CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Victoria
I was dreaming of blue eyes, filled with equal parts anger and lust when a notification from my phone pulled me out of sleep. It was far louder than was necessary. I groaned, shifting slowly as I cracked one eye open to find my phone on the nightstand. I flinched at the brightness as I flipped it open to its full screen. 'Private number' stared back at me. I groaned again.
'Hope your fun was worth it.'
I snapped the phone shut and tossed it away from me. I didn't have the patience for this. A groan and movement from behind me had me scrambling from my bed, startled. I turned to see long blonde hair fanning across the extra pillows on my bed.
"Jesus, you fucking scared me, Tiffany." I said, putting my hand to my chest. I'd completely forgotten she was there.
"There's no reason to yell." She grumbled, sitting up and rubbing the heel of her hand to her forehead. "As much as I love whiskey, it hates me the next morning. Water?"
I was already moving to the bathroom. Using the water cup from the counter, I downed a glass of water before refilling and bringing it back to her.
"You're a fucking angel, Tory."
I plopped down on a small chaise at the end of my bed and covered my eyes with my arm. The events from the night before were returning as the grogginess of waking faded. Tears pricked at my eyes again, but I blinked them away. I wouldn't cry over this.
"His actions aren't your fault, Tory. Don't give him that." Tiff's voice was firm, and I could practically hear her sneering.
"I know. I'm not blaming myself for how Az acted. I'm blaming myself for being so fucking stupid I let it happen in the first place," I said, shifting my arm behind my head.
"You two have been dancing around it for weeks. It's not farfetched that with lower inhibitions you'd give in. How it turned out is on him, and I'm not going to let you take the blame for it."
"Yeah, I get it. But–"
"No 'buts', Tory. You told me what happened, and you're not the one who did anything wrong. Benson is an asshole, and he's always been an asshole. Sure, it might have ruined the mood. The Az-hole didn't have to act like you insulted him." She stood, sliding out of bed and going to get another glass of water.
"He's acted like my existence is offensive to him since the day I walked in here."
"And you're letting him. He's got a big ol' chip on his shoulder, and he's taking it out on you. And you're rising to the bait every time." She took another long drink before handing me the glass. Eventually, we'd need to leave the room and find food, but I didn't relish facing the guys this morning.
"Tory, you're one of the baddest bitches I know. And you gave this jackass your spine. You need to take it back." I opened my mouth to argue, and she held up her hand to stop me. "It's time to meet them at their own game. We don't take this shit lying down, and we never have."
"Sure, fine. But what am I supposed to do, Tiff? It's easy to say from where you stand, but you're not the one that's been forced to live here with them."
"If I was, I'd be making him pay for every tantrum he throws my way." She put her hands on her hips, looking at me like she was getting impatient.
"Yeah? What would you do in my shoes?"
"Simple. Fuck his friends. Make sure he knows he can't have any. Rub his face in his actions every time he tries me."
"You'd start a war in the house then," I said, chuckling.
"Okay, then. Tits out, chin up. This is war." She grinned wickedly as she spoke.
I laughed and shook my head. She said it like it was the simplest answer in the world.
"Yeah, well. I'm trying not to make things harder than they have to be. Come on, we can't hide in here all morning. I need food. Maybe Craig's saved us something for breakfast."
I stood, finding my robe and wrapping it around myself. It was lightweight and thinner but sufficiently covered me, so I didn't have to change. I arched a brow at Tiffany in silent question. She responded by rolling her eyes and throwing the door open to my suite in her bra and boy shorts. I shook my head and followed her out.
I was tense as we moved through the house. When I turned the corner to the breakfast nook, I released a breath. Craig stood over the stove, the mouth-watering scent of blueberry pancakes, bacon, and eggs filling the room. Rich and Joey were huddled around the dining table, speaking in hushed tones. Az was, thankfully, nowhere to be seen.
"Morning girls." Rich said, interrupting whatever Joey was saying to him.
Ignoring him, I moved straight for the coffee pot. Someone, Craig probably, had left two clean mugs beside it, the carafe still full. I poured us both a cup, handing one to Tiff, who had followed me over, before taking a sip and moaning in relief.
"Whoever made this, you're a fucking god send." Tiff groaned. Joey's amused chuckle made me smile as he watched us.
"Looks like you guys had fun last night. I'm sorry I missed it." Joey said, pulling out the chair next to him at the breakfast table. Craig set our plates down as I slid into the seat.
