Page 54 of The Vipers and Their Vendetta

I tossand turn for hours, but sleep eludes me.

I’m a sticky, needy mess. I took care of myself as soon as I got back to my room, climbing into the shower and masturbating, my bare breasts pressed against the cold shower wall, and my hand between my thighs to strum my clit. It wasn’t enough. I need more. They kept me on edge all night and then just left me hanging. I did find myself tempted to go to the bar and pick someone up, but I know I could never do that. It’s just not me. Plus, there’s the lingering, deep knowledge that, if I did so, I would possibly be signing the death warrant of whoever I’d picked up. I honestly think the Vipers are so obsessed with me they might kill someone who touched me.

I moan and throw an arm over my forehead. I’ve never been so beside myself with need in my entire life.

I can’t help thinking about what Saint said when I’d been all tied up and begging for their secrets. He’d said their nanny had taken their virginity at age fourteen, but, if that’s true, there’s more to it. A grown woman—I assume from the fact she was their nanny, and they were teenagers—sleeping with fourteen-year-old boys isn’t her ‘taking their virginity.’ That’s sexual assault of a minor.

Do they know this? Has that clicked in their heads? Or are they telling themselves it was all consensual. Because a fourteen-year-old can’t consent. That’s the whole point.

I imagine how differently this would be viewed if they’d both been fourteen-year-old girls, and the person who’d taken their virginity had been a grown man? There would have been uproar. I’m sure Europeans are more laissez-faire than we are in America, but even so…

It goes a long way to explaining why they’re so fucked up about sex—why they work as a pair? They said she tooktheirvirginity, so I assume at the same time. Is their need for degradation and praise some way of coping with that?

It troubles me, and what troubles me even more is the possibility that they don’t understand how serious it is. That they’ve somehow convinced themselves experiencing something like that is normal.

My heart breaks a little for what they’ve been through, but I don’t want it to. I don’t want to empathize with them. They’re fucked up assholes, and they don’t believe a word I say. They want to screw with me.

Zane’s words also haunt me. They were so fucking sad. He hates himself and what he’s become. That makes me feel like pulling him in for a huge hug, but he’d hate that. Hate pity. The way he told me then threw the comment away as if it meant nothing is so Zane.

It meant something.

God, these men! They are so incredibly frustrating but also intriguing, gorgeous, intelligent, and in the case of Saint with his paintings, and Zane with his deep thoughts, they’re the very definition of still waters running deep.

The Vipers have completely and utterly ruined the chance of me having anything with anyone else, and they seem as obsessed with me as I am with them.

A tempting idea dances at the forefront of my mind. I don’t think they’d kill each other over me, so if I seduced one of them, I wouldn’t be putting that person’s life in danger.

They’d argue, of course, and possibly have a huge bust-up, but their bond is too deep for them to ever seriously hurt each other. And don’t Iwantthem to fight? Isn’t that part of the tentative plan that’s forming in my mind?

Divide and conquer.

It’s dangerous, but it’s also far too intriguing for me to push it away entirely. It would give me an idea, as well, of just how much power I have over any of them, and whether or not my greater plan has even a chance of working. If I go to seduce one of them tonight, will they give in to me? Or will they send me away in keeping with the rules?

Which one, though? Which one of the Vipers to try my plan out with?

Saint will probably tell me to get lost because he’s just that angry with me right now. He also thinks he’s the one in control of all this, and that the rules are his. Also, I really don’t want to be alone with him because I’m so angry with him, I might end up stabbing him with my keys.

Lex will probably try to do what his brother told him to and keep me on edge. Even if he doesn’t, then he’ll do his usual caring routine, and I don’t need that right now.

It leaves only one option.

The perfect option.

The one who doesn’t care what the other two tell him to do.

He’s their friend, and I think he loves them as if they’re his brothers, but he’s not scared of anybody. Not Saint, or Lex, or even the dean, and most certainly not me. He’s also a natural born rule breaker, and deep down, I think he’s lonely. I think he craves connection, and he can’t get it from conversation, so touch is really important to him.

Yes, it has to be Zane.

I’ve still got the imprints in my skin from the ropes they used on me. They’ve faded a lot, but they’re still present. I run my thumb over the red marks, a fresh erotic thrill going through me.

I dress in a hurry, choosing my outfit carefully. It’s a tight, strapless dress that hugs all my curves. I rarely wear it, because I can’t wear a bra with it. I bought it on a whim a few years ago, and it’s been hanging in my closet, never worn. Sometimes I look at it longingly, and wish I was the kind of girl who could wear a dress like that. The kind of slim, pretty, all-American girl who gets the guy and the happy ever after.

Still, this outfit will be perfect for tonight.

Once I’m in the dress, I take off my panties and throw them into the laundry basket in the corner of the room. I won’t be needing those. I slip my feet into a pair of sneakers and pull a loose, oversized sweater over my head for the walk through the halls. I don’t need anyone to see me sneaking around with half my cleavage hanging out at three in the morning.

I sneak out into the hallway, checking no one is around, and close the door behind me. Zane lives in the same wing as me—hence us being in the same house—but his room is on the top floor and is way bigger than most of the rest of ours. His family must be paying a pretty penny for it, and I wonder how much of that is guilt money about what happened to him.

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