Page 26 of Wicked Little Darling

The way he ignored me only made me want to try harder to get his attention. I hadn’t wanted to get anyone’s attention in years, had fully given up on my family—except for Val—and didn’t really care about anyone else.

But Reese was pretty and vicious and…well, I’d never thought of another guy as pretty before, but that didn’t really matter, did it?

There was one image I couldn’t get out of my mind—when he’d grabbed for my knife and I’d pinned him to the ground.

Seeing him laid out beneath me like that, looking so pissed off…it had turned me on. I’d gotten so hard so quickly while straddling him—this literal stranger beneath me—that I’d jumped up and walked away to go cool down in a confused state becausefuck.

I’d liked it way too much and I didn’t know why.

I’d never really liked anyone before. I mean, sure, there were a few girls here and there that I thought were kind of cute, but getting stuck in a psych ward at fifteen with the whole world watching kind of put a damper on your reputation and didn’t really scream “boyfriend material”.

A lot of it was because I had zero expectations when it came to sex and other people. Nobody wanted to be around me, which was fine, but that also meant there was no one who wanted to partake in those kinds of activities with me.

So yeah. The best part of all of this was that Reese didn’t know who I was. He didn’t know my fucked-up past, hadn’t heard the rumors or read the articles.

Well, maybe by now he had, but that first day, he was definitely in the dark.

I’d never met someone who hadn’t already heard of me or knew who I was just by seeing the scar on my face. I’d been constantly surrounded by people who knew me by name or appearance, which made it difficult—and not fun—to navigate social waters since no one wanted to associate with the supposedly crazy, violent weirdo.

But even before that day, when I was just the Voss violinist, a child prodigy they’d adopted out of the goodness of their hearts,a true rags-to-riches fairytale that anyone would envy—even before then, people only wanted to have me play at their venues, to get a taste of the fame that had come with my talent.

That was a huge part of why I’d stopped playing. Why I’d walked off stage that day and never returned.

Why I’d let Everett get away with all his lies—not that anyone was going to believe me anyway, but I didn’t try very hard to convince people otherwise. It would be a waste of my energy when Albert would never believe me over his own flesh and blood. He never had and he never would.

And then some guy with a razor-sharp tongue who had no idea about my reputation had practically fallen in my lap.

Or I’d fallen in his.

It was a mutual falling-in-laps situation. Laps had touched, that was all that mattered.

I wanted to get under his skin as much as he’d managed to get under mine, but he kept ignoring me and running away from me, damn it.

Was it the scar? Or just me? Probably both.

What would it take to get him to pay attention to me? Maybe I should tell him I played the violin, too. Maybe that would pique his interest enough and he’d lower his defenses and talk to me about music.

Yeah, that would probably be a good start. Obviously we had a mutual interest in music, and if he knew we both played the same instrument, maybe that would soften him to me.

Did I want him to soften to me, though? I kind of liked how fierce he was. When he growled and glared at me, it made my blood pump fast and my heart beat hard.

I was halfway to the cafeteria when I spotted Everett and his fencing posse. The asshole had his dark hair gelled back like the douche he was, smiling at some girl he was talking with. She twirled her hair around her finger as he smiled down at her.

He was probably thinking about the best way to kill her and hide the body.

He was awful. Evil. Charming and witty and entirely lacking in any kind of empathy with sadistic, manipulative tendencies.

He was the reason I couldn’t have nice things. He was the reason I couldn’t haveanything, really.

I’d kill him if I could.

Fine, maybe not actually kill him, but I’d gladly beat his ass until he was on the brink of death.

Okay, maybe not even that, I wasn’t really into violence and I’d never hit another person in my entire life. But if he ever hurt our younger brother Val, I wasn’t holding back—my words, probably.

Ugh, sometimes I wished I was capable of hurting someone else because Everett really deserved a good smack in the face. I just didn’t have it in me, contrary to all the lies and rumors he’d spread.

I turned on my heel and headed back to my room. Reese wasn’t there, which was disappointing but expected, so I stripped, grabbed a towel, and started up the shower. He probably wouldn’t be back until much, much later, so I left the door cracked. I hated how hot it got in the bathroom when the shower was on and wanted to let some of the steam escape. I hated the heat in general and couldn’t wait until it got cooler out. I thought maybe the ventilation fan was broken or not working properly, which wasn’t surprising considering how old this building was, but cracking the door helped a bit.