Devious Vow: Chapter 23

Ten years ago:

I wake up naked and alone.

And smelling like Eloise.

I’ve never been a morning person, and waking up on the floor of an elevator, slightly hungover, is hardly the day I’m going to start. All the same, I grin as I sit up and reach for my clothes.

I’m not surprised that she dipped out first from a one-night stand.

I smile as I pull my pants back on. I’m actually surprised that Princess Eloise turned out to be the type to have a one-night stand, period.

I’ve got my shirt halfway on when I pause, my face souring as the words “one-night stand” flicker in my head.

Who says this has to be just one night?

Then I’m shaking my head at myself as I finish getting dressed.

What, do I want to date Eloise LeBlanc?

Please. It’s an absurd idea for about a million reasons. I might have moved past the fact that she almost fucked up my whole future, since she ultimately failed at that. But still. Not to mention that she’s pledging The Order, and I’m the president of The Reckless.

She’s French mafia, I’m heading to law school. She belongs at a place like Knightsblood, because of her family, whereas I’m only here because my grandfather pulled strings with his sketchy criminal connections.

Eloise is a prude, I’m…not.

Wait, is she?

I grin to myself, remembering the night we just had.

My dick chimes in, thickening and swelling in my jeans. Yeah… That was no prude I just spent the night with. Not after four—thank you very much—times. Not when she kept begging for more. Not when she moaned for me to come inside of her, or when she swallowed my cum the next time.

…I grin darkly.

Not when she asked me to do filthy things to her.

I suck my teeth as I step out of the lobby of Worthington Tower and into the cold, gray morning air.

Fuck me, there’s a chance I just had the best night of my life, and by far the most fun I’ve ever had with a girl.

It wasn’t just the sex.

It was the talking between rounds. It was her bringing my game up again: “tell me something no one else knows about you.”

I didn’t barely sleep last night only because I was too busy fucking Eloise LeBlanc’s goddamn brains out in every conceivable position, and every—and I do mean every—hole.

It was because we were talking, sharing things. Shit, I told that girl stuff I haven’t ever told anyone. You’d think that would scare the fuck out of me, but it doesn’t.

It feels pretty damn good.

Outside, I inhale the dewy morning mist. I think back to my final memory of last night, before I fell asleep. Eloise was already out, wrapped naked in my arms with her back to my chest.

That’s when I leaned down. And I have no fucking clue why I said it, or where it came from. It just fell out.

You’ll always be mine.

My ego makes me wait a week. Seeking her out or calling her before that seems kinda desperate and pathetic. But finally I find myself standing outside her dorm room and knocking on the door.

Shit. It’s Demi who answers.

“What do you want?” she says with a glare.

“Hello to you too, Demiana.”

Her face sours. Looking past her, I realize she’s not alone in the room as Bang Jin-ho, who’s a member of Para Bellum that my brother runs, nods at me.

“What’s up, Jin-ho.”

“Alistair,” he murmurs, buttoning his shirt back up.

“Well?” Demi, who is clearly not in the Alistair Black Fan Club, growls at me.

“I’m looking for Eloise.”

Her mouth thins. “Oh really.”

“Yes.”

“She’s not here.”

“Where might she be?”

“Home,” she shrugs. “She had a family thing back in Paris.”

My brow knits. “Got it. Do you have her cell⁠—”

“Dude, you broke into our fucking room. I’m not giving you her number.”

I glance past her to Jin-ho. He just spreads his arms and shrugs.

“Okay, well, would you tell her I stopped by when she gets⁠—”

“Nope.”

Demi slams the door in my face.

I exhale slowly as I scowl, turn, and walk away.

See, this is why I don’t do serious dating.

It’s two weeks later when a small shape darts in front of me as I’m leaving the gym.

“Hey.”

Instantly, I’m grinning like an idiot.

“Hey yourself,” I murmur to Eloise.

Her cheeks burn pink and her big blue eyes sparkle as she looks up at me.

“I, um, heard you were looking for me?”

I snort. “Two weeks ago, yeah.”

She makes a face. “Sorry. I was back home dealing with some stuff…” She looks away, her shoulders slumping. “My sister. She… She’s a handful sometimes.”

“Say no more.”

“Demi…” she frowns. “Neglected to tell me you’d stopped by.”

“Fancy that,” I say dryly.

She grins, biting her lip. “Jin-ho let it slip earlier today.”

