Page 54 of The Dollhouse

I let out a short chuckle. “No, I’m not, and neither is Carter. Is that what she told you?” His silence was all I needed to know. Perhaps, if I riled him up enough, he would fail the test and we could be rid of him for good. “There’s a lot you don’t know about her, Lake, such as the fact that she works here, at the Dollhouse.”

Lake shifted in his seat, appearing a tad uncomfortable. He obviously saw some half-naked women while Carter dragged him in here, so he could put things together on his own. “Okay, what does that—”

“This is where I met her,” I said. “Where she agreed to be mine.”

His azure eyes widened, and suddenly he realized just what shit he’d stepped into. “She never told me she had a boyfriend.”

“I’m not her boyfriend.”

“Her fiancé?”

My frown deepened. “No.”

Lake’s brows came together, the confusion plain on his face. “Then what are you to her?”

I thought on it, I thought on it hard. What was I to Zoey Marbella? A good question, something I’d never asked myself before. If I was not her boyfriend, not her fiancé, how could I lay claim to her as I so desperately wanted? Perhaps it was time to make it official, so to speak.

“Look,” Lake started, trying to get up—although a single glance from me stopped him dead in his tracks. “I don’t know what’s going on with you and Zoey, but I—”

Still deep in thought, I managed to say, “But you what?” Lake had given me some food for thought, which surprised me. Honestly, all I thought I would take from this conversation was whether or not Lake deserved to live in the same building as Zoey, let alone possibly continue to see her.

“I like her,” he said, sighing the words out, defeated. “But this is all too much. I’m just a normal guy. I don’t do kidnappings or anything like that—and, please don’t shoot me for saying this, but I don’t think Zoey should be involved with you. After everything she’s been through, she needs someone who can be there for her, and you…” Lake paused, eyeing me up, bold in the face of a man who could literally strangle him within seconds. “All you seem to want to do is control her.”

What was love if not control?

I gave Lake a smile. A slow and deadly thing, deceiving in its origin. I would not argue with him there; I wanted to control Zoey Marbella in the worst of ways, and yet I knew she was serious when she said she’d never give herself to me fully if I hurt him. However, if I proved to her that he was unworthy of her, I was hoping she would take that back.

That, or she’d bore of him. I mean, look at him. He was hardly a man.

Lake only appeared uncomfortable with my grinning, and he said nothing; the first smart thing he’d done since he came here with Carter.

Getting to my feet, I wandered to the door, keeping an eye on him all the while. I poked my head out, finding Carter standing near the door, his expression dark as he surveyed the Dollhouse. The old Carter would’ve been ogling the half-naked women working, but this Carter was too tense, too wound-up… too smitten with Zoey, not that I could blame him, of course.

That same logic I could not reasonably give to Lake, though. Lake was just so different from Carter and me, thus it was difficult for me to believe Zoey could possibly feel for each of us. It was just like someone claiming their favorite flavor of ice cream was Neapolitan. Just bullshit, and cheating, because that was three different flavors in one.

Carter’s green gaze landed on me, and I nodded. He knew what to do. When I returned to my seat across from Lake, the boy looked even more anxious than he did before, and that was certainly saying something, since he already looked like he wanted to be sick.

“Are you going to let me go?” Lake asked. “It’s funny, I really don’t feel like dying tonight—though I didn’t feel like being kidnapped either, and here I am, anyway.” His sarcasm fell onto deaf ears, and I only frowned at him.

Oh, how I would absolutely love to put a bullet in his head and watch him die, cut his throat and stand over his spasming body as he bled out under me. Hell, I’d watch him die regardless of what his death entailed; I wouldn’t be picky. That, however, had to wait until he was put to the test.

“There’s one thing I want you to do before I let you go,” I said, the anticipation rife in my veins. Zoey would hate what I was about to do, I knew that without a doubt, but her hatred for it would not stop me from doing it.

Lake gulped, eyes wide. “I’m almost afraid to ask. Does it involve Zoey? Look, I just needed some time to think. I wasn’t going to blow her off forever—getting kidnapped was kind of crazy, you know—” It was clear he had no idea what I wanted him to do, whether I wanted him to be nicer to Zoey or to stay away from her entirely.

I did not take kindly to dogs sniffing around what’s mine. He was fortunate Zoey had been the one to initiate the sex, lucky that I heard him tell her a few times that they could stop, that they didn’t have to do it; if it had been him, ifLakehad been the one to do all that… he’d be dead already, whether or not Zoey would hate me for it.

See? I could be patient. I could be nice. I was a man of many talents.

It was at that moment when Carter appeared in the room, followed shortly by a bosomy blonde who used to be Carter’s favorite among the girls at the Dollhouse. A bombshell in her own right, Crystal sauntered in, her bleached hair kinky and wavy, wearing nothing but sparkling heels, a thong, and some kind of strappy thing around her tits. She was beautiful, and there had been many nights when I’d watched her and Carter together, but now…

Now it was the strangest thing. I only wanted to see Zoey, to see that hollow stare of hers filled with lust and life, her pink hair sweaty as Carter bent her over and fucked her.

Hopefully Crystal didn’t take it personally.

Lake swallowed hard when he saw Crystal, and though his gaze dropped to her practically-naked body, he was quick to meet her eyes. “Crystal? What—” He was speechless. Was he really so clueless that he didn’t know where Crystal worked, either? I knew they were acquaintances, since she also lived in the same building as Zoey, but come on.

If this was not temptation laid deliciously bare, I did not know what was.

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