Page 188 of Glutton for Punishment

She doesn’t smile or greet anyone. Instead, she turns her attention on me. Her gaze drags over me in a slow, assessing sweep. She wears something like mild disgust on her face as she surveys me like I’m a piece of furniture up for auction.

The hate pours out of me, and I don’t understand this feeling?

I’ve never seen her before. Why would I hate her?

And yet something inside me bristles, the hate growing stronger the longer she looks at me. A horrible thought flashes through my mind.

Is she trying to take him from me?

The idea sends a burst of panic through my chest. Is that why I hate her?

“Arwen,” Vex says, and his voice shifts as he comes back to me, sliding his fingers through mine. The simple contact calms something inside me. “This is my sister, Amaya.”

His sister!

The realization should change everything. She’s family. I should want her approval. I should want to make a good impression. If she’s important to Vex, then she should be important to me.

I need her to see that I’m worthy of him.

So why does it feel like every instinct in my body is screaming at me not to trust her?

Amaya continues circling me, and the sensation makes my skin crawl. I do my best to keep my expression pleasant.

One corner of her mouth twitches. “She doesn’t seem like the rest of your mindless, obsessed idiots,” Amaya says flatly, as if I am not standing right here.

My spine stiffens as Vex’s grip on my hand tightens.

“She requires a little more work,” Vex replies. “But we’re getting there.”

A faint tension pulls through the room again, and I study Amaya’s face. And for reasons I can’t explain, I know with absolute certainty that if she comes closer to me, I might claw her eyes out.

“I don’t care,” Amaya says, already turning away and pouring herself a drink. “I don’t trust her to speak in front of her right now.”

Vex lets out an irritated breath and rolls his eyes.

“Fine. I’ll send her away. But you’ve seen her now. She’s under my control. I’m keeping her.” His arm slips around my waist possessively, pulling me a little closer to his side. “Even after he’s gone. She’s mine to ruin.”

Some distant part of my mind thinks these words should bother me. Instead, warmth blooms through my chest at the idea that he wants to keep me.

Amaya merely rolls her eyes.

“That’s not a problem, Vex, as long as she’s under your control,” she says before taking a sip. “We both know you’ll get bored eventually, and when you do, I’ll give her to Wicka. I promised her leftovers.”

The name Wicka hits my system like a splash of ice water.

Give me away?

The thought makes my stomach twist unpleasantly, but it all melts away when Vex turns his eyes back on me.

“Arwen,” he says, “please be a good girl and return to your room. You’re to stay there until I call for you.”

“Of course,” I say. “Anything you wish.”

I reach for his hand before I can stop myself, wrapping both of mine around it.

“I will miss you, my love.” The smile he gives me feels like sunlight.

I squeeze his hand one last time before releasing it and turning toward the door.