Page 284 of Tempting Venom
“You and Dad made it happen, remember?”
Last year, right after that game with the Vipers, I was drafted in what everyone called the top draft class. When the season ended, we moved to New York.
Preston is focusing on therapy and some family duties while being my personal trainer and personal chaos coordinator, as he calls himself.
He’s the boyfriend the team both fears and adores. We’re keeping our relationship mostly on the down-low, partlybecause of Vencor. For now, it has to remain a secret while the winds shift from the inside.
Kane and his uncle, Jude and his brother, and Preston and his uncle and father are all working on bringing down theancient regime, so to speak.
It’s only a matter of time before they all go down.
Preston is confident they’re close. “Nothing can beat me and my bros! If only Julian and Serena would join, we’d be invincible.”
But until then, we’re not public. Only those close to us know, and truly, neither of us feels the need to publicize it.
I also don’t want him to be targeted by the superfans.
Not that I should be scared—he’s the menace, not them.
At any rate, this drafting deal had Preston and Dad written all over it.
Dad changed his mind and wants me to stay away from the Osborn drama. I have shares and dividends, but he said it’s not worth it to go against Serena.
And Serena is his favorite anyway. The whole show he put on about me being his heir was nothing more than trying to test her, make her stronger, or whatever they do in the Osborn witch coven.
Besides, they’ve been busy with a different offspring. The one I thought was blown up. Patient X is no longer Patient X. He’s alive and has a name. Cyrus.
Apparently, Serena has known for years. Maybe he was her bargaining chip against Dad. Maybe not. I’m not sure, and I don’t care.
I pulled myself from all that drama when I came to New York. My life is in this bed, with this man, not in the ruins of the Osborn name.
I used to think I wanted to destroy my dad, but I found something better while trying to do so.
But Preston is still pretty much part of the Vencor world, because, as he said, he loves the thrill, and a side of him still wants to make his dad proud. He also would never leave his “bros” Jude and Kane behind.
They’re grown adults. He can leave them behind justfine.
Yes, I’m still salty they were in his life when I wasn’t. I’m also grateful, because I know he would’ve self-destructed a long time ago if they hadn’t been there for him.
Still, the fact that we live in New York gives us a sort of distance from everything else. Though we do go to Graystone Ridge all the time to visit his dad and Miley, and we drop by my mother’s.
Preston is always saying things like, “Let’s get this for June.” “June would love this!” “Doesn’t this have June’s name written all over it?”
Needless to say, they love each other too much for my liking, since that means less time for me. But I’m glad he finds a mother figure in her. Mom, on the other hand, is over the moon about having someone to talk shit with all the time.
“You’re just that annoyingly perfect on the ice,” Preston says, staring down at me. “You would’ve gotten that deal anyway. I just made it happen. But I want to make one thing clear. You would’ve never reached my level if I’d chosen hockey.”
“I’m well aware.”
“You better be. I might return to hockey to shoo them away.” He hides his face in my neck again, inhaling me. “I hate sharing you with the fangirls. Will be starting an online fight later, just to call them desperate.”
I laugh. “You still do that?”
“Of course. That’s, like, my favorite hobby. Even forced Jude to make an account and like my comments. Kane pays someone for it, and so do I, by the way. I have an army of online trolls.”
“You’re so extra.”
“And dramatic and dick-whipped, as Jude and Kane called me respectively.”
