Page 141 of Tempting Little Thief

Blunted black.

They can’t see the red haze of rage clouding my eyes or the promise of retribution aimed right at them.

I’m just a broken boy, mad at the world ’cause Mommy and fucking Daddy didn’t love me.

I told her that shit in confidence and have no fucking idea why.

I should have known better.

She wasn’t ready for it.

One day she will be. I’ll make fucking sure of it.

As for them, I’ll shred their dignity one layer at a time. They’ll see and learn if only the hard way.

Effort I haven’t called on in a long fucking time is needed to move my feet and carry them out across the floor, then out the side doors leading to the garden—the easiest route for a clean break from what I’ve found.

I’m not halfway across the floor when I hear Rayo’s attention called elsewhere, and mere seconds pass before Oliver’s protests follow.

Next, it’s the soft click of heels, and then Dom to the rescue, but I don’t look back. I keep fucking walking, and what do you fucking know?

Rocklin follows.

I make it two steps down when her urgent voice breaks through the air.

“Wait!” she shouts.

I don’t wait.

“Would you hold on a minute!” she screams.

I keep moving.

“Goddamn you! This is why you’re so bossy in bed, right? Because you can’t handle anyone else telling you what todo because you spend every other day taking orders from someone else!”

She’s gasping. My feet spin and face hers before the last word leaves her.

I spot Dom at the door, not far, but he doesn’t come closer.

Her mouth is clamped tight while she waits for me to speak, but I’m so fucking pissed all I can do is look at her until even the sight of her pisses me off.

“That’s right, Rich Girl. I’m a bottom feeder. Nothing but a poor punk who rides for someone else at someone else’s call. That’s the life I live ’cause that’s the hand I was dealt. No ace was slipped in my pocket at birth, but you better fucking believe when I die”—I bend so we’re at eye level and that lower lip of hers trembles—“I’ll have the entire fucking deck in the palm of my hands,includingthe queen, my fucking queen.So have your fake fun tonight, do Daddy’s good deeds, but watch yourself. Watch your world real fucking close, ’cause you never know who might come in and turn it upside down. And what a scandal that would be, Miss Greyson.”

Her entire body droops. “Bastian …”

I hear the plea, the silent cry only I could detect because I am theonlyone who knows her well enough to hear it. She’s begging me to understand, to take this at face value and assure her we’ll fight and make up later.

Instead, I stand tall, looking down my nose at her, as if she’s the leech and I’m the leopard.

“My name is Bass and don’t fucking forget it.” Shaking my head, I take backward steps away. A mocking laugh that’s bitter on my tongue and a smirk I don’t feel curve my lips. “Not that you could.”

She takes another urgent step toward me, but I give her my back, making sure to move fast ’cause no one here is going to watch it for me.

And I disappear into the shadows.

Rocklin

He walks away, disappearing into the safety of the dark gardens, not even his shadow in sight. I run down the last few steps but stop short, my chest heaving as I replay every word I had said over and over.

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