Page 82 of The Dollhouse

Theo sat beside me, a kit on the coffee table before us. He did not say a word, leaving it to me to deal with my angry, possessive boyfriends. He started to carefully unwrap the bandage on my arm, and I held in a wince.

“Theo’s going to look at my arm,” I stated, because that should’ve been obvious already. Like, duh.

Roman’s mouth curled into a frown, AKA his usual expression, an expression that drove me nuts—no one could wear a frown quite like Roman Russo. “And what the fuck is wrong with what I did?”

Once Theo unwrapped it and saw it, he made an unimpressed noise, which caused Roman’s hands to clench into fists. Theo was totally unafraid of the towering man in a suit, hardly even looking at him as he muttered, “Ah, yes, those stitches are… well, I’ve seen better.”

Carter smirked, still not saying a single thing. He did move around the couch to stand behind me, probably to watch whatever would unfold between Roman and Theo.

I saw someone walking out of the back rooms coming down the hall, the one covered with snake tattoos, though my focus wasn’t on him for long. It soon returned to Roman, who was busy telling Theo: “I told you, I fixed it up already.”

Still unimpressed, Theo said, “Yes, I see the stitches you gave her, and I’ve decided to fix them up a bit—unless you’re okay with her having an ugly scar on her arm, hmm?” We all knew what he meant, and then he outright said it: “They were poorly done.”

Insulting Roman’s stitches. I never thought I’d meet a man so uncaring as to who he was dealing with. But then again, maybe Theo was used to dealing with men like Roman.

Theo spoke to me, “Do you want an ugly scar, or do you want it to be as small and clean as possible?” His eyes twinkled, and I couldn’t tell if he was enjoying himself or not.

I glanced between Roman and Theo. Part of me knew how irritated Roman was about this whole thing, but the words Theo had said made sense. Besides the giant tattoo on my side—which I was thinking about adding to, to be honest—I didn’t really have anything else on my body. No scars, and I didn’t necessarily want to start collecting them like Roman and Carter.

“Uh,” I paused, straightening my back as I decided, “little scar, please.”

Roman glared.

“What?” I shrugged, wincing at the sudden movement of my arm. “I don’t want to look like you and Carter. One of us has to be pretty, otherwise this’ll never work.” I thought my remark was funny, but neither of my boyfriends cracked a single smile. Not even a damn smirk.

The guy with the snake tattoos left the cabin, leaving me to grin at Theo, further angering Roman. Not going to lie, it was kind of fun to press Roman’s buttons; the guy had a lot of them. He was quick to anger, although he never hurt me. That just made it all the more fun, in my opinion.

It didn’t take Theo long. He was much quicker at this than Roman, and his stitches were much cleaner, and there were fewer of them, too.

“They’ll dissolve on their own, at least the stitches inside. The wound will get itchy,” Theo warned me, completely ignoring Roman and Carter. “Do not itch it. Do anything but itch it, as you might reopen the wound again, and each time you reopen it, it’ll heal worse. Take it from me. I’ve seen… some pretty ugly things.”

That I could easily believe. “Thank you, Theo.”

“Oh, don’t mention it.” He smiled at me, and it struck me just how cute this guy was. So unlike the men around us both. Surely if he could be around men similar to Roman—which I imagined the scowling one in the kitchen was his Roman, whatever his name was—and continue to be so kind, I could do the same without losing myself?

Once he packed up his things, I stood, feeling much better about the state of my arm.

Roman grabbed my injury-free arm, dragging me out of the cabin without even giving me a chance to tell Theo goodbye. I imagined the man would be out of here, now that he’d done what he could for us. All I saw as I was pulled along was Carter’s tall frame; he followed, as he usually did.

“No need to be so rough. I was just shot, because of my association with you, in case you forgot,” I reminded him, taking delight in the way he glared at me. I hoped, prayed the other girls would be okay. They were in good hands at whatever hospital they were taken to, I was sure.

“Fucking forgive me for not liking the way you were staring at Doc,” Roman muttered, letting me go when we were halfway back to our own cabin.

I stopped when I stood before both Roman and Carter. “Don’t tell me you’re jealous. I hardly looked at him.” Okay, I might’ve smiled, but he’d literally just stitched me up. I couldn’t be a cold bitch to him, which was clearly how Roman wanted me to act around every single other attractive guy in the world.

Ah-hem. So not happening.

I decided to play into Roman’s hand, muttering, “Besides, you refuse to touch me ever since it all went down, so I don’t see any reason why you should be jealous. If you want me, I’m right here.” Would I take some pain with my sex? Uh, fuck yeah, if that sex involved Carter behind me and Roman looking on with those menacingly pitch-black eyes.

“I wanted to be careful with you,” Roman spoke, reaching up to unbutton the top button on his shirt, revealing more of that delicious clavicle. I wanted to run my tongue along it, kiss his neck, and tell him I didn’t care if he was careful.

I was a glutton for punishment in that way.

“Don’t worry about me,” I said. “I’ll tell you if it’s too much. You know nothing has ever stopped me from speaking my mind before.” We all knew that was true.

Carter stepped in, cocking his head as he studied me. “She wants to be fucked, long and hard.” His voice came out husky and ragged, like he was already balls-deep inside of me. “I say we give her what she wants.” He moved to stand beside Roman, and I was once again struck by just how handsome these two were.

Deadly, dangerous, the kind of men my parents would die from if they ever knew I was with them. Exactly the kind of men I’d needed to break me out of my woe-is-me trance after what my sister and ex did to me.

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