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Vax is nineteen the first time someone sells their soul to him.
It isn’t really as impressive as it sounds. There wasn’t any effort on his part—his mom had simply told him he had a surprise for him, told him to come to the studio, and presented a sinner and a contract to him.
“Got something for you, mijo,” Valentino says, grinning. “Someone willing to make a deal.”
‘Willing’ might be a strong word, given that Moneyshot is pressed against the sinner’s temple. Vax glances between his mother and the trembling peacock-like man sitting at a desk. He’s holding a pen, his hand shaking so violently Vax doesn’t know if he’ll even be able to sign the glowing contract laid out in front of him.
“Um,” Vax says, “what?”
“A thank you would be nice,” his mom says. “Isn’t he pretty? I made sure to pick out a good one for my special boy. Say hello, Jaime.” He pronounces it with the “H” sound.
“H-hello, sir,” Jaime says, sounding on the verge of passing out.
Being called ‘sir’ is strange, and kind of unnerving. That’s what people call important folks. Those they respect. No one respects Vax. And Jaime is pretty, with his bright feathers and sharp features—way too pretty to pay Vax any attention. How is he supposed to be the boss of someone like that?
“Hi,” he says back, and then remembering what Valentino requested, quickly adds, “Thank you, Mami. But, uh, are you sure? I don’t really know what…”
Valentino waves a hand. “You’re plenty old enough. I thought you could handle it at eighteen, but Vox was all like, ‘he’ll probably feel bad and lose the contract and get himself killed’, so. Happy late birthday.”
“Thank you,” Vax repeats, because there’s nothing else he can think to say. This feels less like a gift and more like an order. What is he going to do, say no to something his mother is so graciously offering him?
“You’re welcome, honey. Now, just sign there at the top first, so it’s yours.” Valentino hands over another pen, and Vax takes it slowly. It’s a fountain pen, a fancy one, and nervousness curls in his gut. He isn’t generally trusted with expensive things, given his clumsiness. He grips it tight and looks down at the contract.
“Don’t worry about reading all that,” Valentino says. “I wrote it out for you, kept it simple. 24/7 control of him, access to any of his funds and possessions, blah blah blah. You know, the basics.”
The idea of being able to control someone all the time doesn’t seem very basic, but his mom is looking at him expectantly, so Vax swallows back his apprehension and signs his name at the top of the paper.
“Good boy,” Valentino purrs, then reaches a hand over Jaime’s shoulder to turn the contract back around to face them. “Your turn, sweetheart.” He presses Moneyshot harder against the side of Jaime’s head.
Vax watches as the feathers around Jaime’s collar fluff up as he brings the pen to the paper and silently signs his soul away.
The moment Jaime finishes his signature, Vax feels a surge of energy run through him. It’s close to electricity, but not quite. It just feels like…well, like power. He nearly jumps out of his skin when a glowing purple chain appears in his hand, leading to Jaime, ending in a thick, heavy-looking chain around his neck. It disappears quickly, but Vax can still feel the weight of it in his palm.
“There we go! Good job, honey,” Valentino says, and the uneasy feeling Vax felt when Jaime’s hand trembled as he signed is washed away at how thrilled his mother sounds with him. “I’ll keep hold on the contract for you—this is important, and you know how scatterbrained you can be.”
“Right,” Vax says, a bit embarrassed to be called scatterbrained in front of a stranger. Or, well, not a stranger anymore, he supposes. Jaime is his now. He can’t decide how he feels about that.
“But what, um, what do I, you know, do with him?” Vax has never owned someone before. It’s overwhelming and terrifying. It’s responsibility, and he feels woefully underprepared.
Valentino grins. “Honey, you can do whatever you want.”
✧✧✧
The problem is, Vax doesn’t know what he wants.
He knows what he should want; fame, money, power. But honestly, he’d be perfectly content spending the rest of his life in the penthouse, nothing expected of him other than to be a waste of space. Expectations are what make his dad disappointed in him, his aunt condescending, and his mom…well, at least he’s trying to help Vax out. But even if he did want all that, how is Jaime, a weak sinner who’s clearly terrified of him, supposed to help him get it?
When Vax had left the studio, Jaime followed dutifully behind, head lowered. Vax hadn’t turned to look back at him until they had gotten to the elevator, unable to work up the nerve to actually speak to him.
When he’d finally managed to look over at his new employee (property?), the look on Jaime’s face made his stomach twist uncomfortably. Flustered and overwhelmed, Vax simply told Jaime to go home.
