18. Sable
SABLE
A sausage dangles between my lips when the dark-haired, green-eyed man from yesterday shows up behind Orion. “Sable, a good girl?” he asks. “I think last night would prove that wrong.”
I swallow my sausage and fix him with a glare. The memory of him shoving me to my knees and using my mouth heats every inch of my body. Was he one of the guys from last night, or have I actually fucked three people in less than twenty-four hours?
“Good thing I don’t care about either of your opinions.” I smile like nothing he does can bother me.
“Well, I care about yours.” His pitch rises mockingly. “Did you enjoy your first night at Bellthorn, sweetheart?”
That tone convinces me he was one of the men fucking me last night.
Lex is his name, because I already know I’m sitting with Orion.
Even that little bit of power comforts me.
Conversely, he’s even more handsome than I remembered.
That doesn’t help things. Is that because I was nervous yesterday or because I know how he can make me feel today?
Both of them, next to each other, give me all-new visions of last night, and fuck, I like it.
“ Lex ,” I answer, letting my tongue wrap around the L in his name. “It was…” I pretend to struggle for the right word while making a mildly disgusted expression. “Fine?”
“Fine?” he asks, straight-faced.
“I’ve had worse, if that helps.” I use the same tone he did when he claimed to care about me. He doesn’t need to know that every other time was worse.
His face drops as I knock his sexual prowess and his ego into the dirt. Men are easy to pick on. Even if we both know I’m full of shit, he’ll be worrying about it.
“Did Orion tell you my name?” he asks. I’m surprised this is what he’s focused on. Lex shoots Orion a glare that promises violence.
“Was I not supposed to know?” I ask, but he doesn’t answer, continuing to glare like he might start a fight here. The intensity turns me on, just like their miserable presence, and I can’t help myself. “Are my two boyfriends going to kiss?” I taunt.
“We’re not your boyfriends,” Orion says, but Lex laughs.
“So are you each other’s boyfriend and you just brought me in for some pussy then?”
“We’re not fucking boyfriends,” Orion says again, but mischief lights Lex’s green eyes.
“Of course not, dear.” I reach forward and pat the back of his hand. The tension builds rather than dissipates. I roll my eyes as I let them off the hook. “Orion said your name last night, Lex. No need to fight when you were standing right there and just too distracted to notice.”
“You're tighter than I expected. Guess I missed it.” Lex cocks his head to the side. His taunting smile is different from Orion’s, his green eyes gleam crazier than the hazel.
The insult doesn’t have a chance to sting before I nod. “So you do have the smaller dick. That makes sense.”
Orion hoots a laugh beside me, and I get the supreme satisfaction of watching Lex’s cheeks color ever so slightly before they flatten back out.
Lex leans toward me, and his hand shoots out, wrapping around my neck.
Nerves slide up and down my spine, and the room around me goes quiet as people watch.
If we were alone, I might not be intimidated, but with everyone staring?
Maintaining this bitchy exterior is the only way I can survive.
My jaw tenses, but I manage to hold back anything that makes me look weak. Lex watches me carefully, his eyes shining until he presses his lips to my hairline. “Don’t make me count, Sable.” Then the shell beneath my ear. “We both know who will wind up getting their way if I do.”
Embarrassment swells in my gut, but instead of letting him know that, I say with the driest tone I can muster, “Oh no! Not more orgasms. I’m devastated.”
My voice is low. I’m not brave enough to say it loudly, but he hears me fine.
Lex pulls back from me, realizing we’re not playing the game he thought we were.
I’m not crying, begging, or folding. As soon as they understand that, we can stop the games.
Lex stares me down, green on blue, and if he thinks I’m going to blink first, he has another thing coming.
“Back off, Lex. Sable is mine today,” Orion’s growl is more territorial than I expected. He pushes Lex out of the way and grabs my hand again, seeming to like touching me.
Why the hell do my stupid heart and pussy both react?
“Oh no, boyfriends, don’t fight!”
“I’ll deal with you later.” Lex gives me one last sharp look as he walks off and leaves the cafeteria.
“Ooh, I’m scare…” I glance up, my words dying in my throat as I find a new set of eyes on me.
My supposed best friend of the last ten years, Liliana Davenport.
Liliana hasn’t said a word to me since the accident, not even when I reached out to her that first week I was entirely alone.
Her eyes are a duller blue than mine. Her soft brown hair frames her face, and she looks especially pretty in this weird Victorian fashion.
She looks at me for only a second before turning away.
That moment rips my heart out all over again, just like the first time I realized she wasn’t going to answer.
It’s not like I didn’t know where things stood with her when she suddenly cut me off.
But sometimes you have little fantasies where something happened to cause the distance.
Her turning her back on me without a word is the death of a hope I hadn’t realized I held on to, and it takes everything in me not to cry as she walks away.
Fingers snap in front of my face, the sudden sound making me jump. Orion stares at me so irritated that he’s red in the face. “What the hell?” he demands. “Why aren’t you listening to me?”
“Oh, I’m sorry, what were you saying?” This is the first time I’ve actually spoken to him without an attitude, but it doesn’t help my situation.
“Oh no, Sable. I won’t be repeating myself. If you don’t want to listen, that's perfectly fine. You just won’t have any warning.”
“I’m sorry,” I repeat, worried that I’ve really offended him when he’s in control of my entire day, but he doesn’t answer me.
We eat the rest of our breakfast in silence, and I worry about whatever Orion has planned for me today.
I’m just a girl who doesn’t have friends, family, or anyone in her corner, and maybe I’m damn tired of that.
Everything feels like too much, and I want to cry, but neither Orion nor Liliana deserves that satisfaction.
So I hold it all in, and like a wound, it festers.
Instead of a bandage, I treat it with carbs.
When Orion’s finished, he stands and stares at me by way of telling me it’s time to go. I finish the last few bites of my food at my own pace, and while he taps his foot at my side, he doesn’t say anything. A minute later, I stand too.
“Dump our trays,” he says, handing his own to me, before turning and heading toward the door.
I grumble to myself as I dump the trash and stack the trays, but he’s already leaving.
Shit, I realize he has no intention of waiting for me, just like I didn’t hurry up for him, so I’m either going to catch him or be so lost I can’t make it back to my room.
Everyone stares as I chase him, splitting the distance between us in a few humiliating bursts. At least we’re in the hall now, and there are far fewer eyes on me. I catch up to him, his cologne floating around me. Orion walks even faster, and I barely manage to keep up.
“Fucking asshole,” I mutter under my breath.
He turns to me, eyes glinting and hair messily spread across his forehead. “Did you say something, Sable?” The challenge in his voice says he heard me, but I don’t feel like challenging him here.
“No,” I lie.
“Didn’t think so.”
Fucking asshole.