask, my voice a little breathless with fear. Is it some sort of threat?

Giulio wanders over with the plate of… something I’m not going to look at. He stops next to me to peer into the enclosure.

“Oh, that’s Carmen. She’s a crested gecko. I already fed her today, so she’s just chilling. You know, she was terrified when Slayer got close, but I guess you aren’t as threatening.” Giulio points towards the corner of the enclosure. “If she wanted to, she could hide there. Or among the other plants. But she’s chilled a lot in the year since I’ve gotten her.” Giulio holds up the plate and wraps his hand around my wrist. “Let’s go give Antonia a treat.”

“Let’s not,” I squeak, trying to pull away from him with even more vigor than I’d have expected from myself. “I don’t want to go near that… that thing. The other ones are… are okay.” No, they’re really not. “But not that one. The snake is… No.”

Giulio laughs again, but he keeps pulling me along. “I promise, she’s not coming out of her enclosure today. As soon as she spots the rat, all she’s going to do is spend the next hour swallowing it. And I wouldn’t bother her while she’s eating.”

No matter how much I resist, I find myself being drawn closer to the snake’s enclosure. I’m trembling, and I wish I had just gone back to bed and risked Slayer waking up for another quickie.

I shake my head. “N-no. I wouldn’t bother it while it’s eating either.” I shudder as we get closer and closer. “Please, Giulio, just let me go stand by the door,” I plead. “It was dumb of me to come in here with you.”

---