Cole and Macey follow my gaze as they step up next to me.
“Oh, hell no.” Sam downs her drink.
“I have an idea. I’m about to go find out.” I chase after them.
It’s stupid. I will only be adding fuel to the fire.
But I’m ready to burn this place to the ground anyways.
TYLER
I’m glad she found those panties. They are only further proof that she will always be an obligation rather than a choice. Her red nails only release their grip once we stand in the cellar, where I received those panties. Shelby shoves me against the same wall I had Sunny pinned to.
Then she slaps me across the face.
“No wonder you couldn’t get your dick up, and fuck me like a man, because you were already sticking it in her!” Shelby yells.
I smile and lean into her. “I wish.”
She slaps me again.
Leaning down, I say, “You really think I was going to marry you, and not fuck other people?”
She needs to know her place. I’m about to be the one to tell her. Shelby sucks in a breath, as if she’s shocked by this news.
“You know what you did to me. What youtookfrom me. You may want me, but I do not want you. I’m only doing what I’m supposed to do because the one thing I want, I can’t have. So I’m left with you instead,” I say blankly.
She doesn’t deserve any more of me.
“I gave you the chance that I thought you deserved, andyoufucked it up. I was willing to try and commit to you, but you broke my trust. So don’t expect commitment from me. I only have a commitment to the agreement our parents made. Not you. Not anymore. Our marriage license is a contract for your father. Nothing more. Nothing less. That’s all you are.A contract.”
She slaps me again. Then she starts taking fists to my body in an attempt to hurt me. And maybe I deserve it. Maybe I deserveall the pain she caused me. All the pain I’ve been feeling.I deserve to hurt. I am not a good person, and this is my punishment.
“It doesn’t matter! You will still be stuck with me.” She continues to hit me. “You’re a whore!”
Then she’s pulled from me. My vision fills with Sunny, my little fire, my fucking salvation, yanking Shelby by her blonde hair off of me. Sunny grabs her arm, twisting it behind her back, and slams Shelby against the wall next to me.
It shouldn’t turn me on. It shouldn’t fucking turn me on but it does. Watching her utilize the skills I have taught her is something that creates a deep pride settling over me.
Shelby tries to maneuver herself, crying out when Sunny holds firm and presses her face into the ragged stone even harder.
“Touch him again and I’ll make sure you never have the privilege to do it again,” Sunny seethes. She releases Shelby, sending her across the cellar on stumbling feet.
A step forward makes her a barrier between us. A wall of fucking fire ready to burn anything that comes close to me. Her round eyes flick back at me, something unexplainable igniting behind them. A fucking inferno ready to burn this place down and Shelby is the first victim.
For once, someone is savingme.
Hair in disarray and dress wrinkled, Shelby turns around with labored breaths, and anger ringing her brown eyes. “You may be his whore, but I’m going to be hiswife,” she seethes.
The words hit a shield, and Sunny stares at her blankly. “I may be his whore, but at least the whore knows what it’s like to be loved by him.”
The words are a physical blow to Shelby as she takes a staggered step back. It’s a fragment of a moment where there’s visible evidence the words cause the laceration that is intended.As quickly as it comes, it leaves all too soon. Gaining her composure, Shelby smooths her dress and hair.
As she walks out of the cellar, she says over her shoulder, “We are moving up the wedding.” Then leaves us in the shadows of our sin.
I watch Sunny stare at the empty staircase, the air around us so quiet, but I know her mind is screaming so many things I wish it wouldn’t. The doubt is prevalent in her eyes when she turns and looks at me. A few short steps, Sunny closes the distance between us. The echo of her footsteps as loud as my heart thumping against my chest.
Grabbing my hand, her soft skin against my callused, she places her black panties in my palm.
