Page 31 of Kept

“However much you hate that sword hanging over your head, you love belonging to us and having all our attention to yourself.”

True. No matter how I’d gotten there, however inexplicably, being the Pet felt like having them wrapped around my finger. For once and the only time in my life, having three men who I was magnetically, powerlessly attracted to brought down by me.

That power was a heady feeling, and I’d let it carry me away.

“Why me? You couldn’t know any of that.” I could barely get the words out, afraid of what I would hear next.

Vincent leaned in, only inches away. Close enough to kiss, if I wanted.

“You learn the look,” he said. “The look of a woman who shrinks in on herself when she should be standing up tall, who doesn’t meet your eyes without looking away like she’s frightened by the contact. Those are the marks of prey, Jane. Pets.”

“So all I had to do was stand up straight?” I asked bitterly.

“You stand taller now, don’t you?” His lips moved against my ear. The brush of his beard against my cheek made me shiver. “You walk with sway in your step, you haveawareness. You’ve woken up, Pet.”

Only days ago, I’d felt that awareness down to my bones, but it’d cooled in the face of knowing what he used to have and knowing I was a sad runner-up in that competition. Barely a consolation prize.

I changed tack swiftly, hanging on one of the worries that had sprouted up overnight. “Perhaps I enjoyed some of it, but I have no interest in getting involved in whatever trouble you’re going to bring.”

“Any trouble will stay between us.” Vincent’s tongue traced my earlobe and I held back a gasp.

One of my fears that had sprouted and flourished overnight was that Alyssa Pelletier wasn’t in town by sheer coincidence. It was because she was still seeing Vincent.

And even if I could convince myself that being the Pet wasn’t so terrible, that I took from them as much as they took from me, I refused to be the other woman. Knowing that he might have the redheaded beauty spread across his bed at home threw ice water over any heat I might’ve felt for a video call from him. No matter what they made me do, I wasn’t going to be anyone’s consolation prize.

“I’m not talking about trouble with this. I know you don’t care enough about me for my life to matter to you. But if you’re still seeing Alyssa Pelletier, I want nothing to do with you. I’m not some side piece for you to play with while you go home to fuck someone else. I might be the Pet, but I refuse to sleep with a man who's getting it elsewhere.”

Vincent became a statue of immovable muscle, still poised over me and trapping me on his desk. When he growled again, none of the sex appeal had gone, but there was a tone of danger in it. I was walking on a layer ofverythin ice right now. “What does Alyssa Pelletier have to do with anything?”

He said her name like a dirty word, disgust coloring his tone. My irritation became inexplicable relief, because no man said the name of the woman he was sleeping with like that.

Still, I was pushing this to the bitter end, because I wanted answers and I deserved them if I was going to remain in this situation for any longer.

“She was in Mulholland this weekend. If she’s sleeping with you too, then I’m done with this.”

He abruptly got up, turning his back on me. I thought I heard several muttered swear words. “You’re sure of this?”

“That she was in Mulholland? I’m sure. I saw her myself.”

Vincent spun around to face me, his brown eyes snapping with fury. Seeing an emotion besides dispassionate, cool sternness on him was a little shocking. “I have absolutely nothing to do with that heinous bitch.”

For once, I was positive that I finally held the upper hand in the uneven divide between us. Whoever Alyssa was to Vincent, he clearly hated her with a venomous rage, and he’d assured me of the absolute nothingness between them. Why would he have bothered if he didn’t care about how I felt?

“I just want to be clear.” My hands clenched, nails digging into my palms. “As long as I’m the Pet, you touch only me. No other women or I’m out. I don’t care what you’ll do to me.”

His lips tightened as he took a step forward. “Are you setting ground rules now, Jane?”

“I am.” I tilted my chin up, refusing to look away. He wanted eye contact? He’d get eye contact.

A quick smirk flashed across his features, there and gone like it’d never existed. He prowled forward, only stopping when he just touched my knees. “There weren’t other women when you came along, Pet. There aren't any now. Only you.”

He kept my gaze, trapping me like a snake. I couldn’t look away now if I wanted to, not now that it was possible to pick out the tiny flecks of gold nestled in the brown of his eyes or the smooth curve of his lower lip.

The anger I’d stored up inside myself cooled and evaporated, but there was still a hint of trepidation. He stopped when he was three inches from my nose, his warm gaze flicking down to my lips, but as much as I wanted to taste him for myself, there were some parts of me I wasn’t going to give away unless the other person meant it.

I turned my head a fraction to the side, refusing the kiss.

Vincent’s eyes darkened, but that wasn’t going to stop him from putting his mark on me. He gripped my chin, forcing me to look at him again before he released me. Instead, he kissed my cheekbone, worked his way down my jaw, the soft-scratchy feeling of his beard on my skin every bit as delicious as I’d hoped it would be.

---