Page 45 of Needing More
"Please look at me." She heard him say as she stared at the far wall.
Tears ran down her cheek. How could they have done that? It was the only thought that passed through her mind. Angrily she turned and glared at him with all the hatred and accusation she could muster.
Sitting at the edge of the bed, now dressed in his jeans, Vic's eyes softened. He reached for her face and swiped away the tears with his thumb. "This wasn't your fault."
"You can't do this again," she whispered, her voice hoarse. "Promise me."
His gaze seemed to burn into her. The usual teasing laughter that always invited her to laugh with him was gone. Now they stared down at her with a fire that could not be extinguished or swayed.
"I can't promise that, angel," he said before leaning down and placing a firm kiss on her lips, and standing up. Grabbing his shirt off the floor, he walked over to the door and stopped. Vic braced one hand against the door and looked back at her. "I love you and I won't live without you."
Tears welled in her eyes as she watched him leave and listened to his heavy footsteps down the stairs. Turning into her pillow, Sapphire held it tight and cried.
Sapphire tried to have nothing to do with him after that night. Ignored his texts. Avoided him. Even going so far as to request that she and his brothers just spend the evening alone instead of sharing dinner with the four of them as usual.
Vic corrected that attitude within two days.
With his hand around her neck, he fucked her rough against the café wall one night and watched her come apart around him. Tears of frustration mixed in with her cries of ecstasy as he pushed her soft body over the edge again and again.
"Ignore me again, little angel, and you'll find yourself throating my cock in the bathroom while Joel and Hayden are down the hall," he snarled. "Do you understand me?"
He could swear he saw her eyes flash with even deeper lust at the threat, but Sapphire managed to give him a shaky nod.
But things were different.
Vic could feel her stiffen up whenever he came into the room or how her eyes followed him like prey watching their predator from afar. It hollowed his heart knowing he had lost that sunny comfort that would wrap around him when she was around. In following his hunger for her, he lost something precious—her trust.
Regret tried to eat away at him when he looked at his brothers' easygoing smiles or the guilt in her eyes but it didn't. It never managed to take complete hold of his heart and fill him with dread at his actions. How could it when it was all he had, all he would ever have?
This was the role Hayden and Joel forced on him by not letting him in. He didn’t have a choice.
Stealing into the house while his brothers were out in the barn, he enjoyed backing her into a corner. He savored her whispered pleas to stop as he kneeled before her like an altar. Pulling away her panties, Vic let her sweet summery dress flutter over his head like a shroud as he ate at her delectable flesh. And in those moments, it was easy to push away his own feelings that told him he was playing with fire. Vic only allowed himself to focus on her and how her hands clutched at his hair to pull him deeper into her wet heat, and how her fingers soothed his head absently. He knew deep down past the warning bells of his mind that it was wrong. Yet he always managed to ignore it.
It was so easy, especially when this was the only thing that ever felt right.
Vic grabbed the last chair and flipped it down onto the floor before glancing at his watch. They had a little over an hour before the bar opened. Across the room behind the bar, Joel was counting out money at the register while Sapphire sat on a stool taking napkins out of the box and refilling the table dispensers.
Walking closer to her, Vic watched her face through the mirror behind the bar. The little space between her brows was furrowed as she concentrated on her task. Leaning back against the bar, he propped both elbows up behind him on the wooden surface and turned his head to look down at her.
"You're quiet today."
The cash register drawer closed behind him and Joel spoke up. "I agree. What's wrong, sweetheart? School already getting hard?"
Sapphire made a face at him and shook her head. "No," she yawned, putting a hand at her head. "I'm just a little tired and my head is hurting."
Vic could hear Joel move behind the bar until he appeared directly in front of Sapphire on the other side. "Then why don't I take you back now? We're almost done setting up and-"
Sapphire shook her head, cutting him off. "No. It's not that bad. Besides, you'll both be late tonight because of the poker game and I won't see you in the morning because of class. So, I would rather see you two now while I can."
Reaching over the bar, Joel grabbed her face under her chin and pulled her partways over. Vic's jaw clenched as he watched the surprise in her brown eyes melt to desire at Joel's rough treatment. Leaning over the bar, Joel kissed her deeply. Dropping his gaze, Vic stared at Sapphire's hands clutching the edge of the bar and thought of all the times he watched the three of them from the gym's third floor. Even then he had noticed Sapphire's response to force. Vic couldn't help but think of the times he had stolen with her and how her eyes always contradicted her pleading words steadily begging him for more.
Leaning back into her seat, Sapphire licked her lips before shooting him a wary glance that made his chest ache. There was so much he wanted to say. Didn't she understand yet? Hayden could come in from the back where he was setting up the poker table and turn her over this counter and fuck her here and now. He could watch her take Joel, his best friend, and brother, into her mouth and he wouldn't care. All he wanted was her love, too. Not her worried looks. Just to be brought into her arms and out of the goddamn cold.
Vic clenched his fist, keeping himself in check, and his face unreadable.
"Okay," Hayden's deep voice called out from the back hallway as he came through to the front. "Back room is set up and ready for tonight. Anything up here left to do?" he looked between him and Joel expectantly.
Vic shook his head.
