Page 68 of Venomous Vows

The roughnessof stubble brushes against my forehead and my eyes fly open to find Adrian pressed up against me like it’s his job. His arm is draped over my center, his fingers pressed dangerously close to my ass, but I can’t get myself to move.

To push him off me when I know, deep down, I should.

Yet his words last night struck a chord that I didn’t think was possible. I’m not sure when to take Adrian seriously and what he holds in store, but I find myself curious.

Stupidly so.

I’ve dreamed of you, piccola diavola. Those pretty onyx curls wrapped around my fingers, that smart-ass mouth on mine. You were just a young girl with a stubborn sense about her and I pushed you away to keep you safe. But it didn’t stop me from conjuring up ways to show you everything I wanted to do to you back then. Every mark and inch I would explore just to give you something to remember me by.

To keep you safe.

That’s the part that rings so damn loud in my head and, being older now, I can’t deny that it was probably true. Who the hell knows what went down in Zane and Adrian’s house when theywere kids. Their father was a mob boss. I could only imagine the kind of men who strode in and out of that place and even teenage Adrian was conscious of the dangers that lay under his roof.

Did he have to bully me into listening—yeah. Zane was my best friend and there was no way I wasn’t going to see him when I wanted to. I did what I wanted, when I wanted to do it—being the oldest really makes you stubborn with a slight chip on your shoulders—and Zane was the next-door neighbor who didn’t make me feel so lonely with Dad’s long hours.

I’ll admit that Adrian intrigued me. The boy had swagger for days and the girls at school flocked to him. Yet I never officially saw him with anyone. Adrian kept his shit locked and his personal life separate from his home one.

“What did you want to do today,piccola diavola?”

That gravelly voice sends an unwanted chill down my body as the grip of his fingers tightens around my body.

“I need to go see my sister.”

I’m not sure what time it is or where she is exactly, but I need out of this bed.

“She’s with Zane.”

“How do you know?”

“Because he texted me a bit ago to tell me she was bitching about being hungry.”

I begin to sit up, but Adrian refuses to give me any slack. “What time is it?”

“Time for you to tell me what you want to do for your birthday.” He pulls me closer, taking full advantage of his position and that we’re in this odd arrangement in the first place.

“I want to go home.”

“We’re in Vegas.”

“I know where we are,” I clip back. “But it wasn’t supposed to be with you.”

Adrian chuckles, then I feel his heavy stare on me, causing me to crane my head to look up at him.

Moss green eyes glimmer down at me and I’ve never seen him so mellowed out and relaxed before in my life.

“When are you going to get it, Elena?”

My brows furrow. “Get what?”

“That it was always meant to be like this.”

“What?” I press, scrunching up my nose. “Being your whore?”

“Beingmine.”

Nope.

Wiggling out of his hold, Adrian lets me go and gives me the hope that I’m free from his clutches and able to get some damn space.

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