Page 59 of Fallen Legacy

“Sit down and enjoy your whisky, while I show Scar my moves.”

She fits in my arms like she’s made to be there. Scar looks up at me with that smile that floors me each time I see it. She is the embodiment of beauty. I don’t deserve her, but I’m taking her and keeping her for my own.

“Where did you learn to dance like this?” she asks me as we move around the room.

“Lessons and my mum. She loved to dance.”

“She was never happier than when she was dancing,” Edward says, his eyes glazing over as he loses himself in a memory. “When you were a toddler, she’d rest you on her hip and sing and dance around the room with you. She came alive when she danced.”

“Looks like someone inherited her natural talent,” Scar says, winking at me as I spin her out and back to me. She laughs, and it makes my blackened heart warm. Scar is changing me, and I quite like the ‘me’ that is emerging.

“What?” she asks me, tilting her head at me and studying my expression.

“You’re fucking beautiful. You know that, right?”

She side-glances to where Edward sits. “You know we’re not alone, right?”

I nod my head, my eyes not leaving hers. “I don’t give a shit who’s in the room. You are perfection, Scar, and I’m never letting you go.”

“I’m not a possession for a collection, Archer. And I’m far from perfect,” she replies, her fire shining through her eyes.

“I don’t see you as a possession. You are your own person. I know that. I can’t help that I’m a crazy bastard who wants all your attention, your smiles, and your laughter. It breathes life into my bitter soul.”

Scar places a hand on my chest. “Maybe there’s hope for you after all. Maybe I can thaw the ice and make you half-way human again.”

I smile down at her, drinking her in. “Stranger things have happened, Scar.”

I pull her flush against me and rest my head on top of hers as we sway to the music. Edward catches my eye. He sits there quietly watching us dance, and winks at me, a smile gracing his weathered and wrinkled face. Maybe my old grandfather is onto something in bringing our engagement forward. The sooner Scar has my ring on her finger and my surname, the better.

ELIZA

Ichew on my lip as I walk alongside Vee, who is chatting away about the latest episode of Love Island. I need to ask her to cover for me today after school. I just hope that I can trust her.

“Are you listening to a word I just said?” She waves her hand in front of my face. “Girl, is Archer dicking you all night and not letting you get any sleep?”

“Hardy-har,” I deadpan, pulling my tongue out at her. “He’s not dicking me all night, maybe just two or three times.” And that’s not a lie. Living with Archer has meant we have a lot of time together, which more often than not results in sex because we seem to be insatiable for each other right now.

“Uh, that glorious period of new love where you hump like bunnies on heat,” she says wistfully staring off into the distance.

“Lust, not love,” I tell her with a snicker, and she cocks a finely groomed brow at me.

“You two are head over heels for each other. You’re both just too scared and too proud to admit it.” She winks at me. “Anyway, tell me what has you so distracted if it isn’t being dickmatised by Archer.”

“Dickmatised?” I repeat, smiling. “That’s not even a word.”

“It is,” she insists. “It’s when a girl gets dick so good that it’s all she can think about.” She pops a bonbon into her mouth and offers me one.

I take the sweet from her and look around us to make sure no nosey students can hear me. “I need a favour from you,” I explain. “I need you to cover for me after school. I need Archer to think I’m with you.”

Vee studies me as she chews. “And where will you be going when you’re pretending to be with me?”

I bite my lip and grimace. “I can’t say.” I place my hand on her arm when I see her face fall. “It’s not that I don’t trust you. I’ll tell you soon, I promise. I just can’t tell you yet.”

“Okay,” she says softly. “I told you I’d have your back, and I meant it. Girl’s code. I’ll cover for you. So, what will Arch think we’re doing?”

“I was thinking we tell him we’re having a pamper session at yours. I can get him to drop me off at your house. He has rugby practice tonight, so he’ll head off to rugby and then I can do what I need to and be back at yours before he picks me up.”

“Okay, fake pamper evening, it is.”

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