Page 69 of Reckless

Kaleb

She shouldn't be here. It was stupid to bring her. But trust me if there was another fucking option I would have taken it. Snatched it up like a pair of AirPods that had just gone on flash sale on eBay.

But there wasn't.

So now here I am, floating like fish in blood-infested waters, forced to keep my head on my shoulders in order to protect a blonde angel from getting her wings of innocence torn off. I guess that's what you got for bringing an innocent into a room full of sinners.

Remind me why this was a good idea again?

Blondie's fingers brush my hand, causing my whole body to tense, and I resist the urge to claim her. To take her down one of these shadowed halls into one of the rooms I know were waiting for that exact purpose, and finish what we had started back in the car.

Instead I turn towards the entrance, ignoring the demands of my aching cock, making sure to keep my dirty hands to myself. I was a monster exposing her to the poisonous leeches that roamed these dark halls, but I didn't have a choice. It was the only way I could get her what she wanted.

Fuck, what I wanted.

So melting my face of all emotion, I walk into the black cage like I was a tiger bred to feed on the blood of sinners, my jaw aching to rip the soul suckers in front of me into pieces. Meeting their eyes, I dared someone to challenge me, to call me out. Devil knew I was itching for a fight after nearly blowing it with Blondie back in the car. I mean the chick was like some insane fruity Jamba Juice I was addicted to that turned my brains into bananas. She made every rational thought escape my mind like an episode of Prison Break and trust me when I say it took every ounce of my willpower to keep myself from fucking her in the front seat of my truck. To hell with nosy New York onlookers. Heck, they could’ve watched me screw Blondie for all I cared, my dick was that hard for the pixie. I mean who knows, maybe the little blonde pixie enjoys an audience?

The thought makes me smirk, only to have the gesture slip off my face when I remember the way she looked at me back in the car.

Hell, all it took was one look at her breaking heart-shaped face and I was slamming on my breaks, nearly snapping my neck in two all to get her to stop looking at me like that.

Like I was the one responsible for snapping her cardiovascular cavity in half.

The amount of power she had over me was ridiculous. And the funny part was that she probably didn't even know it. And now I was dragging her in like a prize I won at the fair, flaunting her to potential bidders in an attempt to please her. I was dragging her closer to him for Christ's sake with a plan that might as well be strung together with dental floss for how sturdy it was.

Step one: Enter the black mansion. Step two: Crash the sperm donor’s party. Step three: Keep Blondie out of sight.

It was a three-step process. Simple really, as long as anything didn’t go wrong and fuck up my night more than it already was. Although keeping eyes off of Blondie might prove to be harder than I thought seeing as she looked more lickable than a pack of tootsie pops at the moment (a fact both me and my dick would happily agree with), but so far, no one had dared a second glance thanks to the literal daggers I was glaring their way. Tristan also cut a pretty menacing picture with his all-dark suit and I don’t give a fuck if I die killing your ass vibes he was blasting like the sun. His UV index was probably an eleven.

Meanwhile, Jayson was sporting the beginnings of a black eye and I had to hide my smirk as he made his way through the crowd in his Givenchy suit, the navy color glistening like rain off his tan playboy skin. You had to hand it to the kid, even with a throbbing eye and busted nose the guy still walked into the party like he was Poseidon walking on water. Smug shit just couldn’t help himself.

But tonight wasn’t about them. It wasn’t about any of us. We just had to keep it that way.

“Where are we going?” Rose whispers in my ear and I ignore the shiver that runs up my spine at her proximity.

“You’ll see Angel.” She raises an eyebrow at the pet name and I promptly ignore the cough Jayson uses as a cover-up for his obvious laugh. Not bothering to turn around, I flip Jayson the finger before continuing forward, my hand on Rose’s lower back. We were heading down the servants’ stairway or what used to be before daddy dearest got too paranoid and fired the whole lot of them. Money made people do fucked up shit. And it’s no lie that my dad was the most fucked up apple of them all.

Most nights I wasted wishes hoping I didn’t fall too far from that tree.

Once past the first floor, the Black Mansion was suspiciously quiet, the only sound being that of our feet echoing across the freshly polished marble floors. But it was always like this, loud and boisterous on the top floors, drawing the eye to the obvious, keeping the I sated. It was what lies underneath the mansion where the rumors were born. Some of them were true of course. Some of them were lies. I liked to believe the more interesting rumors were true (most of the time they were) and being that hardly anyone was ever allowed down here, most of the stories stayed as the rumors they were destined to be. After all, some shit was just too crazy for the normal to believe.

Too bad I was never normal.

The monster in me roars at that thought, aching to release its madness.

Roaring for freedom.

In a moment, Beast, in a moment.

Noticing the tension in my body, Blondie looks up at me with questions swimming in her ocean eyes. Wanting to ease her worries I shove the beast down inside of me before pressing Rose closer to my side,

“Are you ready to have your darkest dreams turn into bloody reality my little Rose?” I whisper into her ear and smile with delight when her whole body turns pink at my words. I did love it when she went on Sketchers light mode, her skin flashing red at the slightest movement.

“I’ve been to the Red Room.” She scoffs. Tristan glares at her, judging her naivety in that silent way of his, and Jayson just smiles, the bastard feeding off her innocence.

“Oh honey, this is nothing like the Red Room.” Jayson laughs, an unlit blunt dangling from his fingers, the only hint of his nervous energy. Rose glances at both of them, judging their reactions before turning to me, that velvet dress of hers lighting my skin on fire, tempting my monster to claim, possess, and please her.

“Kaleb.” She hisses, “What are we doing here?” The question bounces off my skin like it was a bullet and I was wearing a bulletproof vest.

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