Page 29 of Sweet Vengeance
“Dean and Rory,” Cillian amends.
“Um…what about me?” Aislin asks.
“You guys fucking suck.” Cillian follows Tiernan while I stand in the middle of the room with three sets of eyes on me.
“Come sit down,” Dean says. “How are you?”
“Your face looks like shit,” Rory says.
Aislin punches him in the arm. “Jesus, Ror.”
“What? He knows it does. He’s still cute as hell, though.”
This world is…so fucking weird. These are macho, alpha guys. They aren’t supposed to be talking about how adorable a nerdy twink like me is.
My body’s exhausted, so I walk over and take the spot Tiernan left, beside Dean.
“Did Cil tell you you’re going to stay here with us for a few days?” Dean asks.
“He did, but I told him I’m not. He’s staying with me.”
The room is quiet around me, heavy-feeling, all the signs indicating I said something wrong.
Aislin clears her throat. I know her even less than the others. All I know is she’s Dean’s best friend and Tiernan’s sister. That, and she’s beautiful, with long black hair that goes down to her waist. She smiles, but there’s something dangerous about it, about her. Is she just as involved in this world as they are? I know she teaches a women’s self-defense class on campus, which again, is odd, given who they are. “Well, that’s nice of my cousin,” she finally says.
“He doesn’t have to,” I tell them.
“We’re aware.” Rory gives a humorless laugh.
“He wants to,” I argue, unsure why.
“I’m starting to see that.” Rory watches me, his blue eyes intense in a different way than Tiernan’s, Cillian’s, or Dean’s. Like he’s more…unpredictable, like you never know what he’s going to do, and maybe like he might chop me up and put me in his freezer. I flinch when he puts his arm around my shoulders. “Christ, did you think I would hurt you? You’re our pet. I would never do that.”
“I really wish you didn’t call me your pet.”
“Cillian’s pet?”
“What? No! That’s not any better!” Is he insane?
“Do you want to smoke a bowl? We should smoke a bowl.” Rory leans forward and reaches for the bong.
“No. I don’t do that.”
“More of aK kind of guy? No worries. We have that too.” Rory pumps his brows.
“Ketamine?” My voice rises, and Rory laughs. They sell ketamine? Does Cillian do drugs?
“Leave him the fuck alone, Ror,” Dean says, then looks at me. “He’s trying to get under your skin.”
Well, it’s working. I feel like I don’t know what to expect out of Rory more than the rest of them.
“It’s sweet of Cillian to want to take care of you,” Aislin interrupts. “He must like you a lot.”
My stomach does somersaults. “He doesn’t like me. He doesn’t even know me. He’s just doing it…because.” Because of what, I’m not sure.
I let out a relieved breath when I hear a door open and footsteps coming down the hallway. I’m thankful Cillian is coming back.
“I’ll run upstairs and get my shit, and then we can dip,” Cillian tells me.
