Page 49 of Deception
Griffin’s Beach
Venom
“How’s the house?” Lex asks and hands Marnie a beer.
Venom’s girl isn’t a beer drinker, but she’d drink gasoline if Lex handed it to her. In Summerville, they almost ended up throwing punches, and Venom appreciates both women for being willing to put the past aside and move forward. Both mean so much to him.
“It’s good. You should come and see it,” Marnie says. “I’m not the best cook, but I’ve been learning. If all else fails, we can order pizza.”
Lex laughs and nods. “Or… We can have a cook out and make the guys handle most of it.”
“Oh, I like how you think.”
It’s almost as though they’re friends. Venom drapes his arm over Marnie’s shoulder and steals a drink from her beer, earning him a playful slap. “Do I get a say in this?”
“No,” they say in unison and smile at him.
“I should be scared of this, shouldn’t I?”
Second chances never happened in Venom’s life, and it was the reason he couldn’t give Marnie one right away. Lex showed him it’s possible. He let something slip to his ex-whatever-Cinder-was, and she felt betrayed. Even though he betrayed her, she forgave him, and it opened up a world of possibilities for him.
After Marnie shattered his heart, he was terrified to let her back into his life. Even though she put in every effort she could think of to show him she wanted everything he wanted in Summerville, his fear and unwillingness to give second chances stood in their way. He was also terrified of Lex’s opinion if he did, but it all worked out in the end.
“We’re women of the same club. We should get along,” Marnie says, her hand wrapping around his back and squeezing his side.
“I don’t have any strong urge to bash her face into a table,” Lex says. “That’s an improvement over your last girlfriend.”
“I’ve been meaning to ask you… Did you really do that to Cinder?”
He tenses, expecting an issue to arise. Talking about exes, even ones he never really cared about, rarely ends well, and the last thing he wants is an issue with Marnie because of Cinder.
“Oh, yeah,” Lex says and sips her beer. “Blood everywhere. It was ah-mazing.”
“I wish I could have seen that,” she says and giggles. “She really came out here hitting Venom without thinking it could cause a problem?”
“I don’t think the elevator always reached the top floor. The lights were on, but no one was really home. A few fries short of a happy meal. Get the picture?”
Laughing, Marnie nods. “I’ve heard things of that nature, yes.”
“Don’t mention her to Heidi, though,” Lex says with a grimace. “Still a sore spot.”
“Poor girl.”
Venom looks at his girlfriend in shock. “Wait, you’re not jealous or angry?”
Looking up, she gives him a sexy little smirk that makes his cock twitch. “You’re mine. What the fuck do I have to be jealous about?”
“Yeah, he is,” Lex says and clinks bottles with Marnie.
“William!”
Venom whips around with Marnie so fast that her beer spills onto the floor. Freezing, he stares at Raena. He expected a confrontation after not showing up to kill his newest stepfather, but he didn’t expect her to show up at the clubhouse.
“William?” Shep asks. “Of all the names you could’ve been given, I would not have pegged you to be a William.”
“Right?” his wife says. “He looks more like a Mason to me.”
“You know, Heidi, I can see that,” Lex says. “Definitely more of a Mason than a William.”
