Chapter 19

nineteen

Tav

I can’t take my eyes off the little woman who’s fast ruining life as I know it. She’s mixing drinks at the bar. I should have told her to grab me a beer, but I’d just asked for a drink, so I guess it’s dealers’ choice.

“Looks like you read what I sent you.” Ian’s words pulls my attention from Olympia to him. He’s sitting on the edge of the pool on my other side, and when I glance back at Olympia, Candace is leaning a hip into the bar, and they’re talking.

I don’t know why, but I worry about her with Candace a bit. Candace is clever, and Olympia, I’m finding, might not be the master of manipulation I first thought she was.

“You know I did.”

“Is the goal still to get her gone?”

Since I’m not sure what the goal is anymore, and I’m pissed that I’m not sure, I mutter, “Yep.”

Ian’s jaw tightens, but he nods. Thankfully, he doesn’t get the chance to say anything more because the girls are on their way back to us. Wrenlee defeats Nevaeh with a loud splash and a cheer, and then the guys are dragging their women closer to where we sit.

Candace lowers next to Ian, and I watch as he slings an arm over her shoulder, tucking her close before I give my attention to Olympia. Once it’s on her, it’s not going anywhere. The woman is beautiful, and even though I’m more than aware she’s too young for me, as the days pass, it’s hard not to think of her as a woman. As mine.

She’ll be twenty in just over a month. Fuck.

Lowering to the side of the pool in front of me, Olympia hands me my drink. I can’t take my eyes off the curve of her thighs. They’re thick and smooth and I want to feel them wrapped around my waist.

Giving my head a sharp shake, I ignore the way Ian eyeballs me and I move in closer to her, one arm resting against the side of her thigh as I lift the rum and coke to my lips—and almost choke.

Woman’s trying to kill me with rum.

My thoughts must be carved in my expression, because both Candace and Olympia burst with laughter. Because I have a point to prove, I lift the drink and take another big gulp. I take the burn without a wince, watching as Olympia’s eyes widen and her puffy pink lips part in shock. I take another big drink and, voice low as the others talk, I lean close to Olympia. “Retribution, Princess.”

Those wide blue eyes flash with a moment of fear before she does what she thinks is smart and drops over the edge of the pool into the water. She’s swimming for the other side, for what she thinks is escape as I drain the last of my too-strong drink—to prove I can—then I follow after.

At the sound of my splash, Olympia squeaks. The sound has something predatory swelling inside my chest as I launch myself through the water, hunting her. I catch her ankle, and her shriek splits through the night as I drag her back through the water toward me. Someone laughs behind me, but I don’t turn to see who it is as I watch Olympia flip in the water to face me. The burn of the rum sears inside my chest as I catch her around the waist and tug her to me as she thrashes, her fight delicious even as I crush her front to my chest.

Tipping my face to hers, I smirk. “Did you really think I wouldn’t catch you?”

Warm breath pushes between her lips, tasting sweet like her. I want to inhale her. I want to pull the scent of sweet peas and rain so deep into my lungs that I taste her with every exhale.

“What are you going to do?” Anticipation rattles in her lungs as a dare sparks fire in her eyes.

I want to ruin you.

For any other man who dares to approach you, baby, I want to fucking ruin you.

“I’ll think of something,” I taunt instead. My hands move from her waist to her thighs, and I lift her off the toes she bounces on to wrap her legs around my waist. As her arms loop around my neck and her breasts brush against my chest, my semi-hard cock swells to its full length and girth. This. Fucking. Woman.

Tipping her head to the side, her eyes hold mine as she whispers her challenge, “I’m waiting.”

My hands slide from her thighs to her ass. As I grip her sweet ass, her entire body tenses. The sparkle of challenge in her eyes vanishes as dread overtakes it. For a moment, confusion knocks in my chest as my mind plays catch-up.

Pushing her hands into my chest, she tries hard to shove herself from my hold. But it’s too late. I feel it. Whatever it is she’s trying to hide with that sexy little blue wrap, I feel it. The raised scar that spans across her ass.

What. The. Fuck?

“Let me go, Tav.”

“What—”

“I said let me go!” she yells. At the panic that lashes from her tongue like a whip, at the very real fear in her blue eyes, I let my hands fall away as she launches off my chest to swim again for the other side of the pool. For escape.

I stand dumbly for a solid five seconds, watching as she pushes herself up over the ledge of the pool before icy understanding kicks in.

All the times she alluded to being hurt by Remira.

Neveah’s words replay in my mind. “She’s been hurt.”

Someone hurt Olympia. Someone hurt my girl.

And I want to know who the fuck dared to touch her in such a way they left a lasting mark.

She’s running across the patio stones, Kane’s deep voice asking, “What the fuck?” as Ian says, “Shit.”

And then I’m kicked into gear, following hot on her trail as Nevaeh cries, “Gentle, Tav.”

