Blackbird (A Stepbrother Romance #1)(10)

“I didn’t do it,” I bark at her, my voice strained. Christ, I’m a grown man on the verge of tears. “Eve, please believe me…”

She gives me a hard shove and I step away from her as she struggles to keep her feet, skirt hike dup over her ass, her sodden underwear quivering between her bowed knees.

“You son of a bitch, why did you bring it up?”

“Eve-“

“Beg my forgiveness,” she snaps, standing to her full height, such as it is. “Beg me to forgive you, Victor.”

My hand falls to my side.

“You’re the one that should be begging my forgiveness,” I snarl. “I never touched that girl. I never did any of it. All I ever wanted…”

“Liar,” she says, coldly. “You’re a filthy f*cking liar, and I hate you. Don’t ever touch me again.”

She stumbles away, and suddenly I feel embarrassed to see her like this as she yanks her underwear up and pulls her skirt down.

“I hate you,” she says, as I open the door.





Chapter Four





Evelyn





“I hate you,” I snarl as he steps out.

The door slams behind him and I choke out the words in a tiny voice.

“Don’t leave me.”

Victor, come back. Victor please, I’m sorry, I’ll forgive you, just come back.

Ten minutes later Alicia finds me sitting on the floor in a strange conference room, hugging my legs to my chest and sobbing.

“Ma’am…”

“Go away,” I choke out. “Leave me alone.”

“I can’t. We need to leave. They’re talking about calling security to remove you.”

I stare at her. She’s all blurry and I don’t know why. Maybe it has to do with the hot burning on my cheeks. Water, there’s water. Oh God, I’m crying. If Father saw me he’d… he’d…

I surge to my feet and stumble. My body is still shaking through the aftershocks. I haven’t cum so hard since… since the last time Victor f*cked me. I want him inside me.

Please come back.

I meant it, dam him. If he just told me the truth and asked me to forgive him, I would. I’d forgive him for the money, for Brittany, for all of it. I don’t want any of this. I want him.

Yet I still hate him. I gave him everything and he crushed it in his hand and threw it away for the next piece of ass.

You stupid, immature, idiotic little girl. How dare you let yourself crack like this. Get up.

Alicia offers me a tissue. I snatch it and wipe down my face. I take a minute to smooth my hair and stride out of the conference room. There’s building security approaching, rent-a-cops in cheap uniforms, but one look and they get out of my way as I almost dive into the elevator, tempted to tell Alicia to take the f*cking stairs and just get away from me. All I can see is their eyes on me. Victor is right, damn him. They all hate me. Alicia despises me, the staff hates me. No one in the whole world wants me. I just want to curl up in a ball and disappear.

We were so happy once.

Head down, suppressing sobs, I rush back to the car, yank the door open and throw myself inside. Alicia follows, closes the door. No one says a word on the way back to the airport. When we arrive I trudge up the stairs and back to my seat, sink into it and close my eyes, but sleep won’t come. I grip the armrests tightly during the ascent, calming only when the plane levels out. Sleep, dreamless or not, flees from me. My body still pulses with need. Victor, Victor, Victor. The way he held me while he… it was like he used to. He would hold me so tight, shelter me in those big arms of his. In the dark the tattooed feathers running up and down his arms would seem to shimmer, like some kind of dark secret gold. They ran from just above his wrist to his shoulders, spread over his back on the shape of wings. On his chest the screaming visage of a black bird stared out. I remember touching every line, every stitch of shading.

I hate myself.

The flight feels nine hours long, even though the ascent and descent are longer than the flight time, almost. A short hop. It’s dark when the plane turns and tips back to descend into Philadelphia. As dark as it gets. Lights flood the world below, a galaxy on the ground drowning out the one in the sky. None of it means anything to me. I watch the ground swell up to meet us and some part of me wishes it would just crush the plane and end this misery. A taste, a touch, is worse than nothing at all. Victor’s infuriating presence, the hate in his voice. If he only hated me I could survive it, but the touched me so tenderly, kissed me so fiercely. It was like he forgot he hated me. I forgot how much I hate him. I have to remember. Her name is Brittany. She was the next notch on his bedpost, and that’s all I ever was. It was all lies, the whispered declarations, the promises. He turned around and mouthed the same words to someone else.

By the time I walk to the car I feel the venom of my hatred coming back, swelling cold and acid in my chest. He’ll trick me. He tricked me before. I will never let anyone do that to me again. No one will ever get under my skin again. My skin is ice, harder than steel, and beneath it is only more ice. The cold settles in me during the ride and I feel almost composed when we returned to the house. I glance over and see the police outside the garage and it hits me, and the ice cracks.

It was him. Damn it, it was him, he was here. He took the car. Fine, let him. I hate the damned thing. Sitting there reminding me of what used to be. He can go to hell and take the car with him.