Dark Desires by Candace Wondrak

Chapter Five – Juliet

Talking with Markus did nothing to soothe me. It only gave me more questions. Sometimes, it was hard to look into those dark eyes of his, impossible to know what he was thinking—and then, every now and then, something would peek through the scowl and the frown, something not quite as hard and unforgiving. Something not like the man I’d seen in the basement, the one who’d meticulously took off his watch and suit jacket, the one who’d rolled up his sleeves while staring at me, wanting me to know it was all my fault.

Or maybe it was in my head, and there was nothing more to Markus Scott. Just a killer, a murderer with a cold, cruel heart, someone who only had me here to torment Daddy until he grew bored and killed me anyway, regardless of whether Daddy did what he wanted.

I mean, I still didn’t understand it. If Daddy knew I was here, why didn’t he try to get me? Why didn’t he come here and demand Markus release me? What if… what if he never tried to save me? It never occurred to me before now, and it was a harrowing thought. I mean, I never imagined Daddy would abandon me to the wolves, but that’s exactly what it felt like he was doing right now.

And if Daddy left me here forever, what would become of me? What would happen? Would I die here, at the hands of these men? I wasn’t stupid enough to believe Markus would ever let me go, not while knowing what they did in this house, but I could hope. Hope was all I could do.

I sat in my room, a room I slowly grew more accustomed to with each passing day. Will stood near the window, the sun shining through the glass, dancing along his skin. I found myself staring at him more and more, wondering what it would be like to do more than kissing.

I shouldn’t think of those things, not with how confused I was about everything. Will, Jaxon… even Markus. It was wrong to feel for any of these men. None of them were princes. If they were locked in a fairytale, they would each be the villain of their own story, and the villains never got the girl. That’s not how fairytales worked.

This wasn’t one of those, though. This was real life, and I knew real life could be very different from the fairytales you saw in the movies.

Not saying I wanted to be with the bad guys, but… actually, I didn’t know what the heck I was saying. Blame it on the hormones or something, me never being around anyone of the opposite sex for long that wasn’t related to me. Someone who wasn’t Daddy.

My eyes dropped to Will’s backside, and I took in how the jeans he wore hugged him very, very well. He’d gotten to look at my butt. Why shouldn’t I get to look at his? It would be an even exchange, but I knew, even with my lack of social skills, asking to see his butt would be weird.

Or maybe he’d like it, because he wasn’t quite normal, either. So hard to tell with any of these guys.

“So,” I broke the silence of the room, causing Will’s hazel eyes to leave the window and look at me, “who did you do around here before me?” I caught my mistake immediately, as did he, for as I quickly corrected myself, a smile grew on his face, “What, I mean. I mean, what did you do—” The more I rambled, the more awkward I sounded.

Great. So I could kiss them—I’d just act really, really weird around them afterward.

“Nothing much, not when the basement’s empty,” he answered, choosing to overlook my misstep, thankfully. And also thankfully being honest with me. Now that I knew what went on around here, there was no point in sugarcoating anything, right? Just say it how it was, you know. Maybe I’d get used to it, to knowing everyone around me was a cold-blooded killer.

Or maybe not. Guess we’d have to wait and see, provided I lived that long.

“Markus doesn’t like it when I leave the house. After all these years, he still doesn’t trust me.” Will shrugged, slow to move to my side and sit on the edge of the bed near me. “I don’t think he trusts anyone, really, although I can’t blame him for being hesitant when it comes to me.”

“How did you…” I paused, not knowing the right thing to say. “How long until you started…” I vaguely knew the story about his ex and how she’d stabbed him, but after that, I had no idea how he’d become a part of the family, beyond the whole Markus taking him in thing.

Will’s lips curled into another smile, but this one felt different than the one before. This one was almost skeptical. “Do you really want to know? It’s okay if you don’t. Just because you’re here doesn’t mean you have to know it all, Juliet.”

I nodded. “Yes, I want to know.” AKA, I didn’t want to be kept in the dark for more than I had to be. Let me know the truth, or as much of it as I could, and then let me decide how I feel. Let me make the decision for myself.

