Page 151 of Wicked Little Darling

He pursed his lips. “I thought you didn’t remember last night. And, also,that’swhat you remember? Nothing else?” He looked mildly annoyed, not like someone whose deepest, darkest secret had been uncovered.

“Yeah, well, I can’t control what my brain chooses to remember,” I grumbled.

“Well, I didn’t. Break someone’s arm, I mean.”

I waited for him to elaborate, but he just kept brushing his thumb back and forth across my birthmark.

“Okay…” I said slowly. “Then why did they say that?”

“Oh, you mean the person you attacked? The person whose ear you tried to bite off? Why would they accuse me of breaking someone’s arm?”

I wanted to bite that amused little smile right off his face. “You’re making that up.”

“Nope. You jumped on his back like a tiny demon and tried to bite his ear off. Which, by the way, I’m also not happy about. You’re only allowed to bitemyears. Not off, that doesn’t sound like fun, just normal biting. You don’t need to apply much force with those sharp little teeth of yours.”

I knew he wasn’t lying—and not just because Dakota didn’t lie, but because I was a horrible person that resorted to violence rather than using words.

So he was just making my case as to why I was no good. For him, for the world. In general.

“So…I attacked this guy because he accused you of breaking someone’s arm?”

“No, you attacked him because he shoved me.”

Anger barreled through me. Someone had shoved him? What else had they done? Was that it or had something else happened?

I searched his face, his neck, every bit of him I could see for any sign that he’d been hurt. “Who was it? Are you okay? What else did he do, tell me what happened.” I’d fucking go find him again and finish the job. An ear wasn’t enough for touching Dakota like that.

“Oh, so when I get hurt, you’re willing to burn the world down, but you have zero care when it comes to putting yourself in danger?”

He’d raised his voice a little, and the intense seriousness in his expression made my cock twitch.

“How did I put myself in danger?” I argued, blood pumping hard through my veins.

He raised his brows. “The fact that you even need to ask is a huge problem, darling. Let me count the ways.” He sat up until he was just straddling me, resting his ass on my stomach but keeping most of his weight off me. He started counting on his fingers while looking down at me with a reproachful expression. “One, you destroyed this room, cut your hair, threw shit around, got razors out that youshouldn’t even have,” he said. “I got rid of them, by the way. You told me you’d let me help you, and I’m fucking helping you. Two,” he continued. “You went out to some frat party where you don’t know a single person and drank until you were piss drunk, took your fucking shirt off, and you were about to take your goddamn pants off, too.”

Thatseemed to have really ticked him off. His mouth was turned down in a frown.

“Three, you jumped on the back of a guy who’s twice your size and built like a beef brickhouse and tried to bite his ear off. Four, you lost your shoes. So now you’re down to one pair. Five?—”

I covered my face with my hands. “How is there more.”

“Five, you tried to eat my face on the walk back?—”

I moved my hands away and glared up at him. “What.”

“Yeah, you?—”

“How is that putting myself in danger?” I pushed up onto my hands, reached up and fisted his shirt, pulling him down to me. “How about you, Dakota?One, you followed me to a fucking frat party where some asshole shoved you. Who was it?”

“He did more than shove me,” he said.

“Excuse me?” There was a potent fury swelling in my chest; I wanted to find this person and hurt them.

“He punched me, too. That was number six. Because it wasyouhe was aiming for.”

The fury tangled with nausea and guilt, and god I hated myself for going out at all last night. For being such an impulsive asshole.

“Who was it,” I asked softly. I tried to sit up more, but he had me pinned.