Page 143 of Twisted Legacy

“I did, and I think we’d all like to leave here with all the limbs and body parts we came with.”

She laughs and presses her hand against my chest. “Heard I was a man eater, did you? Well relax, Holden. Nobody complains when I swallow the bones.”

I grimace at the imagery that conjures. That didn’t sound nearly as sexy as she thinks it did. “I wasn’t actually talking about my body being cut into little pieces. I was talking about yours.”

I try to push her away, without having to put my hands on her. I don't want any of her perfume or makeup to get on me.

“Well, Finn’s not here, and I doubt he’s ever cut someone for wanting to give you a good lay. From what I hear, he’s usually begging people to do it with all of you. Now you get me to yourself.”

I laugh. I don’t know what she has in her cup other than vodka, but it has to be the good stuff if she thinks this little seduction is working. “The danger isn’t from Finn. Now, I suggest you back up. I won’t be so nice if I tell you again.”

She does the opposite. She yanks her shirt up and shows me her tits. One second they’re on display, swinging at me, the next they’re flying away from me. She falls to her ass, tits still out. The music comes to a halt, and I hear Thea saying, “Nice tits. I always wanted nipples like these. Maybe I should take yours.”

Finn strolls over holding a beer and asks, “What happened?”

“Suddenly I’m worth a party fuck instead of a pity one.” I heft a shoulder. “I told her not to touch me.”

“You pushed her?”

“Never touched her.”

Finn sputters his beer when Thea says, “Tell me why I shouldn’t cut your tits off.”

The girl on the floor shrieks, “What the hell is your problem, you crazy bitch?”

“My problem is, I could have sworn I told you to stay away from my toys.”

“Finn was on the other side of the room.”

I look at Finn. He nods, confirming she tried to hook up with him before she came to me. Thea taps on her forehead with the hilt of her knife. “Toys with an s.” She grabs the girl’s face, yanks it around to look at us, then turns it back to face forward. “Coxsucker one and two are not interested in you and your balloons. They don’t want to play with your party favors.”

The girl huffs, “There’s only one of you. You can’t have the two of them like they’re a matching set.”

My stomach flips when Thea says, “They are definitely not a matching pair, and I would never ask them to be. But you’re right. My math is all fucked up. Did I say the both of them? I meant whichever one of your precious Trium members who’ve bled for me.”

Pax finally makes his way over to us, with a girl tucked under his arm, and asks, “Who fucked with the music?”

Thea glances over at him with this strange look on her face. It’s like a mashup of the one Finn has when he’s about to do something crazy as fuck, and the determined gleam Pax gets in his eyes when he decides to fuck someone’s life up. I think Finn and I work out what’s gonna happen at the exact same time. Thea gets to her feet, walks right up to Pax, completely ignoring the girl he’s with, and pulls him into a kiss.

His brain has to be short circuiting, because instead of pushing her away, he grips her hips, pulling her closer, deepening the kiss. Seconds later, he flinches and shoves her away.

Thea steps back and smiles, licking the blood from her bottom lip. She tells the girl he’s with, “He tastes like butterscotch and caramel in case you were wondering,” Then, turns her attention back to the girl on the floor who still hasn’t put her tits away. With a condescending pat to the girl’s cheek, she says, “I’ve bled them all. So don’t fucking try me.”

That’s when Pax looks down on the floor. “What the fuck is going on here?”

Thea straightens and shrugs, “Desperate hoe down in aisle three?”

She walks off singing some made up song about if I bleed them, then I own them please, hoes try me.

The warmth in my belly expands. Thea came over here to protect me. In this room with all these people around, sheclaimedme. Pax looks over at us, his lip still bleeding.

Finn laughs, enjoying the destruction Thea left behind, while Pax scowls and barks orders for someone to turn the music back on. He’s in clean up mode. Trying to show that things are still under control. I wonder how long it’s gonna take for him to realize Thea claimed him, too.

The girl on the floor breaks out the tears, bemoaning how unfair it was that she was attacked unprovoked, and pretending to understand now why Pax hates Thea so much.

I’m not about to let her manipulate this situation. I look down at her and growl, “Stop with the fucking fake tears. I warned you Finn wasn’t the person you had to worry about.”

“But I.”