Page 13 of The Vipers' Vow

She gets to her feet and slowly makes her way to me. Her hips sway as she walks, and her demeanor is suddenly different than it had been when Vani was in the room. She pouts her lower lip and looks up at me from under her lashes. She places her hand on my chest, fingering the buttons on my Versace shirt.

“Saint Laurant,” she says in a singsong voice, “I always thought the two of us would make a great pair, didn’t you?”

What the fuck? Talk about a change of pace.

“You accused me of being a murderer!”

“Well, not murder exactly, but playing a part. Still, I like bad boys, and I like that you’ve got style, and you’re not ashamed to flaunt it. You don’t seem to care what people think about you, and I admire that.”

I have no idea why she’s heaping praise on me now, after she’s just accused me of murder, but then, I guess with the kind of families we come from, what’s a little murder between friends?

I clench my jaw. “Get to the point.”

She loosens the button enough to pop the top of my shirt open, revealing my chest beneath. “I’ll get you in contact with Jarl, but first … I want a night with you.”

I jerk back. I hadn’t been expecting that. “Quoi?”

In my surprise, I’ve reverted back to my native language.What?

She smiles like the cat that’s got the cream. “See, all the French stuff is hot, too. One night with you, and you have to speak to me in French while we fuck, and then I’ll get you in touch with Jarl.”

My head reels. I think of Vani and how hurt she’ll be by all this.

“You can’t expect that of me. I thought Vani was your friend. How could you do that to her?”

“She won’t know. It’ll be our little secret, though I’m sure, once you’ve had a taste of me, the name Vani won’t even be on your mind.” She smiles and licks her lips slowly. “You and me, Saint? We could run this college. We might even make a great marriage, but that’s for the future.”

The bitch is insane. She’s looking at me and smirking as if she’s got me right where she wants me.

She has no fucking idea how I feel about Vani. The girl I am fucking obsessed with. Even when I thought she might have had something to do with Lex being taken, and that she was spying on us for Jarl Olsen, it didn’t lessen my feelings for her. If anything, it only made me more obsessed, more tortured, more conflicted. She’s the only girl I’ve ever felt this way about, like I might shrivel up and die if I’m not around her enough.

Hell, I was sneaking into her room on the regular just to be near her and be able to watch her, smell her, touch her.

I don’t expect Angelica to understand this. I’m not sure I even understand it myself, though I believe the other Vipers feel the same way. What is it about Vani that coils itself around us and refuses to let go?

It’s not just that she’s pure sex wrapped up in that curvy body of hers. I love the smell of her, the softness of her skin, the sound of her voice. I love the way she has a snake tattooed across her back, as though she already dreamed of us and had prepared herself for our arrival into her life. Hell, the fact that she has ink in itself makes her unlike many of the other girls here. She stands out as being so different, and she isn’t ashamed of it, either. None of the girls here would ride a bike like she does or listen to deeply untrendy music the way Vani unapologetically does.

Deep down, I loved how she’d slapped at my hand when we’d been on the stairs. I even love that she’s the person behind our beloved possessions being destroyed. That’s the kind of messed up actions I can relate to. She’s not just going to lie down and take our shit, and I admire that about her.

Angelica doesn’t even seem to know how my brother and I roll. We’re a package deal. We don’t really fuck girls separately, unless it’s part of the sick games we play. She is looking at me like she can see our future all mapped out, but the girl doesn’t even realize she’d be getting two-for-one. It is the stupidest proposition I’ve ever had, and something about her shiny, perfect exterior turns my stomach a little. She’s not my type, at all.

But I’m also torn.

Lex is my brother. I’ll do anything for him. What if we’re unable to contact Jarl, and Jarl decides to kill him? What if Lex is already dead? My stomach knots.Merde.What the hell am I supposed to do?

“I should go back out there and tell Vani exactly what you’ve just said.” I try to play hardball, hoping she’ll back down.

She crosses her arms across her chest. “Then there will be no chance of me helping you.”

Fuck. She’s got my balls in a vise.

Give Angelica what she wants or at least make herthinkthat’s what she going to get. It’s the only answer.

I think of the plan for Vani and Zane to leave Verona Falls and travel back to her father’s MC in order to claim Jarl’s necklace. The drive each way is around five hours, so they’ll most likely need to stay overnight. It will leave me here, alone. It would be enough to give Angelica what she’s asking for—plenty of time to rock her world; I could promise her that so she’ll give us the number. The thought of actually going through with it sickens me, though. Before Vani had come into my life, sex hadn’t meant anything to me. I could have fucked Angelica, even when I hated her, and made her come multiple times, and not given her a second thought. She’d have just been a hole to put my cock in, a nice pair of tits to feast on, a throat to wrap my hand around while I called her a whore.

Yeah, it might have been weird without Lex there, but I could have done it.

Now, though, everything has changed. I don’t want to be anywhere near another girl. The only person I want is Vani, and maybe I’ve done some suspect shit in her mind—like lying to her about my identity and sneaking into her room—but I’ve only done those things because I wanted to be near her. Ineededto be near her. If I do what Angelica wants, even if it is for Lex, and Vani finds out, then she’ll never want me anywhere around her ever again.

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