He’s tempted to tell Jaime to just go about his life as usual. It’s not like he’s used to ordering anyone around. But his mom will notice if he doesn’t make use of his gift, and that will certainly make him upset, and Vax would rather avoid that at all costs.
He doesn’t really want to ask Valentino for advice on what to do with Jaime, though. Vax is old enough to know what his mother does to his own employees—he’d figured it out before he was supposed to, actually. He isn’t nearly as unobservant as his parents think he is, and he’d been able to put two and two together by sixteen.
And for all that he admires his mother, Vax can’t ever see himself following that career path. It’s too intimidating, too invasive and vulnerable for everyone involved. Truthfully, he’s much more interested in his father’s work, though he hasn’t had much opportunity to observe it, given that he’s generally not allowed in Vox’s surveillance room. Not to mention, his father knows plenty about owning souls. He’s got the most contracts out of the Vees, all different kinds, with so many different levels of control. So Vax swallows what little pride he has, and attempts to talk to his father during one of the rare times Vox is in a good enough mood to let Vax enter his workplace without an invitation.
“How are you already messing this up?” Vox asks the moment he enters, which to be fair is not the worst greeting Vax has ever gotten from his father.
“I’m not messing it up,” Vax says, a little insulted. “I’ve just never, you know, done this before.”
“You think your mother and I had a guide when we got into soul deals? You’re lucky enough you were handed one with no work required on your part.” Vox scoffs.
“I know that,” Vax says, trying to keep calm. “I’m just asking, like, what you did when you got started. I can handle it, I just need…a starting point? I don’t exactly have a real job…”
Vox sighs. “God, you’re—nevermind. Put him to work. Have him solicit more souls for you. Use all of this,” he says, gesturing to Vax, “to your advantage. If people think you’re weak, they’re more willing. They think it’ll be easy to outsmart you, outmaneuver you, slip out of their contract and get one over you instead. And they’ll be wrong.”
“Will they though?” Vax asks hopelessly. “I am weak. Everyone knows it. You tell me all the time.”
Vox pauses. “When have I ever called you weak?”
“You imply it,” Vax says. “Like, all the time. Isn’t that why you keep trying to upgrade me?”
“Those upgrades are meant to help you, I don’t know why you’re still so against them—”
“You know what? Nevermind.” Vax throws his hands up. “Nevermind. Sorry I brought it up. I’ll go have him ‘solicit’ or whatever.”
“Don’t take that tone with me,” his father snaps. “I’m trying to give you advice and you’ve got a fucking attitude out of nowhere?”
“All I said was—”
“I’m talking,” Vox says sharply, cutting him off. “You want to fuck up the one thing that might actually get you somewhere in life? Be my guest. But don’t come crying expecting us to fix it.”
Vax is a bit confused by that last part—his parents and aunt always fix it when he messes up. Their iron grasp on Hell’s media means any possibility of Vax’s meltdowns or panic attacks or general awkwardness being seen by the public is shut down before it can spread. Why would this be any different?
His confusion must be displayed across his screen, because Vox rolls his eyes. “Souls aren’t like money, or even deals that don’t go as far as signing contracts. It’s fucking dangerous. And it doesn’t matter how powerful you are, you can’t just break someone else’s contract. You end up screwing yourself, and you’re on your own, whether we like it or not.”
“Oh,” Vax says faintly. “Okay.”
Maybe it makes him stupid, but this honestly hasn’t crossed his mind before. He just didn’t bother to worry that his mother would give him something he couldn’t get Vax out of. He’s certain Valentino must have outlined in the contract that Jaime couldn’t hurt Vax. Surely he must have, he wouldn’t just leave Vax to handle himself, he wouldn’t…
“Do you get it now?” Vox asks. “You’re a grown adult, and it’s time to start acting like it. You think it’s enough to just exist? No one’s that important.”
He didn’t even ask to exist, so he isn’t sure how that’s fair, but Vax doesn’t really want to argue anymore. “Yeah, I get it,” he says, just wanting to wrap up the conversation so he can go sit in the dark all alone for a while.
“Good,” Vox says, and turns back to his work, dismissing his son with a wave of his hand. “You can go now.”
Vax gets the hell out of there gladly.
✧✧✧
“The boys tell me you’re kind of shit at the whole owning a soul thing,” Aunt Velvette tells him a few days later over breakfast. Vox is already at work and Valentino is still sleeping from a long night out, so it’s just the two of them.
“Are you surprised?” Vax asks dryly.