And, besides that, maybe I’d snap myself out of the numerous crushes blossoming inside me. Hearing about how Will had started to kill for Markus might just do it.

“It took years,” Will stated. “Years until he trusted me to actually work for him in the basement. As you noticed, it’s not always full. We go through rounds. Maybe two or three a year. It’s not constant. Sometimes it doesn’t even get full.”

God, how many people had this family wiped off the earth? I couldn’t even think straight for a few moments after hearing that. I thought I knew how much blood was on their hands, but I guess not. I guess the amount staining their hands was inconceivable.

“And you adjusted well?” I could only label this curiosity of mine as sick. I shouldn’t care enough to know, but I did. I wanted to know these things. I wanted to know more about Will, more about Jaxon… more about everyone I shared this house with.

Will let out a chuckle. “Uh, sort of? Once I got on meds, I was more stable, less prone to believing in my delusions, as Doc would say, but I still felt like I had unfinished business out there.”

“Your ex? The one who… who stabbed you?”

“Yeah. But none of that matters now. I’m past it. I’m past her. Sometimes I do think—” Will stopped himself.

“About her?” I couldn’t say why, but something inside me ached at the thought of Will still thinking of his ex. Call me crazy, but I didn’t want him to think about any other girl but me. That was an insane thought, right?

“No, about my brother.” Will got quiet after he corrected me, and though I felt relieved he didn’t think about his ex, I still couldn’t shake the strange feeling of jealousy inside. I mean, I’d kissed both Will and Jaxon. I didn’t have the right to be jealous, did I?

Of course, it was after that thought I remembered my dream, and my cheeks started to heat up. What a terrible time to think about that dream of mine, where I’d been with Jaxon and Will in front of Daddy.

My mouth opened, and I was seconds from asking about his brother when the door to my bedroom creaked open and another face appeared. This one, thankfully, would not bring about any jealous or hormonal urges inside my body, because this one belonged to a ten-year-old girl with pitch-black hair and bright blue eyes.

Tori completely ignored Will, even though he literally sat beside me on the bed. She rushed to my bedside, climbing on top of it and throwing herself at me. The girl hugged me hard, as if she was worried about me.

Will’s eyes twinkled as he watched Tori, though I think he mostly stared at me above her head.

“I’m sorry I didn’t come sooner. My mom said I wasn’t allowed to see you for a while.” Tori pulled herself off me, blinking as she studied me, as if the girl expected me to have a limb or two missing. “Are you okay? When I came here to see you anyway, you weren’t here, and when I asked my mom about you, she said Uncle Markus was doing something with you. He didn’t hurt you, did he?”

Besides making me flash back to years ago in my head and make me feel helpless and hopeless, no. I was all right, which was more than I could say for the man he’d had brought to the basement. Whoever that man was, I hoped he didn’t have a family. I hoped he didn’t have kids who depended on him.

“I’m okay,” I said, because I was. Now, anyway. If you would’ve asked me while I was locked in the darkness, with blood on my pajamas and between my toes, I probably would’ve had a different answer.

“Do I have to beat him up for you? I’ll do it,” she huffed. “I swear, I’ll do it. Uncle Markus doesn’t scare me.” With the way she spoke, I knew Tori wasn’t lying. The girl could look the devil in the face and laugh. I wished I was more like her.

But then again, she was growing up surrounded by killers, so she wasn’t the typical ten-year-old.

“I appreciate the thought,” I told her, giving her a tiny smile, “but no, I don’t need you to beat him up for me.” Never thought I’d have to hold a child back from attacking Markus Scott, but here we were.

Still, Tori might not be a normal child, but she was still kind. If she could be kind while growing up with men like Will and Markus around her, maybe these guys weren’t all bad. That could just be me hoping for impossible things, though. If they weren’t evil through and through, it’d make me feel a lot better about the tiny crushes I had toward them.

“Well, if you ever need me to do it, I swear, I’ll do it. I know when he sleeps.” She stated that last bit proudly, and I threw a worried look at Will, who could only shrug and chuckle at Tori’s antics. “You’re my friend, and I protect my friends.”

