Page 57 of Mischief Mayhem
“My turn,” V said, handing the bottle to me, distracting me from her necklace.
I sat back on my haunches and took a drink. “Truth or dare, V.”
“Truth.” This time, she licked her lips and drew my attention to the soft, delectable skin. I lived to kiss V. I ached to have her devour my mouth the way only she could. I’d never thought I’d say that about anyone.
“Truth?” I groaned and rolled my eyes. “Again? You’re no fun.”
“That’s not true,” she argued, lifting a perfectly pedicured foot to my chest so she could press her toes into my pec and hold me still. “You had a lot of fun last night.”
“That’s right, I did.” We both did. More fun than I’d had in a long time. I grabbed her foot and massaged it, running my hands up her calf and back down again. “Why did you agree to do this with me, V?”
“Have sex with you?”
I nodded as I dug my fingers into her muscles, working my way up to her knee and over her thigh.
“Well”—she rolled her big eyes in jest—“you are very pretty.”
“That doesn’t count.” Lots of people were pretty, and she didn’t go around dominating everyone.
“I don’t know, Hudson. Maybe I thought I could we could treat each other right.”
“We do,” I said. “That’s true.”
“When you told me it turned you on when I hated you . . .” She blew out a breath as I went to the other foot, lifting it to my chest and working my way down her leg again. “I’d never wanted anyone more in my life. I knew I could be rough with you, that you wanted it that way. But I also knew you needed someone to be gentle, too. Someone to take care of you.”
My stomach lurched and my heart pounded behind my ribs as I shifted my gaze to hers. No one had ever talked about me like that. Most people I hooked up with were selfish, only wanting a ride just to say they’d done it. Chelsea didn’t know me like V, and she couldn’t treat me the way V did, couldn’t even understand why I would want such a thing. Those were superficial encounters, nothing more. But this . . . Whew, this blew my fucking mind.
“Can we forgo the game?” V said, taking the bottle from me so she could take a sip. “I just want to talk to you.”
“Of course,” I said, giving her a smile. I’d do anything V wanted, absolutely anything.
“Why did you want me?” V asked. “Why did me hating you turn you on so much?”
“I think we both know you never really hated me.” If she did, she wouldn’t have so easily agreed to this relationship. “No one talks to me like you do. No one even tries. All they see is—this.” I gestured to my face and my body, both of which I had no control over. Yeah, I worked a physically demanding job and I went to the gym to take care of my mental health, but most of it was genetics. Plain and simple. I couldn’t help the way I looked any more than anyone else could.
“Aww, poor wittle beautiful boy.” V pretended to pout, clearly mocking me to lighten the mood.
But I wouldn’t just take her mockery, not outside the bedroom, so I lurched forward and dug my fingers into her waist, right where she was ticklish. She squirmed and shouted, trying to twist away from me, but I outweighed her by a lot. She couldn’t go far.
“Nooooo!” Laughing, she flopped her body down on the couch, trying to scoot backward, but all it did was scrunch her crop top under her body, giving me a clear view of her perky bitable breasts and the ten-inch purple scar between them.
But now, my focus froze on the necklace lying on top of it. Attached to a long piece of black leather hung a tiny glass jar, and inside it?—
Is that a chunk of metal?
No, it’s a bullet fragment.
I reached up to touch it but V shoved her shirt over the evidence, quickly hiding it as she tried to wiggle out from under me. I wouldn’t let her. Her wide eyes and blank features indicated I wasn’t supposed to see it, and if I did, I wasn’t supposed to mention it.
“What is that?” I asked, now even more curious.
“It’s nothing.” She crossed her arms, trying to hide it.
“What?” I chuckled in disbelief. “C’mon. I’m being honest with you. Show me.”
V tucked her bottom lip between her teeth and hesitantly met my gaze, seeming to search for any signs of cruelty. If there were anyone in this world she could be authentically herself around, it was me. I knew all her dark, twisted kinks. I reveled in them with her.
“Promise you won’t make fun of me?” She sounded much too small to be the V I’d come to adore.