"Hopefully, my no-fail hangover breakfast helps. I'm surprised you're facing the day without sunglasses." Craig laughed as Tiffany stuck her tongue out at him playfully.
"I… honestly don't remember anything that happened last night. Remind me next time to not let Tiffany talk me into taking that many shots in a row," I said. Tiffany raised an eyebrow momentarily before turning her attention to her plate.
I put a forkful of the food in my mouth and couldn't stop the happy moan that escaped me as the comfort food soothed both the remnants of my hangover and my wounded pride. A sputtering laugh drew my attention.
"Warden, if your eyes pop out of your head anymore, you might injure yourself," Tiffany said with a laugh. Rich raised an eyebrow and gave her a dismissive once over.
"Tiffany, I don't care what you're wearing around the house." He said, rolling his eyes.
"Wasn't talking about me, big man." She smirked and shoveled another bite of pancake into her mouth.
Joey and Craig burst into laughter simultaneously, and I dropped my head to hide my blush behind my hair. I heard Rich sputter over his coffee, and the laughing got louder. The lighthearted mood was a welcome change, even if I wanted to crawl under the table and die.
The atmosphere in the room was surprisingly friendly as we ate. Craig filled us in on Tiffany's exploits that I hadn't been in the room to see, and between the food and coffee, my hangover headache had started to ebb.
"Morning Princess! You look a little worse for wear this morning." Tiffany said brightly, despite how the joking and laughing suddenly died off.
I turned from where I'd been chatting with Joey, and my breath caught in my throat for a second. Az looked irritable, as was usual, but the bags under his eyes indicated a sleepless night. He rolled his eyes at Tiffany and poured a cup of coffee for himself.
"Don't be like that, Sleeping Beauty. No sense in raining on the parade. Craig was just telling us how much fun we had last night since we don't remember." Tiffany flicked a look my way and chuckled. I wished desperately that I could tell her telepathically she was playing with fire and that I was likely the one that was going to get burned.
"Is that right? Well, as much fun as that sounds, I'm not in the mood to keep company with vipers this morning." He said over his cup, his blue gaze momentarily pinning me to my seat.
"What the hell, man?" Joey started. I patted his arm and stood up, moving to dump my plate in the sink.
"It's fine, Joey. We don't respond to tantrums, and eventually they'll stop. If he's gonna be mad over something, no one remembers but him, he can be mad all by himself. I'm going to go get changed." I glared at him as I moved out of the kitchen and stalked down the hall toward my room.
In the great room, I was jerked to a stop by a rough hand on my upper arm. I looked, spotting the familiar tattoo.
"What Az? If you're here to insult me further, just go away. I'm not in the mood."
"You expect me to believe you don't remember? Bullshit, Princess." He growled as he turned me to face him.
"I don't particularly care what you believe. Now take your hand off me." I jerked my hand out of his grasp and took a step back. "You don't get to walk around here all pissed off and act like it's my problem."
"Really?" He flashed a cruel smirk and crowded my personal space. "You have no memory of the best orgasm you've ever had at the hands of a gang banger?"
I couldn't stop the laugh that tore itself out of my throat. "You wanna know what I remember, Az?" I stepped closer, my chest brushing his, and lowered my voice. "I remember the taste of your desperation. Hold on to those memories from last night because it might as well have never happened for me. It certainly won't be happening again." I patted his chest and stepped back. "Besides, it's not the most memorable orgasm I've had in the last week."
I spotted Rich over his shoulder and stepped away from Az, dismissing him. I was taking the gloves off if he wanted to play this game. I smiled sweetly and moved toward the other man. He paused in his stride, a curious look on his face. I sidled up next to him and slid my arm around his.
"So, Daddy , Joey tells me you've had some plants moved into the greenhouse. If you have time later, do you think you could show them to me? I've always loved flowers." My voice was saccharine as I spoke, adopting my most sincere expression. I did like actually like flowers.
Rich exhaled hard, stepping back from me. Some expression ghosted through his features before his brows knit together in surprise and confusion. He opened his mouth, closed it, then opened it again as if to say something.
"Actually, Warden, before you sweep her off to smell the roses, I need to borrow our girl here for some girl talk." Tiffany's amused voice seemed to break him out of his stunned state.
"Yeah… Run along, Princess." Rich said.