“Thank you,” I said, not sure how I felt to have a friend who was only ten years old. At least it was something, I guess. “I’ll let you know if I ever need your help, okay?”

She nodded, and then she eyed me up. “Do you know how to swim?”

I swallowed. Such a random change of topic… “Uh, not really—”

Tori grabbed my hand, practically pulling me off the bed. She might only be a kid, but she was stronger than she looked. Or maybe I was just that weak. “I can teach you. Do you have a bathing suit? If not, you can take one of my mom’s. She won’t mind. She never goes in the pool, no matter how much I beg.”

Will got up, moving around the bed to stand near us. “You know, out of everything I got for you, I don’t think I bought a bathing suit,” he muttered. “You might have to use Stella’s.”

“Uh” was all I could say, apparently, for Tori took that as an affirmative and started to drag me out of my room, practically skipping with excitement. I tossed a look over my shoulder at Will, who followed us after shoving his hands in his pockets, a grin plastered to his face. He did not lift a finger to help me.

I was at the mercy of a ten-year-old girl who wanted me to entertain her.

But, hey, I’d never been in a pool before. Mark that one off the bucket list, right?

Tori brought me to a room on the other side of the big mansion, and as we walked in, a woman was in the process of walking out. I froze, and even Tori could not move me from my spot as I locked eyes with a woman who must’ve been in her mid-thirties, someone with pin-straight dark brown hair, highlights sprinkled about its lengths.

She was thin, kind of gangly. Pretty in a weird way, but her eyes… her eyes were something else. One blue, one a light brown. A startling stare, and I froze just outside the bedroom door when I realized this woman might be the woman I’d seen in that video.

This was Tori’s mother? And she… she…

Oh, God.

She did not look at me for long, her eyes falling to Tori beside me, a soft look of composure on her face. “Tori, I thought I told you to leave her be for now?” She sounded stern, but the level of sternness in her voice did not show on her face. She was almost expressionless.

“We’re going swimming,” Tori proudly told her mother. “She wants to.” A lie, but I let it slide, mostly because I could do nothing but stare into the woman’s eyes, a deer in headlights. “She needs to borrow a bathing suit.”

The woman stood in the doorway of her bedroom, and she sluggishly lifted those peculiar eyes to me, sizing me up. “Hmm” was all she said for a moment, and then her gaze shifted to Will behind me, and her expression warmed. “Will. I trust you’ll keep an eye on them both, then?” It almost sounded as if she was close to Will, like she trusted him.

Will nodded. “You bet.”

“Good,” she said, and then she turned her weird stare to me once more. “You are not at all what I’d thought you would be. Not sure if that’s a good thing or not.” She said nothing else, slipping past us, and I turned my head to watch her walk away.

“That was Stella,” Will said. “Tori’s mom. Have you met her dads yet? You saw Ed in the kitchen. Lincoln and Killian are usually somewhere around here—their job is mostly basement duty.”

My mind flashed back to the tall, dark-haired man I’d seen when Markus had picked me up and taken me out of that room, along with the red-headed one. The way they bickered, as if they were perpetually annoyed with each other and yet familiar to each other at the same time. Were they Lincoln and Killian?

“She doesn’t care, Will,” Tori told him matter-of-factly as she pulled me into the bedroom. She released her hold on my hand as she pranced to a tall dresser, pulling open drawers left and right until she found what she was looking for. She whipped out two pieces of fabric—black, of course, because hardly anyone in this house ever wore anything else—and held them out to me. “Here. There’s a bathroom right there. I think they’ll fit.”

I took them, running my fingers over the bathing suit pieces as I glanced to the left of the room and saw an attached bathroom. Must be nice to have it right there, to not have to walk down the hall to use the toilet. At my house, the bathroom was literally five steps away. Here, in this big maze of a house? The one I used was farther than that.

I walked away from Tori and Will, heading to the bathroom. I set the bathing suit on the counter, glancing around the spacious room before closing the door. Marble countertops, marbled floors… everything was shiny and clean, as if it was untouched. Everything in this house was fancy, so I shouldn’t be surprised.

