Page 6 of The Bitterness of Venom

Usually,a good pair of tits and ass is enough to keep me sated. Keep my mind from running to the depths of hell with destruction. The chaos of being completely reckless. I enjoy playing with my life, to feel the beat of my heart falter and images of the past flash. And tonight, I crave it even more, but not for myself. The brunette that sits on my lap, her mouth sucking on my neck, doesn’t stop the need to destroy a certain pink-haired girl.

To say I was shocked when I saw her at my dining table, eyes widening at seeing me, is the understatementof the fucking century. And then she denied knowing me. Acted as if we didn’t know each other. It was bad enough that she slithered back in my life after being MIA for years, but to act as if I simply don’t exist? It’s laughable.

Jasper spins her around on the rink, her head thrown back to show off her slender neck, my marks now covered. I almost ripped that fucking choker off. If she wanted to wear a necklace, my hand would do. But then I had to check myself.

Not to mention she broke my fucking nose. The black eyes a telltale sign of that. She’d pay for that, among other things.

“Desmond,” the girl whose name I forgot as soon as she told me it moans. I haven’t even touched her.

Elisha chuckles, eyes wide as he watches the brunette basically dry hump me in front of everyone. I push her off, watching her land on the seat next to me. Her eyes widen as she stands, hands on her hips. “What the hell?”

I shrug, leaning back in my seat and taking a slow sip of my beer.

I don’t get it, the fascination women have with me. I’m a fucking dick. The worst man to walk the earth, and I don’t even hide it, and yet, here they come. Running with their legs spread and eager to jump at my every whim. “Take a hike.”

She rolls her eyes, cheeks heating in embarrassment as she runs with her tail tucked between her legs.

“You’re cold, bro.” Elisha laughs, putting his bottle to his lips.

“What I am, is bored.”

He quirks his eyebrow. “Is that what you’re going with? I could swear this irritation has something to do with our new roommate.”

“Keep your guesses to yourself. Besides, I don’t even know her.”Not anymore, anyway.

I still remember fifteen-year-old me waking with a hard-on because, like so many times before, she was in my bed. It didn’t matter how beaten or broken she was, nothingcompared to the beauty Blaise Sheffield was. But for the first time, she wasn’t there. I searched my house, and when I didn’t find her, I decided to go to her house. It was the last place she should have been.

I won’t lie, I was relieved her mom passed. She was a piece of work. So was her dad. And I didn’t want her anywhere near them. My plan was to keep her at my house until my parents got back. I was hoping to convince them to keep her in our house permanently.

It may have been far-fetched, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to try and be her white knight.

But when I hopped off the train tracks, I noticed her house was surrounded in yellow tape. Cops everywhere. I knew there was no way she would stay with the cops around. I searched the town high and low. I went as far as going to the hospital, afraid that whoever was chasing her the night before had gotten her again. When I couldn’t find her, it was like a beast in my soul had awoken and nothing seemed to ease his hunger. She vanished like a thief in the night, and I was left picking up the broken pieces she left behind.

And I’ve been bored with my life since that day.

Until I walked into my apartment and my eyes collided with familiar blue-green eyes.

FOUR

After social services took me,I was told my dad had been filed as a missing person. Now, who the fuck would even care if he is missing is still a mystery to me.

But see, I knew something the police didn’t. He wasn’t missing. He was probably coasting along the bottom of the ocean, providing the fish there a meal.

Ever since waking up the next morning, it feels as if I have been running since. No matter how far I ran,healways found me. I spent the majority of my life in and out of trouble, so my foster parents wouldship me to the next one willing to take me in, afraid their lives were a threat with me around.

But it was useless until I turned eighteen and fled. Staying low in a community college, I worked my ass off to make it here. A degree from Hutton University is akin to winning the lottery. The doors that will be open for me should pave the way for me to become something I can be proud of in my life. Be safe. A new identity is out of my reach, but once I have my degree and a fantastic job, I plan to leave Blaise Sheffield in the past. Maybe they’ll think she’s with her father. Simply a missing person no one even got the chance to forget.

But as I stare the sweet lady down in the registrar’s office, I’m starting to wonder if my dream is even remotely obtainable. “How is that even possible?”

She purses her lips, eyes breaking away from mine. She’s about to lie, I know it. “These things happen.”

“Really?” I raise my eyebrows. “They just pull scholarships two days before classes start?”

“I’m sorry, Miss Sheffield. But you’ll need to pay the full tuition by the first day of the semester.”

She looks at the door pointedly. My cue to leave. Feeling helpless, I grab my things, walking to the door.

My mind whirls. So what if I can’t go to school here? I can apply for more scholarships, push my graduation back by a year. Is it ideal? Fuck no. But what choice do I have?

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