Page 69 of Vile Boys

She sure has a lot of trouble finishing her sentences around me.

“You, what?” I tilt my head and step closer. “You were looking for something?” She seems frozen to the ground as I tower over her. But this girl almost looks like a goddamn princess when she’s scared, with those big doe-like eyes and that pink skirt.

I grab a strand of her hair and twirl it around my finger, mesmerized by her beauty. “Or maybe you were looking for… someone?”

“I wasn’t,” she says, her breath faltering when my fingers reach her collarbones.

“You and I do a lot of bumping into each other, don’t you agree?” I muse, brushing past her chin so it lifts, and I can look into those gorgeous green eyes of hers. “It’s almost as if it was fate.”

Ares and Caleb truly have no clue what kind of a jewel they’ve tried to defile.

My eyes slide down her body, and my tongue briefly darts out at the sight of that long-sleeved white cotton top through which her nipples peak and that short, bright pink skirt underneath.

“What a feast for the eyes you are,” I murmur.

She blushes and looks down, but then tugs at her skirt, her hands briefly skimming past a red mark near her thighs, and my eyes narrow.

That mark … it definitely looks like fingers.

Poor girl really didn’t know what was coming for her.

I did try to warn her.

“He hurt you, didn’t he?” I ask, curious if she’d tell the truth. “Are you trying to hide?”

Her lips part, and she sucks in a breath, but she immediately attempts to step away from me, so I grab her wrist. “Please. Don’t go.”

She pauses, conflicted.

“I won’t hurt you.”

She swallows, visibly concerned. “You’re a part of their group,” she says. “I can’t trust you.”

“I understand,” I say. Still, I pull her closer and lift my hand to tear a rose from the bushes, and I tuck it behind her ear. “If it were up to me … I’d treat you like a queen.” I lift her wrist and press a soft kiss on the top of her hand.

She doesn’t jerk away as I slowly lower it again, and the blush on her cheeks clearly gives away she’s enamored by me as much as I am by her.

She can’t be any taller than five feet, judging by how small she seems compared to my six feet nine inches. She even looks fragile, just like the roses surrounding me. But just like them, she is a bud ready to bloom, something to admire and cherish. Ares and Caleb don’t appreciate her beauty. All they want to do is crush it in the palm of their hands just so they could be the last to hold it.

I lean over to whisper into her ear, “Now, take a left, then a right, go straight ahead, don’t stop until you see the red lantern, then two more rights. That’ll get you to the side exit near the gates.”

I press a gentle kiss on her neck. “Now run away, darling.”

She looks like a ghost when I spin her on her heels and push her in the right direction. Almost like she can’t believe I’m helping her. But I don’t play by the rules, and especially not Tartarus ones.

I step back and sit on the bench, opening my book while she darts off into the maze, fluttering away with that little rose still stuck in her hair.

She’ll come running back into my arms soon enough, but until then … I’ll satisfy myself with this dirty romance.

Caleb

I could’ve swornI saw her run into the maze, but I can’t find her anywhere. Maybe I’m imagining things.

Fuck. This girl really is doing a number on me.

I push some roses out of my way and make my way back, but when my phone rings, I pause.

“Yeah?”

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