Tend to Vice. Hm. I mulled that over. After he’d brought me here for the first time, then told me the truth about the mating, the truth of how I was the only female for him and he couldn’t have any other, not the lie about random pairing the beast had spread over the communities, I got so mad, I hated him even more. But I’d tended to him that night after dinner.
Then, when he’d fallen asleep, sated as a lazy cat, I’d ripped out a drawer and whacked him over the head with it. I took off. At first, I hid outside the city but hunger called, and I had two choices. Either go back to Vice and tell him what had happened between the time he paid for me and the time he picked me up a month later, or go back to my home in Community Three.
Community Three sat in a place once known as Las Vegas, which was over five hours away by sky and even longer if I traveled by ground. My skater ran on hydro-fuel, and I didn’t have money for other transport or money for fuel.
Regardless of the fuel level, the money, the hunger, and my desperate situation, I’d rather die than go back to Three. Or Vice.
But here I sat on the edge of our couch. Again. I needed to get out of here. In order for me to get out of here, Vice’s defenses needed to be down, and I needed to talk to Rey. “Okay,” I said.
Vice chuckled. “You gonna play along?”
I said nothing but lifted my tied wrists.
He ignored the gesture. One hand under my knees, the other under my back, Vice lifted me and walked into our bedroom. I didn’t need to look around to see. The cage sat in the middle of the room with its little metal door wide open. A fluffy pink pillow lay inside. On the pillow, red letters read: “I (heart) my Beast.”
I eyed the old lock. Last time around, Rey felt I shouldn’t be inside the cage, so she came to my rescue. Seeing as my sister-in-law was kind and the only sane person in a five-mile radius, I doubted Jamie would let her anywhere near me this time around. I’d need something to pick that lock with.
After I gave Vice the most pleasant, soothing shower ever.
The luxurious bathroom was done in beige, with several blue tiles scattered for design effect. The biggest bathtub in the country called my name when Vice untied my wrists and closed the door. A packaged pink toothbrush rested on the counter next to a packaged blue one. “The blue toothbrush is mine, right?”
“Rey went shopping. Yours is pink,” Vice said.
“I’m not into pink.”
“I’ll let her know.”
I narrowed my eyes. “I’ll use the stupid brush.”
Vice closed the bathroom door. The towels hanging behind it swung in the breeze. One pink towel amidst the blue towels. I groaned. “What was wrong with the white towels from before?”
“Rey thought you’d like the pink ones better, seeing as you stole her ‘Barbie bike,’ as she calls it.”
Rey had given me the bike, but I would never tell. “Barbie bike?” I frowned, having heard of a Barbie before but couldn’t remember where. “I parked it in the garage of that house I stayed in. Did you get it?”
“Yes,” he said.
“I need to pee.”
Vice leaned against the sink and crossed his arms over his chest.
“Are you serious?”
“Dead serious. The only time you are allowed privacy is if you do number two.”
“Ew.”
“Such is life when you run from me. I can’t let you out of my sight.”
I pushed past him, opened the packaged toothbrush, and brushed my teeth.
I hopped in the shower.
Deep male laughter followed me inside. “Close,” he commanded, and the doors closed around us, sort of like a cocoon. A dim light lit on the ceiling, and Vice commanded water to pour out of tiny little holes on the doors.
I ignored his body.
I ignored the tattoos.
I ignored everything below the hard pecs. And I took special precautions not to look at the dimples above his hip bones.
So I looked him in the eyes.
Aaaaand ignored the pale red around his pupil.
Vice smirked. “Wanna blindfold?”
“Whatever, dude.” He thought I was checking him out. Maybe, but I wouldn’t admit it. Finding the necessities, I scrubbed out my hair three times, adding the conditioner afterward. Rey bought pink for me, but she also bought the finest shampoo on the market. My hair, straight, unlike hers, tangled on the wind when I skated, so I made sure I used extra of the luxury shampoo while I was still around Vice. I’d be out of here soon enough. He’d follow. We’d play cat-and-mouse for many years to come. Or until one of us died playing.
With a wet cloth for the body, I soaped up, moaning loudly, enjoying the smell of coconut. I kept my eyes closed, because I’d failed at not staring at his monster cock. I always failed at not staring at Vice. Once upon a time, I’d even called him my Prince Charming. I snorted. Man, I used to be the biggest dumbass.