I didn’t flinch when the door opened and slammed shut behind him, only continued to stare at his chair, counting to thirty in my head, then standing, and moving with a grace I wasn’t feeling past King Collins’s quiet form, muttering, “We aren’t going to stop hating each other, so don’t try that again.” And I closed the door calmly behind me.
Over the next three weeks…I went on a bit of a bender. To the point Sin could barely keep up, and that was saying…enough. It was also safe to say I now had no longer only had sex with one man. Really, I lost count somewhere in my drunken state. One particular high point…or low point…I vaguely remembered King Collins walking into one of the formal living rooms inside the Elemental section—the time of day was undetermined—and ordered/yelled at the group, I believe the rodeo was in town, to get the fuck out before he carried my ass up to my bedroom, dropped me in my bathtub and turned freezing cold water on me, telling Sin’s half staggering self to straighten my ass out before he did so. That…really hadn’t helped much…since that was all in the first week.
What did wake my ass up was waking up in fucking Japan.
All without Sin this time.
Yeah.
I had managed to outdo Sin somehow.
I wasn’t even sure how the hell I had gotten there, lying naked in bed with four naked Elemental men, drugs and alcohol surrounding us.
That was a bit of a wakeup call.
Or…it was, when I’d had to call King Collins when I had realized I didn’t have any identification on me to get home. He had shouted so many curses he had become hoarse over the phone, and Elder Farrar had yanked the phone from him, asking calmly where I was. After answering, that had produced silence. Then, I swear I had heard King Zeller in the background start yelling, “There had better be no damn videos”. Elder Farrar had cleared his throat, and asked me to ask one of the gentlemen I was with their name, since he couldn’t find me with my protection. I had tried, but none of them spoke English. More cursing had occurred in the background, but after handing over the phone, Elder Farrar had spoken with them, and then told me he would be there in a few minutes.
Elder Farrar had arrived, took one look around at the self-destruction I had gotten myself into, grabbed me, and taken me back home. We had ended up in the kitchen, where he had apparently left from, and I had held my hand up in front of my eyes from the bright light, still wearing only the button-down man’s shirt I had found on the floor. Everyone was there, including Sin, who sat back, wiping his mouth off and chewing calmly, but staring at me with an expression that didn’t bode well.
Elder Farrar held up his free hand to King Collins, who started to open his mouth, cutting him off, murmuring quietly, “You really don’t want to know.”
“How long have I been gone?” I asked Sin after a moment of silence, my voice incredibly hoarse who-knew-what-the-hell-from, running a hand through my tangled hair, pulling something out of it…seeing it was a joint, and placing it with a shaky hand on the table.
“Depends on what you mean, love,” Sin murmured quietly. “Mentally, around three weeks. Physically, two days.”
“Ah.” I nodded once, hoarse voice quiet. “It’s probably time to stop.”
“Probably.” He tilted his head toward the far door. “Why don’t you go shower and I’ll bring up some breakfast.”
“Alright.” I took my arm out of Elder Farrar’s strangle hold, turning to King Collins, murmuring, “I’m sorry. And I’m done.”
He only growled…but he still reached out a hand to mine, squeezing it the barest bit as I started to move past him on my walk of shame.
“You’re not going to say anything?” Elder Merrick growled loudly at King Collins, my ears instantly ringing as I stumbled at his vehemence. “She has been out of commission from alcohol and drugs and whoring for the past,”
King Collins interrupted him, voice deathly quiet, murmuring on a hiss, “She is my damn Prodigy to do with as I will, so therefore, you need to shut the fuck up and stay out of this, especially, seeing as you, someone she had preconceived notions of trusting, were part of the problem.” As I stared at the side of my King’s face, brown eyes flicked to me, and he tilted his head to the door, his tone lightening immensely. “Go on, Caro. Get cleaned up.”
“I will,” I murmured, and quickly averted my face as damn tears started to well. “And again, I’m sorry.” I quickly left the room before I completely shamed myself by bawling like a child in front of everyone…because no matter how many men I had been with…talented, to the not so talented…I still couldn’t fucking erase the memory of the one man I would hate even in death.
Chapter Ten
I got myself cleaned up in the week to come.
I didn’t drink. I went to meals. I went to meetings.
Although, I did tend to ditch my bodyguards, much to their dismay, hating them following me everywhere, even standing outside bathroom doors while I was inside.
And that was how I came to be alone, and face-to-face, with Elder Merrick late one evening.
The man I had been avoiding. The man I had been ignoring. The man I had been trying to forget in my sober state.
Sitting inside the intimate living room of the Elemental section I favored, I lifted my head from the book of Laws I had been trying to memorize, having finally gotten around to perusing it when I heard the door shut and lock. I froze, my finger stalling on the page I was turning. He stood only in a pair of black athletic shorts and worn tennis shoes, his curls half pulled back from his face in a small ponytail, his glistening chest bare, the black curls on his chest damp, muscled arms crossed over his chest, and navy blue eyes glaring directly at me.
Inhaling shallowly, I closed my book and set it on the small coffee table in front of me, trying to keep my voice steady as I stared at him coldly. “Have you come for retribution?”
Muscles ticked on the sides of his jaws “I was doing my damn job. I won’t apologize for it.”
“So you’ve told me,” I murmured harshly, standing and moving toward the door, needing to get out of here before I lashed out. “And you should be proud, since you did it so believably, Cain.” I hoped the use of his name would sting like it did me, my tone like the lash I meant it to be. “I mean, why not go ahead and continue fucking me to gain what you needed. We’d already done it once by mistake. Why not use it after you’d already screwed up?”