The Destiny of Violet and Luke(75)

After a lot of deep breathing, she carefully turns back over and sits up. Her cheek is still a little puffy, her pupils are dilated and glossy and she looks like she’s high, no emotion evident in her expression. How can that be possible, when just a second ago she looked scared out of her mind?

“Are you okay?” I dare ask and then place a hand on her knee, needing to touch her for reasons I’m still trying to figure out.

She frowns down at my hand. “I’m fine.” She scoots to the side and my hand falls from her leg to the mattress.

I’m not sure whether to press or not. I know I wouldn’t want to be pressed if I’d woken up like that. “Are you sure?”

She nods and gets to her feet, stretching her hands above her head. Her back arches as she yawns, her black and red hair a tangled mess running down her back. All I can think about is how much I want to grab a handful of her hair and guide her to my lips, not to conquer but to comfort. “So when are we going to head down to the apart—” She’s cut off as someone knocks on my door.

My brows dip together as I get up and open the door, wondering if I’m getting kicked out. Seth comes strutting in, with Greyson at his heels, then does a double take when he sees Violet, who does nothing more than stare at him, looking bored.

“Okay, I’m so confused.” He stares at Violet like she’s some strange endangered species. “What is she doing here? And why does it look like you both got your asses kicked?”

Violet lowers her hands to her side and turns to me. “I’m going to leave… catch up with you later, maybe.”

I stick out my arm as she tries to walk forward. “We have to get down to the apartments. We’ll be lucky if we can still get one already.”

“Wait a minute,” Seth says, elevating his hands in front of him as he gapes at me. “You’re living with her?” Seth is a very blunt person and I usually don’t care because I can be that way, too, but aiming his bluntness at Violet right now doesn’t seem like such a good idea.

“Yeah and it’s not a big deal.” I glance at Greyson, the more levelheaded of the two, for help.

Greyson steps forward and puts his arm around Seth’s shoulder. He’s a little taller than Seth and a little more casual when it comes to clothes, wearing darker colors like grays and blacks while Seth wears brighter ones because I think he likes to stand out.

“Relax,” Greyson says to Seth. “We’re all friends here.”

“Not really.” Seth eyes Violet up and down. “The only thing I know about her is that she can be a bitch sometimes to Callie, always making her stay out of the room when she ties that damn red scarf around the doorknob so she can have her way with helpless men.”

“ ‘Helpless men’?” Violet asks, crossing her arms over her chest, an amused twinkle in her eye. “Are you insulting your gender?”

“No, I’m saying you’re a vixen, who bosses people around,” he retorts and Greyson notably cringes.

Violet moves forward, tilting her head to the side. “So what if I’m a slut? It doesn’t make me a vixen.” She gives me a fleetingly glance that carries caution for me to keep my mouth shut about her virginity secret. A secret I tried not to think about all night, yet it was impossible.

“Yes, it does,” Seth snaps. “You’re mean and bossy and you don’t care about anyone but yourself.”

“Hey Seth, lay off her,” I tell him, shooting him a warning look.

Violet targets a death glare at me. “I don’t need you to stick up for me.”

“Yes, you do,” I assure her, which is clearly the wrong thing to say. Her eyes darken and Greyson gets a little worried, leaning back like Violet’s about to attack us all.

Seth unfortunately doesn’t pick up on the vibe, though, walking out from under Greyson’s arm and crowding Violet. “Yep, you don’t need anyone, right? You’re perfectly fine bossing people around.”

She unfolds her arms and steps forward, decreasing the space between them even more. I want to believe that she won’t do anything, but I’ve seen her do too many crazy things to make any assumptions about Violet Hayes. I decided to step forward and again I mentally curse myself for being so drawn to her.

“Hey.” I position myself between the two of them and look at Violet. “Let’s go get some coffee and get down to the apartment.”

“You’re f*cking crazy if you’re going to live with her,” Seth says loudly and seconds later I hear a slap, probably from Greyson slapping him on the arm or something.