I stood before the mirror, meeting my own reflection, and I saw a girl who was unsure of herself. A girl who didn’t quite fit in anywhere. Definitely not here, but even out there, in the world, I didn’t know what it would be like. I wanted to, but you didn’t always get what you wanted. Just look at me and my desire for a prince charming.

My fingers went to my pants, and then my shirt, and for a moment, I stood there in nothing but my panties and bra. A matching set Will had picked out for me, although not a thong—not like the one I’d worn to our little date. Our little secret. As I stared at myself in the mirror, I wished we could have another one. That cheesecake had been delicious, but the kissing afterward? That had been even better.

Was it wrong to want to kiss him more? Was it wrong to want to know what kissing Markus felt like, too?

I shouldn’t think of those things, I told myself, and as I reached behind me to undo my bra, I heard Will’s voice in the bedroom, “Need help? Just say the word—” He made a strange sound after that, and then I heard Tori’s voice.

“She’s not stupid. She can put a bathing suit on.” There was a pause, and then Tori deadpanned, “You just want to see her naked.”

“I—” Will started to argue with her, and though I couldn’t see him, I imagined he shrugged as he wordlessly admitted Tori was right. He did want to see me naked. That wasn’t a surprise, given how the end of our date had gone. I supposed I’d teased him a little, egged him on. I wanted to be desired by a man, even if that man was kind of crazy.

Maybe I was crazy too, for wanting it. For kind of liking it.

Within a minute, I had the bathing suit on. It felt weird, to have something on my chest that wasn’t a bra, but I was pretty sure I tied the straps tight enough around my back and neck. I felt almost more naked in this bathing suit than I did before. My clothes sat on the counter, and I looked down at myself, at my chest, my stomach, and my bare legs.

I almost walked out of the bathroom in nothing but the suit, but then I decided against it and threw my shirt and pants on over it. “It fits,” I said, noticing how Will’s expression looked a bit disappointed, as if he’d wanted to see me in the suit.

He would, for a split second, once we were beside the pool and I took the clothes off. And then I’d be in the water, hopefully out of sight.

I was stupid to feel self-conscious now, when I’d worn a thong before and bared my backside to him while he… touched himself, but I couldn’t change how I felt. That’s just how it was.

“Yay!” Tori squealed. “Come on, I’ll change into mine.” She led us out of her mother’s room, and we headed down the hall, to a room not far from it. It was… covered in pink. Like, wow, pink. So much pink. I didn’t think her room would be so girly, but I found myself amazed at the pink walls, the pink bedding, the knickknacks of cute things.

It seemed like the color pink and all her frilly, girly stuff was at odds with everything the Scotts were, but here she was, giddy as she went to grab her suit—a mixture of pink and black, a one-piece, and she shooed us from her room and shut the door so she could change.

In the hall, I found myself smiling, and Will asked, “What?”

“I love her room,” I said. “If I had a room like that, I’d never want to leave.” If I had a room like that, that size, why would I? It was so unlike the tiny room I’d been kept in for so long.

Will made a strange sound, which caused my wandering mind to snap back to reality, and I met his eyes as he said, “It’s good to be able to go where you want sometimes.” He paused, a smirk growing on his face. “Not that I would know too much about that—Markus doesn’t really like it when I go out, mostly because my face might still be familiar to some people around here, but still. I can only imagine what being locked up your whole life will do to you.”

“He was trying to keep me safe,” I whispered, thinking about Daddy and everything he’d done, everything he’d told me. I mean, just look at the Scotts, look at Will and Markus and Jaxon. Murderers, kidnappers, men who were out of their minds in every single way. Daddy was only trying to protect me from men like them.

And yet I ended up here, anyway.

Here I was, and somehow I was drawn to them regardless, both disgusted and horrified at their darkness but unable to look away. What did that say about me?

“Locking someone up is never a way to keep them safe,” Will whispered. “It’s a way to keep them controlled.” I didn’t quite know what to say to him there, but it turned out, I didn’t have to say anything, for he lifted a hand, swiping his fingertips along the curve of my cheek. “You should have the freedom to do what you want… with who you want.”

