Where Souls Spoil (Bayonet Scars Series, Volume I) (Bayonet Scars #1-4.5)

Without any emotion he says quickly, “No”.

“She’s your sister,” I say at a lower volume. Alex doesn’t know she’s Ruby’s kid yet. She still thinks her long lost aunt rescued her. I’ve almost slipped a few times, but we all made a promise that I can’t bring myself to break. If I’d promised Jim, I might be inclined to say ‘fuck it’ because I think she needs to know, but I didn’t.. On our last fuel stop before we hit Brooklyn, Ruby got us all around and begged us not to tell Alex who she is. With tears pooling in her eyes and fear covering her face, I couldn’t tell her no. Ruby’s a good mom, and if she needs time then I’ll give her that, regardless of what I think.

“Do you think anybody has let me forget that, asshole?” Ian says loudly, stands up, and storms out of the house. Alex’s head pops up from the kitchen table, and she watches him as he goes. Standing from my position on the couch, I stretch my back out and look at Jim, who’s shaking his head at Ian’s departure.

“He’s going to have to learn how to deal with this shit,” he says.

“Maybe he needs to get his dick sucked,” I surmise then smile wide at Alex. “Speaking of which—hey Princess! Guess who I met the other night?” Alex’s eyes widen, and she shakes her head. Ever since the party she just hasn’t been the same. Her not talking to me has been ticking me off almost as bad as Nic fucking avoiding me. She said she was done, and damn if she ain’t acting like she is, too. I’m about to rectify that shit, though. Last time I left her alone, I really fucked things up. She can’t trust me right now, but she will.

“Come on—ask. Go ahead,” I prompt and sit down across from her at the table.

“Who?” she asks with zero enthusiasm.

“My future wife,” I say. Alex narrows her eyes then rolls them. I keep a grin on my face despite the fact that I feel anything but. Maybe I can joke this shit out of my system.

“Whoever you marry is probably going to be a skeezy whore,” she says lightly. I find myself tempted to argue with her about it. I’m not real thrilled about the thought of Nic being called a skeezy whore. I’m close to reminding her that I’ve been in her pussy, so what the hell does that make her—but I decide to go easy on her instead.

“You should have seen her, Princess. She was sucking my dick like her life depended on it. Full on suction action. I’m telling you, if Hoover could patent that shit, they’d knock that rolly ball vacuum shit off the market.” Alex just stares at me as I go on telling her about the fantasy I have—Nic sucking my dick so hard I think she’s gonna inhale the damn thing—as if it were real. I’ve used this fantasy to jack off until my dick is sore each night since I fucked up and Nic left me.

“You’re disgusting,” Alex says in protest and scrubs her makeup-free face. Looking down at her bowl of cereal, she takes in another spoonful, refusing to look back up at me. This is a game we play, she and I. Well, she might not be playing, but I like talking to Alex. I’m kind of short on friends these days, and Alex is my kind of people. She says what she thinks most of the time, even though she keeps catching herself and waiting for punishment. I consider our conversations an educational experience for her. There can’t be all that much that she learned under the thumb of her bastard father. Still, she’s not my girl, and that reminder is wearing on me. I need to get my ass reassigned off babysitting duty so I have more time to figure out how to fix shit with Nic.

“You enjoy my company,” I say, flashing her a devastating smile. She looks up, her cheeks heating just slightly, but her face remains flat.

“You’re pretty much my only friend aside from my aunt. Should my social circle expand, you can expect these little sessions will come to an end.”

“Pssh. The only ending I want to talk about is a happy one,” I say, reaching out and grabbing her bowl of cereal and pulling it toward me. Alex fights me on it, making a mess before letting the bowl go and practically sloshing milk all over my cut.

“I’m not even going to ask,” she says, shaking her head. I wrap one arm around the bowl, and take a heaping scoop of cereal from the bowl, and shove it into my mouth. I don’t really like cereal, but it’s bugging the fuck out of her to see me eating from her bowl.

“Orgasms, Princess—the ultimate happy ending.” The look on her face is priceless. She’s really good at giving off this innocent vibe, but I know damn well that there’s one wild bitch underneath all of that well-practiced shock and disgust. She stands from her seat at the table, crosses the room, and opens a kitchen cabinet, pulling out a granola bar. She waves the bar at me as she forces herself to keep a smile off her face. “You know all about orgasms, don’t you?”