28. Vani
28
VANI
W e spend the night in the big bed in the mansion.
It wasn’t made for quite so many people—and especially not people as big as Zane—but we make it work. I know none of us wanted to be without the other. We slept like a pile of puppies, all tangled around and heaped on top of one another.
I’m the first to wake. I have class, and I need to get ready. I can’t turn up looking like this and stinking of sex. I’m glad I managed to sleep, though I think I was borderline unconscious, and the bad dreams I’d been afraid of managed to evade me.
I carefully slide out of bed, untangling myself from limbs as I go. Zane is snoring softly, and I smile to myself, thinking it’s probably the most noise I’ve heard from him.
As I stand from the bed, a hand reaches out and curls around my wrist, preventing me from going any farther.
“Hey, where do you think you’re going?”
It’s Lex, and I smile over my shoulder at him. “I need to go back to my room and get cleaned up before class starts.”
“Skip it.” He keeps his voice down so as not to wake the others. “Spend all day in bed with us instead.”
“I suspect we’re all already walking on a tightrope when it comes to not ending up in trouble with the dean,” I say, “and the last thing I need right now is for him to call my dad.” I glance down. “How’s the hand?”
He lifts it slightly and grimaces. “Sore, but I’ll take some meds shortly. Think last night was a little more action than it needed.”
I lean in and kiss him on the forehead and sweep some of his dark locks back from his face. “Exactly. Get some rest.”
He still doesn’t let go and instead gives my wrist a slight tug. “I missed you, you know. When I was on the yacht. You more than anyone.”
“Lex…” I start, my eyes misting. I don’t even know how to end my sentence.
“It made me realize how much you mean to me, and then seeing you fall off the side of the boat…” He closes his eyes briefly and shakes his head. “Fuck, Vani, if I could have fallen instead, I would have.”
“I would never have wanted that.”
He glances over at his sleeping twin. “I know Saint and I do everything together, but we still have separate hearts. Mine belongs to you, cherie . All of it. Every single fiber of my being is yours, and no one else’s.”
He locks eyes with me, as though he’s trying to communicate something by the intensity of his gaze alone.
“I love you, Vani. Independently of Saint, I love you.”
I melt. “Oh, Lex.” I cup his cheek in my hand. “I love you, too.”
It’s crazy that this is the second time in as many days I’ve told a man I love him, but I mean it.
His face cracks in a wide smile, transforming him. He’s truly a thing of beauty.
He pulls me back and kisses me hard on the mouth and brushes his nose against mine. “Say that again,” he tells me.
“I love you,” I whisper, and then giggle with happiness.
He finally releases me. “And I love you. Now, go and get ready for your class.”
“I will, but I’m stealing this.” I snatch up one of his sweatshirts and throw it on. I hunt for sweatpants and find some in the pile of clothes on the floor. I’m not sure whose they are, but they’re massive on me. I tighten the cord and tie it and roll them up. This will have to do until I get to my dorm.
My dress is wrecked after Zane tore it apart, and there’s no way I’m walking down the hallways of Verona Falls University with everything on show. Never mind the fact that it’s decidedly not a ready for classes kind of a dress. It would be very clear I was doing the walk of shame.
Lex smiles at me. “You look hot.”
I laugh at that. “Lex, I’m a mess. I’m wearing men’s clothes, my hair is a bird’s nest, and I stink of sex.”
“Exactly, and you still look like the hottest thing I’ve ever seen. When I saw you, all soft and pretty on the yacht, you were a glimpse of heaven, Vani. One I thought I’d never get to see again.”
I swallow hard at that.
“I want more nights like this,” he says.
“Me too.”
I blow him a final kiss and slip from the mansion.
It’s still early and no one else is around, thank goodness.
I’m aware of how much I must stink of sex. I might as well have a neon sign around my neck, saying “well fucked.” I smirk at that and rush a little faster down the corridor as a door opens nearby. I take the back stairs and end up walking past all the oil paintings of elderly men that line the walls in this section of the college. They stare down at me, their eyes tracking my movements, their stern lips pursed as if in dismay at what the young people do these days.
I shiver because I’ve heard rumors there are ghosts in this college and it wouldn’t surprise me at all. The place has a melancholy and spooky feel to it on the brightest of days.
I reach the corridor housing my dorm with a grateful sigh of relief.
Back in my room, I shower and change. I’m definitely feeling more like my old self after a great night’s sleep. Even after what happened yesterday, having the love and adoration and sexual fulfilment of those three men makes me feel like I’m twice my height.
An hour later, I make my way to class. I’m sure I’m grinning like an idiot, nodding and smiling at everyone I pass. I’m probably walking a little strangely as well, after last night. I’m sore in the best possible way, and every time I remember everything we did, my body heats up all over again.
Then one person in particular catches my eye.
We both stop dead.
Any good feelings I might have had drain from me instantly.
Angelica pauses and tucks her shiny brown hair behind one ear, then folds her arms across her chest. I swear she taps her fucking foot at me, as though she’s impatient for me to react.
I feel as though someone just injected pure adrenaline into my veins. My jaw clamps shut, my teeth clenching uncomfortably. My muscles are so tense it’s as though I’m vibrating all over.
