CHAPTER FOUR
RAZOR
Roughing the towel through my wet hair, I reach around the broken doors and toss my dirty clothes into the hamper in the corner of our closet.
“Did Ora ever come in?” Xene asks nonchalantly, fully horizontal in his bed and chucking a basketball toward the ceiling.
The rubber thuds against his hands and he twists the ball around, sneaking a glance out of the corner of his eye at me.
I click my tongue, directing a lazy finger to the open door. “Why don’t you go check?”
On cue, Bunny and Ora’s bedroom door squeaks open. Before I’m able to get the words out to ask her about Ora, Bunny’s skittering around the doorframe and closing herself in the bathroom.
It makes me laugh silently, drying the back of my head and chucking the towel into the hamper.
I can still feel her soft skin on my palm, see the sensation flare through her eyes like I was turning the light on for something she hides in the dark.
She likes the way it feels to be touched by me.
If I could just get her to stay and not take off in fear, I could let her explore my hands some more, have an actual chance at connecting with her.
The knob for the shower faucet squeals, and I start to fight it. I try. I wait a few moments with twitching hands. But the hissing water compels me and puts my body in motion.
“Like a dog that’s clicker trained,” Xene laughs.
“Shut up,” I huff.
Slipping through the door, I stop outside the bathroom. The wood talks to me. It coerces me to turn my ear to it when she’s on the other side.
My hands latch onto either side of the doorframe, supporting my visceral need to hear through the water that sounds like a rabid cat hissing with its last breath.
“What are you doing?”
Bunny’s gentle voice coming from behind me lurches my heart straight through my sternum.
Motherfu…
Calmly, my hands fall, turning to face her big eyes. “Did you or did you not just go in there?”
She blinks rapidly, shooting a thumb to her bedroom. “I, uh… I forgot my pajamas.”
Catching her eyes slip down my bare abdomen cuts my mouth into a smirk. And as she flings her hand to her mouth to nervously chew on her nails… I realize something.
“Must’ve forgotten them again.” I flick up from her empty hands, indulging in the instant panic widening her eyes. “So, who’s in there?”
“Me,” she murmurs stiffly.
“Oh!” my brows shoot up, and I point over my shoulder. “You’re in there? In the shower? Right now? Am I only seeing you because I want to? Am I going fucking crazy?”
Her shoulders tense up. “I was…”
Every muscle in my face hardens. “You bein’ sneaky around a predator, little bunny?”
The visible bones in her chest pulse with a deep breath. “No...”
I step closer, angling myself down enough to smell the candied perfume wafting warmly off the side of her neck. “What’s in your pockets?”
Her throat dips, the rush of nerves burning her cheeks a vibrant pink. “Nothing.”
She’s fucking lying.
That’s normal. She’s a fucking liar to give everyone a false peace of mind. But it’s ticking my jaw and forcing my arm back.
My hand locks around the doorknob and I twist, giving the door a shove. “Show me.”
An unseen temptation relaxes her eyes. She tosses her hand up in the gap between us, planting her palm to the center of my stomach.
My head carousels in a frenzy, registering how wicked it feels to have her pushing into me.
I don’t care that she’s shoving me through the door. She’s got devour in her eyes while doing it.
It’s threading something tight through my veins, like my little paradox is giving me a preview of the wild fantasies that spear through her, the thoughts that make her fingertips drift between her thighs.
I backpedal, walking into the loud hiss with my eyes wired to hers. She swings her other hand back to close us in the bathroom together, and the tempo of my heart starts slipping up my throat.
“Why have you been listening to me shower, Razor?” she asks anxiously, the high of being brave adding extra gloss to her eyes.
Okay, well, she obviously fucking knows now. And I see how it could come off creepy as hell.
With our eyes fused, I step between her bare feet and run my fingers up her denim pocket. She shifts and tenses up, but I’m not dumb enough to miss her hand trying to protect the other pocket I’m not rubbing on.
“That’s why,” I hum, raising my free hand and drawing out the flat metal I fucking knew would be in there.
She shakes her head, trying to flick my fingers away, but I grab the little, bony thing and force her arm out, swiftly veering my attention down to any tracks I might find. “Where? Where the fuck are you doing it, Bunny?”
Using all her might, she attempts to tug her arm back, so I lock my hand around her wrist extra tight and snatch up her other arm.
The whimper coming out of her snaps my eyes up to the tears loading in her waterlines, but my fucking heart is racking through my chest and I’m becoming too irate to pacify her. “Pull your pants down or I’ll do it for you.”
Her brows furrow and her upper lip quivers. “Please don’t worry about it. It’s not what you think.”
“Then what-” my teeth bare, slipping closer to her panic “-is it?”
Tears drip in tandem down her cheeks. “It takes me away.”
I inhale heavily, releasing her wrists and tugging my sweatpants down on my hip.
“I know what bleeding externally does for internalized wounds.” Letting her see the bulbous scars from my own fleeting escapes, my face softens, and the racing drill of destruction slows down enough for me to think rationally.
She reaches out, and right as I hold my breath, thinking she’s gonna touch me, she retracts her hand and looks up at me through the oceans in her eyes.
“It’s not healthy, little bunny. You’re gonna eventually want more, you’ll crave it in a different spot, and if you go too fucking deep—you’re dead.”
She shakes her head again, hooking her thumbs behind the button of her jeans. “You don’t understand.”
My eyes slightly widen, and my throat numbs, watching her pry the button free and release the zipper. “Maybe not. But I’m willing to listen.”
Her hands tremble, prying the denim back. “This is embarrassing.”
“Don’t be embarrassed. Talk to me.”
She takes in a shaky breath, hesitantly slipping her fingers behind her white, lacy cotton.
