Page 89 of Unwrapping Deviance

“Those ...mensaid you took advantage of her.”

I’m not about to mince words. It’s been days of getting side eyed, disrespected and whispered about. I’m done guessing.

“Do you believe them?” Christian murmurs so softly, I almost don’t hear it over the roar of the engine.

I don’t falter. I don’t even blink when I look him straight in the eye and reply sharply, “No.” I glance at Daniel’s side profile, linger on the hard slash of his lips and the white peaks of his knuckles fisted around the wheel. “I think either they’re full of shit or there’s a mistake, but I need to hear it from you.”

Neither one makes any move to speak. Several minutes pass as we follow an almost empty highway towards another whole town.

I don’t press. I know I can. I could hammer and badger, but I’m not stupid. This whole trip has been a cause of pain and tension for Daniel. He’d been restless for days leading up to it. He’d been scattered and absentminded. At night, I’d wake up to find him already awake, staring up at the ceiling like he’d been plagued by his own demons.

I can’t imagine how it had been for Christian on his own. Whatever happened in Jefferson won’t be a light, fluffy story about misunderstandings. It’ll be crushing and horrible, and if they needed time to gather themselves, I’d wait.

“It was my fault,” Christian whispers at last.

I turn my head to him, waiting for him to continue.

His long fingers drum on the armrest, an anxious fidgeting I notice he does a lot when he’s restless.

“I let her into our lives. I fell for her shit just like everyone else and ... it’s my fault.”

I wait for Daniel to interject, to assure his brother that isn’t true, but Daniel is silent and rigid. A block of unwavering stone behind the wheel.

“Who was she?” I ask softly.

Christian draws in a lungful of air and lets his head drop back against the seat. His dark eyes trace the felt roof while his fingers tap on his thigh.

“Lucy was the prettiest girl in town. Hands down. One of those girls everyone loves because they’re just perfect. She was the head of every committee, every team, every ... everything. She read to the elderly, taught Sunday school, raised money for the school and whatever else. She was perfect.”

I try very hard not to grind my teeth at the raw reverence in the quiet murmur of his story, the way he’s staring out the window like he can still see that perfect girl.

“She was the reverend’s daughter. Untouchable. Delicate. Pure.” He scoffs loudly at the last word and scrubs at his face. “I knew she had a thing for Daniel. Most of the girls did. Danny was the golden boy, captain of every fucking sport.”

Daniel snorts slightly but doesn’t interrupt.

“Lucy tried to get him. On paper, they made the most sense, honestly. Cheerleader captain and captain of the football team, it basically writes itself. I was the emo delinquent who cut classes to get baked behind the bleachers. When she started talking to me out of the blue, I thought, shit! Maybe I stood a chance. She gave me my first blow job right under those damn stands. Dropped down in her pretty cheerleader outfit and ... well, anyway. We fucked around a lot. Never told a soul. Couldn’t. She was Lucy Carr and I was the reject from across town.”

“Seriously?” Daniel grumbles. “You know we were from the same place, right?”

“You know what I mean.” Christian mutters. “Lucy taught me everything I knew. She was my first everything and I was infucking heaven because the things she liked to do ... no one our age should have had any knowledge of, but I loved every minute of it.”

“You were miserable,” Daniel cuts in, not unkindly. “She made you miserable and scared. She was fucking every guy in school, but the minute another girl looked at you, she’d fly off the handle. He’d come home with bruises and scratches. Once, he even had a black eye. There’d be blood on his clothes, or she’d set his backpack on fire while he was still wearing it.”

“Oh my God, what the fuck?” I cry, no longer able to contain my tongue.

“She wasn’t stable, Chris. Stop making it sound like you guys had a tragic romance,” Daniel says to his brother, eyes fixed on him through the rear-view mirror. “She’d scream and accuse Chris of fucking around, punch, kick, and scratch the shit out of him, then come crawling into his bedroom window at night to fuck him. She’d get other guys to beat Chris up when she got pissed off at him. She was a toxic, psychotic bitch.”

“She definitely sounds like it,” I try to assure Christian when he slowly shakes his head.

“She was,” he agrees. “She was worse. I was just so ... caught up in her...” he huffs out a breath like the words are caught in his chest and need to get freed, “I would have done anything for her. Anything.”

Both men fall silent.

“What happened?” I coax, needing him to finish the nightmare unfurling through the air around us.

Christian takes in a sharp gulp of air and scrubs his palms up both thighs. “She wanted to fuck Daniel. It’s all she ever wanted. All she talked about all the time. She’d be on my dick and ask if his dick was the same. She started hounding me to get him to join us. She wanted it so bad that—”

“She nearly castrated him,” Daniel growls.

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