“I don’t care,” I say. “I didn’t sign or agree to that contract. If you want to take someone, take Lennox. He’s the one who made that deal with you.”
“But you’re so much more fun,” he says, his hand moving from the gear shift to my knee. “Besides, he’s my brother. I can’t fuck him later.”
“You can’t fuck me later.” My stomach drops out as we hit the smallest dip, and I fight back the urge to scream. Is he going to drive us off a bridge? If he can’t have me, then no one can?
“Oh, but I’ve been in jail for the past year,” he says, his voice taunting. “You know how many nights I’ve gone without while he had you?”
“We didn’t even do anything!”
“If my brother didn’t fuck you to within an inch of your life every day for the past year, he doesn’t deserve you,” he says, letting off the gas at last.
“You weren’t in jail for a year,” I say, too shaken by his driving to even dignify that comment with a response. “You’ve been out for months. I’m sure Scarlet’s been all too happy to impress you with her superior skill and experience.”
“Scarlet’s…” He glances at me and then shakes his head, pulling to a stop at a red light beside a mailbox on the corner. The streets are deserted, the only glow coming from the security lights inside the barred windows of a pawn shop and a few streetlights.
“What?” I ask, turning to Maddox. “You sure were impressed with her last year. She knew how to work your dick like a pro while being magically tight, or whatever shit you said to me that day in the parking lot after school.”
“She is tight,” he admits with a grin. “One time she stripped the condom right off me with her cunt.”
“Take. Me. Home.” I grit out the words, glaring at him.
When I reach for the door, he shifts roughly and shoots through the light, even though it hasn’t turned.
“Not a chance, little girl,” he says, squeezing my knee. “I’m not done with you.”
“You already took my virginity,” I point out. “You took something Lennox can never have, something I can never get back. You won. So just bring me home, and go fuck your girlfriend and her magical pussy.”
“Are you jealous right now?” he teases.
“No,” I say slowly, glaring at him. “I’m pissed.”
“You’re jealous,” he says. “I can tell by the cute way you jut your little chin.”
“Fuck you, Maddox,” I say. “Or better yet, go fuck your girlfriend.”
“Look, Scarlet’s fine,” he says, raking a hand through his hair, cut shorter now than when I saw him last. “I thought she just wanted to bounce on a gangster dick to piss off her daddy, but she’s actually more complicated than that. She stuck by me when I was away, you know? That’s not nothing.”
“So I heard.”
“But there’s one little problem with her.”
“What? I mean, besides the obvious fact that she’s a soulless demon and isn’t house trained, so she might take a dump on your clothes when she’s pissed at you.”
“Ella no es tu.”
I drop my head back on the seat, fighting the urge to scream. “If you’re so pissed that I ended up with Lennox, maybe you should think about whatyoudid to make that happen.”
“So you’re only marrying him to piss me off?” he asks, swerving into the small, empty parking lot in front of a tiny, darkened tattoo shop. He turns to me, his dark gaze boring into mine. “To get back at me for fucking Scarlet?”
I cross my arms and glare at him. “I told you how I felt. You didn’t want me.”
“I didn’t want to fuck up my family,” he corrects. He shuts off the engine and stares out the windshield. “Clearly a poor choice, considering where we are now.”
“I guess that’s the difference between you and Lennox,” I say. “You chose your family. They came first for you. That’s honorable, and I can respect that. But Lennox chose me. I came first for him. Maybe that’s not worthy of respect in your eyes. But it’s worthy of love in mine.”
“You love him because he tore apart our family for you?”
“No,” I say, drawing back. “Of course not. I never wanted him to do that. I adore your mom. She loves y’all so much, and worked so hard to support you, and took me in when I had no place to go. I would never want to hurt her, and neither would Lennox. But he risked everything for me when you wouldn’t. He lost everything, and he could have blamed me, but he didn’t. He still loves me. And if you hurt him for that…”