Tiffany linked her arm through mine and pulled me toward my room. As she pushed me into my room, she spotted where Az was standing by the great room and flipped him off before shutting the door behind us. She turned to face me, grinning mischievously.
"Welcome to your villain era, Princess . Now, let's plan."
The sun was setting as I paced around my room in my PJs. My hair was still wrapped up in a towel, and I was trying to talk myself out of finding a different set of clothes.
"This is fine. They're comfortable." I rambled to myself. "It's not like you're in nothing. And you can't play the game hiding in your room. Just… just do it." I exhaled heavily, moving toward the door.
A knock made me jump as I reached for the knob. I stood for a second so it didn't seem like I was standing right by the door before I plastered a casual look on my face. I turned the knob and let the door slowly slide open as I pulled my hair down from its towel. It fell in heavy curls that were still wet, dropping cold water across my shoulders and chest.
"Hey, Craig. What's up?" I said cooly, scrunching the ends of my hair in the towel. He didn't respond immediately, his gaze sliding over me in a heated once-over before reaching my face. I arched a brow curiously and smirked at him. "Can I do something for you?"
He made a strangled sound and shook his head, licking his lips nervously as a deep red crept across his intricately decorated skin. "Yeah… No! Wait."
I laughed and tossed the towel away. "You're cute. What do you need, Craig?"
"Uh… We're getting ready to set up for our game in a bit, and I just wanted to know if you wanted to sit in with us. You don't have to play if it's not your thing, but we ordered pizza and it's usually a pretty good time. And we're down–"
"I'd love to. I appreciate you asking." I smiled at him warmly, genuinely. He was adorable. "Fine if I come like this?" I asked, gesturing back to my outfit.
"Yeah…" His voice was barely a whisper as he gave me another once-over before clearing his throat. "Yeah, I don't see why not. We're just hanging out."
"Perfect. I feel like we could all use it," I said.
He stepped aside so I could move past him into the hall and linked my arm with his as we walked toward the dining room. Joey was there, placing several tablets and a few miniature figurines. He looked up as we entered and dropped the little figure he was getting out of the box. I smiled at him, giving him a little wink.
I settled into a chair at the dining table and picked up one of the figurines. It was a little man dressed in dark colors and wearing a cloak with his hood pulled up. He was wielding a dagger in one hand and a crossbow in another. It looked like someone had handled it with great care when painting it.
"That's the mini for our rogue. It helps us visualize where our characters are in relation to the enemies on the battle map." Craig offered helpfully.
"It's really well done." I mused, turning the figure around. The tiny details were fascinating.
"Miles better than what we used when we started out. I think my first mini was a Jones Soda bottle cap." Joey chuckled, finishing what he was doing and setting his stuff up on my left side. Craig took the seat to my right. I felt a flutter of butterflies in my stomach.
"If you ever decide to play, we can have one made for you. Character design is one of the best parts. You can choose to be anyone in the game. It's one of the bigger draws to it, the only limit is your imagination." Craig said, grinning.
He held up the mini for what I concluded was his character. He was dressed in blues and golds, holding tools, and looked to be tinkering with some sort of steam-punk-style gadget. Again, it looked like it'd been carefully designed and painted. There were papers and gears littered across the base.
"So, how do you know what your characters can do?" I asked, genuinely curious and enjoying how they seemed to light up sharing their hobby with me. It was, frankly, absolutely adorable to watch these two heavily tattooed and objectively dangerous men talk about their characters as if they were close friends as they explained them to me.
Craig showed me his character sheet and how he used it to understand what he could do on his turns and keep track of what he had on him, his story, and his relationships. I kept flicking my gaze back to his face as he spoke.
"Could I make one? I mean… if it's not too much trouble." I said. "I have a tablet somewhere. I could find it real quick if that's okay." I met Craig's blue eyes, and he beamed at me.
"We can just use L's tablet for now, and when you find yours, I can help you transfer it over." He motioned for Joey to hand him the device that hadn't been set out.
Craig opened the tablet and showed me the parts of the character sheets that would be important for me to fill out first. It was a lot of information, but he was just beaming. After a couple minutes, he stopped and set the tablet down.
"You have no idea what I've been explaining to you, do you?" Craig asked, looking at my face, which probably resembled a deer in the headlights.
"I… No. You might as well have been speaking another language." I said sheepishly.
"Okay, let's back it up. I'll go slower so you can take it all in." I choked a little on the water I was sipping and blushed. I was sure he hadn't meant that how I took it, but suddenly I couldn't get the image out of my head.
