Page 90 of Martyr

Nix’s brow furrowed. “As far as I’m aware? Never.”

“I promised we wouldn’t get sexual, and I meant it.”

“Then what are you doing?”

“You’re chaffed here,” he lightly stroked against Nix’s inner thighs, the sensitive area close to his center. “And there are bruises all over. I’m going to apply sun cream everywhere I see something. Just focus on my story instead of where I’m touching.”

His eyes narrowed slightly. “You think I’m going to get hard.”

“I do have a tendency to turn you on.” West winked. “You haven’t answered my question.”

“No,” he said. “I didn’t know you used to play.”

“Lake and I were on the same team all through middle and high school,” he carefully smeared cream over the irritated red patches of skin as he spoke. “One game against our top rival, I scored the most points—which wasn’t unusual, by theway. He’s really, really good, but back then, I was just a little bit better.”

Nix scoffed.

“Don’t believe me? Ask him about it later. He’ll tell you. Anyway,” West moved onto some of the bruises, the black and blue prints of Yejun’s thumbs making him want to rage, “my dad congratulated Lake when we got home. Had the cook make his favorite dishes for dinner, and even gifted him a new car. I was barely given a glance. It was like I didn’t exist in my own home. Later that night, I was out by the pool trying to calm down when Lake found me. I took my anger out on him because I couldn’t hurt my dad.”

“What did you do?”

“I hit him,” West said. “Hard enough he stumbled back and fell. He ended up hitting his head on the lip of the pool on his way down. There was a lot of blood. We had to call an ambulance even. Fortunately, there was no serious damage, and while he was getting stitched up in a private room on the top floor of Ever Hospital, my dad was beating me half to death in the underground parking lot.”

“What?” Nix tried to sit up, but he planted a palm on his lower stomach and made him lay back down.

“It’s fine. He only broke like three bones that time.”

“That time?!”

West chuckled. “I’m guessing your parents have never laid hands on you.”

“Of course not!”

“Lucky. I was used to it though, so don’t feel bad for me. That’s not why I’m telling this story anyway. I ended up in the same hospital, a few floors down, and had to stay for three days. I quit the waif team after that. Lake signed me up for boxing lessons. He didn’t get mad or tell me off for hurting him. He simple emailed me the confirmation I’d been added to the class,told me I needed an outlet to help regulate my emotions, and that was that.”

“Okay…That was nice of him, and clearly a good idea since it seems like it worked, but…What about your dad?” Nix obviously didn’t think Lake or Yejun would have let him get away with something like that.

He wasn’t wrong.

“Apparently, while I was in the hospital, they were planning on setting the house on fire while my father was ‘asleep’. But the old bastard came down with something severe before they could. His in-house doctor sent over several nurses and quarantined the entire north wing for almost an entire month. By the time he was given the all clear, I was obsessed with boxing and couldn’t care less about revenge. Told them to ditch the plan.”

Nix was quiet for a moment and then, “Did you tell me this lengthy, convoluted story in an attempt to convince me not to hold a grudge against them? Lake forgave you for splitting his skull, so I should forgive Yejun for—”

“Splitting your asshole?” West laughed when Nix scowled at him. “Sorry, bad joke. You can do what you want.”

“Ah, so you’re just trying to convince me Yejun will forgive me.”

“He cares about you.”

“He’s been fucking other people this whole time,” Nix stated dryly. “We’ve gotten along, sure, but that doesn’t mean anything. Look how quickly he tossed me aside? He threatened to break all my fingers.”

“Pretty sure he hasn’t slept with anyone else since Lake bit you,” West corrected. “As for the rest…” He shrugged. “I told him yesterday morning I would bust his kneecap.”

“Okay, but you didn’t mean it.”

“In the moment I sort of did.”

“You all have serious problems.” Nix dropped his head on the pillow and stared up at the ceiling. “Ihave serious problems for liking any of you even a little bit.”

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