Gentle is the last thing I’m thinking as I chase, hunt, track her through my house. Rage and frustration and worry swarm my chest, spearing like daggers through my heart. She hits the guest bathroom and my open palm cracks hard against the door she tries to slam closed between us. I shove inside the small room with her, watching as tears swim in her blue eyes. Her arms fold around her body, as though she’s trying to make herself small—trying to make herself unseen—from me.

I close and lock the door behind me, my eyes never shifting away from her as she shoves her back into the wall, her shoulders curving inward, chin quivering even though she hasn’t let a single tear fall.

“Show me,” I demand, my voice dangerously quiet.

She shakes her head. “Please don’t do this.”

“Show me, Olympia.”

She stomps a foot. “It’s nothing.”

I crowd her, my chest heaving with every sharp inhale. “You can show me, or I’ll look for myself.”

“Tav,” the way she whimpers my name has a little of the hard inside me softening, even as the anger surges. My eyes drift over her body, and I see she’s trembling. She’s trembling so hard, I realize, her teeth are clapping together.

How had I missed it?The panic that’s threatening to pull her under, to drown her in her trauma.

“Fuck, baby.” My worry for her has my anger taking a back seat as I pull her to my chest, wrapping my arms around her small body as a sob breaks into the silence between us. She’s shivering so hard now, fear spikes inside my chest.

I maneuver to the shower with her in my arms, turning on the water. I can feel her tears against my chest now as she breaks apart in my arms. I hold her tighter, determined to keep the pieces of her from shattering around us. When steam fills the room, I grip her under her thighs once more and lift, commanding, “Legs around me, baby.”

She complies, burying her face into the crook of my neck as I step into the water. I hold her there under the warmth spewing from the shower head as she cries in my arms. It feels like forever as she breaks apart in my arms, and all I want to do is build her back up. I want that fire and sass back. I want the strength I see in her innocent eyes. Fuck, I just want my girl back.

“Princess?” I call when her body stops shivering, and the sound of her sobs die against my neck. She has yet to lift her head or try to push away from me. I haven’t moved my hands from her thighs.

“I’m so ashamed.” Her voice is so small. So broken.

Anger sparks in my chest. “You have nothing to be ashamed of.”

“I didn’t want you to see. To know.”

“Talk to me,” I beg.

“You don’t believe me.” She shakes her head against my neck. I want to kick my own ass.

Gently, I lower her to the floor before I catch her face between my hands. I force her eyes to mine, and even though my voice is soft, she can’t miss the edge of menace in it. I vow, “I’ll believe you.”

Her bottom lip wobbles. When she slides her eyes to the side, as though she just can’t handle looking at me, my heart feels as though it cracks in two. She doesn’t trust me, and why should she?

“Olympia.” I’m not sure a word has ever fallen so soft from my lips. “Trust me. Please.”

She shakes her head. “I want to go to bed, Tav. I’m—I’m so tired.”

Christ.“No.”

Her entire body slumps against the wall, as though she just can’t find the strength to hold herself up anymore. If she can’t find the strength, I’ll give her mine.

What the hell is happening?

Tiredly, sounding broken, she confesses, “It was after my first kiss.” Something burns inside me at the thought of another man having kissed her. Tasted her. I say nothing. She continues, “I’m pretty sure he did it on a dare. Ran up to me after school one day and stole a kiss. It was nothing, really. A quick peck. I—I haven’t been kissed again until—until you. I didn’t even know how not real that kiss was that that boy stole.” She pauses as my heart riots in my chest. “My driver reported it to Remira and—she beat me with a thin, jeweled belt. It left a scar. That’s it.” Dead eyes lift to mine, sparking fear unlike anything I’ve ever felt in my life. “Can I go to bed now?”

I want to tell her no. I want to hear everything else. But that dead look in her eyes has me nodding even as I lower my eyes to hers. My voice sounds harsh with emotion and rage as I tell her, “I believe you.”

She doesn’t reply as she slips around me, stepping from the shower. She grabs a towel and wraps it around her body. Without looking back at me, she escapes through the door, leaving me alone under the spray of hot water as an inferno of rage bubbles and boils inside my chest.

She doesn’t know it, but the games we were playing are over.

Turns out Ian was right all along. She hadn’t been trying to manipulate me. She’d run to me because she’d trusted me to keep her safe against the monsters who’d already hurt her so much, and I’d done nothing but add to her hurt.

I could kick myself.

Fuck. If I could turn back time, I’d have taken her in my arms when I saw her standing there on my porch, a ghost from my past looking like temptation served on a platter.

I’d thought she’d come to ruin me.

And maybe she had, because the thought of losing her now nearly brings me to my knees.

Somehow, Olympia had slipped between the fractures she’d chiseled into my heart.

Now, she’s mine. And I’ll protect her from every monster that even dares to look at her.