Chapter 75 Bad Decision
Daxton
Verena retrieved a frosted ombré cake from the fridge, flopping on the couch beside me. “You said you didn’t want one so don’t ask for mine,” she stabbed the fork into the cake.
I stifled the chuckle that almost left my mouth as amusement landed on my brain. “I can’t remember asking for it. You’ve been the one shoving it down my throat,”
She slashed me a look that almost made me burst out laughing before she scooped some in her mouth and moaned sweetly. “This is so good. Sure you don’t want some?” Verena popped one eye out.
Suddenly, she set the plate on the table, dropping her legs back to the floor. For a brief moment, I was confused until I noticed that her eyes were fixed on my bandaged arm.
“Does it still hurt?” Something in her eyes broke as she tried to touch the spot and held her hand back. “It is all my fault, I shouldn’t have agreed to Nina’s request…” Her lips pressed into a thin line.
Before Verena could wallow in that prison of self-guilt, I shifted closer to her. “No. It isn’t your fault. Why do you think it is?” My fingers moved to her chin as I tilted her head until she faced me.
She bit the corner of her lower lip. “I…”
I leaned in, now cupping her face and in a single sweep, I licked the frosting off the corner of her mouth—leaving her frozen.
I dropped my hand from her cheek, watching the flush of pink on them. “Tastes good as you said. Pleased now?”
She turned her eyes to me—still flustered—as she blinked at me. “Did you just lick my face?”
I was about to respond and tease when her eyes suddenly widened. “And didn’t the doctor tell you not to move your hand when it was a miracle that the shards didn’t hit the nerves,”
The smile on my face dropped. Here we go again.
My head fell back against the couch. How do I make Verena understand that little stab wounds like this didn’t hurt me?
Yeah, the doctor mentioned that it was close to hitting the sensitive spot. But what did it even change? How did it even matter?
I had been subjected to the worst torture of my life, experienced horrific things that a child should have never seen. Because of that, my body just seemed desensitized to insignificant minor injuries like this.
So, I really meant it when I said that I was ‘okay’, but Verena wasn’t having any of it. She stopped me from driving so when I thought she was taking us straight back to the suite, she sped all the way to the hospital.
A hospital visit that started with me wringing Kian’s arm again.
He had snapped out of whatever possessed him earlier, tried to grab Verena by the arm and apologize when I did what I had to do—dislocating his arm until bones cracked.
“I am okay, Verena. I promise you that I am,” I tilted my head to look at her.
She exhaled loudly. “Sure?”
“Sure,”
“Now that I think of it, I think you are right. None of this is my fault. It is Kian’s fault. If he didn’t poke–nose in my business, that would have never happened,”
A smile stretched the corner of my mouth. “Good. No more blaming yourself.”
She heaved an exasperated sigh. “Would you blame me? It is just that every single encounter with Kian comes with another side of him that I never knew existed. Kian hardly raised his voice at me nor has he ever hurled words of insult at me so imagine my shock when he called me names,”
“He hardly got angry then but now, that son of a gun just seems to be spiraling,”
I wasn’t shocked.
I have known Kian since he was a child. A sweet yet dangerous little boy with a horrible temper.
Whenever he started his little tantrums as a child, I was the one who taught him how to keep a poker face and not lose his temper. And he learned it but a little too well.
Poker face and his temper?—A disaster in the making.
And the victim of that disaster was Mikaelson. One time Kian had even dumped his books into the pond because he couldn’t control his burning rage towards him.
Kian wasn’t a good person nor was I and sometimes it scared me that I saw traits of myself in him. But the only thing that set us apart was that while Kian can be weird to those he dislikes or those who he felt wronged him, I was different.
I only came for those who crossed me.
Verena made the rest of my thoughts fly away when she hoisted herself on me, looping her arms around my neck.
Her titties were in my face as she moved sensually on me, sending blood rushing straight into my groin.
“I have questions to ask”
She knew what she was doing. Putting me in a dangerous spot just to get what she wanted.