My knees are jolting to meet the ground, to fall to her feet for close view of her tugging her infuriating panties down for me.
Revealing the mass of steady, smooth scars and the lines of regeneration along the entire curve of her hip, where her clothes always cover, she swallows roughly and avoids my eyes.
“I like the way pain trickles through pleasure. It makes the high last longer. And when I’m done…
when I dry off and change… it gives me a reminder of how good I felt. ”
You disturbed, little thing.
My pulse thickens, flickering beneath my skin like flashing lights. “You do it when you touch yourself?”
She hides her face in her palms and nods.
Listen, I know it’s fucked that she does it at all. But this is different. And I’m demented. I know it. I’m grasping at needles to not spin her around, back her up into the shower, and force her to show me exactly what she does when she locks that door.
Shoving two of my fingers down into her pocket and ripping it open, her hips jut forward and she whips her hands away from her face, shooting a look of horror up at me.
“No more. Not unless I’m watching you.”
“What?” she hisses.
Carefully slipping my hand into her pocket, I get my fingers around the razor blade and pull it out. “If that ruins your plans tonight, I’d like you to know that I’m not busy.”
“Razor,” she whines, her brows flattening with her frown. “Please don’t make this a huge thing. And do not let it leave this bathroom. This is already humiliating.”
Getting the blade between two fingers, the silver glistens under the dim lamp with the taunting rotation of my wrist. “Water’s gettin’ cold, Bunny.”
“It was already cold when I turned it on,” she mumbles, sharpening her eyes at me.
It’s precious. I’ve never seen her round eyes escape innocence. But I’m pissing her off—and it’s glorious.
I smile, inching the sharp edge underneath her jaw. “That wouldn’t be an issue if you’d get in with me.”
She snarls politely, stiffening her neck as I pass the blade over her delicate skin. “You’re gross.”
“I’m sick,” I exhale, rushing closer to her pouty mouth. “And so are you.”
Her eyes barb, but to contradict the attitude I’m bringing to the surface, she slightly tilts her head, giving me access to run the blade down her neck. “You didn’t really answer my question.”
“Oh?” my brows raise, inching closer to her sweet breath.
“Yeah. I asked you why you were listening,” she whispers.
The airiness of her voice slips through my inhale, getting so close I can feel the aura of her lips tingling along mine like a corrupt tease. “I told you, Bunny. I knew you were cutting yourself.”
“Why do you care?” she finishes with a gasp, going stiff beneath the blade sweeping over her carotid artery.
Fuck, it has me smiling again. Right in her face.
I’ll be nice and play fair. For now.
Tucking the blade against my palm, I curve my index finger and brush my knuckle down her fast pulse. “You are an integral part of the house. We can’t lose you.”
I can’t lose you.
Her eyes relax, returning to the sparkling innocence that weakens every muscle in my body.
“Horny, horny, horny!” The bathroom door busts open and my spine snaps straight, my fingers instinctively hooking around Bunny’s hips with the blade tucked against my palm. “I’m calliiinnn!” Ora sings with a paralyzed tongue, stumbling into the bathroom with a lazy smile.
Bunny twists around in my grip, and I’m aware that Ora is highly inebriated, most likely walked home alone in the dark like this, but Bunny’s ass is pressed right against my dick and it’s making it impossible to focus.
Ora hiccups, her eyes stretching wide with a gasp. “Oh, fuck! You guys are-”
My brows plunge, trying to hear any sort of fucking English stammering out of her mouth. But it just sounds like a VHS someone beat the shit out of trying to rewind the tape, and they popped it back in and guess fucking what? They summoned a poltergeist.
“Ora… I don’t know what you just said.” Bunny wipes her forehead, distressed with the heavy scent of liquor emanating from Ora’s gibberish.
Ora sways a step closer, bracing a hand to the peeling floral wallpaper. “Do you think Xene wants to-”
“Yes!” Xene hollers raspily over her, the springs of his bed screaming and the floor immediately rumbling.
In no time, Xene is scampering to a stop behind her and yanking her away by her neck. She giggles and wiggles her fingers at us, disappearing down the hall—into my room.
I need my own room.
Or… I could swap places with Ora. Since she and Xene disturb my damn sleep every night. Then, I really wouldn’t get any sleep.
Bunny looks back at me, the dark hair framing her face bending around the contour of her cheekbone. “My shower’s definitely cold now.”
I smirk, and that’s all she needs before she’s sighing exasperatedly and spinning around in my hands to face me.
“Bunny, I can keep you warm, baby.”
“Oh, my God, no,” she laughs, flattening a hand to my abdomen and pushing away.
Yeah… She wants me.
Smiling at her, I rotate around to hunt her slipping past me and set the blade between my teeth.
“Okay,” she hums timidly, turning her back to the shower curtain. “It’s, uh… You can…”
I could keep going. She’s a lot of fun to play with. But I shoot her a wink and leave her be.
My heart drums a little harder, closing the door with the image of her hiking a leg up and playing with her pussy. I start to fucking brace my hand to twist it back open, but the pop of the lock engaging vibrates my palm and shuts down my idea of taking what I want.
Her. I want her. So fucking badly.
I reach up and remove the blade from my teeth, oscillating my head between her bedroom and Cash eating chips and dip next to Aries smoking a cig in the living room.
The wood paneling already makes everything dark, but every single woman in this place acts like a vampire in the sun when someone flips a main light on. So, we cater to their wishes and move through dim bulbs that sizzle in old lamps.
They’re probably gonna explode. They sound like tasers ready to fuck someone up.
Growing more curious the longer I look at Bunny’s room, the shitty air circulating through the trailer sweeps under my feet and carries me through her open door.
Need to make sure she doesn’t have any more of these lying around.