I had her within my grasp. In the middle of the night, my prey was staring up at me like she wanted me to strike. It was as if she was begging me to make my next move.
I gripped the edge of her book and pulled it from her hand. She gasped and tried to snag it before I could get too far, but she didn’t stand a chance. She jumped at me, trying her hardest to get the book back, but I held it higher, completely out of her reach.
“Stop, Beck.” Her chest pressed into mine as she tried to fight against me.
“The Duke that Saved Me.” I read the title of the book and couldn’t stop laughing as I looked at the cover. “Josephine, you little scandalous thing.”
The cover was tattered, and it was clear that the book had been read time and time again.
“I swear to God, Beck. Give it to me right now.”
I didn’t listen to her. I flipped open the book and read a line aloud. “Her hands trembled as she fumbled with his buttons. Not only was he her first, but he was also her only.”
Her elbow smashed into my ribs, and I groaned as I leaned forward, knocking myself farther into her. Her cheeks were stained red as she snatched the book out of my hand.
“I didn’t realize you were such a dirty girl.”
She huffed and tried to push away from me, but I pulled her closer. I may have been her enemy, but that didn’t mean I didn’t like the feel of her against me. I could afford a few moments of her skin against mine.
She was so warm and soft, and even though she pretended like being next to me was the absolute last place she wanted to be, she was pliable under my hands.
“This was my mother’s book.” She said it like it was somehow supposed to make a difference to me.
“Your mom is a dirty girl too?” I licked my lips, but she froze. Everything that was soft about her moments before had now gone hard.
“Don’t talk about my mom.” She pushed against my chest, and I let her. Even though it was the last thing I wanted. I stumbled back a couple inches from the force of her hands.
“She was with your dad, right? She can’t be all that innocent.” Because anyone who was a Vos was evil to me.
“Well, she’s dead.” Her voice shook, as did her hands.
I stepped back and tried to think of what to say. I didn’t know. I had not a single clue. If I had, I would have never said what I had just said. I may have been cruel, but I wasn’t that cruel. I wasn’t so fucked up that I would tease her about her dead mother.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know.” When everyone had been talking about Joseph Vos’s daughter that had arrived in town, they said they thought she had been sent to her father because of her behavior. She was his black sheep.
His fucking blemish on his otherwise perfect life.
I didn’t know the truth.
“Why would you know that?” She took two steps back, and her face had morphed from sadness into anger. “It’s none of your business.”
She had a point, but people in Clermont Bay made a life out of knowing everyone else’s business. Normally, I would have known everything about her by now, but it seems Joseph Vos was keeping more than one secret.
“It’s not, but I’m still sorry. I wouldn’t have said that.”
“Wouldn’t you?” She cocked her head to the side and held the romance novel to her chest as if it was the most precious thing in the world to her. “Let’s not try to fool each other here, Clermont. You’re as cruel as the rest of them.”
She was right. I was. I would use her to get my revenge on her family, and I wouldn’t feel bad about it. I had decided the day I first met her that I would refuse to feel anything other than hate.
I had already let that slip with the way I wanted her physically. I refused to let it go to anything beyond that.
I refused to let her convince me to not use her. I would. I just hadn’t figured out how yet. I had thought that being cruel to her like Lucas had been to my sister would have set him off, but he had barely reacted.
Unless she hadn’t said anything to him.
But I didn’t suspect that to be true. This town had secrets, but everyone still whispered. Nothing truly stayed secret for long. Everyone had their own version of how things went down. Even if it wasn’t the truth.
The truth rarely mattered. Not when there were plenty of lies to cater to what they wanted. To what they cared to believe.
“I am.” I watched her mouth as she pulled her bottom lip into her mouth. “But I wouldn’t have been cruel about that.”
“Hi.” I jolted forward as my sister’s voice sounded from behind me. I had almost forgotten that they were still back there. “I’m Frankie.”
She smiled at Josie, but Josie was still looking at me like I had ruined her entire night. She looked at me like I had wanted her to only moments ago. Like I was the villain.
“Hi.” Her voice was shakier than before. “Josie.”
“I remember you.” My sister’s voice was calm and kind, and I didn’t know how she could stand here and talk to the sister of the guy who had ruined her life like that.
I didn’t know how she wasn’t screaming like I had heard her do night after night.
“I met you at the club,” Frankie reminded her. “It has to suck being around this one all the time.”
Josie laughed as Frankie nodded her head toward me.
“He is a bit much.” She didn’t even glance in my direction as she spoke about me.
“That’s putting it mildly.” Frankie bumped into