My man.

“So…” She shrugs awkwardly. “What… I mean, did you need something?”

Yes, you, oddly enough.

I don’t do repeats. Just as I don’t “do” thinking of someone over and over, day in and day out. It’s freaking me out.

It’s also arguably making me less of a prick than usual.

“What are you doing next weekend?”

Her brows knit. “Uh…nothing? I don’t think so, at least?”

“You going to the Spring Formal?”

What the fuck are you doing, Alistair?

It just spills out of me. I wasn’t even planning on going to the dumb formal dance the school throws two weeks before graduation.

Eloise looks at me curiously, her lip retreating between her teeth.

“I…wasn’t planning on it?”

“What if you did plan on it.” I frown. “Going, I mean. With, uh, me.”

Fucking hell I suck at this.

She’s grinning, though. And blushing. Her eyes are locked with mine.

“I could do that.”

“You’d want to go to the dance with me?”

“Are you asking me?”

“Yeah.”

She giggles. “Then… Yeah, okay.”

“I’ll pick you up at your dorm an hour before it starts.”

She nods, blushing. “That’s perfect. Demi is going home that weekend, so…”

“So I can skip the body armor.”

She grins. “Exactly.” She winces as she looks at her phone. “Shit, I need to run to class.”

“See you then.”

She beams. “Can’t wait.”

That’s the last happy moment I have for a while. Because when the Saturday rolls around, and I knock on Eloise’s dorm room door, whatever high I was on, whatever happiness I’d managed to steal from the universe, turns to ash in my mouth.

When he answers the door.

Ansel.

I look past his shirtless shoulders to see what is instantly burned into my brain forever going on in the room behind him with two of his Order buddies.

She’s wearing a green dress.

She’s moaning even louder than when she was with me.

“You want a turn, bro?” Ansel casually offers. “She’s pretty good.”

She’s not the girl I thought she was. She’s not at all what I thought she was.

So I walk away, and slam up my walls, and never once look back.

And those walls never, ever come back down again.

Present:

Thank fucking God.

Eloise is sitting against one of the planters outside my building’s lobby when I get out of the taxi from Massimo’s place. When she disappeared, and when Massimo came back upstairs alone, I waited as long as I thought I could before making my own exit.

I’ve been trying to reach her for the last hour.

“You weren’t answering your phone,” I growl as I walk toward her.

“It died,” she shrugs. She looks up at me with immense sadness in her eyes. “Sorry, I didn’t… I don’t know why I came here.”

I shake my head. “It’s fine.”

“I tried the office first. But it was locked.”

“Yeah, we do that sometimes when it’s closed.”

A smile lifts the corners of her lips as she rolls her eyes. Then she winces and turns to the side.

That’s when the light outside my building’s front door hits the side of her face.

“What the fuck!” I snarl, bolting over to her and gently lifting her chin. There’s no missing the ugly red welt and bruise purpling across the side of her face.

“It’s nothing, Alistair,” she mumbles, avoiding my eyes and trying to turn her face into the shadows again.

“Like fuck it’s nothing,” I hiss. “Was this him!?”

She looks down. Her throat bobs heavily.

“No.”

“Are you seriously protecting⁠—”

“I mean it wasn’t literally him.”

Her shoulders slump as she looks down. “Like I said, he doesn’t touch me.” She exhales. “He gets his attack dog, Rocco, to do it. Massimo himself hasn’t ever actually struck me himself. I don’t know why. When he wants to, he has Rocco do it.”

“This is insane, Eloise!” I hiss. “Why in God’s name would you stay with that piece of shit?!”

Her eyes snap to mine. “Does it seriously look like I’m with Massimo?!”

“It looks like you’re fucking married to him, yes!” I rage. “Why the fuck wouldn’t you just leave⁠—”

“Because he’d kill my sister!”

I blink as my mouth snaps shut.

Eloise looks away, sighing.

“I know what she is, okay? I know she’s a lot to handle, and meddling, and toxic, but⁠—”

“Can’t pick your family,” I murmur.

“No shit,” she says bitterly. “And she’s still my sister. If my dad wasn’t in his coma? Yeah, I could talk to him, and he’d get me out of it. But until he recovers, while his greedy captains are in charge…” She barks out a laugh. “They make too much from the deals Massimo throws their way to give a shit. To them, this is just business. I’m the daughter of a mafia king, Alistair,” she chokes. “This is what I’m supposed to do.”

