Page 76 of The Vipers and Their Venom

Lex glares at me, his blue eyes a darker shade—almost purple—and I wonder if mine are the same. “You lie!”

“You thought you were special because she chose you to take her virginity, but I’m the one she really wants.”

I shove him off and manage to drag myself far enough away to give me a chance to get to my feet. Lex does the same, so we’re standing facing one another, our shoulders rounded like two bulls about to collide, both breathing hard.

“That’s bullshit,” he spits. A thin line of blood runs from his left nostril, and he sniffs and then wipes it away with the back of his hand. “She wants all of us.”

“You sure about that? Because it didn’t sound that way when she was telling me how my cock is bigger and harder than yours.”

His jaw tenses as he clamps his teeth together and lets out a roar of fury. Now he’s the one rushing me, and he hits me with the force of a train. We land back on the floor again, and he punches me in the nose. Pain explodes through my face.

Did I take it too far? Yeah, maybe, but I lost control of my mouth. I’d wanted to hurt him for what he did to my painting. He deserved it.

I get one particularly satisfying jab into his ribs when a scream rents the air.

“Stop! Stop it, both of you!”

We both pause. Lex turns to look over his shoulder, and I half sit to see past him.

Staring up, dark curls and angry brown eyes fill my vision.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Vani demands.

Looking beyond her, I see the door is open and some dumb jock is staring at us, his mouth half open. Great, this will be around the college before I get up from the floor. I stand and push past Vani, slamming the door closed and whirling on her.

“You don’t fucking talk to us that way.” I glance to my brother. “Either of us.”

“You’ll ruin everything,” she says, and I’m shocked to see she’s close to tears. “This,us,you’ll both tear it apart.”

“Who says this has anything to do with you?” I sneer, angry at her more than ever in this moment. I offer Lex a hand, and he takes it and lets me pull him up.

“The fact the painting is smashed up tells me it is about me. You did this?” She turns to Lex. “Why? It was beautiful.”

Now, he’s the one to sneer. “Is that how you think you look? To him? No, it’s not the truth. He doesn't see you that way. You’re not his angel, you’re hiswhore.”

She flinches as if Lex has hit her, and I almost charge him again, but I stop myself because he’s right, isn’t he? Sheismy whore, and it’s best that I remember that.

Vani’s fingers are flying over her phone screen.

“What are you doing?” Lex demands.

“Texting Zane and telling him to get here.” She stares at us both defiantly.

I snort. “You think he’s the leader? Please. He can’t even speak.”

I regret the words as soon as they are out. None of this is Zane’s fault, and he’s like a second brother to me. The fact is that I’m shaken.

I’m shaken by Lex smashing the painting, but I’m also shaken that I painted Vani so romantically, because that’s what that painting was—romantic.

Partly, it’s my style. I love the style of the Pre-Raphaelites, but there was more to it with this particular painting. It had atenderness that I’d be lying if I denied. I understand why Lex was freaked out, but I don’t get his anger or why he smashed it.

Now she’s here, the Venom in question, her poison is running through our veins, and getting in between us. She’s going to ruin our brotherhood, and we can’t have that. She needs to be taught a lesson. One she’ll never forget. If we make her think she’s ours, then show us she’s nothing, a nobody, she’ll learn a valuable lesson.

No one fucks with the Vipers and lives to not regret it. That’s what she’s doing, fucking with us. It might be accidental, or it might be on purpose, but either way, the punishment has to be the same.

To break her, though, we have to make her care, and to make her care, we need to make her feel cherished. Maybe she’s my whore, but if she thinks she’s my special whore, it will still hurt when she realizes she’s just one in a long line.

Lex might not be up for it, and Zane most certainly not, but if they don’t have what it takes, I do.

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