Page 53 of Pretty Secrets

Her gaze slides to mine, and I press my lips together as I wrap Oliver’s feet. I don’t mention the panic attack she had before. It’s not my place. Besides, just because you break for a few minutes doesn’t mean you’re broken. It means you can fix yourself up stronger and trudge ahead with purpose.

“Alright, I agree with all that,” Leo says, his firm voice threading like ice. “But Anne-Marie needs to pay for her taunts.”

“She’s always hated me and my sister.”

“She’s a spoiled little cunt,” I agree.

Oliver smirks, holding out his shot glass for another fill. “What did you have in mind?”

Ideas are thrown out, and I shouldn’t be shocked that the minds in this room are as devious and twisted as they come. Anne-Marie is going to rue the day she ever crossed paths with the four of us together.

I watch Eden lighten under the talk of bringing her nemesis down. It’s sexy how excited she gets about humiliating this girl. Even better is that we’re distracting her.

I have no illusion that when she goes to bed, she’s going to see those strands of hair in her nightmares, but at least for right now, we may have made her feel a little better. Just enough so she doesn’t break.

Not under my watch.

“Alright,” Leo barks out, suddenly tightening the cap on the bottle of alcohol. “Eden sleeps with me tonight.”

“Wait, what?” The smile on Oliver’s face withers.

“We agreed that Eden would never be alone, so she’s sleeping with me.”

Jealousy mixed with anger raises my hackles. “Don’t you think that should be Eden’s decision?”

She peers at the three of us, and my anger burns out quickly. We did agree to her never being alone, and I’m sure there’s some part of her that probably really doesn’t want to be alone tonight. But it should beherchoice.

She flicks her gaze through all three of us, then straightens her shoulders. “I’m fine with Leo.”

Oliver pushes himself to his feet, glaring between the two of them before limping up the stairs as fast as he can. Eden just stares at her hands in front of her.

I don’t know what made her decide on Leo, but I said it’s her decision, and it is. Standing, I send Leo a warning glance. I’ve seen what women look like after he’s through with them. If he does the same to her, it won’t only be Anne-Marie’s downfall I’ll help plan. It’ll be his too.

23

Eden

I’m still bitterly cold. My insides shiver like they’ll never be warm again.

That’s not why I picked Leo’s room to sleep in, though. I don’t suddenly think he’ll turn into a teddy bear and use that large body of his to heat me up tonight, melting the ice chips currently freezing to my body’s cells.

No, I picked him because… Well, with Oliver, it would’ve meant something. After what happened under the stairwell, if I’d chosen him tonight, it would’ve sent a signal to him that I’m ready to be his. Alaric has already seen me vulnerable—something I’d rather not replicate. So, for just one night, even when inside I feel anything but, I want to be the girl who doesn’t have to be anything for anybody.

I can just be me.

Since the other two skulked from the room, I flick my gaze toward Leo who’s looking pleased as fuck. Like he won the lottery without even playing.

I can’t figure this guy out, other than it’s evident he doesn’t respect women. He uses them. He loves sex and control—loves to dominate. But he’s also done some things that surprised me. Not the starting something on the bus part, that was Leo to a T, but after the Trial when he threw me over his shoulder, that was caring. Almost. He still did it like a caveman, but I had him pegged as the type that would let me walk it off.

He saunters toward his room, peering over his shoulder when he reaches the doorway. “You coming? If you need shit from your room, go get it now.”

I peek down at my feet, wondering how much transporting my ass there is going to suck. He sighs, returns to where I’m standing, and hoists me over his shoulder again. “I can walk,” I feebly protest.

“Just stop talking.”

“Wow,” I say with some surprise. “I guess you’re not sugar coating anything that happened tonight.”

“Don’t act shocked. That’s why you picked me.” He tosses me down on his bed, and I bounce on the mattress.

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