Craig walked me through setting up my character, this time stopping to let me ask questions or work the math out myself. Joey helped some, too, and I even got a high five for some of my spell choices that seemed to please them.
The minutes ticked away, and somehow, as we huddled around the tablet, we ended up nearly sitting right on top of each other. Craig's beaming smile and warm blue eyes distracted me, at times, from what he was saying. But not once did he seem frustrated or impatient when I asked him to go over it again.
"If you decide to play, I'll help you out while you get your bearings. It won't take long, as sharp as you are." Craig said, putting his hand on my shoulder and giving me an encouraging squeeze.
Rich and Az walked into the room carrying four pizza boxes and a few two-liters of soda. Rich did a double take as he took in my appearance but played it off well, with nothing more than a raised eyebrow before he schooled his features and set down the pizza boxes on the far end of the table. Az, however, looked like he was going to blow a gasket as his scathing gaze took in my clothing and position so close to Craig.
I smiled sweetly at them. "Craig was just showing me about your game. He helped me make a character so I could join since you're down a player right now."
Az sneered as he took up his position behind the screen at the head of the table, moving things around I couldn't see before he started setting things out on the map that was laid out.
"Fine. But if you get lost, it's on you. I'm not running a one shot for noobs. Roll your initiative while I set up."
Craig picked up the twenty-sided die they'd shown me earlier and handed it to me. "That's this one, and you'll use this to add to whatever it lands on." He leaned close to show me, grinning excitedly.
"Seventeen?" I asked, looking at Craig for some confirmation.
"That's a great first roll!" He exclaimed, booping my nose gently.
I blushed and giggled, feeling that flutter of butterflies in my stomach again.
"Yeah, good roll. Now, if you're both done flirting, we have a game to get to here." Az clipped, staring daggers at us. "When we ended last time, everyone needed to make wisdom saves. Go ahead and roll them. We're right back in it."
The game drew me in quickly. I was slower to respond on my turn. As much as it seemed to irritate Az that he had to slow the combat and make time for me to find my bearings, the others were accommodating and helpful. Joey and Craig were sweet, high-fiving my successes and sharing in the disappointments of bad rolls. As time went on, Craig seemed to take every opportunity he could to brush against me or touch me somewhere.
Over time, we all found ourselves on our feet as the battle rounds raged on.
"How's Uldr looking now?" I asked Az at the top of my turn. Even he'd seemed to be pulled into the game. Our antagonistic war set aside for the moment.
"He's looking pretty fucked up, honestly. Keth's last attack did some serious damage. What're you doing, Elarra?" Az asked. It had taken a bit to get used to him referring to us by our character names, but it helped pull me into the moment.
"I…" I looked around the battle map and considered my options, looking at my spell list.
"Do something, Elarra, or I'm moving on." Az said, sighing in frustration.
I did some calculations and leaned over the table to move the miniature I borrowed for the game, counting out the squares until I was within range of Uldr.
"I'll use my last sixth level spell slot to cast inflict wounds."
"Roll it," Az said. I tossed my dice on the table, and it felt like the room was collectively holding its breath. The room erupted into cheers when it stopped with a brightly painted twenty on top.
Craig helped me gather several ten-sided dice to roll my damage and let out a low whistle as we did the math.
"Don't forget to double that."
"So that makes… one hundred and twenty-eight?" I asked.
"Holy shit!" Joey whooped.
"Elarra steps forward, eyeing the gaping wound in Uldr's hide. Chanting a dark incantation, a sickly black energy glows from her hands, tendrils wrapping up her arms as the power radiates from her. She surges forward and digs her hands into his wounds and unleashes her spell directly into his wounds. With a gurgling growl, he collapses, as his body withers and rots around her hands. Uldr the Dread is no more." Az narrates the scene dramatically as he pulls the dragon's miniature off the map.
The room erupted into cheers again. I couldn't contain my excitement, whooping with the rest of them. Craig wrapped me up in a celebratory hug and spun me, laughing. Before I could stop myself, I'd taken his face in my hands and planted a celebratory kiss on his lips. The spinning stopped, but he kissed me back eagerly.
A crashing sound behind me made me jump back, and I turned to see Az storming out of the room. The room was quiet now, and Rich turned slowly to face me. His dark brown gaze pinned me to my spot.
"You're playing with fire, Princess. If you're not careful, someone is going to get burned."