She grins. “Vox was right, you are getting an attitude lately. Finally hit puberty, darling?”
“I’m going back to my room if you keep making fun of me,” he says, not in the mood to be teased so early in the morning.
“Oh, calm down,” she says as she stabs her french toast with her fork. “Learn to take a joke. Do you want my advice?”
“I guess, but I won’t be any good at it.” Vax pokes at the eggs in front of him despondently. Valentino’s been scolding him to eat more, but it makes his stomach upset when he has anything other than liquids in the mornings.
She aims her fork at him. “You’re letting Vox get inside your head again. Stop it.” She takes a bite of toast and then nods in the direction of the brightly-colored feather Vax has been twirling in his lower left hand since he got up this morning. “Where’d you get that feather, anyway?”
“It’s one of Jaime’s,” he murmurs. “They’re pretty. I wanted one.”
He doesn’t feel too proud of the way he’d gotten it, though. He should. He knows he isn’t supposed to feel guilty for doing whatever he wants to Jaime without consequence. But the image of Jaime’s stricken face as he’d pulled out his own feather and handed it over won’t leave Vax’s head.
There had been a drop of blood left where the feather had been pulled from skin, too, and he had kind of wanted to lick it, but he was pretty sure that would just have made Jaime more scared of him, so he’d resisted. At least until he’d left the room.
“Well there you go,” Velvette says. “You can make a scarf out of him or something. It’s not like the feathers won’t grow back. I use the fur from my girls sometimes when the winter collection rolls around. Back when I first showed up I tried to get Valentino to let me take a sample, and you know what he said? Said it was off-limits—the fucker had Vox patent his fur pattern back when they started up Voxtek and the studio. It’s ridiculous. So now when I use heart print I have to be extra careful. Anyway, what were you saying?”
“Uh,” Vax says dumbly, head spinning from the unexpected rant. “I wasn’t really saying anything.”
“Right. Anyway, my advice? Just talk to the poor thing. Get to know him. Make him believe you’re the best deal he could’ve gotten in hell—do you know if this guy has any friends?”
Vax shakes his head.
“Well, find out. You make this life seem sweet enough, he’ll start reeling people in. You get what I’m saying?”
“I think so,” Vax says. “I just need to get to know him. Okay. Great. So how do I do that?”
“Oh, for the love of—” Velvette pulls out her phone and taps at it aggressively. “There. I just got you and your pet on the list for The Crypt tonight, I’ll have one of my guys drive you there at nine.”
He blinks. “What?”
“A club, darling, don’t be slow.” Her gaze is once again fixed on her phone, and Vax knows changing her mind is a lost cause. “You need help being social when we’re not there, so here’s a little push. You’re welcome. Go, mingle, have a drink. God knows you need it.” She snorts. “You can make Jaime hold your hand if you get nervous.”
“I’m already nervous,” he says, panicked. “I can’t go to a club without mami.”
“I’m pretending I didn’t hear that.” She wrinkles her nose. “You’re not a child, you can go out without your mum. And you’ll have your bodyguard!”
Vax blinks. “Bodyguard?”
“Hm? Oh, yeah.” She clears her throat. “Guess Val’s lazy ass didn’t explain your contract to you. Have you even seen it since it was signed?”
He shakes his head, guilt making him want to sink into the floor.
She tilts her head back and groans. “No wonder you’re still shaking like a fucking chihuahua every time someone even looks your direction. Darling, Val’s too much of a mother hen to let anything happen to his baby.” Her tone sours on the last word, eyes rolling upward. “Did you really think he’d just leave you with a random soul and let you stumble your way into being killed or owned yourself? Jaime can’t do a thing against you, Vax. He can’t hurt you, and he also can’t let others hurt you. He has to defend your life with his own. I’m pretty sure Val wrote in there somewhere he technically can’t even say the word ‘no’ to you, but…”
He doesn’t hear the rest of her ramble. His audio input had turned to static right after the part about someone having to die for him.
People have died in defense of the Vees before, admittedly under threat of dying anyway if they didn’t, but not for him. He’s never been counted as that valuable, or at least he thought he hadn’t. Not until now.
Vax isn’t even sure if his mother would die for him.
“So!” Velvette claps her hands together, startling him back to reality. She’s smirking like she hasn’t just dropped earth shattering information on him. “Are you ready to finally be a fucking person?”
✧✧✧
The club does make him want to be a person. A dead person. It’s loud and crowded and sweaty and awful, and he just wants to go home. But he can’t, because everyone in the fucking world has decided they know what’s best for him, and apparently what’s best is him being here with only someone who clearly hates him for company.