Is this the person who was responsible for my sister’s death? I want to scream the question at her, but my body has gone into freeze mode. Trust me to be a fawn, instead of a fight or flight girl.
She cocks her head and gives me a strange smile. “Did Saint tell you what happened?”
Jesus Christ, is she actually going to confess, right here in the middle of the hallway?
Finally, I manage to get my tongue to work. “He told me a part of it.”
“Babe, you have to know it had nothing to do with you. It wasn’t personal. I feel awful, but it was bound to happen sooner or later.”
A feeling of unease ripples through me; her words aren’t what I was expecting.
She laughs, and her cheeks color. “It was fate. People like me and Saint are made for one another. You can tell just by looking at us. We have a certain…affinity…that people like you just don’t get. Our souls are the same, you know? You’re far too … mundane to hold a man like him. Saint’s a prince, and he needs a woman who can be his queen.”
My head spins. What the fuck is she talking about?
“You and Saint?” The words tumble off my tongue without me really processing them. It’s not until they’re out of my mouth and into the air that it dawns on me what she’s trying to tell me.
“I mean, I understand what you see in him. He’s insanely hot, and phew,” she flaps her face with her hand, “that man knows how to kiss. But long term, you can’t have them all , Vani.” Her face twists into something ugly. “That’s just slutty, and Saint needs someone just for him, someone who is right for him . You’ve made a mockery of him, but I’ll build him up. Surely, you have to see that it’s better for all of us if he’s with me.”
She’s saying Saint kissed her?
I shake my head and make my frozen features move. I paint on a nonchalant expression. “Saint wouldn’t fuck you with somebody else’s dick, Angelica.”
My heart is pounding, even as I use all my power to create a hard shell that this bitch can’t penetrate, the way I’ve had to do so many times in my life. Maybe he did kiss her… Hell, we haven’t talked, have we? We should have. Way before I let him anywhere near me.
The thought of all we did last night, of letting him degrade me, again , when he might have been messing around with Angelica makes me sick. Why the fuck didn’t I talk to Saint about what happened while Zane and I were gone? I knew there was something. The way Saint hadn’t answered his phone and then seemed to avoid any questions. Deep down, I’d known something happened, but I hadn’t wanted to know, had I? I hadn’t wanted to hear the truth out loud. Instead, I’d just blindly believed Saint had learned the truth about Angelica without ever questioning how he'd come across that information.
She gives an unladylike snort. “Oh, he touched me all right, and he loved it.”
“He wouldn’t,” I say robotically. I can’t make my mind come up with anything wittier right now.
She narrows her eyes. “So, it’s okay for you to fuck around with his friends, but he’s not allowed to fuck around with yours.” Her face twists into something truly vicious. “You can stuff yourself full of all them, but he wets his dick with someone else and you’re upset? What a hypocrite you are. No wonder he’s sick of it.”
“You…you fucked him?” Now, my entire game face is gone. I know it, but I can’t process this. It’s like someone just winded me.
“I mean, we were both a little drunk. I’d say it’s more like he fucked me than the other way around.”
To my disbelief, she giggles.
“I mean,” she continues, “a woman knows when she’s been fucked, right? That lovely dull ache, the… umm… mess. We probably should have used protection.”
Her words remind me of how sore I am, and the amount of cum leaking out of me this morning. It’s like she just stabbed me in the heart.
Still, I see a flicker of something in her eyes. What is that? Doubt?
“That’s not what Saint says,” I blurt, heat rushing to my face. “He says you’re the one responsible for Reagan dying.”
She jerks back, and I see something in her eyes, a sharp coldness. Then she recovers herself quickly and laughs again. “He was clearly just trying to cover his tracks.”
My jaw drops open. “By saying you killed my sister? You can’t be fucking serious.” I remember something. “Besides, you were the one who kept saying the Vipers were the ones responsible. That’s a quick change of heart—going from warning me off because you thought they’d killed a girl to sleeping with Saint.”
She shrugs. “Maybe I was just trying to make sure you didn’t get close to them, but for my own benefit. You and your big, stupid doe eyes, Vani, and your trusting heart, and your stupid, ugly body. You remind me of a dumb cow. I have no idea why Saint would say that about me. I expect he’s just messing with you, or maybe he thinks if you hate us both, it’ll be easier on you. He thinks you’re fat, too.” Her face twists into faux pity. “He told me he likes your tits, but the rest is gross.”
“I do hate you, Angelica, because you’re a soulless piece of shit,” I throw back. “What kind of warped, twisted games are you playing? You’re an empty vessel. And as for Saint, he is too. He’s a psycho who can’t really feel anything. So, you fucking deserve each other.”
“See,” she says lightly, “it worked.”
I see red. With my fists clenched by my sides, I storm up to her. She rears back, as though she’s never had to deal with someone getting up in her face before, and I draw back my fist and let it fly.
My knuckles connect with her pretty jawline, and she staggers back, clutching her face. White hot pain races up my arm from my fist, but I like it. The sharpness of it takes away from the pain in my heart.
“Oh, my God. You fucking psycho!” she cries.
“And you’re a fucking bitch.”
I want to hit her again and again, but my knuckles are already swelling.
And I have something more important to do than beating up Angelica.
I need to talk to Saint.