Page 47 of Pretty Pink Poison
“For both of us,” he grumbled, his eyes still closed.
I sighed. “I’m guessing I earned both those badges for myself tonight.”
“I like the look of those badges on you, Pink. Just don’t want to have them myself ever again.”
I didn’t know if he was speaking about screwing around with me before or finding out I’d screwed his brother and what it felt like to him after. He didn’t elaborate and I didn’t ask.
We sat in a new kind of silence. A stupid, human silence where a person tells you a line exists and you realize they made it for you so that you never can access them the way you want to again. A line I hated because I’d forced him to make it.
After a while, I tugged at his shirt, peeled it carefully off his shoulder, and looked at the cut I’d put in his arm. It was sort ofdeep if I was being honest, but it didn’t seem to be causing him pain. Still, I went and grabbed a towel to tie around it tight.
He lifted the arm to help me but never opened his eyes even when he asked me, “Want to know the actual reason I came to your door tonight?”
I fussed over the knot, trying not to appear too eager to take any of the scraps of conversation he was offering. “Probably because you want more information on my family’s dealings with the ports.”
He cracked an eye open at that and warned, “You need to stop listening to the business conversations, Pink.”
“It was the whole topic of conversation at dinner,” I countered. “So is that why you won’t let me talk to anyone?”
“You can talk to whoever you want. You have a phone.”
“Yes, but you’ve threatened every person I call.”
He harrumphed like he didn’t like that I knew. “Your dad’s a fucking snake and you’re marrying my brother because of it. If he’ll use you to get out of a debt with my family, what won’t he do?”
“Well thanks.” I winced at the idea that my father was willing to sacrifice me. That my mother, even if she wanted to act like she cared, had done the same. “Don’t bother sugarcoating it.”
“You don’t need sugar when you like venom anyway, baby girl.”
“I don’t.”
“Really? Because I’m full of vitriol and you just fucked me like you couldn’t get enough of it.”
“Oh my God.” I poked at his side and frowned. “Why aren’t you knocked out yet?”
“I’m high as a damn kite, but I’m guessing you got that concoction of yours wrong.”
“Next time I’m doubling up on the herbs.”
“It’s going to take more than a few drugs to knock me out if you rub your pussy on me, Pink.” His words might be slurred, but I loved hearing them anyway. “I’m obsessed with it.”
“And yet you won’t sit next to me on a plane and don’t want more than one meal a day with me.” I covered his mouth with my hand as he started to interject and said, “And you don’t touch or even look at me.”
He bit me and I yelped, snatching my hand back. He chuckled and his blue eyes sparkled before they grew serious. “You know why? Because if I start touching you, I’m not going to stop. If you’re near me, I’m only focused on you. Even from afar, I want to stalk your little ass.” He rubbed a hand over his face as he sighed and then softly admitted, “You fuck my brother, and I say I’ll put you under my roof for protection… and then you look at me like I’m betraying you… like I’m the one holding you hostage.”
“I looked at you like you don’t want me anymore… like you’re surrendering me to them instead of being the Bane Black I know you to be.”
“Being who I am isn’t the answer here.”
“That’s the only answer I want though.” I wanted him unhinged and possessive and wild like I knew him to be. I wanted the man who didn’t give a shit what anyone thought and would take what was his.
He exhaled, long and annoyed. “You’re impossible.”
“So are you.”
He patted my thigh and lifted his hand to drag a finger over my cheek. He blinked slowly as he said, “But I’ve always liked you impossible rather than easy, Pink.”
And even if he was high, it was the most romantic thing I’d ever heard. No one ever wanted me for my impossible traits but rather tried to shape me into something I wasn’t. I stared at him as his breathing steadied out enough to put him to sleep butmy heart rate didn’t calm. It galloped faster and faster, trying to chase after the drunken, drug-induced Bane who’d shared more with me than his sober self ever would have.