Vax doesn’t care what his family says to him; he will not be able to befriend someone he owns. If anything, Jaime will just fake it. It’s like when he was younger, and thought some of his parents’ employees were his friends. But the Vees make a living in performing; he can tell when someone is putting up a front. Any fondness they held for him was out of obligation.
Why would it be any different with Jaime? He doesn’t want to be liked because he has to be. He wants someone to like him because it’s him.
He’d thought his mom liked him for him, once upon a time, but he isn’t so sure anymore.
He’s supposed to be introducing himself to people, but he has no clue where to start. Everyone is drinking and dancing, both things that have zero appeal to him, and they all seem to have their own friend groups, and it’s not like he can just barge in… Aunt Velvette would, but Vax isn’t her.
He’s just decided that he needs to turn tail and go back home, no matter the scolding he’ll get, when he sees her.
Sitting alone at one of the enclosed circle-seats, there’s a woman. Her skin is gray-toned, like his tía’s, but a few shades darker, and even darker markings on her face, framing her eyes and mouth. Her wings, tucked primly against her back, are smaller than Valentino’s but much larger than Vax’s own, and instead of being an opaque color, hers are a translucent gossamer.
What captivates him most are her eyes. Big and round and green, a mosaic of hexagonal shapes. When she moves, the light refracts off them, the shade of green everchanging.
“Jaime,” Vax says, pointing at her, “go talk to that lady for me.”
Jaime looks between the woman and Vax, and the confusion on his face is a little irritating. “What do you want me to say, sir?”
“Whatever people normally say when they introduce themselves,” Vax says. “Just go do it, okay?”
He watches nervously, chewing at his nails, as his—bodyguard? employee? property?—makes his way over to the woman and opens his mouth to speak to her. Vax can’t hear him, but can’t bear to turn his audio input sensitivity up because of the intolerable noise of the club.
His heartbeat picks up when Jaime gestures his way and the woman looks his way. Then she looks back at Jaime, shrugs, and nods.
Vax nearly loses his nerve and runs out of the building when Jaime raises his hand again and waves him over. His legs feel shaky as he approaches.
“Vax, sir, this is Mari,” Jaime says. “Mari, this is Vax.”
Mari looks at him, and smiles, and the first thing she says to him is, “Holy shit, you look just like Vox.”
Vax deflates. “Yeah,” he sighs. “I know. He’s my dad, so. You know. Obviously we look alike.”
“No shit!” She laughs, unphased by his rudeness. “I didn’t know any of them had kids.”
If she’s newer to Hell, he’s not surprised. “Well, they don’t exactly brag about it.” Not since it became apparent what a failure he was.
She shrugs. “My parents didn’t brag about me, either. They wanted a boy. But we can talk about stuff besides your family, right?” To Vax’s astonishment, she gestures to the seat across from her.
“Uh,” he says, “give me a second.” Then he pulls at Jaime’s arm, dragging him a few feet back so he can speak without Mari overhearing. “You can go home, okay? I think I got it.”
“I—I shouldn’t leave you alone, sir,” Jaime says hesitantly. A wary feeling flares in Vax’s chest—is Jaime trying to argue with him?
“I don’t care what my mom told you,” Vax says, fighting the urge to raise his voice, not wanting to alarm Mari. “What matters is what I tell you.”
That unnerving look flashes across Jaime’s face again, the same one that he’d worn when Vax had ordered him to pluck out his own feather. He’d call it fear, but that makes no sense. Nobody is scared of him.
(Angel is, but Vax doesn’t like to think about that.)
“Jaime,” he says, “go home.”
And what choice does Jaime have but to obey?
“You two don’t seem like friends,” Mari says once he’s returned.
Vax sighs. “We’re not.” He sits down awkwardly—he doesn’t like how the pleather of the seat feels when he rests his lower hands against it, and the table is short enough that he has to bend his legs at an angle in order to fit.
“But you came here together?” She arches an eyebrow.
“It’s complicated,” he mutters.
“Well, cheers to that,” she says, raising her glass. He doesn’t have a drink, so he can’t toast her, but she doesn’t seem to mind as she takes a long sip. “I know a thing or two about complicated.”
He doubts she understands his kind of complicated, but doesn’t argue. “He was supposed to be my friend,” he admits, “but he doesn’t want to be.”
“Why not? You seem sweet.” She grins. “Or are you secretly some fucked up murderer?”
