Page 30 of Claiming Veronica

“Hey, I like veggies. I don’t appreciate certain vegetables. That’s all and completely fair. Eli picked out the ones I didn’t like,” I added slyly.

“Woah.”

“What?”

“No way!”

Their responses were just what I expected and allowed me to bask in the shock I’d felt seeing him come into the kitchen with his brother. Separating my food and making sure I ate — well, that made my panties wet.

“Send us a picture,” Calia demanded. “If we know anything about you, it’s that you have security footage inside your house. Send us still shot of that shit.” She wasn’t wrong. The first thing I’d done was isolate images of him at the counter leaning forward over me and then separating food with chopsticks, pushing the plate to me. Quickly, I sent the photos, knowing they’d see exactly what I saw — his eyes pinned to me while I ate.

“Holy Batman,” Arabella breathed.

“Yeah, you just know he knows where your clit is. I’d let him do unspeakable things to me,” Calia had enlarged one of the photos on her computer screen and was fanning herself.

“Well, you can’t have him. He’s mine.”

“He looks intense. Kind of scary in the eyes. He’s the one that’s been leaving things at your door? You’re okay?” Reed said quietly.

“Yeah. I’m good. I promise.” I underlined her name on the notepad. Alarms were going off in my head, and I could see by the way that Arabella’s head was tilting that she was picking up on it, too. “Hey Reed, do you want to come here to hang out? I could use some help on this whole thing. We could go to lunch and go shopping in Phoenix. Binge some movies. I’ll fly you out. I could use some company out here.”

Reed and I had connected through an online homeschool lecture chat when we were in our early teens before things went to shit with her parents. My mother had me signed up at the time for homeschooling for obvious reasons, but there had been online requirements for lectures and discussions. It had been through a class that I’d connected with Reed. I’d realized through comments threads on chats that she and I had ideas in common. One day, I invited her to play Fortnight, and the rest was history.

When she’d got kicked out of the house, I’d been in the hospital, and she hadn’t told me about it. I only found out a year later that they’d dumped her in the street like so much trash. I was still furious about it. Her parents were upper middle class and lived in a nice comfortable house, and Reed struggled to meet rent each month in crappy apartments.

“Maybe,” she replied vaguely, but a maybe was the best I’d ever gotten. I’d invited her before, but I’d always lived somewhere with my mother and Maxim. Now, I had a place to offer her that was more of a sanctuary. Maybe that would entice her. I didn’t really know how else to help.

“I’m just here with Natasha. It’d just be us. I’ll send you a ticket. You’d be doing me a favor since I’m alone in this house.”

“I’ll think about it,” she answered, but I could see she would.

We chatted about nothing for the next half hour and finally logged off chat. I rubbed my hands together and finally dug into the information I found.

Chapter 17

Eli

The desert stretched out around us, with only the cacti and the odd boulders standing as solitary sentinels. I’d have to give Maxim Volkov props for the austere desert landscape touches around the house. I knew they said this was an old farmhouse, but you’d never know it with the remodeling that had gone on out here. Maybe the hardwood was original, but that was about it. The man knew how to spend money. I’d bet a good chunk of change that he’d even had these rocks placed strategically.

The air was dry, carrying the scent of dust and sagebrush, but I could feel the tension between us like a heavy weight pressing down. Pike stood with his arms crossed, watching me in that silent, brooding way of his as if the quiet space ofthe desert could somehow make this conversation easier.

But it wouldn’t.

The open stretch of the desert made me feel caged. I couldn’t hide behind the shadows anymore, not from him. Not from the truth.

I hadn’t planned to come bust in on their family meal, but I didn’t know what came over me. There I was, parked on the side of the road, ready to head to my apartment and get down to some business for the evening, when I pulled up the screens for Veronica’s bedroom. She’d been akimbo, legs splayed open, pumping her pink rabbit between the lips of her pussy like there was no tomorrow while her hips worked in tandem.

Our little meeting had Veronica so turned on that my little liar had barely made it home before she shoved that vibrator into her slit and made herself come.

I liked that a lot, other than the fact that it wasn’t my cock.

Everything about her was sexy. I was going to have a perpetual hard-on around her. Sitting next to her and monitoring every bite she took turned me on even more. Veronica had given meone more flirty look with a toss of her hair before I followed my brother onto the patio.

“What’s up?” I asked, throwing myself into a chair and kicking up my boots.

“Really?” His arms crossed over his chest, and his forehead wrinkled at me. It was entertaining to irritate him. “I thought I told you that she needs someone stable,” he clenched his jaw and slammed his mouth shut.

“Someone stable?” I prompted. “By all means, explain to me what you mean by that,” I said viciously, then sighed exasperated. “Look, do you have questions you want to ask? Ask them, but I’m seeing Veronica. That’s nonnegotiable. She can say no if she wants.” I didn’t really mean that, but I’d say that for his peace of mind. There was no way I’d let her say no.

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