Page 67 of Tethered Souls
My chest burning, I fight the rising anger. I will be calm about this. I will be cool and sophisticated as I come up with a thousand different ways to hurt him like he’s hurt me.
“You’re fucking hot in that dress,” the man in front of me says.
My creep-o-meter goes off as his eyes roam up and down my body, but I smile at him politely like a lady is supposed to do. “Thank you.” If the words come out a bit sarcastic, he doesn’t seem to notice.
He leans in, and the alcohol on his breath hits me hard enough I wrinkle my nose even though a lady should never make a man feel like she’s judging him. But holy hel, am I judging him. He’s clearly fucking drunk, his eyes bloodshot and his speech slurred as he says, “Want to dance?”
“Varius has my first dance,” I say with a polite smile even though the urge to just knock him out cold is making my fingers twitch. But a lady doesn’t hit important men like Jason Terry – the right-hand man to Varius’ cousin Vinny. She doesn’t hit any men. She is the epitome of a damsel in fucking distress, showing the world that her husband is so powerful and so feared that no one would dare hurt what’s his.
What’s his...
I ain’t fucking his.
Glancing around the room, I look for Dayne, wanting the comfort of his friendship. But in the middle of my sweep, Jason puts his hand on my waist and pulls me close. I lean back as he leans in.
“Come on,” he says. “I’ll show you what it’s like to be with a real witch. Not some abomination like –”
Swinging my arm up, I slam my fist into his nose.
He stumbles back, his hand going up as blood spurts all over the floor. “You whore!” he shouts, raising his own fist.
I catch Sau moving quickly towards us, already relatively close due to her earlier approach. Aladyis supposed to take any and all punishment. Aladyknows her place.
But screw being a lady. The fucker called my fiance an abomination, and I might be pissed at Varius right now, but he’s. Still.Mine.
My fist still tight, I go to punch him again.
Just as my knuckles are about to connect with his face, a band of fingers wraps around my wrist. They squeeze hard enough to stop my projection, and I wince as the pain flows through my crushed fingers.
My eyes widen as I glance to the side to see who’s been foolish enough to stop me. I expected Dayne. Or maybe Maddox. But it’s Varius himself who’s holding me back.
“He –” I start, but he cuts me off.
“Jason is an esteemed guest of mine,” he says, his words a thunderstorm of anger. “Now get down on your knees and beg him for his forgiveness.”
I almost tell him to go to hel, but just as I open my mouth, I catch sight of Dayne beside Khalid. His face is pale, and I know the only reason he hasn’t already tried to intervene is because he knows doing so will just make this whole situation worse. Varius doesn’t just punish those who disrespects him. He punishes their family. Their friends.
I couldn’t care if he hurt my father or my two brothers – both of whom are glaring at me. None of them have said a single word to me tonight. But I can’t be the reason Dayne dies. And even though my little sister Lou isn’t here right now, currently sick in bed, Variuswilldrag her into this.
So despite it going against every part of who I am, I drop to one knee and then the other in front of this entire crowd of people. Angry tears burn my eyes, but I shut them down as I look up at Jason’s sneering face. His nose, at least, is still bleeding, and I take some comfort in that.
“Please forgive me, Jason,” I say sweetly, the acid of my thoughts not even bleeding out into my tone. “I do not know what came over me. I’m just a stupid woman who asks for your forgiveness.”
“You know how I make my wife forgive me? She sucks on my cock until I come all down her throat. And then she begs me to do it again.”
My blood stills, then burns hot as the magic in my veins urges me to let it out. I could turn Jason into a pile of ash before Varius can even break the hand he’s still holding.
“Then get it out for her to apologize on.”
My eyes grow wide as they snap to Varius, but he isn’t looking at me. He’s looking at the right-hand man to his beloved cousin. A man he’s most likely broken bread with, invited into his own home. A man he holds in much higher regards than he does me.
Looking at the cold indifference on my fiance’s face, I realize he’s actually going to make me do it. In this crowded room, Varius is going to force me to suck this man’s cock as an apology for hitting him. Forsticking up for him.
And I can’t do a damn thing but obey. Not if I want my best friend and sister to not get punished alongside me.
My arm shakes with rage as I watch Jason fiddle with his pants. The alcohol in his system is making his movements jerky, uncoordinated, but he finally gets his small prick out. Or perhaps it’s only small compared to Varius’. Not that it matters. I don’t want a single inch of it in my mouth. The damn thing smells, like he hasn’t washed it in weeks. There is even something crusty on the end of it.
Bile burns the back of my throat, but before I can force myself to do what I have to, two things happen.