She must see the horror on his screen, because she backtracks quickly. “Not that I care. Honestly, most of the murderers I’ve met down here are pretty chill.”
“I’m not a murderer,” he mumbles. “Just weird.”
Mari snorts. “Who isn’t?”
“You’re not,” he replies. He nearly adds, you’re perfect, but even he can recognize how off-putting that would be.
She laughs. “Well, you don’t know me.” She takes another sip of her drink, a bubbly pink concoction with a little paper umbrella in it, then adds, “Yet.”
The fact she would let him, gangly and awkward and with his nails bitten to the quick, have the honor of knowing her is nearly enough to convince Vax he’s dreaming. It’s too kind, too nice for this place, and he can’t resist asking, “Why are you in Hell?”
Mari chokes on her drink. She splutters, putting down her glass and wiping her mouth. “Wow, you just get right into it, don’t you?”
“I’m sorry!” he says, embarrassed.
“No, it’s fine,” she sighs. She drums her long nails on the seat. “There was a guy. And he wasn’t, uh, a very good guy. And I wasn’t a very good girl when I was with him. Did whatever he told me, and a lot of what he asked was pretty terrible. And I guess ‘but I did it because I loved him’ wasn’t a good enough excuse for God. So,” she says, spreading her arms, “here I am.”
“I’d never do that,” Vax says seriously. “I wouldn’t make you do anything you didn’t want to.”
She laughs. “You know, with most guys down here, I’d call bullshit.” She tilts her head, smiling. He wants her to keep smiling at him forever. “But I believe you. Is that crazy?”
“I don’t know,” he says honestly. “Sometimes I think I’m going crazy.”
“Guess we can be crazy together, then,” she says, and Vax thinks he might be a little bit in love. “You know, I didn’t even know sinners could have kids. I’ve only been here for like five years, but I feel like I should’ve figured it out by now.”
“They’re not supposed to,” he says. “Nobody even knows how I happened.”
“A man of mystery!” She giggles. “We don’t have to talk about it, if you don’t want to.”
“Thanks.” He can’t hide the relief in his voice. He doesn’t particularly want to tell a pretty girl how much of a disappointment he is to everyone around him. “So, um. What else do you want to talk about?”
She shrugs. “Anything? Everything? You know, you’re the first person I’ve talked to since I came here tonight. You’re probably the only one other than me not drunk off their ass. Let’s make it count, yeah?”
So they do.
No one ever wants to hear about Vax’s interests, his favorite movies and games and books. But Mari does. She even asks him for recommendations, and he’s so flustered he nearly forgets every single title of everything he’s watched.
A part of him fears it’s an act, an act of deceit from a sinner who spotted his naivety. Another part of him knows that even if it is, he wouldn’t care. He’s just grateful someone is listening to him for once.
He’s so engrossed he doesn’t even check his internal clock, which he normally does obsessively whenever he’s outside the tower. When he finally realizes, his eyes widen as he sees that they’ve been here for well over three hours.
“What’s wrong?” Mari reaches out to touch his arm, and the sensation doesn’t even make Vax want to tear his skin off, which is what he usually feels like doing when strangers touch him. “You just jumped out of your skin.”
“Oh, just, you know, we’ve been here a while,” he says in a rush, trying to think of anything else than her hand, warm against his arm even through his sweater. “It’s almost three.”
She blinks. “Really? Damn. Then yeah, I could use a change of scenery,” she says, standing up and stretching her arms above her head. “You want to come with?”
Vax tries not to stare at the bare sliver of skin between her shirt and her skirt. “Um, sure,” he says. “Where are we going?”
“To my house,” she says, and he thinks he must have misheard her. Someone as pretty as her wouldn’t want someone like him in her home, ruining the atmosphere.
He dares to ask, “Why your house?”
“Why do you think?” She winks, and Vax swallows nervously.
“Are we going to have sex?” he asks.
Mari giggles. “Yes, honey, we’re going to have sex. If you want to.”
“I want to!” Vax’s screen goes so intensely pink that Mari’s face is bathed in the rosy glow. “I mean, yes. I want to have sex with you.”
Her smile feels like salvation. “Come on, then,” she says, and takes him by the hand.
✧✧✧
In the following weeks, he continues to see Mari, and he knows that this is what he’s been waiting for his entire life.
She doesn’t laugh at him when his brain moves too fast for his mouth and he mixes up his words. She listens intently when he speaks, pays attention when he shows her things he likes. And she actually seems to like his gangly, awkward body, if the nights they spend together are anything to go by.
