“You’re a goddess,” I whisper, “a goddess with a viper on your shoulder and secrets in your smile. And it’s killing me that I hurt you.”
She turns, wrangling out of my grasp, and meets my gaze. “Hurt? Are you on drugs? I’m not hurt, Sebastian. I’m pissed. Angry. What woman wouldn’t be?”
I turn her around again and rip the robe off her. It falls on the ground in a blue satin puddle. I lick the viper once more.
“Be angry, then,” I whisper against her flesh. “Let out the rage, Heather. Be that viper ready to strike.”
She huffs and turns around again, facing me. “You don’t have any idea who I am.”
“I’d like to,” I say honestly.
She studies me, dark-blue eyes sharp but glassy. She presses her lips into a thin line.
I know the look.
She’s trying not to feel this…whateverthisis between us.
“You like what I let you see,” she says. “The cool girl. The fantasy with good hair and sharp comebacks. The woman who challenges you in bed. But you don’t know me.”
“I’d like to.”
“I don’t let anyone get that close,” she says.
I step closer. “Try me.”
She laughs, but there’s no humor in it. “No. Youthinkyou want the truth, but people always say that right before they flinch. Right before they leave.”
“I’m not people.”
“No,” she agrees quietly. “You’re dangerous.”
I blink. “Me?”
She nods. “Because I could almost believe you. In fact…”
“In fact what?” I reach out, fingers grazing her wrist, not to hold her. Just to touch. Just to feel something real.
She pushes my hand away. “In fact, if you hadn’t said someone else’s name, I might have believed you.” She sighs. “You did me a favor. I should be thanking you.”
“Heather,” I say. “Let me earn your trust. Show me what hides under that viper’s smile.”
She stares at me for what seems like an eternity.
Then—barely audible— “Some secrets don’t get told. They just…stay. Sink in. Change you.”
I nod slowly. “So let it be on your terms.”
She tilts her head. “Even if it destroys the fantasy?”
I grin. “Heather, I’m a rock star. I don’t live for fantasies. I live for what burns.”
She narrows her gaze. “What burns? You have no idea what kind of fire you’re igniting.”
Then she turns and walks out the door and toward the mansion.
EPISODE 231
PIECES OF ME
