Page 31 of Dukes of Peril

“Mostly, uhh… incomprehensible shrieking?” I shrug but Nick’s expression forces me to add, “Well, we jumped right after I said it.”

Putting his glass down, he gives me a blank, mystified look. “You told Lavinia you loved her right before you threw yourselves off a fucking cliff?” He shakes his head, shoulders bouncing with a laugh. “It really is always life or death with you, isn't it?”

My back straightens. “It's not like I planned it!”

He sighs, tossing the fry he’s about to eat into the trash pile. “I told her I loved her, too. A few times, actually.”

I fight a wayward shiver, watching as he dusts the salt from his hands. “What did she say to you?”

“The first time?” Nick slings his arm over the back of the booth, sucking his teeth. “She laughed in my face, called me crazy, and then tried to kick me in the balls.”

I wince in solidarity. “Yeah, you win.”

Nick grabs his milkshake and holds it in the air. “To the fucking victor, brother.”

My eyes follow his gaze through the window, to the corner across the street. It’s lit up with a single flickering light, a couple guys in dark hoodies tucked close, talking. I already know who they are. I knew Cash Mallis was standing there the second we rolled up. Maybe the resentment should burn that Nick brought me here of all places to grab a quick bite, as if neither of us know the boundary between west and north, but instead I just feel hollow.

“You can beat it, you know.” When I look up, Nick is watching me carefully. Closely. “Viper Scratch made its rounds in South Side before it came here. I once saw Daniel Payne’s best girl, Augustine, so strung out that Mrs. Crane had to tie her up just to stop her from clawing out her own eyes. She looked fucking possessed.”

I shift my eyes back to the corner. Mallis is leaning into a car window, a little hatchback having stopped to make a purchase. “It’s where it gets its name. Scratch.” I can still feel the phantom tug of needing to dig my nails into my arm. “Whatever it’s cut with, it makes you itchy as hell.”

I see Nick nodding in my periphery. “You just did it a couple times, though. Enough to get the bug, but not enough to really get its fangs into you.” Leaning forward, he lowers his voice. “It’s the next time that’ll get you, though. You’ll start lying to yourself. You’ll think,” he shrugs, quick and casual, “whatever, you kicked it once. No big deal. It wasn’t so bad. You can just do it once or twice. Three times, since it’s available. Four, because you had a bad day. Five, just on account of wanting to.” There’s a pause where we both watch Cash salute the driver of the hatchback, slinking back to his post. “And you won’t come back, Remy.” When I swing my eyes to his, Nick’s mouth is pressed into a tight, grim line. “Not if you do it again. One more time is all it’ll take.”

I drop my eyes, wishing he was wrong but knowing he’s not. I’m no Augustine. No one’s going to tie my ass down and get me clean, because if that fraction of the pull I felt a few days ago grew big enough, no one could stop me.

Lifting my hips, I take out my wallet, pulling out a wrinkled twenty. “Let’s go home,” I decide, dropping it beside my plate.

6

Sy

Even when wewalk into the restaurant, the thought is still knocking around in my brain like one of those medieval, spiked maces. As if the entire concept of going on a date with Lavinia wasn’t fraught enough, the fact she didn’t even realize it was a date just makes it…

Fuck fuck fuck.

Unbearable.

“Let’s not make a big deal about this,” she says for the third time.

The dress is shiny and tight, her breasts peeking out the top, and she keeps plucking at the straps, inching them just a little higher on her shoulders. My eyes snap to the jiggle of her tits every time she does, cock threatening to swell with the idea of slipping the straps off, watching as the fabric catches on her nipples before finally falling away, revealing her soft, supple, flushed–

My eyes dart up, and I can’t even imagine how harried I must look, desperate to plant my eyes anywhere else. It’s been an inner battle all night, but I no longer try to shove it away, willing the waves of my inner ocean to calm. I accept it, acknowledge it, let it pass.

I want to fuck her so badly, it hurts.

Despite the fidgeting, she wears the dress like a second skin, her shoulder blades elegant beneath the spaghetti straps as she stands tall.

Except for the fact she can’t stop trying to smooth things over.

“We were all tired and everything was crazy. Obviously, you asked me out–like,obviously.” She gives me a tense grin. This might be the most I’ve ever heard her talk about something that wasn’t related to her kitten or her hatred of jogging. “I just got my wires mixed up.”

“Lavinia.” The hostess is walking toward us. I keep my voice low.

“Yes?”

“No offense, but please shut up.”

Her eyebrows rise, shocked. “Rude.” But then her lips twitch, some of the tension shattering with her ruby-red smirk.

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