Page 144 of Plaything

Thirty minutes before class was scheduled to end, I released them. They excitedly piled out, a few still throwing a greeting or a question to Odette on their way.

Odette took her time collecting her things, no doubt to buy time while all the other students left. I waited until the door clicked shut before I started up the steps to her. She’d just stood from her chair, and before I could mutter a word, she wrapped her arms around me, nuzzling her nose into my chest.

“I know, Baby, I’ve got you,” I comforted, holding her tightly and running my hands down her back. “Why didn’t you go home?” I questioned.

She looked up at me, and I grabbed her chin, inspecting the redness around her usually bright eyes. I expected to feel sad, but a surge of anger ran up my spine. Odette was everything soft and sweet. I didn’t understand how the world took advantage of that so often.

She took a deep breath, but her hands stayed fisted in the back of my shirt. “Every time I step out of a building, cameras and microphones get shoved into my face.” She rolled her eyes and harshly wiped away a tear. She hated crying, and I guarantee she was sick of the tears today after last night. “I didn’t think they’d... I mean, everyone is so far up my ass today, they won’t leave me the hell alone,” she humorlessly laughed.

“Reporters are on campus?” I knitted my brows in concern. They shouldn’t be.

She nodded. “Since I got out of my car this morning. I should’ve listened to Aiden.”

Now wasn’t the time for I told you so’s, but... yes she should have.

She finally pulled away and sat on the table’s edge, taking the hood off and running her hand through her hair. “I’m so tired; I wouldn’t have gone home anyway. With my luck, I’d fall asleep and sleepwalk off a cliff,” she smiled, trying to lighten the mods with dark humor.

There wasn’t anything funny about being too scared of your own memories to sleep alone. “I’m taking you home, and we can nap, okay?”

Surprisingly, she didn’t object. She only had one more class, and I half expected her to say she could tough it out. With God as my witness, I would have dragged her over my shoulder to my car. Give the reporters a good show. She was done for the day.

She convinced me to let her drive her own car after explaining that if any reporters stuck around and saw Wyatt drive off in her car, it would be too obvious. So I reluctantly walked a few feet behind her to my own vehicle, glaring as five or six reporters rushed to her, prepared with cameras, notepads, and microphones. She said nothing, not giving them the time of day.

The front door opened, and my friends entered the house, immediately seeing Odette dead asleep on top of me on the couch. Cat was curled up on Odette’s ass, where he’d been for the past four hours since we got home. It was adorable, and I took too many pictures of them on top of me.

I held a finger to my lips, signaling them to keep quiet. She wasn’t kidding when she said she was tired. She didn’t stir once. As much as I had to pee, I wouldn’t dare move and risk waking her.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t sleep. Now that I actually had time to think and process the past 72 hours, my mind was in overdrive.

After contemplating everything, I realized that if my hunch about what Dominic and Collin did to Lestat was correct... I understood. This morning, I was too baffled and shocked to even try to understand why Dominic may have done such an irreversible, life-changing thing.

What Charles’ business partners did to her, what her own father put her through... they deserved to suffer. Lestat wasn’t done with her, either. Why else would he approach her at the dinner? He was a rapist, a pedophile, and a morally corrupt man. Those kinds of men didn’t stop—Odette was not the only girl he’d gone after. That, I was sure of.

The anger I felt today just from some jackass students making her cry... nearly made me throw Tristan across the room. I couldn’t imagine what Dom felt the night she told us. Not that the rest of us weren’t strongly affected by the situation, but we weren’t assaulted by our own fathers like Dom was.

So... I understood. I’d never do much as think the words or admit it actually happened... I couldn’t. Just like I didn’t need to confess my love for the sleeping beauty on top of me, I didn’t need to admit what happened to Lestat Mercer.

“How is she?” Dominic asked as he and the others took seats around the living room.

“Tired,” I joked. “She’ll be just fine; those kids wouldn’t leave her alone, and neither would the reporters.”

“Did she mention last night at all?” Wyatt whispered. “I swear to God, she was in bed all night. I’m sorry, guys.” His tone was heavy with guilt, and he blamed himself.

“Don’t be; it could have happened to any of us. Everyone was tired,” Aiden assured, dismissing his apology.

I shook my head. “No, it wasn’t the time—”

“Fuck off,” Odette mumbled in her sleep before her hand rested across my face.

What was I, an alarm clock? I chuckled at her foul mouth, recalling Aiden mentioning she wasn’t the kindest to him in her sleep.

“Welcome to my world!” He grinned as if he was overjoyed that others were around to witness her sleep attitude. She’d never actually tell any of us to fuck off, but the brain works differently when we sleep. She loved her sleep; there was no denying that.

With her hand still loosely covering my lips, I pulled one of her dainty fingers into my mouth and bit her.

“Cat...” she jerked her hand away. It took everything in me not to laugh. I was also curious about how often Cat gave her a little love nibble at night.

Hearing her scolding his name, Cat meowed from on her ass, which made Odette finally open her eyes. Her cheek had the imprint of my shirt button, her hair was wild (probably from my hands running through it while she slept), and her eyes were heavy. She looked much more herself than she did earlier. “Did you just bite me?” She mumbled, looking disoriented.

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