Page 48 of Venomous Vows

“Shit, it did for me. I was half-stunned that she even remembered, but I’m not going to lie and say that I wasn’t proud as fuck that she had.”

Something hard presses into my ass before a large palm covers my lips. I barely have time to react before a thick arm slithers across my torso and drags me backward to stand flush against another warm body.

It’s the smell of cedar and sage that brings forth the realization of what’s happening. It’s what stops my body from reacting and screaming when it’s aware that Adrian is the one caging me against his frame and holding me hostage during the phone call with his brother.

“She remembered,” Adrian whispers against my hair next to my ear. “Because she was sent to kill me. And she almost had.”

I pull back from his palm, but Adrian doesn’t release my mouth just yet. Instead, I can semi-hear Zane still speaking about the day at the horse races and that she was able to get away for longer, but I can’t seem to fully focus on that story when Adrian fucked the setting for me.

“I knew then,” Zane says, “that I needed to see her again.”

I’m not sure why or what triggered more of why Zane felt the need to do it, but Adrian loosens his grip on my lips and allows me to speak. “How long did…you see each other?”

“Four months and two weeks,” Adrian answers for him, sending a shiver down my spine that I’m unable to control. “That’s how long my brother betrayed me for a woman who played him the whole fucking time.”

“I think about five months,” Zane says over his brother, unaware obviously that he’s here. “It was like some crazy Romeo and Juliet story, but it was one of those things where…neither ofus would take it that far as to betray our families. Adrian would never accept her as my wife and I would be murdered before her father would have me as his only daughter’s husband.”

“You could’ve run away,” I respond, earning a small squeeze from Adrian that he wouldn’t be a fan of that idea or my mentioning it.

“Nah,” Zane says without hesitation. “It was just one of those things, you know? Sophia, thankfully, understood what it was. I never had a problem with us cutting things off.”

“So…she went to her family? And you went back to yours?” Adrian’s fingers descend down to the waistband of my leggings and I freeze at what he’s going to do next.

“Basically,” Zane replies. “There was another big party about a week later after we called it off. New Year’s.” Adrian’s hand dips past my underwear and I know exactly where he’s heading, causing my fingers to wrap around his wrist to stop him. “She was dressed in this gold gown that highlighted her blond hair. It was like some Double O Seven shit.”

“Was it hard?” I force from my lips right before Adrian thrusts his hips forward a bit and I feel the solid outline of his cock against my ass.

“Eh…” Zane stops for a moment, probably not wanting to admit it but not able to deny it either. “It wasn’t easy. It’s one of those things…the what-if that was killing me. It’s not our fault that we were in the middle of a war, but what we felt for each other wasn’t going to stop it either. Adrian was set on destroying them and her father wanted to murder us and then hang us out in the middle of the street for everyone to see.”

The pad of Adrian’s index finger grazes my clit through my panties and a small gasp leaves my lips before I clamp them down. A violent shiver jolts through my body as Adrian removes my hair off the shoulder closest to him and opens my neck for him to torture me with.

“I can’t…” I swallow, trying my best to stop the flood of pleasure that’s forming through my body. “Imagine how difficult that had to have been, Zane.”

“Don’t lose any sleep over it,” Zane says. “It wasn’t meant to be. Adrian was able to get them out of Bellbrooke and out of the whole state. She’s off somewhere living her best life.”

“She’s dead,” Adrian whispers coolly in my ear, running the very tip of his nose along the back of it. “I killed her,piccola diavola.”

I jerk my head in sheer shock that he’d just tell me that. His soft greens latch instantly onto mine and I’m not sure what the hell is happening, but my childhood bully just admitted to murdering a woman.

One who he claims tried to kill him.

“Explain,” I mutter, more like demanding that he’d be driven to such lengths. Adrian’s gaze falls to my lips, soaking me in as if he has all the time in the world, and before I can push him to hurry the hell up, Zane’s voice pipes in again.

“Did I lose you?”

“No”—I shake my head even though he can’t see me, but I can’t seem to unpeel my attention off his brother—“I was just thinking about everything you said and…it sounds like Shakespeare.”

“Never took you for someone who read him,” he jeers on the other line.

“Only when I was forced to in English class.”

“Were you in that class with my brother?”

I was.

One of them, anyway.

“For a second,” I claim, regaining Adrian’s gaze. “I think he dropped out.”

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