“You answer a question and get to touch me,”
Fuck. I was getting hard.
I breathed. “Why is there a rule?”
“Because I am playing a game—duhh” She humped on me, every muscle stiffening because of the effect she had on me.
“You don’t answer my question. You don’t get to touch me”
My lips curled into a smile. “Is that a threat?”
“No. My rules”
I tried to touch her shoulder but she swatted my hands away, still grinding on me. “So there is nothing in it for me?”
“Okay. I ask one question and you get to ask yours,”
“Fair,”
She threw her head back and laughed, a small moan slipping from her mouth. “About Cassandra…”
Cassandra?
Who was that? Wait…that witch that framed her? I’d clearly forgotten about her.
“What about her?”
She fixed her eyes back on me. “Did you frame Cassandra—” My heart stopped the same time she stopped grinding on me.
Shoot!
How did she find out?
“Can I lie,”
“Truth only,”
Fuck! My innocent Verena who believed I was perfect was about to have her view on me changed. No. Fuck no.
“Maybe I had something to do with it. She framed you and I framed her back. That is how life works?”
Her jaw almost dropped to the floor and for a second, she just stared at me. “You went that far because of me? You will go that far for me,”
And darling I would kill for you. No, I had done that already.
I slid my fingers up her stomach, the warmth of her skin grounding me as I cupped her breast, fondling and caressing as she bit back a moan. “My turn now,”
“Why did Kian follow you earlier?”
I could feel my dick tenting my shorts, her pussy warning against mine, almost snapping every restraint I had left. “It is complicated,”
“That doesn’t answer my question,”
“He saw what I did under the table. Confronted me about it and asked to know the details of the call with my brother?”
My brows knitted in confusion. “Your brother? As in Atlas—”
She pressed a kiss to my mouth, cutting me off. “One question at a time,”
God, I hated this game. It got on my nerves because now I really wanted to know what happened. I didn’t have the patience for this.
“Did you also lock Kian in the basement? Why?”
I almost heaved an exasperated sigh. “He broke into your house and I punished him,” I pushed her top up, took her breast in my mouth, and sucked on her nipple as she squirmed on me.
I dragged her top over her head until she was bare before me. “And what exactly did you talk about with Kian?”
“Nothing important,”
Verena could sometimes be infuriating. Atlas and her brother? If Kian gave her the phone to talk to her brother, then it was important.
The moment I saw him in Nina’s house, I knew that he had something up his sleeve and used his dad to track our location. I wouldn’t be surprised to know that he was the one who told Nina to invite us for breakfast,”
“Verena?” I could feel my patience wearing thin.
“This might sound weird but Atlas doesn’t like you,”
“Your brother doesn’t like me?”
Verena sighed and got off me, grabbing her top. “And he wants me to move to Seattle with him,”
“What!” Anger flared in my chest. “Seattle?”
“Atlas thinks you’re dangerous… and not just you—he dislikes every Cooper, actually. He wants me to arrange a meeting between the two of you before he’ll even consider approving us being together which is pretty weird to me,”
His approval? Interesting?
“But don’t pay heed to him. I already told him that I don't need his approval. He has no right to dictate my life when he disappeared for—”
I pushed to my feet, cutting in. “When does he want to meet?”
Verena froze, eyes narrowing on me. “No, we are not doing any of that cliche ‘please let me be with your sister’ stuff. You are not meeting Atlas,”
I laughed because how do I plead for something that was already mine?
I had no plans of seeking his approval. Intimidation would do the work and send him back to whatever hole he crawled out of.
Verena moving to Seattle with him? Pfft. That would never happen.
Not on my watch.
“I will return your phone to you right now. I’m sure he must have texted,”
She raised a brow. “You really want to meet my brother? Atlas can be pretty scary. Even Kian fears him,”
I stifled back my laugh. “And that is the reason I need to meet your scary brother. Ask to know his schedule and invite him for lunch,”
“This is a bad decision, Daxton,”
“I love making bad decisions so text him ASAP.”