My mind flashed back to the dream yet again, and with his fingers warming my cheek, it was easy to imagine those fingers moving to other places, lower places, for Will to back up his words with action.

I knew I shouldn’t be thinking of those things, but somehow, it was like I couldn’t stop myself. It might be wrong, maybe their darkness was starting to creep into me while I was unaware, but I just couldn’t help it. I wanted things I’d never much thought about before. The feeling of a warm body beside mine, the gentle, smooth touch of hands on my skin, to hear the beating of someone else’s heart and feel it in my bones.

Was that weird?

Will didn’t get a chance to say anything else, for at that moment, Tori’s bedroom door flew open, and he took a step away from me, dropping his hand to his side. Tori was oblivious to what had been going on, grinning as she skipped out of her room, took my hand, and led me through the house.

All the while, I couldn’t shake it. Even as we stepped outside, onto the large stone patio the house seemed to wrap around, I couldn’t stop myself from imagining what it would be like, to give myself to someone. To Will, to Jaxon, to whoever I wanted.

I might die here, for heaven’s sake. I might not see a day outside of this house. Was it really so wrong to want to experience that before I died? My body certainly called out for it; my body knew more than my mind did. I was on birth control, thanks to Markus, so why shouldn’t I?

Why shouldn’t I, like Will had said, make my own decisions when it came to who I was with and what we did?

Tori brought us before the pool, the shallow end—three feet deep, with concrete steps leading down into it. On the other side of the pool, it looked like it was deeper than nine feet, with ladders stationed on the sides.

“Don’t worry,” she said, finally releasing me. “I’ll teach you how to float, first.” With each word she spoke, she sounded so proud of herself, as if she was a master at everything in the pool, a teacher, and I was her student.

She was something else, but I liked her. She didn’t seem as crazy as everyone else here. Maybe there was some good in a few of these souls, and I just didn’t see it, too busy focusing on the bad.

Although, after being kidnapped and shown what I’d seen, could anyone blame me for focusing on the evil under this roof?

“Will?” Tori spoke to the man, who stood behind us. “Can you get us some towels?”

“Sure, as long as you promise me not to let Juliet out of your sight,” Will replied. His gaze shifted to me as he said, “Markus wants me to watch her, and you know how your uncle is.”

She nodded, her expression grave. “Trust me, I can handle it. Now go.” She made a shooing gesture, which made me chuckle.

He threw one last look at me before shoving his hands in his pockets and turning to head back into the house. I watched him go, my eyes dipping to his square shoulders, eventually dropping to his backside. Those jeans—he really wore them well. I couldn’t help but wonder what he looked like under all those clothes. I’d seen his chest, seen the scars… but there was so much more to his body than that.

After Will disappeared in the house, Tori turned to me, her lips frowning. “I don’t know why everyone’s so scared of Uncle Markus. Yeah, he’s an asshole sometimes, but he’d never hurt me.”

“You’re also his niece,” I told her.

“I told him you were my friend,” she said, inching towards the edge of the pool. “I told him not to hurt you.” Tori tossed a look over her thin shoulder, eyeing me up. “Promise me that you’ll tell me if he does?”

“And what’ll you do if he does?”

“I’ll yell at him, duh,” Tori stated, as if the answer should’ve been obvious. “I still have to go to school, but I could always camp out in your room at night, after Mom puts me to bed. No one will know.”

“Except Will, who’s there watching me to make sure I don’t try running away again,” I said, wishing I never would’ve tried to run in the first place. If I hadn’t, that stranger would still be alive, and I wouldn’t know the feeling of blood between my toes.

I also wouldn’t know how gentle Markus could be. How could I forget how tenderly he’d held onto me as he brought me upstairs? Still, I didn’t think getting a peek at his gentle side was worth a man’s life.

“Oh, Will’s cool,” Tori said, shrugging. “I think he wants to protect you too, only he doesn’t know how.” She dropped down to sit on the edge of the pool, dangling her legs in the water. She shivered.

It was only because we were alone out here that I was comfortable enough to shed the clothes I’d thrown on over the bathing suit, and I went to sit beside her, a chill sweeping over me when I stuck my feet into the clear water. It was colder than the air was; I was sure once we were in it, it wouldn’t feel so cold. Our bodies would get used to it.

