Page 57 of Pitiful Lies

But I can’t just keep her there.

She’s not a doll, even though I call her one.

My Koukla is a hundred percent real. She is a flesh and blood woman.

A woman who fucking owns me. But I don’t think she knows it yet. And I won’t tell her either.

I am not sure how to feel about this. About her seeming ownership of me.

I mean, it doesn’t make it less real. There is absolutely nothing I wouldn’t do for her. I just need to process it. To figure out what it really means before I run my mouth off.

I don’t want to frighten her. She already ran from me once, and I can’t let that happen again. She glances at me, looking worried, and I force myself to sit and smile.

It’s not easy. All I want to do is growl and pace.

But Vipers don’t growl. We’re good at lying in wait in dark places. So I turn the heat down on my emotions and I exhale.

Maybe I should ask Nico and Luc what to do? How to get over this feeling I have, this need to possess her?

I turn my head and see those two crazy bastards staring just as hard at their women as I was at Giselle, and I think maybe I should keep my questions to myself.

Nico is steadily growling as his wife moves with her circle of friends, including my Koukla, to the center of the jam-packed dance floor.

I understand the way he feels.

My inner monster, that black as pitch fucking viper who feeds on vengeance and violence, is wound so fucking tightly it is all I can do to keep him silent.

But I swear to God, I’m liable to snap if one more motherfucker bumps into my woman as she moves in time with the rhythm and the bass of whatever fucking song that asshole DJ is playing.

I should tell him to play something else. Something with less bass.

Giselle is with Anna and Maria, and they are all shaking their asses and causing a commotion.

A group of pencil dicks dressed in whatever off the rack suits they went to work in this morning try to move on our women.

They’re drinking and laughing, and I maybe recognize one of them as coming to the Den a few times before.

Well, not any fucking more.

One of them moves behind Maria. Like he’s trying to get close to dance with her.

Luc growls, getting my attention. But it’s Nico’s echoing rattle that triggers my reaction as two other assholes try dancing with the girls. They are not reciprocating, of course, and that placates me. A little.

But I don’t like how Giselle, Anna, and Maria are all trying to move away. One of them grabs her elbow, and I see red.

She shakes him off. But these guys don’t take the fucking hint.

The three of us are already on our feet. And I am mad. Nico and Luc are seething. I know how they feel.

I’m bigger and I muscle my way to the front of them.

Fury unfurls inside me like a cobra rising to his full height.

I grab two of these shitheads by their necks, and Nico and Luc have one each of the remaining offenders.

I raise my head, nodding at one of my guys. He knows what I want. He’s fucking trained to know. A team of my guys is already in motion.

“Hey man, what the fuck?” one of these drunk chumps shout.

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