All the humiliation he’s endured, every jab and hurtful word, Vax would go through it all again if this is his reward for it.
He hasn’t brought her to the tower yet, always meets her outside its walls, but his parents surely know anyway—his dad must, at least. He hasn’t said anything, though. That’s perfectly fine with Vax; if his dad said anything bad about Mari, he’s not sure he’d be able to resist snapping back, and that would end up a mess.
He loves Mari. Loves her more than he’s loved anything his entire life, except for maybe his mom. But this is a different sort of love, a love with an intensity that he never thought he’d have the opportunity to feel, that he wasn’t even sure he was capable of feeling. She’s gorgeous. She’s kind. She doesn’t mind when he calls her at three in the morning because he can’t sleep.
And, well, it’s embarrassing to think about, but he likes the sex, too. Really likes it. Before Mari, the only experience he’d had was with his own hand and porn videos—only ones produced in the other rings of Hell, though. He’d tried watching some from their own studio at first, but knowing it had been directed and produced by his mother made him feel weird and gross and killed any arousal he had.
He tells her about things he thought he’d have to keep inside himself forever. About his dad, and the upgrades, and the pain that comes with them. In return she tells him about her own parents, and the man who doomed her to Hell. As far as she knows, he’s still up there somewhere, probably ruining another girl’s life.
Vax has never killed anyone, but he thinks it would be very, very easy for him to kill the man who hurt Mari.
He knows he shouldn’t, but he’s sort of given up on the whole ‘getting Jaime to like him’ thing. He just isn’t that interested anymore—why would he be, when there’s someone like Mari to spend time with? His parents will just have to deal with it. If they even notice. If there’s one thing Vax is experienced in, it’s being overlooked.
Jaime has been useful for one thing, though.
Mari gasps when he brings out a pink glittery gift bag he’d swiped from his aunt’s workplace and presents it to her shyly. He’s been saving it all night, and now after they’ve returned to her room after watching a movie he’s finally worked up the nerve to actually give it to her. She rifles through the tissue paper and gasps when she pulls out what was hidden within.
“Holy fuck,” she says. “Where’d you get these feathers from?” She raises the scarf to her face, pressing her cheek against it. “It’s so soft!”
The screaming had been unpleasant, and it had taken hours to get all the blood out of the feathers, but the end result had turned out so well that Vax thinks even Aunt Velvette might be proud of his handiwork.
“Jaime loses feathers a lot,” he says. “Naturally, I mean. It’s normal. I didn’t want to waste them.” He can’t help but ask, “Do you like it?”
“I love it,” she says, wrapping the scarf around her neck and fluttering her lashes dramatically. “Thank you, honey.”
“You’re so pretty,” he sighs, and she laughs.
“You’re sweet. Don’t know how I’m going to measure up to this when it’s my turn for the gift-giving, though.”
Vax tilts his screen. “Why…would you be giving me a gift?”
“Because you got me one? Because that’s what partners do for each other, and the reason doesn’t matter?” She shrugs, running her fingers over the shimmery feathers. “But I guess there’s not much you don’t have up in your fancy tower, right?”
“I don’t care what it is,” he says quickly, “I’ll love it.”
She smiles again. “I know you will, sweetpea. I just don’t know what I could get you that you wouldn’t already have.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, living up in that fancy tower, it’s gotta be a kind of lavish lifestyle, right?” She laughs. “I sure wouldn’t mind trading this apartment for a place like that.”
He’s not quite sure he’s hearing right. “You…would want to stay in the tower?” With me?
Her face goes a darker gray, a sign that she’s blushing. “I’m not inviting myself or anything! I’m just saying.”
Vac wouldn’t mind at all if she had invited herself. He wouldn’t even mind if she had demanded he take her there right this instant. “You could,” he murmurs, afraid to say it too loudly. “I’d like it, if you stayed with me.”
She smiles softly. “I’d like that too.”
And finally, Vax understands what his family has been trying to teach him.
He hadn’t known what to do because he had nothing to offer Jaime. But there is so much he can offer Mari.
If she belonged to him, she would have that life she’s dreaming of. She’d live in that glimmering tower, would have all those nice things she’s never had before. And it would all be thanks to Vax. For once in his fucking life, he’d be doing something good.
He can make a difference. He can help her. He can make it better.
Most importantly, he can make sure the one good thing in his life won’t ever, ever leave him.
He looks into her eyes, so big and green and trusting, and he takes her hand in his own.
“Hey,” he says, “you want to make a deal?”