I guess, in a way, bodies could get used to a lot of things.

“Why do you say that?” I asked in a whisper, after making sure Will hadn’t returned.

“He looks at you different,” she said. “Not like he looks at everyone else.” Tori leaned in closer to me and whispered, “I think he likes you.” She ended with a giggle, while I could only stare.

I was slow to say, “I don’t think he looks at me any differently…”

“He does. It’s obvious.” Tori turned to look at me, the sun shining so brightly overhead it made her black hair have an almost blueish tint. “Even if you can’t see it, I do. But, anyway—” She lifted an arm, and before I knew what she was doing, she pushed me into the pool.

I fell forward, having not seen that coming, and my body crashed into the water. The weird taste of what must’ve been chlorine filled my mouth and my nose a bit, and I was seconds from freaking out when I realized the water was only three feet deep, so I could just stand.

Uh, right.

Tori laughed at me, and then she hopped in the water, much more graceful about it than me. She dunked herself, getting her whole head wet, and as she sprung up on her feet beside me, she grinned. “It’s easier if you just rush into it and don’t think about it.”

Though I knew she meant the water, I felt like her words could be applied to other things. Other things which Daddy would never want me to contemplate, especially with any of the men in this house.

But Daddy wasn’t here to yell at me, to call me a whore. He wasn’t here to give me a stern look and tell me how disappointed he was in me. If, by some miracle, I got out of this house alive, he never had to know what I did or didn’t do of my own accord here. It could be my secret.

“Go ahead,” Tori said. “Put your head under. It’s not so bad. You can hold your nose if you want.”

I didn’t know if I wanted to dunk my whole head under, but I supposed I might as well. I made a big show of holding my breath and pinching the bottom of my nose, lowering myself into the somewhat chilly water. My eyes squeezed shut, and I felt the water envelop me entirely.

It was… an odd feeling, being surrounded completely by something. I didn’t quite know if I could describe it.

When I popped back up, Tori clapped, splashing a bit of water my way. “See? That wasn’t so bad.”

“Easier than you pushing me,” I muttered, to which the girl only laughed.

“You’re taller than me,” she reminded me. “You can handle it. I think you can handle a lot more than you think you can.”

Okay, so when I stood straight, the water made it to my stomach, but still. How could she say those things so effortlessly, and believe them, too? I wished I could be as determined as her, but I supposed she and I were raised differently.

In ten years, would she be another killer of this house? I shouldn’t think about it.

The longer you were in the water, the more used to it you became. That much was true. Tori demonstrated how to float on her back, letting the water keep her upright, somehow, at its surface. She didn’t sink at all, but when I tried to mimic her, the water seemed content to pull me under.

“You have to relax,” she told me, and she was going to tell me more, but Will appeared, carrying a few towels under the crook of his arm. Will was not alone, however. Another man stood beside him, scowling and instantly zeroing his gaze in on me.

Markus.

As Tori and I turned to look at them, I saw both men’s gazes dip lower than they should, right to my chest. Will’s lingered longer, while Markus’s lifted in a matter of one second. Right, because I was in a bathing suit. It took everything in me to resist the urge to wrap my arms around my chest and hide as best as I could.

“See?” Will spoke once he brought his eyes away from my chest, “She’s fine.”

Markus made a noncommittal sound, as if he didn’t quite believe Will, even though I was right there, plain as day. He looked almost ridiculous standing so close to a pool in his usual suit, but then again, could that man ever look ridiculous? I didn’t think so.

My mind went somewhere it shouldn’t right then: what does Markus Scott look like beneath that suit? Did he have any scars under there? I knew he was muscled, thick and well-built all around, but my inappropriate mind wanted details.

Heat crawled up my face, and I had to turn away from his scowl to hide the blush on my cheeks. Tori, meanwhile, walked over to the edge of the pool, towards Will and Markus. At least she drew their attention away from me.

“Stop it,” she said, and Will stifled a laugh.

Markus’s eyebrows rose just a hair, a reaction that told me he was used to his niece’s attitude. “Stop what?”

