Page 30 of Vice

I reach out to grab her arm, but Dele starts walking ahead of me and toward the door before I can. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say she didn’t want me to touch her. But… that’s not right. Not here. This isn’t one of our games right now. She knows that.

I don’t say anything and instead follow her to the elevators. She waits for me to click the floor and then follows me to my suite, leading credence to the idea that she didn’t know where my room was and that she could have pointed that out instead of admitting her weakness earlier.

As soon as we’re in the suite and the door is closed, I reach toward her. This time I don’t imagine it. She recoils from my touch.

“Take that jacket off,” I say.

“Why?”

“Because I won’t have you running around in some other man’s clothes and smelling like him. Now take it off,” I snap.

She averts her gaze, shifts back and forth between her feet, then looks back at me and asks quietly, “Do you have something else I can put on?”

That’s a weird request. Dele’s never been particularly ashamed or shy about her body around me. She rolls her eyes at my attempts to make her blush for fuck’s sake, all the while sashaying about the room to collect her clothes while I watch her ass squirm after we get a chance to fuck.

“Why?”

“Just cold is all.”

She shifts her feet again. And then, of all things, she blushes.

Dele. Blushes.

“What’s your problem?” I demand.

“Nothing, Viper. I’m just cold. Can’t I be cold?”

“You can be,” I respond. Then just to test it once more, I step toward her, try to take her into my arms as I say, “I can keep you warm.”

There’s no possible way I imagined it this time. Dele jumps and steps out my reach.

“What are you afraid of?” I ask. Because that’s the only way to describe this. Fear. Actual fear. Of me.

The last time Dele was afraid of me I found her hiding out in Canada and intended to kill her. And even then, it wasn’t fear for herself, but fear of leaving Leon and Lady behind. Back then, I’d been frustrated that I couldn’t get her to properly fear me. Took her bravery in the face of the power and danger she knew I presented as a disregard and mocking of me. Tried with all my might to instill fear of me inside her. Yet she was never moved by it, even as she appreciated the danger I represented.

But now? The idea of her being afraid of me doesn’t sit well.

“I’m sorry,” she says in that same quiet voice. “I… it’s not… It’s not you. Just… can you not touch me right now?”

The way she says it is so sincere, so desperate, so pleading, there’s no way for me to mistake it as her playing one of our games. Where she tells me to fuck off but really doesn’t want me to and the evading me is all part of the foreplay. The way she keeps averting her gaze and shifting her stance along with it leaves no room for doubt.

It’s even more worrisome what she’s asking. Dele has nevernotwanted me to touch her. Even after than disaster after Brin framed her, she didn’t shy away from my touch. Along with Phae, I was the only one who could touch her for a while.

“Why not?”

This is part where she’s supposed to glare up at me in annoyance and snap that it’s none of my concern why except that she asked. But she doesn’t.

Instead, she just asks in that quiet voice again, “Please?”

Her voice is shaky this time, and her eyes are wet with tears she’s refusing to let fall. Now, I’m concerned.

“Sit down,” I say.

She does without argument.

I stand in front of her with my arms crossed. I keep my distance, though, and I’m going to until I figure out what the hell is going on with her.

“What the hell wrong with you? You were fine before.”

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