Page 58 of Necessary Cruelty
“There won’t be a next time,” I spit at him, shoving my dress back down to cover myself. My underwear is still pulled to the side, but I won’t give him the satisfaction of watching me fix it. Let him think I don’t care. “We’re done.”
He smirks. “We will never be done.”
Pleasure is always pain, at least where Vin Cortland is concerned. Pleasure that curls my toes and pain that stabs as sharply as a knife in my belly.
Things were never supposed to be this way.
Wewere never supposed to be this way.
He won’t stop, even when it hurts us both.
But that’s what secrets do, infect everything until only sickness is left.
A look of surprise briefly crosses Vin’s face when I shove him away.
“You can’t seduce me, and you can’t buy me. I don’t care how much you think I owe you, no debt in the world is worth this. You don’t own me.”
“That’s where you’re wrong.” His heated gaze burns through mine for a moment so charged it is indistinguishable from eternity. “We’ve tried carrot, let’s see what you think of stick.”
Vin has swept out of the room before I can think of a suitable response.
No one has ever been able to make me feel what Vin seems to arouse so easily. I hate him, even when I know he is a parasite burrowing underneath my skin.
I’ll never be free of him.
Vin wasn’t wrong about Jake, who is nowhere to be seen when I scurry into the darkened hallway. He must have returned to the party. Being abandoned by my date is about what I deserve at this point. I can’t explain to Jake the hold that Vin Cortland has over me, that he has always had, because I struggle to understand it to myself.
The past keeps a stranglehold on the present, like creeping vines that never stop growing until everything else dies in darkness.
I take my time returning to the ballroom, because I recognized that look on Vin’s face. Rejecting him is the same as throwing down a gauntlet at his feet.
And he has never backed down from a challenge.
It surprises me when I see Jake standing in the entryway, waiting for me.
He turns a concerned face toward me as I approach. “Are you okay? I saw Cortland come stomping down here a minute ago looking like a psycho. But when you weren’t with him, I thought maybe he’d done something to you. You had me worried.”
I just shake my head and smile, even though it feels more like a grimace.
But Jake wasn’t worried enough to come back for me or refuse to leave me with Vin in the first place. I suddenly find his concern inexplicably annoying, though I know I shouldn’t blame him for what Vin does.
That is precisely what Vin wants me to do, see Jake as cowardly and weak. When really, I shouldn’t expect the world from someone I barely know.
This is exactly what Vin does. He twists things, until up is down and lies are truth. Until the sweet guy isn’t good enough because he didn’t throw himself in front of a bullet.
Jake takes my arm as if nothing has changed. For him, maybe nothing has. We enter the ballroom just as the music crescendos with breathtaking drama that resonates through my body.
My gaze is drawn to the center of the room, as Vin obviously intended it to be. The crowd has parted so that only one couple stands together under the gigantic crystal chandelier. It’s like a scene from a Disney movie.
Vin’s back is to me as he pulls the girl in his arms closer against his body. From the garishly purple color of the dress, I can only assume it’s Sophia. He twirls her around so their faces are in profile. When he turns his head toward the doors and sees me standing there, frozen in place, a malicious smile curves his lips. Something drops in the pit of my stomach, as if the ground has disappeared beneath my feet and I’m falling down into darkness.
He bends his head and kisses her.
The entire room lets out the collective breath they’ve been holding in anticipation. This is the sort of moment that people will still be talking about months from now. Vin Cortland never kisses in public, and he never links himself publicly to a girl.
Their kiss doesn’t last long, but it’s long enough. Sophia wraps her arms around his neck while I fight off the feeling that I’ve been punched in the gut. After less than a few seconds, Vin pulls her hands away and uses her wrist as leverage to pull her toward the far doors that lead outside.
I force myself to turn away as they pass within a few feet of where Jake and I stand. The triumphant look on Sophia’s face is imprinted on my brain, burned into my eyes even when they close. I tell myself I don’t care, that Vin can do whatever he wants as long as he stays the hell away from me.