Page 62 of Provocation
‘Oh, Tulip,’ I whisper. ‘I’ll spend days explaining every single little nuance you don’t quite understand a thousand times over if you need me to. I’ll do that and more if it means you never believe that someone putting their unwelcome hands on you is your fault ever again.’
She looks up at me.
‘Thank you,’ she whispers.
Then her eyes find the screen again. ‘That asshole,’ she mutters with a lot more grit.
She looks at all of us in turn. ‘I don’t want any of you doing anything to him.’
‘But, gorgeous,’ Blake protests, almost in a whine, ‘he deserves to pay for what he did.’
She stares at the frozen image of Bennet looking at her camera.
‘I know,’ she says. ‘But he’s mine.’
‘Okay,’ I mutter, and I hear the same from Shade.
She turns and leaves the room without another word, and we all look at each other.
‘Well, that was hot as fuck,’ Blake whispers, staring after her.
I do the same, silently agreeing.
‘Fuck Bennet. There’s no way he misunderstood anything. This shit is never her fault. She sucks at flirting. We need to make sure she knows it.’
Shade huffs a quiet laugh. ‘Maybe don’t tell her she sucks at flirting.’
‘That’s not what I mean,’ I frown, and Shade rolls his eyes.
‘I know what you mean,’ he says. ‘If we have to remind her every single day, we will.’
‘Good,’ Blake mutters. ‘I never want to see her like that again. She was so upset.’
I nod. I don’t either, but I know it’s inevitable. It’s how she deals when things get to be too much. We just need to be here for her when they do.
‘You don’t think that we’ve ever done stuff she hasn’t wanted because we didn’t read the signs, right?’ I ask, giving voice to the fear that’s gripping my heart.
‘Not the same,’ Blake says, not even looking at me. ‘She doesn’t freeze when we touch her.’ He holds up the picture we were sent. ‘Look at her face. Closely. She doesn’t look like that afterourfingers have been buried in her pussy.’
We all frown at the reminder of what Bennet did to her, that he planned it and we can’t punish him. But I’ll leave him for her if that’s what she wants, if that will make her feel better.
‘Who sent the photo we got?’ I ask.
‘One of those sorority bitches.’
I sigh. ‘I’m just about done with their Mean Girl bullshit. If we can’t do anything to Bennet, I say we do something to them.’
Blake’s smile is dark. ‘They’ve certainly had enough warnings. The usual route?’
Shade nods. ‘Family financial ruin sprinkled with a dash of shattered futures. Only the ones who are tight with Laurie and Jolie, though. Not all of them are culpable.’
‘On it.’
Daisy appears back in the room. ‘Can we go to the lab now,’ she asks me.
‘Are you sure you’re up for that?’ I reply, surveying her expression and her body language for signs that she’s still upset.
‘Yeah. I have a list of things to do today. I’ll feel worse later if I don’t get everything done.’ She shrugs. ‘I feel a little better than I did earlier. Tired, but not so wound up, you know?’