I exhale slowly, looking away before I turn back to her.

“Let’s get you inside.”

Upstairs in my loft, I take her through my room to the ensuite master bath to get cleaned up. I bring her some old sweats and a t-shirt of mine, and before I know what I’m doing, I’m pulling her into my arms and hugging her close before I leave so she can shower.

I don’t once think what a bad idea it is for her to be here. I don’t let myself dwell on what happens if Massimo finds out she’s here with me.

Because fuck him.

Let him come for her. I’ll break him if he does.

I’ll break anyone who comes for her.

I’m in the kitchen half an hour later when Eloise emerges from my room positively drowning in the clothes I gave her. It makes me grin.

I like her in my clothes.

Fuck, I like her here.

She pads into the kitchen and leans against the counter, wrapping her arms around herself.

“How’s the face?”

She shrugs. “It’ll be fine.”

“Here.”

I hand her a bag of frozen peas from the freezer. She smiles wryly as she takes it and holds it to the red swelling on the side of her face.

“From what you said, it didn’t sound like that was the first time he’s had you hit.”

She looks away.

“No,” she finally murmurs quietly, her voice edged. “It wasn’t.”

“Fucker,” I hiss.

“Amen,” Eloise murmurs. She looks up at me. “Got anything to drink?”

“Plenty.”

“Can I have one?”

“No.”

Eloise purses her lips. “Why not?”

“Because you drink too fucking much, princess,” I growl.

Her brows shoot up indignantly. “Wow, really?”

“From where I’m standing? Yeah.”

Her mouth purses. “Well, you’re not the⁠—”

“The boss of you?” I smirk. “Want to try that again, counselor?”

Eloise groans. “Please can I have a drink? It’s been a shit night.”

“I realize that. Still no, though.”

We’re both silent a minute, her chewing on her lip as she stares at the floor, me trying to figure out which part of tonight we should even talk about. Then she slowly raises her eyes to mine.

“What happened to you, Alistair?”

I smirk. “What, because I won’t indulge your alcoholism?”

She flinches. “Okay, ouch.”

“The truth hurts.”

She scowls at me. “I wasn’t talking about a drink, actually,” she says sullenly. “I mean what the hell happened to you at Knightsblood?”

My jaw grinds.

“Let’s not go there.”

Eloise barks a cold laugh. “Fuck you. We are there.”

“Don’t,” I warn.

“Don’t what?! Alistair! You…” She shoves her fingers through her wet hair. “We had that night in the elevator which was…” Her face burns as she looks away. “Great. And then you come to my room looking for me, and then you ask me out to a dance like we were in a fucking John Hughes movie! And then you just ghosted me!!” she screams. “You blocked my calls! You blocked me everywhere⁠—”

“I wonder why the fuck that is!!” I roar back.

“YOU TELL ME!”

She gasps as I erase the space between us, looming over her and grabbing the front of her hoodie.

“You want to know why I did that, Eloise?” I snarl.

“I am ALL fucking ears!”

“Because I don’t open up to people!” I snap. “Never did. Still don’t. Except for you. You managed to fuck up that streak and got inside my fucking head!” My lips pull into a snarl, my eyes narrowing on her paling face. “You want to know why I put my walls back up and fucked off, Eloise?! Because when I went to get you, after you had asked me to be there⁠—”

She cuts me off. “Alistair, I wasn’t⁠—”

“Please. I fucking saw you.”

Ice forms around my heart as my jaw clenches.

“Your little fuck buddy Ansel answered the door, you know.”

Her brow furrows. “What the hell are you⁠—”

“His pathetic little dick out, grinning at me. And there you were, Eloise,” I rasp venomously. “All dolled up⁠—”

“Alistair! I wasn’t⁠—”

“All dolled up in your formal dress, bent over and getting double-teamed by two of his fucking friends like a cheap⁠—”

“I wasn’t in my fucking dorm room that night, you asshole!!”

The force with which she screams it at me and the pain in her words are like two knives to my chest. I blink, momentarily stunned before I collect myself again and narrow my gaze on her.

“Oh? Then where the fuck were you, El⁠—”

“I was in the fucking hospital!” she screams. “Having the worst day of my life!”

What.

“I was in the hospital,” she chokes out again, tears starting to stream down her cheeks. “Getting blood transfusions after I almost died from a miscarriage.”