Page 27 of Reaper and Ruin

But she seemed perfectly well, her oversized purse tucked beneath her arm, a “Clean Sweep Cleaning Services” shirt tight across her tits, identical to the one Nyah wore.

Nyah wrapped herself around Dax, and he lifted her into his arms, kissing her like there wasn’t a roomful of his employees, plus Violet, all watching.

Roarke and King both groaned and made jokes about getting a room, but Violet took the opportunity to wander over to me.

“Hey, you.”

I grinned down at her. “Just so you know, if it wasn’t my first day and if I wasn’t trying to pretend I was all professional and making a good impression, I’d be kissing you like that right now too.”

She grinned up at me and winked. “Just something to look forward to later then.”

I swallowed down a groan at the very thought. A night with Whip hadn’t changed my feelings for her one iota. And some part of me knew that when I’d suggested Violet didn’t have to choose between me and him, I’d also meant that I didn’t haveto choose between the two of them. It would have been her. I’d been in love with her since her fifth letter. She’d been the only bright star I saw in a place that was full of darkness and misery.

But there was something between me and Whip too. Something that had felt fucking right. Something that had felt good only because of how he felt about her too.

“I need you tonight,” I whispered to her. Being apart for over twenty-four hours, after the things we’d experienced up on the bluff, had been too long.

She pushed up on her toes, so her mouth was close to my ear. “So you can tattoo my pussy?”

I groaned.

She leaned back and grinned at me. “That’s twice I’ve asked now, days apart. You said I had to ask three times, and you’d do it.”

“Keep looking at me like that and I might change my mind, get you naked, spread your legs, and do it right now while I’ve got all the equipment at hand.”

Desire lit up her expression. “I’d like that. But just so you know, Nyah—”

“Levi!” she interrupted, like she’d heard Violet mention her name. “Dinner tonight. You, Violet, me, and Dax. Capiche?”

I blinked and glanced at Violet. She nodded.

“Uh, capiche,” I called back.

Nyah clapped her hands. “Excellent! It’s a double date!”

Violet stared up at me. “Are you sure? We don’t have to if you don’t want to.”

There were a million other things we should have been doing. Trying to track down the psychopaths who’d nearly killed Violet and X being top of the list. But I didn’t think I’d ever been on a date. Pre-prison, the idea of them had always seemed kind of stupid and a waste of time. I hadn’t ever been interested in anyone enough to want to put on clothes, take them out, andactually have a conversation. I might have done it a couple of times pre-club days, but the aim had always been just getting them home and getting them naked. Then I’d joined the club where there had never been a shortage of club bunnies willing to bounce naked on my cock for as long as I could keep it hard.

But I’d had a year of getting to know Violet without any opportunity to see her in person, and it had been the biggest blessing of my life. As much as I loved seeing her naked, I loved finding out every little detail about her more. I already knew a lot, but I had no idea what dating her in person felt like. I had no real idea what doing anything normal with her felt like. But I wanted to know. I wanted to go grocery shopping with her, to cook meals together, to do the world’s most boring shit like paying bills and filing taxes. Fuck, I’d actually have to do that now that I had an honest-to-God, legitimate job.

Mostly, I wanted her to forget that we were in the middle of a shitstorm. That had been her life for so long now, I needed her to know there could be good, even when everything felt like it was falling apart.

I brushed a lock of hair out of her face. “I can’t wait.”

10

VIOLET

Igot ready for our double date in Nyah’s run-down little house, not all that far from my apartment in the shittiest part of Saint View. It was an odd space that didn’t really feel like it fit her vibrant personality. It took me thirty minutes of trying on outfits and another fifteen of debating makeup colors with her for me to put my finger on what felt wrong.

There was nothing personal to be seen. Other than her clothes, that overspilled a rickety-looking chest of drawers, and her purse she’d slung over one of the mismatched kitchen chairs, there was nothing of her in the space. It might as well have been a hotel room. There were no knickknacks collected on the flat surfaces from travels or shopping trips. There were no family photos on the walls, no favorite pieces of art, no calendar reminding her of family birthdays.

She was new to town, so it stood to reason she hadn’t decorated, but it also gave me the vibe that the life she’d left, she didn’t want to remember.

Knowing your father was going to use you as a pawn to further his underworld business dealings or marry you off to the highest bidder would do that to you, I guessed.

I understood. I’d been lucky enough to walk away from my past. At least I had, until Travis had shown up again like a bad smell no one wanted hanging around.