“Stop being an asshole. You don’t need to be so mean,” Tori stated. I’d be horrified that she had the balls to talk to him like that, but then again, from what it looked like, it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary.

“Tori, Juliet is a guest in this house—” He started, but the girl interrupted him.

“Yes, and you treat your guests good, not lock them up,” she said. “She’s my friend, you know, and if I find out you’ve hurt my friend, I won’t be happy.” A warning that was made slightly less believable due to the fact she was a child, and Markus did not seem particularly insulted.

The ends of Markus’s lips curled somewhat, almost a smirk but not quite. I didn’t think the man himself ever truly smiled. His black gaze shifted to me once more, and thankfully I was done blushing and having such inappropriate thoughts. “Need a child to protect you, Juliet?”

“No,” I quickly said. “I—”

Tori bounced in the water until she stood beside me. “Go away, Uncle Markus.” And then she did the unthinkable: she put her hands together in the water and lifted them, tossing a handful of water right at Markus.

Will busted out laughing, while Markus only stepped back and scowled harder. If sneers could kill, we’d all be dead.

“You’re lucky you’re in that pool,” Markus growled out, very grumpy compared to Tori. “Otherwise, I’d—”

“You’d what?” she egged him on. “You can’t do anything.” And then she stuck her tongue out at him.

My mouth dropped open when I watched her do it, and for the first few seconds, I was stunned she acted so bold and courageous in the face of Markus Scott. But then… then a laugh bubbled up my throat. A quiet one, but one everyone heard.

Markus glared at me. “You think that’s funny, do you?”

“I, uh, I don’t know,” I spoke without thinking. “Maybe?” Beside Markus, Will grinned, clearly enjoying the exchange. Unlike Markus, he found it all quite amusing. Something came over me, and I straightened my shoulders, meeting Markus’s dark stare as I stated, “Yes. Yes, I think it’s funny.”

What would he do to me? It wasn’t like I was trying to run away again. I was just here, not egging his niece on at all, only watching the show. I didn’t think Markus would strip and get in the pool… although, not going to lie, I didn’t think I’d be able to turn away if he did that.

What was wrong with me?

“I might not be able to do anything to Tori, but you—”

I was sure Markus had a colorful threat lined up for me, but Tori used her arms to splash water at him this time. It was almost like a wave, and though it didn’t hit him directly, it landed on the stone just before his shoes, and some of the water splashed up and wet his pants on the kickback.

“Tori,” Markus’s voice was no more than a growl.

“You’re not invited to this party, so go away,” she huffed.

“This is my house.”

“It’s my house too,” she said.

Will chimed in, “She’s not wrong there.”

Markus turned his scowl to Will. His jaw ground, and I could tell the man was dying to say something more, to regain control of the situation once again, but he held back. It must’ve been difficult for him.

Within a moment, he turned those black eyes to me, and even though he wasn’t exactly close by, it was like he could see straight through me, and I wondered if it was obvious where my mind had been minutes ago, when I’d wondered what he looked like beneath that suit. Was it written on my face? Did he magically know?

Markus said nothing as he turned and walked away, leaving me to wonder just what he would’ve said if Tori wasn’t so adamant he leave. I probably shouldn’t have laughed or admitted I thought it was funny. A man like him would have it out for me for doing something like that, I bet. Guess I’d have to wait and see.

Will set the towels near the edge of the pool, not bothering to hide his grin as he said, “You’re lucky you’re related to him.”

Tori shrugged, as if it was no big deal she’d just teased and told off the devil himself.

As Tori and I got back to practicing floating—of which I was insanely bad at, having never been in a body of water before that wasn’t a bath—Will took up a wicker chair nearby and reclined in the sun… after taking his shirt off, that was.

Not going to lie, I kept throwing glances in his direction, wondering if what Tori had said earlier was true, if he did look at me differently. And, of course, to check him out as well. He wasn’t as tall or as thick as Markus was beneath that suit, but his body was lean and powerful all the same, defined abs under his scars.

Now, if Will was the one teaching me how to swim or float or whatever, I think I’d have a slightly better time, no offense to Tori.