Page 5 of Sloth

“I’m taking you home so you can have your bath,”he told me, attempting to make conversation with me.

I looked at him then, crossing my arms under mychest. The movement pushed my tits up higher, earning me a soft growl fromArlo.

He shook himself, his gaze dropping to my chestbefore quickly meeting my eyes. “Now is not the time for that, Bunny.”

“Trust me.” I snorted. “I don’t care how goodyour dick is, I’m not in the mood.” But even though I said those words, I knewthat he could make me feel better after the shit that went down tonight.Instead, I would be a good girl. For now. “To answer your question, even thoughyou already know said answer, yes, I still live at my father’s house.”

Arlo chuckled, shaking his head. “I fuckingmissed your sass.”

I couldn’t help but smile, the heaviness of thenight, slowly dissipating around us. I had to move on from what happened andwhat I did.

“Take me home, Arlo.” I turned my body towardhim, leaning the side of my head against the seat. “Please.”

He nodded, reaching his arm out to rest across mylap. The heavy weight of his arm, eased some of the anxiety over what happenedtonight and what was to come.

“I need you to know something, Ginny.” He glancedmy way quickly before looking back at out at the road in front of us. “Whateverhappens, I’m not going anywhere. I’m promising you that.”

I wanted to argue with him. I wanted to throw afit and tell him that I could take care of myself. I had been doing it sincebefore my dad died.

“You promised me that before and look whathappened.”

He shot me a look. It was a look that meant forme to shut up or he would make me eat my words. Any other time and I would havelaughed but I wasn’t in the mood tonight. I didn’t know how I was going to getpast killing Dante. It wasn’t even the fact that I had killed him in the firstplace that bothered me so much. It was who he was. He had been my dad’s rivalfor years. It was almost funny in a way, especially when Dante and I had oncebeen friends. It had never amounted to anything more than that no matter howhard he had tried. Arlo wouldn’t have any of it. It had been one of my dad’swishes that I would end up with Arlo, his best friend, my mentor, the man whohad taken care of me now that I had no one. But I didn’t want to be with a manbecause he felt he had to be with me out of respect for the dead. It had beenone of the reasons why I ended things with Arlo in the first place. I also wasn’tstupid though. There would come a time where I would no longer be able to fightthese feelings I had for him.

“You’re thinking too damn loud, Bunny,” Arlogrumbled, pulling me from my thoughts.

I snorted, linking my fingers between his becauseit was comfortable and something I had been doing for years. It didn’t matterhow many months we went not seeing each other. This time had only resulted inme being gone for a few days but when we reunited, we fell back into an easyroutine, and I could never figure out how I actually felt about that.

“I really need to soak in a bath and fall into abottle of wine.” I sighed, curling his fingers around my inner thigh.

He squeezed, reminding me that although I foughtthis relationship between us, he still owned me. But we had to play it safe.

“What happened tonight?”

And there it was. The question I didn’t know howto answer but had to find a way to anyway because Arlo wouldn’t have it anyother way.

“What do you mean?” I asked instead, mulling overmy words.

“Ginny.”

I swallowed hard, my heart jumping in my chest. “What?”

“You know what I’m asking.”

“It wasn’t my fault. None of it was my fault.” Ihad gone out for a few drinks by myself. I didn’t have a lot of friends since Icouldn’t let them into my world. It was for their safety, so really, theclosest person I had to a friend anymore, was Arlo.

“Geezus, Bunny. I would never think it was yourfault.” His tone had a bite to it. A bite I wish he would use more often on me.

“I just want to know what happened,” hecontinued. “That’s it.”

“Why?”

“What the fuck do you mean why?”

“Because I want to know what your intentions are,Arlo,” I threw at him. “I want to know why after all of this time, you happento show up when I need you most. You never show up out of the blue. It usuallytakes you weeks. Maybe months. Not days. Are you tracking me? Were youfollowing me? Did you have someone else follow me? Why? How?” I threw questionafter question at him, and his only response was a deep chuckle. The sound wassinister at best, and it sent a shiver down my spine.

His hand tightened around my thigh, reminding mewho I belonged to. Who I would always belong to no matter how hard I tried pushinghim away. Arlo and I were connected and it was more than just being physical.Our souls had intertwined from the moment I was born.

Iknew then that what happened earlier, wouldn’t even be the worst part of mynight.

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